March 2019 Fasting & Prayers — Day 3

by lighthouse | Mar 31, 2019 | Fasting & Prayers, News & Announcements

A Different Spirit

Scriptures For Meditation — Joshua 14:6-15; Philippians 4:13

“But My servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit in him and has followed Me fully, I will bring into the land where he went, and his descendants shall inherit it.”

You can STILL take your mountain!

Our main scripture text (Joshua 14:6-15) introduces an encounter between Moses and Caleb, where Caleb was making a demand of Joshua, referencing an event that had transpired between them 45 years earlier.

God’s faithfulness to His promises have no expiry date!

As we read in yesterday’s scripture text, God had revealed His plans to Israel, in which He instructed them to go in and possess the land that He had promised and given to them for an inheritance. The children of Israel however, had the bright idea that maybe God did not really think His promise through, and chose instead to send men to spy out the land and determine if what God asked them to do was sensible or possible. (Numbers 13:17-25)

God allowed Moses to accede to their request, and he consequently sent in 12 men to spy out the land and bring back their report to the people. Ten of the spies unfortunately, brought back a discouraging report to the people. (Num 13:26-33):

Same Information, Different Perspective

Even though Caleb and Joshua saw the same things that the other ten men saw and had access to exactly the same information as they did, they processed things from a different perspective, looking through the eyes of faith:

We are well able to go up and take the mountain

“30Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses, saying, “Let us go up and occupy it, for we are well able to conquer it.” 31But the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against these people, because they are stronger than we are!” 32Then they presented the Israelites with a discouraging report of the land they had investigated, saying, “The land that we passed through to investigate is a land that devours its inhabitants. All the people we saw there are of great stature. 33We even saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak came from the Nephilim), and we seemed liked grasshoppers both to ourselves and to them.”

What is your perspective on the mountains that are confronting you?

The unbelief which had spread throughout the camp resulted in disunity and rebellion — as fear and unbelief always do. The LORD was angry with the people and vowed that none of their generation would enter the Promised Land, with the exception of Caleb and Joshua.

“But because my servant Caleb has a different spirit and follows me wholeheartedly, I will bring him into the land he went to, and his descendants will inherit it” (Num 14:24).

Right now precious child of God, I need you to raise your voice and declare out loud:

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me!

Let’s return to our main bible text for today and focus on an extraction which I shall paraphrase from Num 14:24 that we read earlier:

“My servant Caleb has a different spirit and follows me wholeheartedly..”

You need to have a different spirit from the spirit of fear, unbelief, doubt and discouragement that the enemy may have flooded your thoughts with, for you to inherit the promises of God in this season. You need to be at that place, when your heart is fully committed to following Jesus, and fully set to obey His instructions and commandments to you!

See how Caleb’s faith is showing and speaking through in his conversation with Moses:

“Just as the LORD promised, he has kept me alive for forty-five years … so here I am today, eighty-five years old!” (10a).

“I am still as strong today as the day Moses sent me out; I’m just as vigorous to go out to battle now as I was then” (11).

“Now give me this hill country (NIV; KJV “mountain”) that the LORD promised me that day” (12a).

“You yourself heard then that the Anakites were there and their cities were large and fortified, but the LORD helping me, I will drive them out just as he said” (12b).

Notice that in three out of the four statements in this section, he mentions the name of the Lord. “The LORD promised… The LORD promised… the LORD helping me.”

Caleb had learned to trust in the promises of God and hang his faith on the inevitability of their fulfilment. He knew what it was like to have the LORD help him, and he was confident that the LORD will continue to be faithful to keep His promises.

Caleb’s convictions were properly aligned with the word that God had spoken, and was therefore supremely confident that his situation will also align with God’s promises for his life.

Listen again, to God’s testimony concerning Caleb:

“He followed me wholeheartedly”

Can God say the same about you?

PRAYER FOCUS:

Start today’s prayers by again meditating on Philippians 4:13.

Remind yourself of all the promises of God concerning your life and make a good warfare with your prophecies.

Ask God to revive the right spirit in you, and to give you the strength to follow Him wholeheartedly, as you rise up and move forward to claim His promises.

Focus on the month of April and claim the release of every blessing and the fulfilment of every promise for that month, for yourself, your family the church.

God bless and keep you in His favour in Jesus’ Name.

