Category: Strength for Today

Numbers 11:1
“And when the people complained, it displeased the LORD: and the LORD heard it; and his anger was kindled; and the fire of the LORD burnt among them, and consumed them that were in the uttermost parts of the camp.”

One of the things that every pastor has to watch for are the destructive groups that would destroy God’s church. Every church has those groups of people who seem to have their own agenda and would rather destroy the church than to move on to a church with which they agree. Many Christians have been destroyed because of these destructive groups.

Moses faced the same problems that many pastors face. You would think that Israel would never cause any problems after all that the LORD did through Moses and the miracles they experienced when being delivered from Egypt. Yet, when you look through the journeyings of Israel, you see four destructive groups that nearly kept them from entering the Promised Land. These same four destructive groups will destroy a church if not quickly dissolved. Let me show you these four groups and how to guard against them.

The first destructive group are the complainers. In the verse above, nothing was ever good enough for these people. There is always that group of people to whom it doesn’t matter how much the LORD works or how good something is, it is never good enough for them. This group of people will kill the spirit of any church. Don’t ever become part of a group that has a complaining spirit.

The second destructive group is the mixt multitude. This is the crowd who constantly compared everything to Egypt. Be careful that you are not so in love with the world that you think you are missing out. Worldliness has destroyed many churches. Don’t become that group of people who are constantly complaining to the pastor because the church standards are too tight.

The third destructive group are those jealous of leadership. Aaron and Miriam were jealous of Moses and felt that he took too much power upon himself. This group of people will constantly challenge the authority of the pastor. Always remember that if God wanted you to have the leadership position, He would have placed you in that role.

The fourth destructive group is the faithless group. When Moses sent the twelve spies into Canaan, ten of them came back with a report that showed their lack of faith in God. The potential of many churches is squelched by faithless Christians who don’t believe the set goals can be met. All it takes for goals to be missed is for a few people to not have enough faith to get busy and work hard enough for God to prove He is still in the church-building business.

The distinguishing characteristic of these destructive groups is that they do their work in secret and will only run in crowds. The best way to keep this from happening in your church is to avoid secret meetings. A glaring alarm should be whenever someone tells you to not tell the pastor what they are about ready to do. If what is about to be done is good, they will never have a problem with the pastor knowing. Be careful not to get caught up in these groups. It will hurt you, your children and many others, and it ultimately hurts the name of Christ in your community. Stay away from the destructive groups and sincerely pray for God to keep these groups from having any part in your church.

Numbers 1:2
“Take ye the sum of all the congregation of the children of Israel, after their families, by the house of their fathers, with the number of their names, every male by their polls;”

God wants the Christian to be a conqueror. He does not want us to going through life meandering about doing nothing. God has given us His power so that we can conquer on a daily basis. The verse above is the beginning of several verses where God prepared Israel to go into Canaan and conquer it. There are several requirements found in this chapter that shows us what it takes to be a conqueror.

First, be ready for war. God wanted Moses to number the people who were “able to go forth to war.” If you are going to be a conqueror in the Christian life then you are going to have to realize that we are at war with the Devil. You cannot go about the Christian life and think that you are not going to have to fight. Please realize that you can’t saunter about in the Christian life and think that the war the Devil has declared against you won’t come to your doorstep. Let me be clear, it will come to your doorstep. You are at war, and the sooner you realize this the quicker you will start conquering.

Second, know your pedigree. In verse 18, God wanted each family to declare their pedigrees. If you are going to be a conqueror for Jesus Christ then you are going to have to be secure in your salvation. You will never conquer when you question if you are saved. Friend, you need to remove all doubts about your salvation. If you have doubts, get them settled. The Christian who can declare their pedigree, that they are a child of God, without reservation is the Christian who will have the confidence to conquer.

