Perception vs Faith...

Perception vs Faith. Belief vs Conviction. The differences are huge. When the Israeli scouts surveyed the “Promised” land from God, their description was accurate. There were giants: giant grapes, giant fertile grounds, and giant people. Ten of the twelve scouts perceived the land from a worldly view. The other two had God’s promise backing their faith. They all saw the same thing. The difference was one view included God in their assessment and the other did not. I’ve said it before, “faith is only as good as the object in which you place it”. Here the 10 scouts were placing their faith in their lack of ability and experience in battle (war). Caleb and Joshua, on the other hand, knew God promises this land to them, so their assessment of the trip included God in it. They placed their faith in God, not in their abilities or lack of abilities to fight. The difference between belief and conviction is belief is some you hold, and conviction is something that holds you. When you trust God to do what He says He’ll do, God grants you conviction to see it through, and that conviction overcomes the fear, the hesitation, anxiety, and lack of faith you might be experiencing. When you face “Giants” in your life, remember God plus one equals the majority. And God is bigger than all the giants in the world.

25 After exploring the land for forty days, the men returned 26 to Moses, Aaron, and the whole community of Israel at Kadesh in the wilderness of Paran. They reported to the whole community what they had seen and showed them the fruit they had taken from the land. 27 This was their report to Moses: “We entered the land you sent us to explore, and it is indeed a bountiful country–a land flowing with milk and honey. Here is the kind of fruit it produces. 28 But the people living there are powerful, and their towns are large and fortified. We even saw giants there, the descendants of Anak! 29 The Amalekites live in the Negev, and the Hittites, Jebusites, and Amorites live in the hill country. The Canaanites live along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea and along the Jordan Valley.”30 But Caleb tried to quiet the people as they stood before Moses. “Let’s go at once to take the land,” he said. “We can certainly conquer it!”31 But the other men who had explored the land with him disagreed. “We can’t go up against them! They are stronger than we are!” 32 So they spread this bad report about the land among the Israelites: “The land we traveled through and explored will devour anyone who goes to live there. All the people we saw were huge. 33 We even saw giants there, the descendants of Anak. Next to them we felt like grasshoppers, and that’s what they thought, too!” Numbers 13:25-33