Read Part Three Now!

3 things that can help you get your focus back on track.

By Evan Carlson, CEO & President

2 Corinthians 4:13 says, “Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written, ‘I believed, and so I spoke,’” we also believe, and so we also speak” (ESV). 

What comes out of our mouths should start in God’s Word. In Paul’s case, he believed in God. This is the truth that he wanted to speak back into his own heart, into his own mind. What’s coming out of Paul’s mouth?

We are continuing with three things that can help you get your focus back on track. (Click here to read part one of this blog and click here to read part two.)

    3. Focus on what you say. 

 What do you allow to come out of your mouth.? What you’re saying impacts your life as well. 

Joshua and Caleb talked differently than the other spies about the situation. They we’re saying – 

• We’ve got this. 
• God has given us a promise.
• He will allow us to conquer this land. 

They were speaking truth. They weren’t speaking their truth; they were speaking God’s truth. They got His truth from His word that He will deliver them. 

I was wrestling back and forth, thinking maybe the ten spies were just trying to create a lie to try to stir up the camp but there’s a really small detail in verse 32. “So they spread this bad report about the land among the Israelites: ‘The land we traveled through and explored will devour anyone who goes to live there. All the people we saw were huge’” (Numbers 13:32 NLT).

They didn’t lie or even give a false report. It says they came back with a bad report. It was not bad in inaccuracy necessarily, but bad in not speaking God’s truth over the situation. 

 

Joshua and Caleb were not deceived about what the real the real situation was. But if you go on to the end of the chapter, truth bleeds into exaggeration. The spies were saying the giants were so big that they felt like grasshoppers. That’s truth, but then the ten spies added, “And that’s what they thought too” (Numbers 13:33 NLT).

How could they know that? They got that stuck in their heads, and then they said it out of their mouths. It not only influenced their own thinking, but also the thinking of the entire nation – except for Joshua and Caleb. 

 

The enemy wants you to be thinking about everything that’s beyond truth. God said this, but is that really going to happen? We tend to add to the storyline before the story plays out. Often you get to the end of a story and realize what you had in your head didn’t play out the way that you thought it was going to play out.

• God is saying to keep it simple. 
• He’s given you His truth. 
• Don’t add other things on top. 
• Keep the main thing the main thing. 

 

God promised the land would flow with milk and honey. The reality is you will encounter giants. You’ll have to battle and tear down walls. These are real. But what’s not real are all of the other things that we add to the storyline in our heads. That’s above and beyond what God is telling us today. 

What’s coming out Caleb and Joshua’s mouths? They are speaking the truth. Joshua and Caleb said. “Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written, ‘I believed, and so I spoke, we also believe, and so we also speak’” (Number 14:8 ESV). 

They’re speaking God’s truth back to the Israelites. They’re speaking the truth, regardless of who was listening. It’s an audience of one in their minds. They want to speak truth back, even if no one else was listening. 

If God has given you something … if He’s asking you to overcome something in your life … God’s given you a promise. If it’s in His Word, it will happen. God’s truth will be fulfilled. But we have to continue to say that back to ourselves. That’s why it’s so powerful. 

Think about how faith comes by hearing. Right? “Faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” (Romans 10:17 ESV). 

We need to hear truth in our own ears from our own mouths.

The byproduct of what happened because of the ten spies was way worse than facing a few giants. The nation of Israel had to wait for an entire generation to pass before they could possess the promised land. Only the two voices that spoke God’s truth – Caleb and Joshua and to the next generation would be allowed to enter the land many years later. 

And they conquered the land through God because it was His promise. 

What is God sharing with you through your quiet time? What are you hearing in your heart and in your mind? 

• Don’t think more than is there.
• Don’t hear things that aren’t truth.
• Don’t speak out things that you’re thinking about that are more than truth. 

Hear God’s truth; think God’s truth and speak God’s truth audibly. Take time to put things in your heart, mind and ears that are full of His truth.  

Read the first blog in this series.

Read the second blog in this series.