Third, know that you don’t have to conquer alone. There were thousands of people who were numbered in this chapter. Each person numbered was going to be a help in conquering Canaan. You must realize that there are many Christians who are at your side to help you be a conqueror. You don’t have to try and conquer alone. Don’t acquire a martyr syndrome that thinks you are the only one who is doing right. There are many people who are conquering with you. You are not alone in this battle against Satan.

Fourth, be fit for the battle. God talked about numbering every man that was “able” to go to war. You will never be fit for the battle by carrying the sins of the world with you. You must lay aside those sins and weights that will hinder you in this battle if you want to be a conqueror. The Christian soldier must not allow themselves to be sidetracked by the sins that easily beset them. If you want to be a conqueror, you are going to have to be victorious over your sin.

Fifth, keep your walk with God regular. The Levites were to keep the “charge” of the tabernacle. The conquering Christian is one who closely guards their walk with God and is careful not to let it slip out of their daily schedule. You will never conquer without a daily walk with God in His Word and in prayer.

Friend, there is no reason you cannot be a conqueror. These instructions will enable you to be a conqueror if you will follow them. Start your conquering journey today. God has given the instructions to conquer; it’s simply what you do with those instructions that will determine your results.

Leviticus 22:31
“Therefore shall ye keep my commandments, and do them: I am the LORD.”

A society that has no laws is a society that is filled with chaos. The foundation of rule and order are laws and the enforcement of those laws. An organization that has no rules is an organization that is bound for failure. You must have laws, rules or commandments to keep rule and order. In the verse above, there are several principles taught that will help keep rule and order.

First, there must be commandments to keep order. God says, “Therefore shall ye keep my commandments…” For some reason we have criticized churches, families, individuals and even organizations and cities that have commandments that they expect to be followed. We have to understand that everybody has some sort of commandments by which they live. The difference is that some choose to have commandments that keep one further from the line of destruction than others. Just because someone has more commandments than you doesn’t make them a bad person. You will never have order without commandments.

Second, everyone must know the commandments. How can you keep something that you don’t know? It is just as important for everyone to know what the commandments are as it is to having them. You cannot keep order when people don’t know the rules. I believe it’s important for organizations to annually go through their rules so that those involved will know what is expected. Ignorance of the established rules is no excuse. It is your responsibility to find out what is expected of you.

Third, commandments must be guarded so they do not change. The word “keep” means to guard. Always remember that commandments have been set in place for a reason. We oftentimes think that rules are out-of-date, but what I have found is that established rules are relevant for every generation. People will be people no matter what generation they may be; therefore, the commandments that keep order are important to be guarded against change. Don’t think you need to change the commandments because we live in a different day.

Fourth, commandments must be obeyed. God says about the commandments, “…and do them…” There is no purpose in having commandments if you are not going to enforce them. I constantly talk to pastors who are having issues in their Christian schools, and one of the things I always ask is how closely do they follow the rule book. In every case they admit that they have become lax in their rule enforcement. You cannot have order without enforcing the rules. Rules must be obeyed, and anything short of that must be punished. If leadership is not going to enforce the rules, they need to be relieved of their position. If followers don’t follow the rules, they need to be punished.

The key to these four principles being followed is to keep the source of all commandments in view: the LORD. When you keep your eyes on the LORD then you will find it easier to establish and enforce the commandments because you will want to please Him. Always remember that if you want order in your home, organization, church or society, then there must be commandments and all of them must be obeyed.

Leviticus 10:19
“And Aaron said unto Moses, Behold, this day have they offered their sin offering and their burnt offering before the LORD; and such things have befallen me: and if I had eaten the sin offering to day, should it have been accepted in the sight of the LORD?”

Moses made a common mistake that people do everyday by jumping to a conclusion without getting the whole story. He assumed that Aaron and his sons had not eaten the sin offering as they were supposed to do. His speculation about those he led could have destroyed a relationship if Aaron didn’t have the right attitude. If Moses would have investigated the situation and listened to the whole story, he would have never found himself in an awkward position of walking back his assumptions.

