The Same Different Spirit
My husband and I recently made a very big decision: we are moving out of state.
We’ve been praying about this move for a while now. My husband received an answer from God first, and asked me to pray about it before he told me what he thought, to see if we were both hearing the same thing. So, a few nights ago, I told him I felt like God was telling us to move. My husband felt the same.
First came the excitement of setting out on a brand new adventure together, with God at the helm. Then I panicked.
My husband does not yet have a job in the city we’ve chosen as our new home. Neither do we have a place to live. I’m completely unfamiliar with the area. I don’t even know where to buy groceries. We don’t know where we’ll go to church and we have only one connection in the area (my grandmother who lives about 45min away).
Most of all, I’ll be leaving my parents, my sisters (one of whom is about to have her first baby), my brothers, my friends, and the little boys I used to nanny, who still have tight holds on my heart. It was the thought of saying goodbye to those little faces that had me crying soon after the decision was made.
But what can I do? If God is saying “Go” how can I stay?
The following morning, the next chapter in my Bible reading ‘just happened’ to be about how the Israelites sent spies into Canaan to see what the land was like. They come back with hearts melted by fear and spread a bad report. “What were we thinking?! We can’t take this land! We’ll have to either go back or stay here.”
But that’s not what Joshua and Caleb said:
‘Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses, and said, “Let us go up at once and take possession, for we are well able to overcome it.”’
“If the Lord delights in us, then He will bring us into this land and give it to us,…the Lord is with us. Do not fear…”
‘If the Lord delights in us…’
That’s a big ‘if.’ After all, we are leaving everything that is comfortable and familiar and safe. ‘Surely the Lord delights in us’ might be a tad more cheering.
But honestly, I don’t want comfort and safety; not if God is calling me in another direction. I want to please God’s heart, and chase after it with all I have. Because that’s the kind of faith that delights Him.
Of all the people of Israel over 20yrs old, God permitted only Joshua and Caleb to enter the promise land. Why? Here’s what He said about Caleb:
“…because he has a different spirit in him, and has followed Me fully…”
What a beautiful testimony… to delight the heart of God by following Him fully.
I want to have the same different spirit as Caleb and Joshua. I want to step forward with boldness and courage, convinced in my heart of hearts that God is trustworthy. That He alone is faithful.
So whatever the future holds, whatever successes and failures, joys and sorrows, I am determined to follow Jesus fully.
“…nevertheless I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day.”