Pastor Wale Ola

March Fasting & Prayers (Day 2)

by lighthouse | Mar 30, 2019 | Fasting & Prayers, News & Announcements

Yes, We Can

Scriptures For Meditation: Deuteronomy 1:6-8; 19-36; Num 13:25-33

The first of today’s scripture texts gives us a background that provides a deeper understanding of the text that we meditated on in yesterday’s blog (Numbers 13) — It tells us that the idea to go and spy out the land did not come from God, but from the Israelites, who because of their inability to take God at His word and step forward into their possession, asked for Moses to organise for men to go ahead of them to advise them what was the safest and best way forward. (Deuteronomy 1:20-22)

As soon as they took their eyes off God and instead trusted in the arm of flesh to guide them, they forefeited the ability to see with the eyes of faith, what God had promised them. Consequently, when the advance party went into the land, they saw the giants bigger than the promise, and their own limitations more real than the ability of the God that had spoken the promise!

What Are Your Giants?

Everyone of us on the way to fulfilling our prophetic destiny or accomplishing a divine purpose, will be confronted by giants that will stand between us and what God has promised us—

That seemingly insurmountable obstacle, that law or system that rigidly stands as an obstacle to the vision, that boss, influence group or powerful cabal that actively resist your progress, the unfavourable economy or the crippling lack of resources that threaten to abort the destiny; what are your giants?

As a Bible commentator said:

“Unbelief never lets us get beyond the difficulties—the impregnable cities and the impossible giants. It preoccupies itself with them, brooding over them, pitting them against mere human resources.

Faith, on the other hand, though it never minimizes the dangers and difficulties of any circumstance, looks away from them to God and counts on His invisible presence and power.”

Dear friends, my admonition to you today by the Spirit of God is this:

Don’t allow what your eyes see, to affect the word that your heart had believed! “

As Caleb and Joshua did —They looked at God’s power and not at their’s, or the people’s limitations! (Num 13:30; Jos 14:7-8)

Look beyond the giants and up unto the God who had promised; He is faithful who had promised, and He’s well able to deliver on His promises!

How Big Are Your Giants?

Whilst the other spies compared the giants with themselves and the giants loomed large, Caleb and Joshua—compared the giants with God, and the giants were cut down to size. “The Lord is with us,” they said. “Do not be afraid of them” (Num. 14:9).

Prayer Focus

In Jos 14:7, Caleb gives us an insight as to why he was able to see and to say different to the other 10 spies —

“I was forty years old when Moses the servant of the LORD sent me from Kadesh Barnea to explore the land. And I brought him back a report according to my convictions…” NIV

What are your convictions about what God had said to you? What are your convictions about the promise you had believed?

Pray to God to enliven your faith and to refresh your vision.

Pray for God to breathe life again upon your convictions.

Pray that He will give you the grace to see as He had said, so you can begin to speak a good report about your destiny according to the convictions of your heart concerning His faithfulness.

Selah

Pastor Wale Ola

March 2019 Fasting & Prayers (Day 1)

by lighthouse | Mar 29, 2019 | Fasting & Prayers, News & Announcements

But There Are Still Giants In The Land!

Scriptures For Meditation — Numbers 13:1-3;17-29; Numbers 23:19

The two sets of scriptures that we are meditating on today, show a marked contrast in the realities that we are sometimes concurrently faced with, as Believers.

On one hand, we know and are in the main, convinced that God is faithful to keep His word and accomplish the promises He makes to us. On the other hand however, we may also be faced with a seemingly contrasting situation, that challenges the truth of what we had believed.

Erm, Lord; Are You Really Sure?

In our first scripture text, (Numbers 13:1-3;17-29) Moses and the children of Israel were on the verge of entering into and possessing Canaan, the land that God had promised to them for their inheritance.

However, after convincing God to allow them to send an advance party to spy out the land (Deuteronomy 1:19-22), some of the people became discouraged to find that the land was actually still being occupied by some intimidating locals — There were the children of Anak on the land (progenitor of a family, or tribe of the giant people in Canaan); the Amalekites; a fierce and formidable people inhabited the south, the Hittites, Jebusites and the Amorites occupied the mountains, while the Canaanites occupied the areas by the sea and the coast of Jordan!

They looked at what was before them, and their hearts melted, unable to see how what God had promised could be realistic, seeing what they now know about the supposed “Promised Land”, which was fully occupied by these seemingly insurmountable obstacles.

Child of God, have you ever been in a situation where you’ve been confronted by such a sight? You know what God had said or promised, but you know that what’s on ground is at complete variance to what you thought you had heard Him promise.

This is where we need to believe the truth of our second scripture text — Num 23:19

“God is not a man, so he does not lie. He is not human, so he does not change his mind. Has he ever spoken and failed to act? Has he ever promised and not carried it through?” (NLT)

If God said it, He will do it; If He’s promised it, He’ll definitely make it good!

He says, He’ll build His church and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it; He has said He will never leave us or forsake us; He says we will possess the land that He had promised us!

Do you believe this?

Selah

Pastor Wale Ola