September 24

Read: Numbers 13:1-3, 25-33; 14:6-9

My servant Caleb… has a different spirit and has followed me fully (Numbers 14:24, R.S.V.).

The Different Spirit

In this familiar story we have no doctrine of second-blessing holiness. But there is here a clear picture of what God can do for men who follow Him fully.

What was this different spirit that Joshua and Caleb had? Men with the natural spirit were fearful because their problems loomed larger than their resources: “We be not able to go up against the people” (13:31). The different spirit declared, “Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it” (13:30). The natural man sees the strength of his enemies: “They are stronger than we.” But he who fully follows God sees more clearly the enemy’s weakness: “Their defense is departed from them” (14:9).

All twelve of the spies were chosen people, and all of them were leaders in their tribes (13:3), but ten of them needed to follow God more fully. It is a sad day when a professed man of God can look at a good country and bring “an evil report of the land” (13:32). It is the Holy Spirit who enables a man to look at the same territory and declare, “It is an exceeding good land” (4:7).

Self-centered men saw only the threat to themselves: “It is a land that eateth up the inhabitants” (13:32). He who follows the Lord sees how God makes nourishment out of opposition: “They are bread for us” (14:9). The carnal mind has a craven spirit: “We were in our own sight as grasshoppers” (13:33). Spirit-filled man knows his true stature because he knows who is on his side: “The Lord is with us” (14:9).

Prayer For Today

Spirit of God, so fill my life with thyself that I too may have that different spirit. Amen.