* The men are sent to search out that land which God has given them.

Joan Boney ... apostle/prophet

Numbers 13:1-2    And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,  Send thou men, that they may search the land of Canaan, which I give unto the children of Israel: of every tribe of their fathers shall ye send a man, every one a ruler among them.

The focal point in this instruction:

This is the land, which the Lord has given to the children of Israel.

***

If we keep our eyes fixed on the key point in the Word given to us by God, then that is our assurance of victory for it is the will of God. 

I John 5:14-15 And this is the confidence that we have in HIM, that, if we ask any thing according to HIS will, HE heareth us:  And if we know that HE hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of HIM.

So we go forward, fixed on that which God has said to us, and we pray according to that word God has given us.

Examples:  On December 6, 2018, I fell at my house in Texas.  As the ambulance men were rolling me on a gurney and we passed through the front door of my house, I heard, from God by HIS Spirit, (a thought brought to my mind),  "You'll never see this house again."

This was the Word upon which I placed all future actions.  I put that house up for sale.  It did not sell during the first year.  But I will never see that house again.  This gave me the confidence to continue to pray that the house would sell.  All I had to do was to keep my focus on that word which came from God by HIS Spirit.

We do not permit our mind to focus on anything other than that word.  All negative thoughts that would try to come to us to discourage us are captured as we keep focused on that word given us by God.

II Corinthians 10:3-5   For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;

(We bring every contrary, opposing thought into the obedience of Christ, to obedience of that word which God has spoken to us.  We deliberately refuse all other concepts.)

That which happens will be in accordance to that WORD which God has given to us concerning the issue.

***

God has told the men to go in and see that land which HE has given to them.

They can rejoice in many things as they view the land:  

Numbers 13:23   And they came unto the brook of Eshcol, and cut down from thence a branch with one cluster of grapes, and they bare it between two upon a staff; and they brought of the pomegranates, and of the figs.

One cluster of grapes was so big it took two men to bear it upon a staff.

This is an exceedingly good land, a land better than anything we have seen before.

And when we see that, we thank God for this good land which HE has provided for us!

And when they returned they even told Moses that this land truly was a land that flowed with milk and honey.  As good a land as God had told them it would be.

And God has given them this land!  It is their land!  

Numbers 13:28-32    Nevertheless the people be strong that dwell in the land, and the cities are walled, and very great: and moreover we saw the children of Anak there. The Amalekites dwell in the land of the south: and the Hittites, and the Jebusites, and the Amorites, dwell in the mountains: and the Canaanites dwell by the sea, and by the coast of Jordan.

Notice how the negative things came like a flood ... like an avalanche descending from them.

When the enemy comes in like a flood ... a flood of negative thinking.

They focus on the problems instead of focusing on the truth that God had given that land to them, therefore nothing else mattered. 

30 And 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.

But the men that went up with him said, We be not able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we.

And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched unto the children of Israel, saying, The land, through which we have gone to search it, is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it are men of a great stature. And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.

Numbers 14:1-4   And all the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried; and the people wept that night. And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron: and the whole congregation said unto them, Would God that we had died in the land of Egypt! or would God we had died in this wilderness!

Then the people murmur against God Himself directly: 

And wherefore hath the Lord brought us unto this land, to fall by the sword, that our wives and our children should be a prey? were it not better for us to return into Egypt?

And they said one to another, Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt.

They rejected that good land which God had provided for them.

***

December 2018, I was facing surgery after my accident.  One of our church group lived in the same city in Texas where I lived and she came to hospital before my surgery.  As she stood by my bed, the nurse brought papers for me to declare the person who was to be in authority over me during the surgery and that person who would make medical decisions concerning me.

I said, "Pam Padgett will be in charge of me."

Sandra was very shocked and said, "How can Pam be in charge?  She doesn't even live here."

I replied, "I don't know how, but she is."

How can this be?

God had given them this land but there are giants in that land and we are going to have to overcome those giants.  So how can this be?

Earlier the people had complained over not having meat.  God said HE would give them meat.  There were more than a million people.  

Moses questions "How can this be done?"  And Moses said to God,   Numbers 11:13  Whence should I have flesh to give unto all this people? for they weep unto me, saying, Give us flesh, that we may eat.  

Numbers 11:21-23 And Moses said, The people, among whom I am, are six hundred thousand footmen (over 1 million people counting women and children); and THOU hast said, I will give them flesh, that they may eat a whole month.  Shall the flocks and the herds be slain for them, to suffice them? or shall all the fish of the sea be gathered together for them, to suffice them?  

