Life Ministries

“Complaining” (Numbers 11-14 selected verses shown.)

Man went to monastery where they had a vow of silence…they could only speak 2 words a year – At the end of the 1st year he was called before the head Monk and said - “Beds Hard.” The second year he said – “Foods Cold.” The 3rd year he said – “I Quit” - to which the head Monk replied, “Well it’s no wonder--all you’ve done since you came in here was complain.”
Numbers 11:1-6  -  (They complain about God’s provision of Manna.)

Numbers 11:18-23 - ( Even Moses couldn’t see how God could possibly provide for everyone.)
Numbers 12:1-9 - ( They complain about Moses, God’s leader. )
Numbers 13:31,32 - ( Spies give negative report ) All they could “see” and “say” was “can’t”…
Numbers 14:2 - ( complaining is contagious.)
Numbers 14:4 - ( There is always a leader who will take you back to where you were. “We like the way things were!”)
Numbers 16  -  Read the entire story leading up to 16:50...( Don’t mess with God’s appointed and anointed!
    This walk is a faith walk…and it is a forward walk. If we walk by faith, then we cannot walk by sight. It is a call to   faithfulness - and faith in God. Regardless of what our eyes see, our ears hear, and our hands touch, “Lean not on your own understanding!” With all this complaining going on I am surprised that God did not wipe them all out! If you don’t want to succeed in life or enter into your promised land, or have a vision and a hope for  the future…then do likewise….
    There are some who will take their eyes of the objective and look at the obstacles, and refuse to walk by faith or take risks…There are those who will tend to complain about what they lack and allow fear of loss or the “what-if’s” to take control of situation. The accounts of Israel are examples, to help us avoid the same pitfalls according to - 1 Cor. 10:6 and 11.

    With all this in mind, let’s talk about the difference between “dream makers” and dream breakers…

1) Dream Makers ask the right questions; Notice what it was that the twelve men were to do. They were to search the land. It was the land God said He was giving to the Israelites. He wasn’t sending them on a mission to decide whether or not to actually possess the land; that had already been decided. They were just supposed to go explore the area that was now to be their home; the land God had promised to give to them since the days of Abraham. Then they were to strategize and plan and follow God’s lead. Often we ask the wrong questions: Can we make a difference? Can we change this community? Can we have an impact? Do we have what it takes? Those questions have already been answered. We are called; we are called to impact; we have what it takes; and if we don’t have it, God will provide it. The questions need to be “How do we reach this community? What are we going to do in order to have an  impact? …What is it going to take to make a difference?  And, are we going to trust God and plan for the future? …
2) Dream Makers Look for the right answers.  In life there are optimists and pessimists. In this story we see both. I tend to be an optimist. Optimists focus on what can be; possibilities, opportunities, and potential. They look for the positive. They have the ability to picture something done before it is even started. ( vision ) Pessimists on the other hand tend to focus on problems, obstacles and potential loss. They look for the cloud behind every silver lining. Optimists tend to operate by faith not by sight where the pessimist operates more by sight than by faith. Notice that all 12 men saw the same things all witnessed the same extraordinary blessings all reported the same treasure but not all came to the same conclusion. Caleb and Joshua said “look at the great land God is giving us. The rest said “Ya, but….”
3) Dream Makers see the world from God’s perspective. The 10 spies saw walled cities, giants, and strong armies facing them. Their conclusion We can’t!...Caleb and Joshua saw these same things but saw them in God’s perspective. (14:8-9) After the 40 years of wandering and the death of Moses, when Joshua leads these people’s children into the land, it has all the same cities with all the same fortifications and all the same giants, but the walls of Jericho fall down, the (giant) people of Ai are defeated and God delivers Canaan into their hands.
Here is the bottom line - the one thing that I myself came away with from the book of Numbers many years ago…II Timothy 3:2-5 - “People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God” … I think we can see most of this happening in our own day… But, the one thing that I would not want said about me is that I “have a form of godliness but deny its power”.….Are you a dream maker or breaker?