Okay. I am really glad that Brother John shared last week on the matter of Mount Zion and Mount Sinai. It really leads up to what the Lord put in my heart to share.
We do have to realize there is Mount Sinai and Mount Zion. They are in two physical locations. One is in the wilderness; the other is in Jerusalem, a mountain in Jerusalem. There is quite a distance between them.
The Israelites were at Mount Sinai, and then, a couple of hundred years later—I am not quite sure exactly how many years later—King David took Jerusalem and became king over Israel. That is a period of time there.
I want to share something from this period of time, this portion concerning Caleb. The Israelites were in the wilderness, and God really wanted to take them into the promised land.
They traveled about a year from the wilderness to the border. Then God sent the spies and said, “Go and spy out the land.” But the people refused to go in, and God said, “Well, forty years you go.” So they wandered in the wilderness for forty years.
What does that speak to us? The self has to be dealt with before we can enter in. Then there is the River Jordan. It is very clear to us that twelve stones were taken up and put at the bottom of the river and left there. Then twelve stones were taken up from the riverbed and put on the other side: death and resurrection.
Christ Himself is both our Substitute and our Representative. Then they went into the land. You would think, “Well, we are in the promised land. What do we do?” We should occupy. We should take possession.
But the Israelites were really unfaithful for a long time. When Joshua was there, they were okay, kind of. But afterward, the Bible says they did not remember the Lord. Then you have the judges, which was a really terrible time.
But God continued to move on. God brought forth Hannah, God brought forth Samuel, and Samuel brought forth King David. Even though we know man’s unfaithfulness, God is faithful in His purpose.
I want to spend a little time today sharing their story. If you look at this period of time, there are great people, great persons there. We might think of Moses, Joshua, Hannah, or one of the judges.
But we may not think much of Caleb, right? If you look up Caleb in the Bible, Caleb is going to appear only a few times in the Old Testament. But I do feel that there are very important lessons that we can learn from Caleb.
Why do I want to share Caleb? It began last year, in November, when we started praying for the conference. At home, we also prayed, “Oh, what do You want us to pray regarding the conference?” The words that impressed our hearts were, “a different spirit.”
I looked that up in the Bible, and it comes from Numbers 14. Later, in November and December, we had the winter youth conference here. We asked the same question: “How should we pray for the youth?” Again, the answer was, “a different spirit.”
It seems that neither of us could get away from it. Recently, Jerry, in one of the Wednesday-night prayer meetings—I do not remember what we were praying for—but these words came out. Jerry asked, “Would you share on Caleb?” I said, “Yeah, you read this to me. I think I should share about it.” So that is why I am here today.
Sharing on Caleb is not easy sometimes, because we have to speak about the unfaithfulness of the Israelites in the wilderness. Then we have to speak about how unfaithful they were when they were in the promised land, and really ask the question: How would the Lord use that to speak to us today?
That is the introduction. I would like to spend a little time looking at the one thing that governs everything: God’s economy, God’s way throughout the Bible. If we do not see that, things can seem random. But God does not do random things. He is a God of purpose, and He moves precisely as He wants to move.
Caleb comes into the picture in Numbers 13. We also have to understand the experiences that the Israelites had in those less than two years: how God worked to take them out from Egypt, take them through the wilderness, and bring them to the point where they sent in the spies.
If they had had no experience with God, then we could naturally say, “Hey, when they sent the spies in, there were giants. That would be scary, right?” They could say, “Well, there are giants. We are scared.”
But after all they experienced in the wilderness, they still came back saying, “There are giants. Let us all go back to Egypt.” I think that is even more ridiculous.
So we will spend some time on God’s economy, and then we will talk about Caleb. Caleb appears in three principal instances. First, in Numbers 13, when God asked Moses to send out the spies, Caleb was one of the spies.
Second, forty-five years later, Joshua had taken the people into the promised land. They had taken some possession, but not all the land was possessed. Joshua apportioned the land to the tribes, and Caleb, now eighty-five years old, came to Joshua and said, “Give me this hill.”
Third, after Caleb conquered Hebron, there is a little story in which he told the people that whoever took a certain place would receive his daughter. I think that is very relevant to our lives today.
Lastly, since we began with prayer burdens, I also want to share how we might pray such a burden. Those are the points.
God’s economy, from Genesis to the end, really shows us that God is a God of purpose. He moves from point to point. He has an end in view, and that is how He works.
