If you are going to Transition, You’ve Got TO FACE THE GIANTS:
Transition is never easy. Rather it be about changing career, moving to a different city, home, or school. Changing Church’s, divorce, health, death of a loved one, and you can name other transitions of life. The reason is because each time you make a change there are obstacles in your way. Just like with the Children of Israel as they possessed the Promise Land, they had to deal with 10 giants.
Three months ago Debbie and I moved from the Memphis area where we had lived for 17 years. We had established friends, ministry, and business relationships. God said move to Texas and supernaturally He provided the funds to move. So here we are in Texas and it has been the hardest transition I have ever done in my life thus far. We are having to build a scratch business that since I’ve been here I do not have one sale. Several weeks ago I heard the Lord say to me. “You have reached your promise land. To possess it you will have to fight the Giants in your land and your life.”
There were Ten Giants that the Israelites had to defeat as they possessed their Promise Land. The first three they were able to defeat by themselves, but the last seven they had to have God’s supernatural help. Like them, we to can defeat the first three and God can and will help defeat the other seven. But we must be able to identify them.
The First giant you will have to defeat is the “Kenites”. Kenite means, “fabrication, a lie or false accusation against you.” When things are not going our way it so easy to listen to the lies of the enemy. It is difficult to see the promise over the reality you are experiencing. Be careful when this comes, to defend yourself rather than God. The enemy is going to lie to you and accuse you. He will tell you, you’ve should of stayed in the old place. It was better there. To overcoming the Kenite is to focus on the solution, not the problem. To many times we focus on the problem. Let God be your defender! If I would let this giant overcome me, I would stay in bed, not get up and knock on doors for sales. I would not get involved in a church to start from the bottom again. After all I have lead many and pastored many. To start over at my age if I let it can cause me to be bitter, sarcastic, and negative. I am fighting this giant as I write this post. We have decided to attend a church where we are not known. So we have signed up to go through the newcomer’s class and then steps to membership class before we can serve in any capacity. For me this is difficult, because I have been there, done that already. I should be able to walk in and say, “Hear we are, give us a platform.” It doesn’t work that way. So I surrender today to the process, allowing God to strip me bear and totally depending on Him. I confess this is not easy. But I am going to have to do it to overcome this first giant.
The second giant is “Kenizzites” which means, “possession or covetousness.” Be careful while transitioning that you put on a façade or you try to be something or somebody that you are not. God has created you unique and you must walk His design for you and no one else. During this time when finances get tight our tendency is to hold on with fear and stop giving. Giving is what defeats this giant. To be brutally honest with you over the years I have said, “fake it till you make it.” Or faith it till you make it. God provided us supernatural finances to make the transition and move to Texas, but this morning our bank account doesn’t reflect our needs and I have to be at a corporate meeting tomorrow in Lubbock. I am waiting for the sales to come and the commission to be direct deposited. It is frightening and frustrating for me a man not to know when the income is coming. Living day to day and having to stretch everything we do. This is how the Kenizzite giant attacks me. So with no certainty of income, I want to possess what I have. The temptation is not to give or tithe. I walk in fear and not faith. So for us we must break that cycle by giving and trusting God for the increase. This is very hard and frankly difficult for most people. I have always been a giver. We’ve given cars to people. Bought clothes for missionaries. Supported ministries and Feats Day Offerings, but today I am having to force myself to overcome this giant to walk in total faith and abandonment.
The third giant you must face is the “Kadmonites” which means Ancient Way. Another words a religious spirit. Tradition that is treated equal or greater than the word of God. The old way of doing things is good enough. The Old wine is familiar. This is the spirit we all have to fight. Any type of worship rather traditional or new can become a religious practice. Only surrendering to the Holy Spirit and allowing him to teach us His new wine can we break this giant’s stronghold on us. I have found myself in this transition sitting in church’s we are visiting being very critical and negative to the worship experience. Sitting in the chair with the enemy taking me back to when I pastored and thinking what I would do and how I did it as if to say my way was the only way. I am having to repent of this religious spirit. News Flash, it is not about me or you, it is about God. He is the one on the platform, we are worshipping Him. I sit and have this conversation with myself. “I shouldn’t have to go through this. I have the experience, education, and leadership ability.” Then I notice, it is all “I”, not Him. Again, I am having to surrender and submit to the process of God stripping me of all the Old so he can bring in the New. Believe me when I say it is not easy and I am kicking and screaming as I go through process, yet if I am going to overcome these first three Giants, I must allow the process.
Remember these first three Giants we can overcome ourselves with God’s help. The next seven Giants we must have God’s supernatural help to do so. Because of length of this blog I will address the next seven Giants in my next Blog this weekend. So I leave you with what God told Israel, “2 Chronicles 20:15, “And he said, “Listen, all you of Judah and you inhabitants of Jerusalem, and you, King Jehoshaphat! Thus says the Lord to you: ‘Do not be afraid
Wellspring Israel 