Making Your Life Count (Part 5): Big Thinking and Boldness

One of the guys I really admire in the Bible is Caleb.  He was one of the 12 spies, and only he and Joshua from among the 12 had faith to tell the people that with God’s help, they could take the land.  But the other 10 discouraged the people, and in the end, God sent the entire nation into the wilderness for 40 years until the entire generation — except for Joshua and Caleb — died.

Let me read from a conversation Caleb had with Joshua in Joshua 14:10-12 (NLT): “Today I am eighty-five years old.  I am as strong now as I was when Moses sent me on that journey, and I can still travel and fight as well as I could then.  So I’m asking you to give me the hill country that the LORD promised me. You will remember that as scouts we found the Anakites living there in great, walled cities. But if the LORD is with me, I will drive them out of the land, just as the LORD said.”

Now the Anakites are referred to in the book of Deuteronomy as giants.  So this was not a small task.  In fact, these were the people that caused the 10 spies to say that Israel could not conquer the land.  But Caleb had more than a small faith and more than a little boldness.  And he took the land.  Caleb did it with just his clan.

The story of Caleb conquering the Anakites is more than a story of boldness.  It is also a story of big thinking or what you might call “possibility thinking”.  A “normal” person might have noticed the quality of the land, but they would have also noted the giants and stamped the word “impossible” in front of any other thoughts on the topic.  What made it impossible?  The difficulty of the challenge, and the fear of losing — and more specifically here, fear of losing one’s life.  The Apostle Paul reminds us in Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength”.

I want to challenge us that when we are seeking God for his vision and mission for our lives, to be especially alert when we encounter the word “impossible”.  We can miss God’s plan for our lives if we are deterred by the impossible, because it hinders us from seeing with eyes of faith.

However, not every situation stamped “impossible” is ordained by God for us to pursue.  In Caleb’s case, he knew God had told them to take the land and that God would be with them, so Caleb had good reason to believe for success beating the impossible.  We have a huge advantage over Caleb.  We have the Holy Spirit living in us, and we can seek God’s thoughts on our proposed plans.

God loves “bold” prayers

Another instance where boldness came into play is in Acts chapter 4.  Peter and John were put on trial before the Sanhedrin and were threatened with severe punishment if they kept speaking about Jesus.  But after they were released, they met with the other disciples, and during the meeting they prayed a powerful prayer, recorded in Acts 4:29-31 (NIV): “‘Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.’  After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.”

God liked this prayer so much He shook the place, just so they would sense His pleasure in it.  And God answered their prayer, not only for boldness, but as they were filled with the Holy Spirit, the implication is that signs and wonders confirmed their message.  Let us pray for boldness, and in seeking God for a vision for our lives, let us go for a vision that requires boldness.  Let us develop a lion-heart, even if we are more lamb-like.  Let us develop an attitude that runs to the battle rather than hides from it.

Discussion Questions
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1) Have you ever had the boldness to take a big step of faith?  What was it, and how did it turn out?  Feel free to share both successes and failures.  Remember, failing when exercising faith does mean you are a failure, but that you have an opportunity to learn and stretch more.

2) In your idea of what God expects from you in making big plans and in being bold, how much is it God leading, and how much is it you taking the initiative?

This was the fifth in a series of posts on getting God’s vision and mission for your life.  To read other posts in the series, check out the links below.

Part 1 of the series: Hand-crafted for Specific Works

Part 2 of the series: What You Do With Your Life Matters a Lot

Part 3 of the series: Secular Schmecular, It’s All God’s

Part 4 of the series: How Can We Know What God’s Mission for Us Is?

This is part of an earlier message had all the parts posted on this website, but which was very long.  That message came out of a sermon given at Harvest Church in Hampstead, Maryland, USA, in April 2012.