This is certainly no condemnation of Moses, but rather a reminder of how wrong we can be when we assume or speculate without getting the whole story. What may seem clear to one could truly be the furthest from the truth once we hear the whole story. Many people have been hurt because of conjecture, assumptions and speculation. Many reputations have been unjustly marred because someone assumed something about another and spread their assumption as fact. There are some important habits you need to acquire so that you can avoid the uncomfortable situation of having to backtrack from assumptions, conjectures and speculations.

First, never form an opinion off perception. What you perceive to be the situation may not be close to the truth. Moses looked at the situation and came to a false conclusion because he relied on perception. Have you ever seen something and come to a conclusion only to find out later that your perception was incorrect? Don’t assume something just because you thought you saw something.

Second, don’t form an opinion without hearing both sides of a story. When you form an opinion off another’s feelings or perceptions, you have entered into a world that will bring great embarrassment later when the facts come out. Moses made his opinion without even asking Aaron why he and his sons had not eaten the burnt sacrifice. Let me encourage you to always listen to both sides of a story before you form your opinion. If someone brings up someone’s name in a conversation, you would be wise to go to that person and ask them if it is true before forming your opinions. Don’t assume what another tells you is true without first asking that other person their side of the story.

Third, don’t spread assumptions and speculations as truth. Many people have hurt the reputation of another because they told their opinion about a person or situation as if it was fact. You may have formed your opinion based off your assumption, but NEVER tell anyone what your opinion is without first being sure that it is true.

Reputation is hard to build but easily marred and destroyed. Don’t be guilty of hurting someone’s reputation that took a lot of hard work to build simply because you assumed or speculated something about them and then told others as if it was true. Leaders must be especially careful not to form opinions or plans based off conjecture. The best policy to live by would be not to let assumptions, conjectures or speculation have any part of your life. Move slowly and hear the whole story before formulating your opinions and plans; that is the best policy.

Leviticus 5:1
“And if a soul sin, and hear the voice of swearing, and is a witness, whether he hath seen or known of it; if he do not utter it, then he shall bear his iniquity.”

Your attitude towards a person, situation or agenda will determine your treatment of it. If you have a bad attitude towards a person then you will treat them adversely. If your attitude towards someone is good then you will treat them in an acceptable manner. Attitude towards a project certainly determines the energies one will give towards that project. Never underestimate the power of attitude.

Likewise, your attitude towards sin is important to your ability to live for the LORD. God clearly shows us the attitude we are to have towards sin. If we had the same attitude towards sin that God has, many of the problems we deal with in life would no longer be a problem. God clearly shows in the chapter above five attitudes we should have concerning sin.

The first attitude you should have concerning sin is no excuses. In the verse above, God gave no room for an excuse because it didn’t matter if they knew it was wrong or not, if they sinned they had to deal with it. Too many Christians think that a good excuse as to why they sinned lessens the degree of its badness. Excuses must never be accepted when it comes to sin. Sin is sin no matter why it was done.

The second attitude you should have concerning sin is no covering. You will notice in this chapter that sin was to be dealt with as soon as it was discovered. Oftentimes the covering of sin becomes worse than the sin itself. You must acquire an attitude towards sin that it cannot be covered up. When discovered, whether personal sin or anothers, it must be dealt with immediately.

The third attitude you should have concerning sin is no degrees. You will notice that God makes all sin bad. If you want victory over sin, you must consider all sin as wicked. When you start putting degrees to the wickedness of sin is when your attitude towards sin is wrong and acceptance of certain sins will be tolerated. There must be no tolerance for sin if you want to have victory over it.

The fourth attitude you should have concerning sin is no exceptions. God didn’t give exceptions to leadership or family. He expected all sin to be dealt with the same. Your attitude towards sin will be revealed when someone you dearly love commits a sin. Position and nepotism must never be an excuse for sin. If someone does wrong, you must deal with it according to God’s Word.

