Are you focusing on who God says you are or who you think you should be?
since when was the presence of an enemy
an indication of the absence of God
this is what I want to ask you since
when did God say that I will prove that
I am with you because no enemies will be
against you
since when did God tell you that the
proof of his presence was the absence of
trouble but something in them got really
twisted I guess you could say they
started looking at the wrong mirror and
they started talking about the
Anakites these were legendary giants
that occupied the land of Canaan and
they were like man the grapes are big
and the valleys are fertile and the
land is rich and the possibility is
great and the opportunity is open and
it’s even better than we thought it’s
even better than we imagined but the
giants the giants they’re
bigger than we are and watch how
their self-image limited their potential
there’s nothing in Numbers 13 where they
shrink God down they still know they
have a big God it’s not that they shrink
their God they shrink themselves to the
level of their situation I’m preaching
to somebody today who believes that God
is big but until you see yourself as
made in the image of the infinite
unlimited all-wise ever knowing God you
will stay stuck
one verse I want to show you I wonder if
you ever felt this way they say and
there we saw the Nephilim the sons of Anak who come from the Nephilim and we
seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers
and so we seemed to them that’s a very
powerful theological statement and
psychological statement because it says
that the way you see yourself is so
important that it can actually create a
reality that is contradictory to your
true identity and remember God is
forming them as a nation he’s making
them a nation he’s making a great nation
he saw them out of Egypt he’s done great
things but now they see a giant and so
they come to a strange conclusion our
enemies are so big there’s no way we can
do it this challenge is so
insurmountable what’s in front of us is
so much bigger than us there’s no way we
can do it and we can’t go forward and
they did it and they died in the desert
my question is why would you choose to
see yourself through the eyes of your
enemy why would you give your enemy a
mirror to show you who you are we do
this all the time we pick the worst
possible thing about ourselves the
things that we can’t change the things
that we don’t like and then we use that
as a mirror to try to get a sense of who
we are and we lower our ambition to the
level of our worst tendency and we
forget that we are made
in the image of God because we are too
busy looking at our lives through the
eyes of our enemy here’s how they could
have seen it if what’s in front of us
that God has called us to fight is that
big
I wonder what’s within us that God put
there to cause us to triumph y’all
didn’t hear me you could have said if
God gave me a challenge this great if
God gave me a mountain this big if God
gave me this situation to overcome I
wonder what God knows about me that I
don’t know about me my maker is my
mirror if He put it in front of me He
already knows how it’s gonna fall back
up Goliath I got a rock in a slingshot
my maker is my mirror you come against
me with sword and javelin but I come
against you in the name of the Lord
but Caleb had a different spirit Caleb had a
different mirror I love him because he
walks up to Joshua he’s like hey man
remember when we were at the edge of the
promise and the people saw themselves
small and they held up a mirror for the
rest of the nation and the nation saw
themselves small by the way be very
careful who you surround yourself with
because some people will belittle you to
the point that you will start to believe
it but you are not what they said and if
they are not your maker they don’t get
to be your mirror I don’t care what they
thought what they suggested or what
their actions may be reflecting as a
matter of fact can I say something
everybody’s acceptance is not a blessing
because we got some weird mirrors in the
world today and some of what the world
calls normal some of what people will
say some of what people will actually
give you validation for will ruin your
vision of who you really are I love the
Bible because here’s why because it’s a
mirror that’s what James said he said in
James 1:23 this is the New Testament
equivalent of Caleb’s speech because
Caleb was looking in a different mirror
to see himself and James says the Word
of God gives you a different mirror it’s
different than your experiences it’s
different than your genetics it’s
different than your tendencies it’s
different than your
neural patterns it’s different than all
of that it’s different than your height
or your weight or your eye color it’s
different than anything you can see the
Word of God is a different mirror but
here’s what we do we forget what we saw
in the Word and we look into the world
to reflect back to us what’s inside of
us and so we stay outside of God’s
promise
forfeiting our possession and our
inheritance as the children of God so
James is like if you listen to the word
and don’t do what it says you’re like a
man who looks intently at his natural
face in a mirror but then you go away
and at once forgets what he was like and
that’s what happens when you leave
Church and you have to go into
situations that contradict what your
spirit knows the most important mirror
that I look in does not show me how to
fix my hair and y’all I had one cowlick
today it took me like seven minutes to
try to press it down and I don’t know if
it stayed or not because I can’t see it
right now I thought this is so
appropriate here I am seven minutes
trying to get that hair to lay down
but yet I’ll leave the house with just
any attitude and not check to see God
y’all know I’m right y’all know I’m
right
sometimes you are seeing yourself
through someone else’s insecurity how
other people treat yo u is not
necessarily how they feel about you a lot
of times it’s how they feel about them
I’m preaching to the insides today you
know because if somebody’s making you
feel stupid guess what they feel their
rejection is a reflection not of you of
them but if you let them hold your
mirror if you left the giants hold your
mirror if you see yourself through your
enemy’s eyes you’ll start to believe
that’s how it really is that’s not how
it really is my maker is my mirror my
maker is my mirror everybody’s
acceptance is not a blessing and
everybody’s rejection is not a curse
so Caleb’s like hey Joshua I know I’m
old I know I’m saggy
I know my right knee goes out but I this
takes faith to see it cuz at first I
thought he was lying right but then I
studied the language and he said twice
in verse 10 behold behold it lets me
know that Caleb had a different mirror
because he’s looking at a natural mirror
and he’s like dang come on he’s 85
there’s no way that what he said is true
on a tactical and practical level
because he goes up to Joshua he’s like I
still got it come on
touch somebody it’ll feel fun say I
still got it I went through 45 years of
wilderness but the wilderness didn’t get
in me I still got it I still want what
God has for me I still got a fighting
spirit in fact what I survived didn’t
make me weaker it just made me stronger
it just made me more resolved I still
got it I still got hope I still got a
twinkle you see my eyes I still got a
word give me my mountain I wanna live in
that high altitude
and I’m glad that I don’t have to
look in the mirror of another person’s
opinion or in the mirror of a desolate
situation you know by this point Caleb
could have been like I’m such a failure
I tried to motivate the people to go in
and they didn’t he could have spent 45
years playing that story but by this
point he’s looking in a different mirror
and he says my strength has only gotten
greater because of what I went through
I’m not ashamed of the wilderness I’m
not ashamed of the mistakes God said
some of you keep looking into the mirror
of your mistakes and you keep reflecting
your future back to yourself
through the reflection of your mistakes
but if there’s one thing you notice
about a mirror it always shows you the
image backward that’s why God knows the
end from the beginning so God doesn’t
see your life like you see your life he
sees it in reverse and he already sees
you free so he says that you’re free
because he sees that you’re free even
when you don’t feel free it’s a word
it’s a word this is a mirror this is a
mirror for you to look into today and
see yourself as the image of God behold
I still got strength that you can’t see
hey thank you for watching make sure you
subscribe to this channel so you don’t
miss a single video or live stream and
share this video with a friend and don’t
forget you can join me live every Sunday
thanks again for watching