Just Because There Are Giants Doesn’t Mean God Didn’t Send You

We wanted to share a real life example of a family willing to take a huge leap of faith based on what God had spoken despite what made sense in the natural.

There is something important about Numbers 13 that I think we can easily miss. The twelve scouts didn’t wander into Canaan on their own. They were sent there.

God told Moses to send men into the land that He was giving to Israel. Another important detail is that when Moses sent them, he gave them instructions. Numbers 13 says –

“Go into the hill country. See what the land is like and whether the people who live there are strong or weak, few or many. What kind of land do they live in? Is it good or bad? What kind of towns do they live in? Are they unwalled or fortified? How is the soil? Is it fertile or poor? Are there trees in it or not? Do your best to bring back some of the fruit of the land.”  Numbers 13:17-20

God wasn’t afraid of what they were going to find. He gave them instructions so that fear and confusion would not cloud their judgement.

That’s what this first trip to Maui felt like for us. We weren’t going there because we had already decided we were moving our family to Hawaii. We felt like we had been sent to go and see. So that’s what we did.

We looked at neighborhoods and homes. We looked at the land and what was growing. We talked to people everywhere we went. We drove around the island and stayed in multiple locations for the week. We paid attention. We prayed. We asked questions, a lot of questions. 

We were trying to understand what life here would actually look like for our family. Just like the scouts, we found a place that seemed almost too good to be true.

When the scouts returned, they confirmed exactly what God had already told Israel. The land was good, really good. 

Their actual words were – 

“We entered the land you sent us to explore, and it is indeed a bountiful country—a land flowing with milk and honey.” Numbers 13:27

After that they showed everyone the fruit. There was actually no disagreement about the goodness of the land. The disagreement was over the giants currently living in it. 

This is where a lot of us get into trouble when we’re trying to follow God. We allow what we see in the natural to become greater than what God said in the Spirit.

Sometimes you can know God sent you somewhere and when you get there and you find giants.

The door can be from God and still be difficult to walk through. The place can be beautiful and the circumstances can look impossible. We have this tendency to believe that if God is really leading us somewhere, everything should just work out.

The finances should all be there. The timing should make sense. The house should appear. The doors should open and everyone around us should understand.

You cannot assess where God is sending you solely by what you see when you get there.

If God gave you the instruction, your present circumstances don’t determine whether His instruction is possible.

Think about what these men were doing. They were standing in the Promised Land comparing what was in front of them to what they believed they were capable of. Because of that ten of them came to the conclusion: we can’t do this.

They said, “We can’t go up against them! They are stronger than we are!” Numbers 13:31

Eventually they said something that exposes the real problem, “We felt like grasshoppers.” Numbers 13:33

Notice that God didn’t call them grasshoppers. The giants didn’t call them grasshoppers. They saw themselves as grasshoppers. They looked at what God had called them to conquer and then looked at themselves to determine whether it was possible. That is where fear began to take over.

That’s such an easy thing to do. God can put something in your heart that seems so clear until you start calculating what it will actually require.

Maybe He’s asking you to move, to start something, have another child, leave something behind, build something, forgive someone, adopt, change careers, open your home or step into ministry.

Initially you think,Yes. God, we’ll go. But then you start looking at the cost. The mortgage, the income, the distance, the children, the logistics, the opinions of other people and all the reasons you could fail.

Suddenly you’re no longer looking at where God is sending you through the lens of what He said. You begin looking at it through the lens of what you have.

Those are two completely different ways to live. Ten scouts looked at themselves but Caleb looked at God. They were in the same land. They all tasted the same fruit, scouted the same fortified cities and saw the same giants. After all of that Caleb’s response was completely different.

He quieted everyone and said:

“Let’s go at once to take the land. We can certainly conquer it!” Numbers 13:30

That is faith! Not eventually. Not after they had more money. Not once the giants moved out. Not even after God explained every detail.

Caleb said, “Let’s go at once.”

Why would Caleb be so confident when he had seen exactly what everybody else had seen? It was because Caleb wasn’t confident in Israel’s ability. Caleb was confident in God’s word.

You might be at a place where you obeyed and you went, you took the step of faith and now you’re looking around thinking, God, did I hear You right?

The place is everything you thought it would be but living there is harder than you expected.

You may have started the business but the money isn’t there.

If you have obeyed God and your life has become more difficult we want to tell you that difficulty doesn’t automatically mean you missed God. Sometimes the presence of giants simply means you’ve reached the place where faith is actually going to be required.

Faith isn’t only required to get you there. Faith will be required to possess what God sent you there for.

Israel had enough faith to leave Egypt. They had enough faith to cross the wilderness. The scouts even had enough faith to enter the promised land and explore it. When it came time to actually possess it, ten of them allowed what they saw to become bigger than what God had said.

Fear can take the exact same evidence that faith sees and tell a completely different story.

Ten spies said:

We can’t.

Caleb said:

We can certainly conquer it.

It was the same evidence but a very different report.

Maybe you’ve already taken your first step of faith and now you’re standing in front of something that looks impossible. Don’t immediately assume the giant means you should turn around. Go back to what God said. Remember the instruction and remind yourself of the promise. You cannot compare where God is taking you to the resources you currently have or the life you’re leaving behind.

If God is sending you there, He already knows what’s there. He knew about the fortified cities, the giants and that His people weren’t strong enough on their own. Despite that God told them to be strong and courageous and go!

Faith doesn’t deny that giants exist. Caleb saw them too. Faith simply refuses to give the giants more authority than the God who sent you.

The question was never whether God’s people were strong enough to take the land. The question was whether they believed the God who said it was strong enough to give it to them.

That could be the very question standing in front of you now. Don’t allow fear to override your faith.