Watch What You Say!

"Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life." Proverbs 4:23

God called the report of the Israelite spies "evil" because they came back with a negative spirit. You may think it is harmless to complain about your family, spouse, or job, but this spirit stopped three million people from their promised land! A negative spirit can stall your destiny and keep you from what God has planned for you! God went through all that trouble to bring the people out of bondage with the plagues, parting the Red Sea, and raining down manna only for them to stop right in the end zone. They were right on the line of the land they had journeyed to for 40 years! Imagine being one inch from the end zone in the last minutes of the Super Bowl, only to drop the ball. Satan uses subtle things, like the attitudes of the heart, to destroy your future more than anything else. It wasn't limitations on the people's ability, strength, or resources that kept them from God's blessing. It was the limitations on their mind.

After the community turned on Moses and tried to overthrow him and go back to Egypt, God became very angry. If you ever wonder what God thinks about a negative attitude, read this:

"How long will this wicked community grumble against me? I have heard the complaints of these grumbling Israelites. So tell them, 'As surely as I live, declares the Lord, I will do to you the very thing I heard you say…Not one of you will enter the land I swore with uplifted hand to make your home, except Caleb, son of Jephunneh, and Joshua, son of Nun. As for your children, who you said would be taken as plunder, I will bring them in to enjoy the land you have rejected. But as for you, your bodies will fall in this wilderness. Your children will be shepherds here for forty years, suffering for your unfaithfulness, until the last of your bodies lies in the wilderness. For forty years—one year for each of the forty days you explored the land—you will suffer for your sins and know what it is like to have me against you.' I, the Lord, have spoken and will surely do these things to this wicked community, which has banded together against me. They will meet their end in this wilderness; here they will die." (Numbers 14:26-28,30-35)

Notice that God said He would do to them the very thing that they spoke over themselves! The same things that they voiced, He would bring to pass. Be careful what words you speak over your life! God is not pleased with faithlessness. He desires for His people to believe in Him and trust Him. The Israelites insulted Him, saying, "If only we had died in Egypt! Or in this wilderness! Why is the Lord bringing us to this land only to let us fall by the sword? Our wives and children taken as plunder. Wouldn't it be better for us to go back to Egypt?" They were questioning the goodness of God! After all He had done for them! They were saying, "We can't trust God, so we need to take the reins, appoint a new leader, and go back to Egypt because God does not care about us." What a slap in the face that must have been to God! Be careful how you talk about this life that God has given to you. God has been so good to every one of us. He sent His son to die for your sins, and if He never did another thing for you, that is more than enough!

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