Part 8: Oh, by the way …
O.K., now it’s finally time for Caleb to have his portion. I mean, the land is pretty much subdued, and Joshua is distributing everything; so, Caleb gets his now, too, doesn’t he? Yes, he does!!! Caleb reminds Joshua of what God and Moses promised him, and Joshua (in so many words) says, “Go for it!” So, after forty-five years of waiting and paying the price, Caleb is finally given his inheritance! End of story! And they all lived happily ever after … right?
Well, not exactly … you see, there is this one little problem, Caleb. Somehow it seems that when the Promised Land was being conquered, some of the inhabitants of Hebron failed to be driven out. So, legally the land is yours; you just have to take care of a few little giants before you can inhabit it, that’s all!
So, here it is. The final installment still had to be paid. Caleb would have to face the giants that had laid claim to his personal promise and drive them out! Was Caleb up to the challenge? Absolutely! Remember what he told Joshua?
“So here I am today, eighty-five years old! I am still as strong today as the day Moses sent me out; I'm just as vigorous to go out to battle now as I was then. Now give me this hill country that the LORD promised me that day. You yourself heard then that the Anakites were there and their cities were large and fortified, but, the LORD helping me, I will drive them out just as he said." (Josh.10b-12)
And that’s exactly what he did! He defeated the giants and took possession of his promise!
We must also realize that giants are camped out on our promises, daring us to come and drive them off! And what I have found is that these giants are usually those that know us best, the ones that have repeatedly exploited our weaknesses in the past and have caused us to fail more times than we care to remember. They are our own personal demons, the ones assigned specifically to us, that MUST be confronted and defeated if we are ever to come into everything that God has for us! The devil has placed them there (1) because he knows that if we acquire our promises it means that the Kingdom of God is advancing even farther into his domain, so he must try to stop us; and (2) because these particular giants represent his best possibility of keeping us from taking what is legally ours to possess.
In order to deal with them, we need to understand that their tactics of attack are almost always basically the same. First, they target our greatest present and/or past weaknesses and try everything possible to get us to succumb to them once again. For example, someone who has really been working hard at overcoming uncontrolled outbursts of anger may suddenly be cut off in traffic, be treated rudely by his cell phone agent, find out that someone is spreading malicious rumors about him at work, get short-changed at the burger joint, and have his wife get on his case about leaving the toilet lid up --- all in the same day --- and it’s the same day that started off with the clear sense that something really good was about to happen! Coincidence? Not hardly! And if we fall prey to their attacks, then those same giants jump all over us with condemnation, making us feel totally unworthy of our promises, in hopes that we will give up and accept defeat!
Second, if they fail to get to us with the direct frontal assaults on our weaknesses, they shift gears and come at us with accusations thrown at us by others, trying to get us to believe that we have not yet fully overcome the very weaknesses against which we have made great progress! For example, several years ago the Lord showed me (very convincingly, as only He can) that there was arrogance and jealousy in my heart of which I had been totally unaware. I immediately cried out for forgiveness and asked for His help to genuinely repent! In fact, this revelation devastated me so much that I spent the next few years going so far in the opposite direction that I lost confidence that I could move in spiritual authority without being arrogant or jealous, so I largely backed away from the apostolic and prophetic giftings within which I was supposed to be functioning. For the last couple of years, the Lord has been restoring in me a confidence that I would be able to operate in the apostolic and prophetic anointings, free from arrogance and jealousy, and that it would be soon --- and with even greater anointing than before. This has been very encouraging, but I have still been trying to hear how and when this was to take place. Well, just recently He began showing me the “how” and assured me that the “when” was very near! Guess what --- just by “coincidence” some people who knew me “back when” suddenly started making various accusations suggesting (or outright claiming) that I had never really repented of my arrogance! The enemy’s goal, of course, was to get me to question myself again and cause me to back off from claiming my promise. The devil never has, and never will, play fair!
So how do we defeat these giants that seem to know us so well? Here are some suggestions I have gleaned from the lives of Caleb and others:
• Rely on the strength that is beyond your strength (“…the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.” 1Jn.4:4b)
• Be confident, bold, and aggressive (Josh.1:6-9)
• Do not succumb to fear. (While others saw Goliath as a big threat, David simply saw him as a big target!)
• Stay focused. (People are not your enemy; the enemy is your enemy!)
• Draw upon God’s grace, and never give up! (Even if you repeatedly fall prey to your weaknesses, you will eventually defeat the giants if you keep getting back up “just one more time!”)
Remember, when the giants are defeated, the promise will be fully yours, and the Kingdom of God will advance because of it!!
Next: the final installment of Thoughts on Caleb
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