News and Updates
June 1, 2011
David Copeland · July 1, 2011
Newsletter · Volume: 11 Issue: 6
Recently in my devotion time I came across this Scripture in Numbers that jumped off the page:
Num. 14:36 And the men, which Moses sent to search the land, who returned, and made all the congregation to murmur against him, by bringing up a slander upon the land,
37Even those men that did bring up the evil report upon the land, died by the plague before the LORD. (Emphasis mine)
We all know this story. Moses had led Israel out of captivity, and after many days traveling and a lot of drama from the dissenters they came to the very edge of the Promised Land. 12 spies were sent to spy out the land for 40 days. Joshua and Caleb return with a word of encouragement telling the camp, God is for us and we are well able to seize our inheritance. (Numbers 13:30)
The 10 remaining spies said no way! We are like grasshoppers in their sight! (Numbers 13:31-33) But God looked at their report in a different way; God saw and heard their unbelief and declared in Numbers 14:36 that they “…brought a slander upon the land.”
To slander means to make false and damaging statements about someone or something; defamation of character, character assassination, libel, gossip, false accusation; and much more.
Almost everywhere we go I find people complaining about where they are…on the way to where they are going. As I read this passage, my mind instantly went to early days of our ministry in which I felt as if God had put me on the shelf. I was in ministry, but had this fire burning in my belly to travel and see revival come to the United States. I was having a successful tenure as a youth pastor; I was learning to be a worship leader, and would eventually pastor our home church in Lanett, Alabama following in my spiritual father’s footsteps; all the while complaining about where I was, on the way to where I was going!
This passage also caused me to repent. I realize now, I was slandering my land! Every young person in Junior High or High School has uttered the immortal words, “…when I graduate I am leaving this God forsaken place and never coming back!” Only for many of them, they have had to eat those very words for supper and end up staying in the very place they despised for so long!
We slander where we are by complaining about our present circumstances and place of ministry. I knew I would eventually travel; what I couldn’t understand was why God was making me serve in pastoral ministry? I know from personal experience, you can be so focused on where you want to be, that you slander where you are…on the way to where you are going.
It is God who establishes the boundaries of our inheritance and the limits of our assignment. Many have destroyed themselves and cut short their life and ministry by complaining about where God has them at this particular season in their lives.
Many people reading this newsletter have a strong call of God and anointing on their lives! But you are frustrated because what you are doing now is not exactly what you saw yourself doing in the beginning. But you also know you are right where God wants you at this particular season.
Where you start is not always where you end up. God shows us the end of a thing before the beginning. Many have fallen into bitterness and a backslidden condition because they brought a slander on where they were…and they never made it to where God wanted them to go.
Are you slandering your present place of ministry? Are you falsely accusing God of calling you to do one thing, and making you do something else? God doesn’t bring all of us into our destiny at the same time or the same way. The Children of Israel could have walked right into their inheritance; but because they brought a slander upon the land that they were called to inherit, they wandered 39 more years in a wilderness that in the beginning was never intended by God.
Don’t try to go beyond the anointing, place and timing of your assignment. Again, where you are now is not always where you are going. Some assignments are for a season; but every assignment is for a reason. When you get ahead of God and step out of the place God has anointed you to be in during this season, you will become frustrated, angry, bitter and you might end up bringing a slander upon the very land (people, church, ministry, industry) that God has actually called you to inherit!
Don’t slander your land!
Join us for our 2nd Revival Now Summer Convention Friday through Sunday July 1-3 in Opelika, Alabama at Beauregard Revival Center. For more information visit our website http://revivalnow.org/schedule.
May the fire of the Holy Spirit fall in your life this month!
David & Pam