And the Lord said unto Moses, Is the Lord's hand waxed short? thou shalt see now whether MY word shall come to pass unto thee or not.

***

I don't know "how" this can be done but it will be done for that is what God says to me.

Caleb and Joshua knew they could take the land given to them by God.  "HOW" was not in their thinking.  God has said this was the land HE gave them so HE would do it!  All they had to do was to enter in.

And this is exactly like the promises of God to us today.

Isaiah 54:17    No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of ME, saith the Lord. 

We don't know HOW, but it will be done, for this is what God said to us.  We just take the first appropriate step toward this being done.  That first step is to refuse words contrary to that first step which fits what God has said about the matter.

***

Ephesians 6:10-18    Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of HIS might. Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. 

Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:  Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;

We put on:  (dress ourselves in)

* truth
* righteousness
* peace
* faith
* salvation
* the Word of God
* prayer

***

We do not take action which is against that which we have prayed.

For many years, I had observed the way Sandra, from our church group, had dealt with problems and I had prayed for decades that if I had medical problems where I could not make decisions for myself that Sandra would never be left in charge of me.

Then in 2018, I did have a medical situation due to an accident.  I would never have named Sandra in charge for I had observed her dealing since 1980 and had seen her way of life, that she did not operate through faith in God and through hearing from God, but she operated her affairs by her own wisdom.

I would never turn myself over to that type of person.

For approximately 4 years, I had observed Pam Padgett's way of life.  Pam prayed and went in the wisdom of God when she had a problem.  She did not trust in herself.  It was very easy to name Pam as power of attorney over me in that medical situation at the hospital before surgery.

All I considered is that which I had witnessed ... ungodly ways vs. godly ways.

The other circumstances did not matter to me.

***

I have often witnessed people putting themselves into the hands of the ungodly.

One of our church group lived in Wisconsin.  She got cancer.  She put her life into the hands of her sister.  The sister came to Wisconsin and got Linda and moved her back to her home in Texas, where she died a few months later.

I had occasion to speak by phone with this sister.  This was the meanest woman I had ever encountered.  Yet Linda made this woman in charge of herself.

I knew then I would never do that even if  it meant I would have to live totally alone in an assisted living facility.

We, the church, do not put the wicked in charge of us.

***

In December 2018, I was placed in a rehabilitation hospital.  I could not walk at all.  I was in very bad condition.  It was Christmas and I needed to move to another rehabilitation hospital.  The first hospital had become impossible for me and in essence, they kicked me out, so I had to quickly find another hospital.  How could I do this?  I wasn't even strong enough to make a phone call at that time to hunt hospital.  Yet I had to vacate the hospital I was in at the time.  I don't even remember praying.  I just lay there.

One day, Pam Padgett got me on phone and said to me, "I will be down there on Tuesday."  (Pam lived in Colorado, 450 miles away.)

I replied, "You will?"  (I believe that Tuesday was Christmas day.)

Pam arrived as planned and viewed (judged) my situation and began hunting another rehabilitation hospital that would take me.  It was a holiday.  And the first hospital had turned in a very bad report concerning me as a patient.  So some hospitals did not want to let me into their facility.  But Pam kept on searching by phone and found one hospital with private rooms that seemed to be workable.  They agreed to take me as a patient.  I was moved by ambulance on December 31, 2018.  The head nurse of the floor to which I was assigned, watched as I was moved, by gurney, to the room.  Later he told me they didn't know what they were getting into with me for the report from the previous hospital was so bad.  But he said he had often heard bad reports from that hospital that turned out not to be true, so he was willing to deal with me fairly.  I was there for 2 months and we never had any problem.  We often laughed over the bad report given by the other hospital for it was so distorted against me.

Isaiah 54:17  No weapon that is formed against thee will prosper.

Pam Padgett came to Texas 4 times while I was in the rehabilitation hospitals.  She oversaw the estate sale, the removal of items from the house to put such in storage, to be moved later to Colorado.  She worked with my contractor to plan my move to Colorado.  She worked with the realtor.  She planned the move whereby my cat would go from Texas to Colorado, no small problem since it took Pam and 2 other women 3 hours to get my cat into the cat carrier to remove her from the Texas house!

It had been decided that I would move from Texas to Colorado and live at Pam's house.  I was in very bad physical condition when the move took place on February 24, 2019.  I could not walk.  I had contracted the disease, shingles, and it was very painful for cloth to touch my body.  I had been placed in quarantine at the rehabilitation hospital for the last two weeks of my time there.  I hardly left my room.  Yet I am moving to Colorado. And I was 81-years-old at that time.