Even after man fell, Adam and Eve were cast out from the garden. God began to look for a man, and He found Enoch. The Bible says that Enoch walked with God three hundred years. But God was not satisfied with only one man.
God moved on and saved a family: the family of Noah. The whole family was saved in the ark. But God was not satisfied with that either. He kept on; He was building up.
Then God had Abraham—Abram, in that case. God called Abram out from Ur of the Chaldees and told him that He would make him a great nation. He called him out from his country, his relatives, and his father’s house, into a land unknown to him.
God was after a great nation. Then He had Jacob. When Jacob left home and arrived at Bethel, he had a dream, and God said, “I will give you the land, not only to you but also to your descendants.” That is the promised land.
Later, when there was a famine in the country, Jacob was going to Egypt. On the way, he stopped and asked God, “Should I go to Egypt?” God said, “Yes, you just go down there.” Out of that land, God said, “I am going to bring you back.” Out of that land, God was going to raise a great nation.
Then the Israelites were in Egypt. They were welcomed initially because Joseph was there. But after Joseph died, and after the Pharaoh who knew Joseph died, the Israelites were persecuted and oppressed.
Even that persecution was foretold by God to Abraham. God told Abraham that his descendants would be persecuted in Egypt for four hundred years; they would suffer for four hundred years.
Then Moses came. Brother John shared about Moses. God used Moses to bring in all the plagues in order to deliver His people out from Egypt. It was not because Moses could do something; it was basically God.
God delivered the Israelites from Egypt. Of course, we remember the Passover lamb. The Israelites were spared because of the blood of the lamb, and they left Egypt with much wealth, the Bible says.
But God is so wise. He did not take the Israelites by the direct route. He took them through the Red Sea, because God knew that if they faced opposition on the direct route, they would say, “Let us go back to Egypt.”
So God took them through the Red Sea. Pharaoh hardened his heart and sent his horsemen and chariots. We know the story: Pharaoh’s army was destroyed.
Then they were in the wilderness. The wilderness is a tough place. It is a desert. Where does the water come from? Where does the food come from? Where does the meat come from? God provided them everything.
God provided water from the rock. God provided manna, which they could collect in the morning. God provided meat. God supplied them every day.
Not only did God supply their physical needs; He guided them every step. There was a pillar of cloud. When it lifted, they went. When it stopped, they stopped. There was a pillar of fire at night for protection, I believe.
So God provided for their physical needs, their spiritual needs, their guidance, and everything.
Then they came to Mount Sinai. I want to mention two things. One is the Ten Commandments. God gave them the Ten Commandments, which essentially speak of who God is, what our relationship with God should be, and what our relationship with one another should be.
Then, if you read Exodus, there are chapters describing the pattern of the tabernacle. What does that mean? God’s desire is to dwell with His people. He gave a very detailed description of how that should be done. Of course, it is a foreshadowing for us.
God told Moses to tell the people that they could bring freewill offerings. Whatever they brought, they could offer to God. The tabernacle was built, and about the end of the first year after leaving Egypt, God appeared. The glory of God appeared at the door, and they all saw the glory of God.
After the first year, God said, “Let us go to the promised land.” He got them moving again. They arrived at a place called Paran, and that is where the story begins—where the chaos begins, actually.
The point I am driving at is this: these Israelites, did they know God? Did they experience God? Let me ask that question. They did, in every way. They experienced God’s power, God’s provision, God’s guidance, and they saw God’s glory.
Would that be enough to build up their faith?
Then we come to Numbers 13. God told Moses, “Now, go to the promised land. Send one from each tribe.” They were leaders. Send them into the land and look at it. See whether it is really a good land, a land flowing with milk and honey. Look at the people who live there. Look at the cities. Bring back some produce as samples.
So they went in, and after forty days the spies came back. That is where the story begins.
Let us read Numbers 14:24 first. That is not the beginning of the spies’ report, but it is what God said about Caleb.
But My servant Caleb, because he hath had another spirit with him, and hath followed Me fully, him will I bring into the land whereinto he went;
And his seed shall possess it.
This comment on Caleb came after the report. Caleb was different from the other ten spies—at least from the other ten. I am not saying he was different from Joshua, but he was different from the ten.
It is beneficial to look at how they reported when they returned. We can go to Numbers 13:27-29.
Before those verses, the spies came back and said, “Yes, it is a good land. It is full of milk and honey.” They knew that. But then they said, “There is a big problem: there are giants and fortified cities.”
And they told him, and said, We came unto the land whither thou sentest us;
And surely it floweth with milk and honey; and this is the fruit of it.
