Believe in the LORD your God, so shall ye be established

Who are you going to believe?

There are basically three voices in the world: 1) The Holy Spirit, 2) The Devil and 3) Our human spirit. King Jehoshaphat (a godly king of Judah) instructed us 2 Chronicles which one we should listen to. 2Chron 20:20  “And they rose early in the morning, and went forth into the wilderness of Tekoa: and as they went forth, Jehoshaphat stood and said, Hear me, O Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem; Believe in the LORD your God, so shall ye be established; believe his prophets, so shall ye prosper.” Jesus Himself punctuated this instruction further when He said in John 6:29 “Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.” He is, of course, speaking of Himself.

Who we listen to and more specifically who we believe is very important; it forms what eventuall do. Belief is very important; belief can make us obedient or disobedient.

• Noah believed God was bringing a flood; he moved in the fear of the Lord to build and ark. He was obedient to Gods command to Him because he believed, as God said to him, that a flood was coming. He preserved the human race by that belief.
• Saul who had been told to wait and Samuel the prophet did not believed Samuel would  come so he sinned and crossed a very sacred line which led to his ultimate rejection and demise..

Israel, as a nation, did not guard what they believed either and it caused them to sin and fall short of Gods promises. God called it an evil heart of unbelief (Hebrews 3:12-14). They believed the giants they had run across while coming into their inheritance instead of the Word of the Lord that God Himself had spoken to them; Num 13:25-33  “And they returned from searching of the land after forty days.  (26)  And they went and came to Moses, and to Aaron, and to all the congregation of the children of Israel, unto the wilderness of Paran, to Kadesh; and brought back word unto them, and unto all the congregation, and shewed them the fruit of the land.  (27)  And they told him, and said, We came unto the land whither thou sentest us, and surely it floweth with milk and honey; and this is the fruit of it.  (28)  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.  (29)  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.  (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.  (31)  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.  (32)  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.  (33)  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.”

Here is the result of listening to the wrong voices; they believed the wrong voices:

1)      The giants could overcome them – “they are mightier”
2)      The giants could prevent them – “but the giants are there”
3)      Make void the promises of God – God said Yes/Giants said no…the giants won
4)      The giants were stronger than their God…the conclusion of their conviction

cHere is what they would have believed if they listened to the right voice:

1)      Gods prophet – Moses,  Num 13:1 – God spoke not Moses, he was just a vessel
2)      Gods message – “I will bring you in to a land that flows with milk and honey”
3)      Gods integrity – God is not a man that He should lie Num 23:19-20
4)      Gods might – “we are well able” Num 13:30

In conclusion let me say this: Our adversary is a believer too; let me tell you what he believes about you! He believes he can get you to doubt the leadership, Gods promises, Gods integrity and Gods ability to fulfill His promise in you. In a practical sense here is what happens, God allows us to experience drought, hunger, heat, pressure, inconvenience, loss and the like in order to find out what we really believe (Deut 8:2). For those who believe Him in spite of other voices (evil or human) they enter in to the good land and see the promise fulfilled. Those, however, who believe otherwise, end up missing it. Let’s hold fast to what God is saying. Is He as good as His word or not? Remember in a trial it is not really just you that is on trial it is the word God has spoke to you.