I'm sure Pam took this on because it was God leading her to do it.

And with God behind it, it will work.

Sandra would have taken me into her house, but it would not work.

God works things out where there is no way.  But we do not comprise and we do not do the thing which will not work just because that seems the only choice we have.  For we do not choose to fail and to do that would be failure.  Instead, we wait for God to work it out for us.

***

Numbers 14:6-11   And Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, which were of them that searched the land, rent their clothes: And they spake unto all the company of the children of Israel, saying, The land, which we passed through to search it, is an exceeding good land. If the Lord delight in us, then HE will bring us into this land, and give it us; a land which floweth with milk and honey. Only rebel not ye against the Lord, neither fear ye the people of the land; for they are bread for us: their defence is departed from them, and the Lord is with us: fear them not.

But all the congregation bade stone them with stones. And the glory of the Lord appeared in the tabernacle of the congregation before all the children of Israel.

And the Lord said unto Moses, How long will this people provoke ME? and how long will it be ere they believe ME, for all the signs which I have shewed among them?  

They had just witnessed all the great plagues God brought against the Egyptians and the way God brought them out from the control of the Egyptians.  And they had seen God use the waters of the Red Sea to destroy all their enemies from the Pharaoh and the Egyptians.  What more would it take for them to believe?

God says:  12 I will smite them with the pestilence, and disinherit them, and will make of thee a greater nation and mightier than they.

And Moses said unto the Lord, Then the Egyptians shall hear it, (for thou broughtest up this people in Thy might from among them; And they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land: for they have heard that thou Lord art among this people, that thou Lord art seen face to face, and that thy cloud standeth over them, and that thou goest before them, by day time in a pillar of a cloud, and in a pillar of fire by night.  Now if thou shalt kill all this people as one man, then the nations which have heard the fame of thee will speak, saying,  Because the Lord was not able to bring this people into the land which HE sware unto them, therefore HE hath slain them in the wilderness.  And now, I beseech thee, let the power of my lord be great, according as Thou hast spoken, saying, The Lord is longsuffering, and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation.

Pardon, I beseech thee, the iniquity of this people according unto the greatness of Thy mercy, and as Thou hast forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now.

And the Lord said, I have pardoned according to thy word:

But as truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord.

(There will be a penalty against them for their sin against God.)

22 Because all those men which have seen MY glory, and MY miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted ME now these ten times, and have not hearkened to MY voice; Surely they shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that provoked ME see it:

But MY servant Caleb, because he 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.

(Now the Amalekites and the Canaanites dwelt in the valley.) Tomorrow turn you, and get you into the wilderness by the way of the Red sea. 

26 And the Lord spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying,   How long shall I bear with this evil congregation, which murmur against ME? I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel, which they murmur against ME. 

Say unto them, As truly as I live, saith the Lord, as ye have spoken in Mine ears, so will I do to you: 

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.

Doubtless ye shall not come into the land, concerning which I sware to make you dwell therein, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun.

But your little ones, which ye said should be a prey, them will I bring in, and they shall know the land which ye have despised.

But as for you, your carcases, they shall fall in this wilderness. 

And your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years, and bear your whoredoms, until your carcases be wasted in the wilderness. 

 After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years, and ye shall know MY breach of promise.

I the Lord have said, I will surely do it unto all this evil congregation, that are gathered together against ME: in this wilderness they shall be consumed, and there they shall die. 

And the men, which Moses sent to search the land, who returned, and made all the congregation to murmur against him, by bringing up a slander upon the land,

Even those men that did bring up the evil report upon the land, died by the plague before the Lord.

The men who brought the evil report were the heads of the tribes of Israel:

* Tribe of Ruben:  Shammua

* Tribe of Simeon: Shaphat

* Tribe of Issachar: Igal
* Tribe of Benjamin: Palti
* Tribe of Zebulun: Gaddiel
* Tribe of Manasseh: Gaddi
* Tribe of Dan: Ammiel
* Tribe of Asher, Sethur
* Tribe of Naphtali: Nahbi
* Tribe of Gad: Geuel 

(The head of the tribe of Levi, the priest, was not sent out with the men to search the land but was kept at the tabernacle in the camp with the children of Israel.)

The only men saved were:

*  Caleb:  tribe of Judah

*  Joshua:  tribe of Ephraim 

They brought back a good report, believing what God said, that HE gave them that land.

*****