Howbeit the people that dwell in the land are strong,
And the cities are fortified, and very great:
And moreover we saw the children of Anak there.
Amalek dwelleth in the land of the South:
And the Hittite, and the Jebusite, and the Amorite, dwell in the hill-country;
And the Canaanite dwelleth by the sea, and along by the side of the Jordan.
These are real facts. Those were the actual conditions. All twelve spies saw the same thing. It was not as though Caleb and Joshua were wearing different glasses and saw different things. They all saw the same thing.
But their reactions were different. Look at Numbers 13:31, the reaction of the ten spies.
But the men that went up with him said, We are not able to go up against the people;
For they are stronger than we.
Think about how God had delivered them from Egypt, led them through the wilderness, and provided for them. Then they said, “They are too big for us.”
Contrast that with what Caleb said in Numbers 13:30.
Then Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and said,
Let us go up at once, and possess it;
For we are well able to overcome it.
What a difference. They saw the same things, but their reactions were completely different—one hundred and eighty degrees different.
And it was not only the spies. The rest of the congregation had a reaction as well. In Numbers 14:3, they said:
Wherefore doth the Lord bring us unto this land, to fall by the sword?
Our wives and our little ones will be a prey:
Were it not better for us to return into Egypt?
They wanted to go back. “It is too dangerous.” They no longer trusted God, because they thought God had taken them out there so that they could be killed and their wives and little ones could become slaves.
When you think about it, does that make you speechless? If you were in the midst of that, and you had experienced the Lord’s grace, mercy, and power, what would you come away with? Would you be like the ten spies, or would you be like Joshua and Caleb?
That is why God said Caleb had a different spirit. He was different. His inner being was different from the ten spies and different from the congregation.
That really made me think. We are all believers in God, so we have a different spirit. What do we think when we face difficulties?
Later, after the people wanted to return to Egypt, Joshua and Caleb spoke in Numbers 14:7-9:
The land, which we passed through to spy it out, is an exceeding good land.
If the Lord delight in us, then He will bring us into this land, and give it unto us;
A land which floweth with milk and honey.
Only rebel not against the Lord, neither fear ye the people of the land;
For they are bread for us: their defence is removed from over them,
And the Lord is with us: fear them not.
Joshua and Caleb said, “Fear them not,” twice. The only condition here is that the Lord is pleased with us.
What made the difference between the ten spies and Caleb and Joshua? I think it is a spiritual lesson to us.
One thing is certain: the Lord wants us to exercise whether we look at things through God’s eyes or through human eyes. Usually, when we look at things through human eyes, we see giants and difficulties. We say, “We cannot do this. It is impossible for us. Let us go home. Let us go back to Egypt.”
But if we look at things through God’s eyes, we see a different picture. The giant is no longer a giant. The giant gets small because God gets bigger.
At that point, about six hundred thousand men over twenty years old had left Egypt. Think about it. Only two—Caleb and Joshua—stood with God out of hundreds of thousands.
When I come to this, I am really impressed that the Lord had two in that situation. As we all know, two is the number of witnesses, and God had His witnesses right there: Caleb and Joshua.
What does that mean to us? Paul encourages us in 2 Corinthians 5:7:
For we walk by faith, not by sight.
How important that is for our life together and for our life in the Lord Jesus Christ. It is so easy for us to walk by sight, as the multitude did.
We have studied Hebrews. Hebrews 10:38-39 says:
But My righteous one shall live by faith:
And if he shrink back, My soul hath no pleasure in him.
But we are not of them that shrink back unto perdition;
But of them that have faith unto the saving of the soul.
Live by faith, not by sight. Do not shrink back. For believers, it is important to be a testimony, to be a witness for the Lord Himself.
Of course, we might ask, “What do the Israelites have to do with us?” The Bible tells us in 1 Corinthians 10:11 that we are to learn from them. They are examples for our instruction. That is why it is recorded in the Bible.
The promised land is, indeed, a physical land in the Middle East. I agree with that. But the things God did in the Old Testament are reflections of spiritual reality in the New Testament.
Entering into the land flowing with milk and honey refers to our Lord Himself. When we come to that junction before entering in, the enemy does not want us to enter. The enemy wants us to see the giants. Even though it is a good land, he says, “There are giants there. Do not go that way. Go back to Egypt. Go back to the world.”
But the lesson for us is that the Lord urges us to move on, to enter in, and to possess the land. That is the spirit we should have: to look forward to entering into the goodness of the Lord Himself. He is the land flowing with milk and honey.
