Do you know someone who has a different spirit to follow God fully?
Israel is at the edge of the land that has been promised to them by God. A dozen leaders have been sent ahead to spy out the land to see exactly how promising it is. Forty days of exploration have been completed, they have returned and just finished presenting the possibilities. They have even brought visual aids of the bounty they discovered. But. In all honesty, there are some formidable inhabitants ahead—so much so that ten of the explorers see themselves as bugs before the occupants of the land. As the account of what lies ahead is given, the Israelites take the bad report to heart and once again want to choose a different leader and go back to Egypt!
Yet, two of the men, Caleb and Joshua, speak up for what they believe the Lᴏʀᴅ delights to do in giving Israel the promised land if only the Israelites will not rebel against God. The masses don’t accept the two’s counsel and want to stone them. God intervenes for Moses, stops the rebellion and does not simply wipe out the rebels but pardons them again but with consequence that the rebels, all the Israelites but Moses, Caleb and Joshua would die during the next 40 years in the wilderness. The point of decision by God was,
…And none of those who despised me shall see it. But my servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit and has followed me fully, I will bring into the land into which he went, and his descendants shall possess it. 1
Back to the point—a different spirit and has followed Me fully—the ones who see God for who He says He is and continue with Him are the ones who God ‘brings’ along with Him. Yea God!