Numbers 14:29
“Your carcases shall fall in this wilderness; and all that were numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, which have murmured against me,”
When God told the children of Israel that all those from twenty years of age and above were going to die in the wilderness, it was as if it was a death sentence. Imagine God telling you that you are going to die because you disobeyed Him. That would take all morale and hope away. This is what the children of Israel faced. They were literally walking dead men in the wilderness.
This sentence of death turned the wilderness from a promise march to a death march. What was supposed to be a few weeks of journeying to the Promised Land became forty years of waiting for everyone twenty years of age and above to die. It is no wonder that they had such bad attitudes in the wilderness, for they were living a sentence of death. They were waiting for everyone from twenty years of age and above to die. All this happened because they chose not to go forward by faith and trust God’s promise and power. When they chose to go backwards, they chose to become walking dead men.
I find many churches and Christians resemble the children of Israel. There is a reason many churches are filled with complaining and bad attitudes. There is a reason many Christians seem to never see the good in their church or life. That reason is they have become walking dead men by refusing to go forward for Christ. When churches become complacent with their status, they become walking dead men. When Christians are satisfied with what they have accomplished for God, they become walking dead men. When churches stop going forward for Christ and attempting to do great things for Him, they become walking dead men. When Christians no longer step out by faith and do something great for God, they become walking dead men. Walking dead men come from one thing, they refuse to go forward.
Do you find yourself in a rut of complaining and challenging authority? Could it be that God told you to do something in the past and you have refused to step out by faith and do it? There is no doubt that many men who refused to follow their call into the ministry are the very one’s who cause church problems. The reason is because they chose not to go forward, instead they have sounded a spiritual retreat. If there has been a time in your life when God called you to do something and you refused to do it, that is why you will always be dissatisfied. It has nothing to do with the pastor, church or other Christians, it has everything to do with your refusal to do God’s will for your life. When you refuse to go forward and trust God’s will, you become a walking dead man.
There are many areas of your life where you can refuse to go forward for Christ. It could be in your financial giving, refusing to serve in a church ministry, refusing to step out on something God told you to do, or simply being complacent with who you are and what you have done. These actions will cause you to become a walking dead man and will create a bad spirit in you.
The best way to overcome this is to continue to go forward for Christ. Turn your death march into a victory march. Yes, it will take faith to complete God’s will for your life, but faith always creates a forward motion, which in return creates life. I challenge you today to find that area of your life where you are a walking dead man, and turn it into a victory march by going forward and doing what God has led you to do.