You may ask, “How did Caleb have a different spirit?” I am not sure that I can answer it fully, but I can offer some suggestions.
In Numbers 14:24, God said that Caleb had a different spirit and that he had “followed Me fully.” What can you argue about “fully”? Fully is one hundred percent. Fully is totally. Fully is diligently. It means there is no partial following and no half-heartedness.
That would be a divided heart. I like that expression, “a divided heart.” Sometimes I look at myself and realize that I do have a divided heart. Do I serve God, or do I serve myself?
It is very true that the ten spies and the congregation had a mindset of self-preservation. They saw the dangers, and they wanted to turn back.
So how are we going to have that different spirit? It is to follow one hundred percent—fully, wholly, wholeheartedly. Let me emphasize it.
There is also something that Caleb and Joshua showed. Entering into the land was God’s promise. God said to Moses, “I will take you in.” It was God’s promise to take the people into the land, and it was God’s way.
Sometimes we face challenges. We face giants. There is no doubt about it in our lives. What will be our reaction?
I just want to share a small story that might encourage one another. For a long time, actually, I struggled with coming to the Wednesday-night prayer meetings.
There were times when I woke up on Wednesday morning and said, “Should I go to the Wednesday-night meeting?” That is the natural question.
But my experience is that if I say, “Maybe I should not go,” then I am busy all day. By the time for us to come, I am still busy. It is like your mindset is set, and things come that way.
Satan will use all kinds of things to stop you from coming to the prayer gathering. That is my experience.
But one time Jerry said that we should offer prayers to cover every direction. I do not know why I remembered him saying that, but it helped me.
Even though I know I am not a good prayer. I do not pray as well as others. Sometimes I even say, “I do not know what to pray. I do not know how to pray.” But that was an encouragement.
We do have to cover God’s purpose and God’s will on earth in every direction.
So the lesson I learned is this: if I do not come, God can use other people, obviously. But it is the same question: if there had been no Caleb and Joshua, what would have happened with God’s purpose at that time?
That really helped me and reminds me every Wednesday. My prayer is, “Lord, if You want me to be there, You have to arrange a way.”
I think we are all busy with our work, but I do trust the Lord. He will make the way straight. He will open a way for us to come.
That is a little story. It is not as dramatic as Caleb’s story of facing giants, but we do face giants every day.
Another thought I have is this: the Israelites never went back to Egypt during that time. They wanted to. Maybe their hearts said, “Let us go back to Egypt.” But I truly thank the Lord for His mercy: God did not allow them to go back to Egypt.
In the same way, God never allows us to go back to Egypt. That is God’s mercy. No matter where we are or what our situation is, He might say, “It may take many years for you to come into the fullness of Christ, but I will not allow you to go back to Egypt.”
That is God’s mercy.
One more point, and then we can move on. The Word says, “But My servant Caleb.” It did not say, “But My servant Joshua.”
We know who Joshua is. He served Moses. He was raised up by God to take the Israelites into the land. In common language, he was a big shot. I do not feel that we are big shots. Well, maybe some of us feel that we are big shots, but most of us are not.
But God said, “Caleb.” Caleb had a different spirit. He was one of twelve, but he was different.
We all could be different. We all could be Caleb, and God wants us to be Caleb.
Are we Caleb? I do not know. Am I Caleb? I do not know. Only God knows. Only God can reveal to us what is really in our hearts and what our condition is.
Do we see things through His eyes, or do we see things through our eyes? He has to show us. In His light, we shall see light.
That finishes the first period, when Caleb was forty years old at the border of Paran. Then we know the judgment upon the Israelites. I think it was severe.
If you read Numbers carefully, it is a book of journeying. They go from here to there, from here to there, and so on. But after this time at Paran, there is no record for those thirty-eight years until God comes and tells Moses that it is time to go into the land.
Forty years in the wilderness was a waste of time. It was a waste. I would say it was a time that was not numbered by God.
Those thirty-eight or forty years speak to us of the self having to die. As Brother John shared last time, we are crucified with Christ. We see that we are in the tomb with Christ at the crossing of the River Jordan. The self has to go away first.
The Bible says that those forty years were not remembered by God. That is really a tragedy for the Israelites.
But there is always good news. I cannot give you all the bad news, right?
About thirty-eight years from that time, God asked Moses, “Now it is time to go.” God brought Moses to the border, and God told Moses, “You are not going in. Joshua will take the people in.” Joshua indeed took the people in.
