Very few people realize that the way they perceive themselves is how they project themselves to others. People do not understand that they are attracting to themselves the very things they believe about themselves.

God had often told the children of Israel that he was bringing them into a land that flowed with milk and honey. He had explicitly told him that he would give them the land. In Numbers chapter 13, we find that God told the children of Israel to spy out the promised land that he was giving them. So, the 12 men, one from every tribe, went to spy out the land. When they came back, 10 of the 12 spies focused on how big the giants were and how impossible it would be to conquer the land. But Caleb and Joshua were those who believed God! They silenced the panic-stricken crowd and said, “We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it.” Num 13:30 

But the men who had gone with them continued in their negative perspective of themselves saying, “We can’t attack those people; they are stronger than we are.” And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored. They said, “The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size. We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.” Num 13:31-33

The negative words of those 10 spies won the crowd over and they consequently died in the desert over the next 40 years. How interesting! Somehow, 10 of the spies, in their blind intuition, read the minds of the giants. Ten of the spies saw themselves as grasshoppers and, therefore, projected to the giants their inferior identity and consequent lack of power! Interestingly, years later, those same giants were terrified of the up and coming young people who, unlike their parents, chose to believe God!

TD Jakes has said, “I care more about what I think of me than what others think of me because as a man thinks in his heart, so is he.” Those ten spies died from a plague within a few days, but Joshua and Caleb, 40 years later, were mighty warriors that led Israel’s army and went in and conquered the land. 

Hear this clearly, what you believe about you changes everything! The faith of Caleb and Joshua not only caused them to live longer than any of their peers, their faith caused them to retain the strength they had in their youth. Forty years later, Caleb addressed Joshua saying, “You know what the Lord said to Moses the man of God at Kadesh Barnea about you and me. I was forty years old when Moses the servant of the Lord sent me from Kadesh Barnea to explore the land. And I brought him back a report according to my convictions, but my fellow Israelites who went up with me made the hearts of the people melt in fear. I, however, followed the Lord my God wholeheartedly. So, on that day, Moses swore to me, ‘The land on which your feet have walked will be your inheritance and that of your children forever because you have followed the Lord my God wholeheartedly.’ 

“Now then, just as the Lord promised, he has kept me alive for forty-five years since the time he said this to Moses, while Israel moved about in the wilderness. So here I am today, eighty-five years old! I am still as strong today as the day Moses sent me out; I’m just as vigorous to go out to battle now as I was then. Now give me this hill country that the Lord promised me that day. You yourself heard then that the Anakite giants were there and their cities were large and fortified, but the Lord helping me, I will drive them out just as he (God) said.” Joshua 14:7-12

Soon Caleb went in and conquered the land, just as he believed. What do you believe about you? Have you chosen to believe what God believes about you? You are more than a conqueror! Romans 8:37 You can do all things through Christ who gives you strength! Philippians 4:13 God has amazing things for you, and what you believe about you is going to determine whether those amazing things become your reality or not! The question of a lifetime is…

WHAT DO YOU BELIEVE ABOUT YOU?

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