Fear and humility never work together. Fear and humiliation will. Fear masquerades as wisdom. Anytime we take on a dysfunction in our life and we give it a virtuous name, we give it permission to stay. The ten spies were afraid of the giants in the land, so they embraced man’s wisdom to stay in the wilderness. They did not embrace the promise of GOD. Instead, they trusted what they saw.
It is written by The Holy Spirit in Joshua chapter 1:
6 Be strong and of good courage, for to this people you shall divide as an inheritance the land which I swore to their fathers to give them.
7 Only be strong and very courageous, that you may observe to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may prosper wherever you go.
Both Joshua and Caleb were not intimidated by the giants who dwelled in the Promised Land. Their convictions translated into bold actions and they were ready to take the land now that the generation of fear and unbelief had died in the wilderness.
You know how much THE LORD trusts you by what HE entrusts you with. The enemy will use fear against you to promote unbelief and failure.
Mark recorded by The Holy Spirit in Mark chapter 9:
17 Then one of the crowd answered and said, “Teacher, I brought You my son, who has a mute spirit.
18 And wherever it seizes him, it throws him down; he foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth, and becomes rigid. So I spoke to Your disciples, that they should cast it out, but they could not.”
The demon moved upon the son to intimidate the disciples by promoting fear and unbelief when they saw the boy in an uncontrollable state.
19 He answered him and said, “O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him to Me.”
20 Then they brought him to Him. And when he saw Him, immediately the spirit convulsed him, and he fell on the ground and wallowed, foaming at the mouth.
21 So He asked his father, “How long has this been happening to him?” And he said, “From childhood.
22 And often he has thrown him both into the fire and into the water to destroy him. But if You can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.”
23 Jesus said to him, “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.”
24 Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!”
25 When Jesus saw that the people came running together, He rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it: “Deaf and dumb spirit, I command you, come out of him and enter him no more!”
26 Then the spirit cried out, convulsed him greatly, and came out of him. And he became as one dead, so that many said, “He is dead.”
27 But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he arose.
Afterward, the disciples were perplexed by their inability to cast this powerful demon out of the boy. They had already been successful in casting out demons. They needed to understand what caused them to fail.
28 And when He had come into the house, His disciples asked Him privately, “Why could we not cast it out?”
29 So He said to them, “This kind can come out by nothing but prayer and fasting.”
Taking our Promised Land requires us to be strong and courageous. We will not take it by hanging out in the wilderness. Instead, we will deal with conflict by using the weapons of our warfare for the pulling down of strongholds.
The man’s son had been plagued by the demon for years which meant that the demon had built up a stronghold. Jesus operated in the superior realm and had no problem in defeating the inferior realm and tearing down the stronghold.
We must not be intimidated by any challenge we confront, allowing unbelief to take hold. We are to be bold!
The Beloved Disciple wrote by The Holy Spirit in 1st John chapter 5:
14 Since we have this confidence, we can also have great boldness before Him, for if we ask anything agreeable to His will, He will hear us.
15 And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we also know that we have obtained the requests we ask of Him.