They went in and began to possess the land. They did not completely possess the land, but they began.
This is where Caleb’s story comes in. Caleb was forty years old when he was a spy. Now he was eighty-five years old, forty-five years later, and he came to Joshua.
Joshua said to the tribes, “Take this land; here are your borders.” But Caleb came and said, “Give me the hill.” You see a different leader. There is a different spirit. Caleb said, “Give me the hill.”
Let us look at Joshua 14:10-11 and see what lesson we can learn when Caleb was eighty-five years old.
And now, behold, the Lord hath kept me alive, as He spake,
These forty and five years, from the time that the Lord spake this word unto Moses,
While Israel walked in the wilderness:
And now, lo, I am this day fourscore and five years old.
As yet I am as strong this day as I was in the day that Moses sent me:
As my strength was then, even so is my strength now,
For war, and to go out and to come in.
I envy Caleb. When he was eighty-five years old, he was just like he was at forty, according to the text. I think his physical strength was like that of a forty-year-old, but his spiritual condition was also like that of a forty-year-old. There was no change from the time he went in to spy out the land until forty-five years later. It was the same spirit.
At least for myself, sometimes I look at myself and realize that I am getting older. There is no denying that.
I will tell you a funny story—not so funny. Two months ago, I needed to go to the Social Security office to get something done. They wanted proof; they wanted documents. I said, “Here are my documents of who I was forty-some years ago.” The lady at the window said, “This guy is much younger.”
Yeah, I admit it. My eyes are not as good as before. My ears are not as good as before. I would like to be like Caleb. I would like to be forty years younger.
But for us, I want to share two points. We have life within us, and that is in the New Testament. That life can quicken us to serve.
Caleb said, “My strength is now for war and for going out and coming in,” to serve the Lord. The Lord is able to energize us. Even when we get a bit older and a little slower, the Lord can still use us to serve Him. He can really give us strength to serve Him.
The other point that is really important is this: Caleb said, “My strength is now for war.” Remember, it is a battle. For Caleb, it was a battle. He wanted to possess the hill.
That was a battle against giants. That land was not settled; it was not possessed yet. It was not simply given to him. He had to fight for it.
Are we in a battle? Sometimes I ask myself this question: Are we in a battle? Are we in spiritual battles?
Paul encouraged Timothy in 1 Timothy 6:12:
Fight the good fight of the faith,
Lay hold on the life eternal, whereunto thou wast called,
And didst confess the good confession in the sight of many witnesses.
Fight the good fight of faith. Even when we age a little bit, we need to fight that good fight—the good fight of faith. That is what Caleb encourages.
Now, I need to share what is important about Caleb going to battle. When Caleb asked for that land, it was in Hebron.
Do you know what happened in Hebron? Many years later, David reigned over Judah there for seven and a half years.
I am sure Caleb did not know that at the time, but he took that place. He took that possession. He prepared that place for David the king, who came many years later.
That is important in God’s economy. God used Caleb to take the land.
Now we have to come to the last matter: how Caleb chose a son-in-law for his daughter. If you read Judges 1:11-15, I have to go through this pretty quickly.
I read that with a lot of interest. After I finished, I said, “Like father, like daughter; like father, like son-in-law.” They all had that battle spirit. They all wanted to possess the land. Why did they do that? Because God told them, “Go in and possess.”
Our children grow up, and they have their own families. I have always thought that raising a family is not easy.
I was reading a book by Andrew Murray. I think it is a very good book. It has short lessons, but there are fifty lessons, so we have to go very slowly. It is about how to raise your children for the Lord.
If you have time, it is a good book. But what I can say in a couple of sentences is this: you had better set yourself as a good example for the younger ones. They learn from you.
If you are a fighter, if you are really a soldier for the Lord, if you go into battle for the Lord’s interest, the younger ones will see it. Caleb’s daughter saw it.
Then you really have to teach them that spirit, to bring them up and raise them for the Lord. Since we have some younger families here, really stand for the Lord’s interest in the family. Be a good example and teach them the Lord Himself.
I really want to get to my last point: praying the burden. These three matters encourage us. If you forget everything, just remember the simple fact that Caleb had a different spirit and followed the Lord wholeheartedly.
Whether he was forty years old or eighty-five years old, and even in relation to his family, it was like father, like daughter.
I want to speak a little about the condition after Caleb and Joshua. Turn to Judges 2:10-11.
