Have you ever been inspired to believe God for the impossible? I have again and again. Have you carried through and dared to believe, for a half a day perhaps, or until you shared the situation with a friend, or close relative? That friend or relative didn’t have that kind of faith! They may have even found it funny. Did you reevaluate the whole situation? Did you still believe God? I have dared to believe God a few times and God has performed miracles. Praise the Lord! More often I, like you, have listened to those other voices.
Recently, we sent out a letter telling of a miracle healing that resulted from my fall, Feb. 6th. The very same day that letter was mailed I experienced a set-back and the pain was almost unbearable. That’s absolutely normal in a life of faith. After each victory, Satan makes it a practice to strike back (Eph. 6:12). Faith that is easily discouraged is not faith at all.
I am now feeling, again, every bit as well as before my set-back, but I am not satisfied! I am claiming a straighter, stronger body than I had before my fall. The therapist told me that my new strength will depend largely upon how much I decided to exercise my muscles. What about my “spiritual muscles?” Does not the same rule apply? I am determined to believe God!
Why do I want a strong body? For God’s glory! This is the only body I will ever have. When I receive my new glorified body, it will be this same old body resurrected, and without flaw! Praise the Lord! It is my responsibility to take care of my present body by claiming His promises so long as I am stationed here.
CONSIDER CALEB
He is not mentioned in the Bible until Numbers 13:2, when God told Moses to select one leader from each of the 12 tribes to “spy out the land” Israel was about to possess. Among the men selected was Joshua and Caleb. Nothing was said about these two men except that they were “rulers” of their respective tribes. That in itself spells prominence and prominence suggests character. In this case all those chosen failed the test excepting these two. All the others saw were the Giants.
“And Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and said, Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it,”
The others refused to go and as a result God permitted a plague to fall and the other 10 men all died of the plague (Numbers 14:37). Forty five years later when God was ready to bring a new generation into the promised land, Joshua and Caleb were still alive and in the prime of life.
“Then the children of Israel came unto Joshua in Gilgal: and Caleb the son of Jephennah the Kenezite said unto him, Thou knowest the thing that the Lord said unto Moses the man of God concerning me and thee in Kadesh-Barnea. Forty years old was I when Moses the servant of the Lord sent me from Kadsh-Barnea to espy out the land; and I brought him word again as it was in mine heart. . .
"And now, behold, the Lord hath kept me alive, as he said, these forty and five years, even since the Lord spake this this word unto Moses, while the children of Israel wandered in the wilderness: and now, lo, I am this day fourscore and five years old. I am yet as strong this day as I was in the day that Moses sent me: as my strength was then, even so is my strength now, for war, both to go out and to come in. Now therefore give me this mountain . . .
"And Joshua blessed him, and gave unto Caleb the son of Jephunneh Hebron for an inheritance. Hebron therefore became the inheritance of Caleb . . . because he wholly followed the Lord God of Israel” (Joshua 14:6-14).
Hebron was an ancient city, well fortified, and controlled by Giants. Caleb had claimed it by faith and had waited 45 years for God to fulfill His promise. Now he could have taken one look in the mirror and decided,”Its too late now! Let the young people do it!” Not Caleb! He waited till the proper hour and then dared to claim God’s promise to “him.”
Faith and obedience go hand in hand. Had Caleb not believed God and not been willing to obey the revealed Word and will of God, he could not have exercised faith. Moreover, had he kept his eyes upon the enormity of the task, rather than the All-Sufficient God, he would have been defeated before he started. Christ said, “All power is given unto Me in heaven and on earth. Go ye therefore.” (Matt, 28:18,19).
“Every place that the sole your foot shall tred upon, that have I given unto you” (Joshua 1:3).
“Faith is a grasping of Almighty power; the hand of man laid hold on the arm of God; the grand and blessed hour in which the thing impossible to me become the possible, O Lord, through Thee.”
-- Uncle Ben’s Quotebook