Episode 252: The Family Altar Audio Devotional – Day 218

Episode Summary:

And now, behold, the Lord hath kept me alive, as he said, these forty and five years, even since the Lord spake this word unto Moses, while the children of Israel wandered in the wilderness: and now, lo, I am this day fourscore and five years old. As yet I am as strong this day as I was in the day that Moses sent me: as my strength was then, even so is my strength now, for war, both to go out, and to come in. Now therefore give me this mountain, whereof the Lord spake in that day; for thou heardest in that day how the Anakims were there, and that the cities were great and fenced: if so be the Lord will be with me, then I shall be able to drive them out, as the Lord said. And Joshua blessed him, and gave unto Caleb the son of Jephunneh Hebron for an inheritance. (Joshua 14:10-13)

18 Caleb… There was ten of the spies that come back and said, “Oh, it’s impossible for us to do it. Why,” said, “their great places are walled. And they are giants in the land. We nearly looked like grasshoppers to the side of them. Oh, we are a failure; we can’t do it.”

And of course, ten against two, they were outnumbered. But Joshua and Caleb took their stand and said, “We are more than able to do it.”

But before Caleb, or Joshua could speak, Caleb had to still the people first, get them quiet. Stand still. Don’t be running here, and running there, and jumping at this, and jumping at that.

Now, what made Caleb so sure of it when the opposition was so great? It’s according to what you’re looking at. Caleb was looking at the promise of God. The other ten was looking at circumstances. If you go to look at circumstance, or to look what’s around you, you are sure to fail. But you must never look at what’s around you.

19 What if that man setting there looked at the opposition, by his boy there, a cripple in that chair? What if this nice, clean looking man setting back there in the wheelchair looked at the circumstances? What if the lady laying in that chair, leaning back, looked at the circumstances? What if this poor blind woman leaning on a shoulder of another thought of the circumstances? The doctor has tried. He’s failed. He’s a man, like I am, you are. And if you look at that, then you’re going to be a failure to begin with.

But the Christian doesn’t look at circumstances; he looks at the Word and stands still. God said so; that settled it. What if Abraham looked at the circumstances? If the doctor examined your heart… That kills more people than anything else. The doctor examined your heart and said, “You might drop at any time, you got a murmur.” That’s true. If you look at that, then you’re—you’re—you’re defeated to begin with. Look what God said.

20 If the doctor says that… If the little… Like the little boy last night who was a mute, certainly he was born, probably, without any hearing, ways of, at all. But right here on the platform, God gave back the hearing to that boy. I put my hands behind him and snapped my fingers; he turned around, motioned to his little ear. He’s a baby; he doesn’t know how to speak or nothing. I couldn’t get him to open his mouth even, because he had never had any use, but just to eat. And I give him a little piece of chewing gum, thought I could get him to open his mouth that way.

If the mother’s here, just teach the child. Just go on as if it was a finished work and believe it. No matter what anybody else says anything, stand still. God said so. Prayer of faith shall save the sick.

Now, if Caleb would’ve said, “Oh, yes, the opposition is great. We don’t even have implements to fight with. And look at those walls; how could we ever get through the walls? There is ten thousand to—to our hundred. We… they… We’re outnumbered. We’re not war people to begin with. We’re not even a united nation. We’re just a bunch of peasant slaves. We’re not even accepted as a nation.”

21 But one thing Caleb looked at: God said before they ever left Egypt, “I have given you that land.” So Caleb didn’t care what the circumstance looked like. He looked at what God said.

That’s the way you must do tonight. Don’t look at what circumstances is; look what God said. It’s God’s promise that counts.

57-0518 – “Stand Still”
Rev. William Marrion Branham

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