And also all that generation were gathered unto their fathers:
And there arose another generation after them,
That knew not the Lord, nor yet the work which He had done for Israel.
And the children of Israel did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord,
And served the Baalim.
Caleb died, and then there was the next generation. Is that sad? Does that grieve our hearts when we read that?
Then, at the end of Judges, Judges 21:25 summarizes the condition of the Israelites during the period of the judges:
In those days there was no king in Israel:
Every man did that which was right in his own eyes.
Brothers and sisters, remember where they were. They were not in Egypt. They were not in the wilderness. They were in the promised land.
How quickly they forgot—only one generation.
In our terms, we are all in quietness. We know the richness and fullness of Christ, but the question comes down to this: Do we have the spirit of Caleb that continues to possess and continues to come after the Lord?
There is always more Christ to possess. Are we settled? Do we just stop and say, “Oh, it is good enough”? Then we really miss the goal.
I was so impressed. If you take Caleb and ask who in the New Testament speaks our language, perhaps it would be Paul. Paul wrote to the Philippians. Can I put up Philippians 3:10-14?
That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection,
And the fellowship of His sufferings, becoming conformed unto His death;
If by any means I may attain unto the resurrection from the dead.
Not that I have already obtained, or am already made perfect:
But I press on, if so be that I may lay hold on that for which also I was laid hold on by Christ Jesus.
Brethren, I count not myself yet to have laid hold:
But one thing I do, forgetting the things which are behind,
And stretching forward to the things which are before,
I press on toward the goal unto the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
That is the spirit. If we want something in New Testament terms, that is it: to press on, to lay hold of that for which the Lord wants us to lay hold.
You may say, “I am not Paul. How can I be?” Maybe I am just a little guy. I am not Paul.
I think the good news is that sometimes we look at things with our own eyes. We see Caleb and Joshua, and maybe Moses too. We see only a few out of six hundred thousand. We might think that people with this heart are always a minority.
That is not the case. That is what I am excited about. Revelation 14:1 says:
And I saw, and behold, the Lamb standing on the mount Zion,
And with Him a hundred and forty and four thousand,
Having His name, and the name of His Father, written on their foreheads.
This is a scene in which there are overcomers. We believe these are overcomers, those who overcome. They are like Caleb.
The one hundred and forty-four thousand, I do not believe, is a literal number. It means a countless number. I will not say infinite, but it is a lot—a huge number.
At the end, when you look at the persons who overcome, those who follow the Lord wherever He goes, it is a huge number. You and I could be included.
It is not just Caleb and not just Paul. It is really important in our time to stand for the Lord’s interest.
When we look into the Old Testament, even in the time of Caleb and the judges, we find Caleb and Joshua. Then you have Hannah, and with Hannah, Samuel. Without Samuel, where would David come from? On and on, we need to fulfill our destinies. We need to see things through God’s eyes.
So the number of overcomers is unlimited.
What is the burden of prayer? As I mentioned, there is this matter of having a different spirit. None of us can do it. None of us are able to say, “I am an overcomer,” or, “I have the spirit of Caleb.”
But we can pray. We can pray for one another. That is really my burden today. We can pray for and support each other so that the Lord will urge us on to battle, to take possession, to know Christ, and to be occupied by His life.
Overcoming, or being in the kingdom of God, is not what you and I can do. It is God’s prerogative. It is not us; it is Him.
I was so touched by the story of the rich young ruler, when he came to see Jesus. Jesus said to His disciples, “How hard it will be for those who are wealthy to enter the kingdom of God.”
How hard could it be? It is very hard by man’s standards. But the Lord says in Mark 10:27:
With men it is impossible, but not with God:
For all things are possible with God.
We use these words many times about many things, but in this context, it is about the kingdom of God. It is about having Jesus Christ.
That implies that we have to pray. We have to pray for one another so that the Lord Himself will not have only one Caleb. He is going to have many Calebs.
Let us pray.
Lord, we do want to give You thanks for this time. We trust You, Lord, for the word that has been spoken. We pray that it will be an encouragement to one another, Lord, to press on, to do battle, and to take possession of the fullness and richness that are in our Lord Jesus Christ.
So we want to commit the word back to You. Lord, may You use it to encourage one another. May You use it to encourage all of us to pray for one another, so that You would have Your Calebs, Lord—those Calebs who stand on the mountain for You, for the Lamb, wherever He goes.
So we want to commit this word back to You. Lord, may You use it according to Your own purpose. Lord, we thank You. In Jesus’ name we pray.