The fifth attitude you should have concerning sin is no harboring. This attitude is truly what will solve the first four attitudes. If you will not harbor your own sin then you will deal with everyone else’s sin properly. The attitude you must have towards sin is that you deal with it immediately. As soon as you discover sin, deal with it. This keeps it from getting worse and affecting others. This keeps sin from setting root in your life or in the life of another.

If you will have the proper attitude concerning sin, you will find it much easier to live the Christian life. These attitudes towards sin are God’s standard of dealing with sin. When we deal with sin according to God’s standard, we keep sin from destroying lives.

Romans 1:21
“Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.”

Most Christians could never see themselves living a life of depravity. When God goes through a list of sins in this chapter, it truly seems to be a list that is attainable to the average Christian. Verse 27 shows that the end of depravity is when men leave the natural use of the woman and the woman leaves the natural use of the man, and their lust burns toward each other. In other words, the reprobate and depraved person becomes a sodomite.

God goes further and shows how these people live. Verses 29-31 says, “Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:” This is a very bad list that most Christians who attend church could never see themselves doing. I believe we could likely say that most parents could never see their little child living this type of lifestyle. There is no doubt that a person who lives this way is a depraved person.

What is it that leads a person to live this type of life? God shows us the first step when He says, “Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God…” Notice the first step is simply not glorifying God. This first step leads to a second step where they become ungrateful towards God. Two steps that people commonly take today lead them to a life of depravity. That would seem to be so easy to avoid. Yet, many people today have not only taken the first step of not giving God the glory for everything in their life, but they have also taken the second step and stopped being thankful to God for everything.

What would lead a person to stop giving God the glory and become unthankful? One word: Pride! Pride causes a person to take the credit for what is done instead of giving all the credit to God. Pride causes a person not to thank God for helping them accomplish what they have accomplished in life because they want to receive the credit. It is one’s pride that leads to their eventual destruction. Proverbs 16:18 says, “Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.” All it takes is for the Christian to start thinking more highly of themselves than they ought to think.

Let me ask you, have you already taken the first step towards depravity? Do you honestly give glory to God for EVERYTHING in your life? When you got a promotion on the job, did you give God the glory? When your ministry begins to grow, are you giving God the glory? The answer to this can be found in what others close to you say about the recent blessings. Do they say that only God could get the credit for what is happening in your life or ministry? They should!

Friend, you had better guard against pride. Always keep in mind that you should deflect all glory to God. When God blesses you, thank Him. It only takes one time of not giving God the glory to allow pride and unthankfulness to set in and the journey towards depravity begins. If you don’t want to end up living the depraved life then be careful to give God all the glory.

Psalm 138:8
“The LORD will perfect that which concerneth me: thy mercy, O LORD, endureth for ever: forsake not the works of thine own hands.”

Every profession has tools they use to accomplish their trade. The carpenter has hammers, saws and a measuring tape to help them perfect the building of homes. The mechanic has wrenches, sockets and screwdrivers to help perfect the running of a vehicle. God also has tools He uses to perfect His children. The verse above says, “The LORD will perfect that which concerneth me…” The LORD wants to perfect us, but we must allow His tools to do their work of perfection in our lives. I find in this psalm that there are five tools the LORD uses to perfect the Christian.

First, God perfects the Christian when they take a stand. Verse 1 talks about walking with a “whole heart” before the gods. In other words, the more you stand for right, the more the LORD can perfect you. There is something about taking a stand that helps the Christian see what they need to correct. You will never be the Christian you are supposed to be without standing for truth.

Second, God perfects the Christian through His Word. Verse 2 talks about the importance of His Word. We learn in 2 Timothy 3:16-17 how His Word profits the Christian. Whenever you miss a day of reading God’s Word, you miss an opportunity for the LORD to perfect you.

