Spiritual Milk and Honey

UV 1181/10,000 Spiritual Milk and Honey
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.

Numbers 14 v 8

While ten of the twelve spies Moses and Aaron sent into Canaan to report back the strength and weakness of the people who inhabited the region brought back negative and dismal feedback, only Caleb and Joshua brought back a positive report. They too saw what the former saw- the people were strong and powerful in comparison with the Israelites who were travel-weary having travelled forty years through the desert to reach the promised land. Their cities were fortified with strong defences and thick walls. Their people were robust and strong. But these two alone believed not what their eyes saw but the words of the promise spoken from the mouth of God that He would give them a land flowing with milk and honey. They saw that these people having rebelled against God in different ways did not have the favour of God while the Israelites had that distinction of having the favour of God provided they did not turn their back on God in distrust and fear. These two equated disbelief in the promise of God with rebellion and faith in His Word they recognized rightly would bring delight to the heart of the Lord.

IF we are focussed on delighting the Lord, He will grant us our heart’s desire against all odds even the impossible. Caleb and Joshua exhorted the people who were asking to take them back to slavery in Egypt fearing defeat and death at the hands of the hostile people of the region, “ Do not fear and do not rebel against God.” Often when we focus on our circumstances and difficulties, we become filled with fear and our faith evaporates. At these times, we should just focus on Jesus, the author and finisher of faith and just trust the promise of God that He will be with us and give us victory. The fears will evaporate and we will be greatly strengthened.
Our fears divide our hearts and spirits and make it prone to rebel against God and to trust the enemy of our souls. It feeds our sense of insecurity and makes us make choices that are appalling and to behave in erratic ways. Caleb and Joshua were prepared to face the power of the enemy as they trusted God based on their prior experiences of deliverance from the powerful Pharaoh and his army. Testimony is truthful evidence of what God has done in our lives when we are facing real challenges and problems. The testimonies of God complete our faith in the Word or the valuable promise of God to sustain us in the land of the living, in the valley of the shadow of death, on the mountains and in the valleys or vicissitudes of our lives. Our spirits please God and our hearts are not divided when we do not entertain or give room to doubts, fears and pride or reliance on the natural. Once we pass these tests, the Lord will bring us into our version of “the land flowing with milk and honey.” On my fortieth birthday, I told myself and confessed to the Lord that for forty years I have been going in circles in the wilderness trusting in my own strength. From now on I am entering the land of promises and the source of my strength and well being will be the unique promises of God- the words that are sweeter and more nourishing than the most delicious honey and more precious than the purest gold. This is the reason I set a goal of meditating and analysing the 10,000 promises of God contained in His Word over the rest of my life. These uni-verses constitute the spiritual milk and honey of our souls and spirits. Our lives are not to be one of fight or flight but one of flow- free flow of God’s favour or His grace in our every situation.

Prateep V Philip