Third, God perfects the Christian through prayer. Verse 3 says, “In the day when I cried thou answeredst me, and strengthenedst me…” I have personally found that God oftentimes speaks to me during my prayer time. Friend, prayer is certainly our tool to get things from God, but it is His tool to perfect the Christian. Those who miss that daily time in prayer are missing the opportunity for the LORD to perfect them.

Fourth, God perfects the Christian through preaching. Verse 4 talks about the kings praising the LORD “when they hear the words of thy mouth.” When you miss church, you miss the opportunity to hear the sermon God could use to perfect you. We often hear how that one service we miss could be the one service that God used to change our life forever, and this is true! We live in days when people don’t think it’s that important to be faithful to church, but if you want to grow as a Christian and allow the LORD to perfect you then you need to get yourself under the preaching of His Word.

Fifth, God perfects the Christian through trials. Verse 7 says, “Though I walk in the midst of trouble, thou wilt revive me…” As much as we dislike trials, they have a way of revealing our weaknesses. Every trial I’ve endured has revealed some part of my life that I needed to change. Trials can become your friend if you will allow the LORD to use them to perfect you.

God expects you to grow, but you will not grow without these tools. Let me encourage you to go to the LORD’s toolbox and allow Him to perfect you through His tools. These tools will do you no good until they are used. God has a work He wants to do through you, but He cannot perform that work to its fullest without perfecting you through His tools. Let God do the work of sanctification in your life through these five tools.

Exodus 31:2
“See, I have called by name Bezaleel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah:”

When God creates life, He always creates it with a purpose to do a task that only they can do. Bezaleel was created in that specific time for a specific job that only he could do. What is interesting is what God did to prepare him for that task. You must realize that God prepares every individual for the task that they were born to do. There are five things that God does to prepare someone to do that specific task.

First, God calls. God said about Bezaleel, “See, I have called by name…” God has a specific task for you to do in life. God has placed you in this specific timeframe of the world to do a specific task that only you can fulfill. What are you going to do with this call? One way you will always know if God is calling you to do something is if you are doing it to benefit yourself or others. I believe many people have gone into a certain field because it is what they wanted to do and not what God wanted them to do. It was all about how it would benefit them. God’s calling is never based upon how it benefits you, but it is all about fulfilling the task He made you to do to help others.

Second, when God calls He fills. God continued to say about Bezaleel in verse 3, “And I have filled him…” God never sends you alone. If He calls you, you can be assured that He will go with you. You don’t have to try and do God’s calling alone because His presence will always be with you as you do the task. What a comforting thought that you can rest upon when you surrender to God’s calling on your life.

Third, when God calls He equips. God continued to say, “I have put wisdom.” I am always amazed how God gives us our background to give us the wisdom we need to do the task that He called us to do. Everything that God allows you to go through in life is part of Him equipping you to do what you were born to do. You may think that you don’t know how to do what He has called you to do, but you need to realize that if He has called you then He will equip you to do that task.

Fourth, when God calls He enables. God will always give you the people to help you do the task you were made to do. God prepared other people to help Bezaleel in the task of the temple. God gave Moses an Aaron. He gave Elijah an Elisha. He gave Paul a Timothy. God always touches someones heart to help those who will surrender to His calling. God will enable you with help if you will surrender.

Fifth, when God calls He guides. When the team was together to build the tabernacle, He then commanded them how they should do it. God always gives you the wherewithal of how to do the task you were called to do, but you must by faith step out and surrender to that call before He guides.

Friend, all of these things that God does to prepare someone for His call will only happen when you surrender by faith to His call. Each of these areas can be an excuse you use to avoid His call, or you can trust Him by faith that He will provide everything you need to do what He has called you to do. God never calls you to do something that He does not give you the wherewithal to do. I challenge you to surrender to God’s calling for your life. Yes, it will take faith, but you will find that God will come through and provide for you what you need to fulfill His calling in your life.