Jentezen Franklin - Three Secrets of Entering Your Promised Land
You may be seated. Numbers 13, that's where I wanna go. Numbers 13:28, "Nevertheless the people who dwell in the land are strong; the cities are fortified and very large; moreover we saw the descendants of" giants "there". And they go on and say and the land just eats people up. "Caleb quieted the people," verse 30, and said, "Let us go up at once and take possession, for we are well able to overcome it". And now quickly, I want you to look at one verse of scripture in the New Testament in Hebrews 3. Hebrews 3, and the last verse says, "So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief".
I wanna talk to you for just a few moments something very strongly the Lord laid on my heart. I never shared this message, but it's for you. And I wanna teach you today three secrets to possessing your possessions or entering into your promised land. God has one for you. A land of promises that He has made concerning you and yours. I was thinking about how that the night that God called me to preach was such an encounter that I had with the Lord in that room where I was, that I heard the Lord say these words to me. "If you will go, I will go with you. If you will go, I will go with you, and I'll show you things that you never dreamed". And all I had was that word from the Lord, but I had been given a promised land, and I knew that God had spoken it to my spirit. And there are many of you here this morning or this afternoon who need to understand the importance of your faith.
I want you to notice what happened in this story. The Bible said that the ten spies came back, twelve of them came back. Two of them had a good report, but ten came back. And they said, "Listen, there's grapes there the size of watermelons. There's incredible productivity in the land," but then they started bringing up these excuses. The people are strong people. They gave four excuses, four reasons why they could not enter. Said the people that are against us are very strong. And then they said, and not only that, they have a superhuman army backing the strong people that they are. They're sons of Anak, or sons of giants. They're giants in the land also. Not just that the people are strong. That they got super warriors that are even stronger than the strong people. They're giants.
And then they said there are walled cities. There are thick walls around their cities. And then they said, and the land that they inhabit eats people up. I want you to notice what they're focusing on, on what they saw. Not what God said. We need to be reminded and refreshed and renew our minds on what God has said. More than what we see. God said in Deuteronomy 6:23, "I brought you out to take you into a land, a promise flowing with milk and honey". God didn't bring you out to wander in the wilderness. God did not bring you out to become stagnant, to become intimidated, to become frustrated, to become without direction. But He brought you out to bring you in. If He saved you and brought you out of sin, He didn't just bring you in, but He has something He wants to bring you into.
And my question to you this afternoon is what's keeping you out? Well, they said the walls. The walls are keeping us out. The giants are keeping us out. The strong opposition of the people that are coming against us are keeping us out. And the territory, the terrain is too difficult to overcome. That's what's keeping us out. And you know, the more they hashed and rehashed the walls and the giants and the strength of their enemy, and the difficulty of the terrain, the thicker the walls got, the taller the giants got, the more difficult the terrain got, and the people got stronger. But God said, "I'm going," you've heard man's appraisal of why they're not entering in. They blame it on giants. They blame it on walls. They blame it on strong people who are against them. They blame it on the terrain or natural circumstances that they can't overcome cause they're not big and strong enough to do it physically.
But God said, "You want My appraisal of the situation? Here's one answer". One answer. Hebrews 3, the verse that I started with. "And he said they could not enter in because of unbelief". God's observation said it's because of their unbelief. The walls did not stop them. The giants didn't have anything to do with them not going in. The giants didn't stop 'em according to God. The walls didn't stop 'em. The strong people inhabiting the land did not stop them. The terrain did not stop them. God said, "All you had to do was believe Me". You're giving excuses, and all of us do this. We all do this. But the truth is, if we don't enter into the promised land for our families and our children, and our children's children, and the destiny that God has for all of us, it will not be because the giants were too mighty, or the walls were too thick, or they were too big for our God to triumph and overcome. There's only one reason, and He said, "It's because you don't believe what I told you".
R. W. Schambach who preached in this church and put me on TV, he was an Evangelist, a Pentecostal Evangelist. And he took up an offering back in the old, old church on a Sunday night. you know, few hundred people back then. It wasn't a big, massive church that it is now. And he took, got up, and said, "The Lord told me this boy's supposed to be," and I was a boy then, "He's supposed to be on TV". And he took up an offering and got $140-something thousand dollars cash. And we bought TV equipment. The TV equipment that we needed. But he used to say, "You don't have no problems. All you've got is faith in God". Never forgot that saying. What's keeping you out of your promised land? Number one, unbelief will keep you out. If God said, "It is time to stand up and believe it". As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. He is Jehovah Rapha the Lord that healeth thee. But my God shall supply all my needs according to His riches in glory through Christ, Jesus.
Has anybody made up your mind that the lies and the giants and the walls of resistance are not going to stop you from inheriting those promises? If so, give God a praise right now. Unbelief must be conquered. I'm hurrying to get to the thing I feel I really feel I'm supposed to get to. The second thing that kept them out was intimidation. Intimidation. The Bible said that two of the spies said, "We can do it". And we all know their names. Joshua and Caleb. But ten said we can't. And nobody knows their names. You wanna know why? Because nobody wants to remember people who tell us what we can't do. If you wanna be remembered, you better tell people what they can do. Tell your family what they can do. Tell your children what they can do. Don't just be a can't, be a can. I honestly, I couldn't tell you the times that God shoved me out cause He knew I was too intimidated to step out and obey Him. And I got shoved.
It's like that little story I tell sometimes about the multimillionaire in Texas. Had a massive Olympic-sized swimming pool behind this mansion. Was having a barbecue. Invited all of his friends over. They went down to the swimming pool, and it was full of alligators. Full of 'em. And they said, "Why is your pool full of alligators"? He said, "Well, the number one quality that I admire above all others is courage". And he said, "It's known around these parts that anyone who's willing to jump in one end of my pool and swim to the other through the alligators, I will write on the spot a million dollar check". They turned around and started walking back up and all of a sudden, they heard splash. They turned around, and they watched a man swimming like an Olympic swimmer, and almost walking on the water. Somehow, he came out. They were chomping. And somehow, he came out alive. And the millionaire went running and he said, "Oh my God, I've never seen courage on display like that. In all my life. That was amazing. Here, who do you want me to make the check to"? He said, "I just wanna know who pushed me in".
Sometimes you gotta be shoved. Sometimes you gotta be pushed. I can't tell you the times when I didn't wanna do it. I was scared to death. They didn't know. If they knew how intimidated I was, they would say, "Poor pitiful thing". But God has a way of taking people who His hand is on and shoving you out there. And when you get out there, the gift will make room for you. The gift will start opening doors no man can shut. The gift will pay the bills. The gift will save your family. And the Lord says, "Get ready for a shove". Women, you're about to have God push you out into where He's called you to go. Everybody take a praise break and I'll keep moving. This is the last point. I mean, when you understand that intimidation and unbelief kept them out of their promised land, not giants, not walls, not terrain, not strong enemies that, haters. They can't keep you out.
The only thing that can keep you out is unbelief, intimidation, and here's the last one. A grasshopper complex. You know, they said, "We are as grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we are in their sight". Talking about their enemy. "We are and were as grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight". How you see yourself determines how the enemy sees you. And if you have poor self image of yourself, the enemy's going to agree with you. We saw ourselves as grasshoppers and they agreed when we said, "We're his grasshoppers aren't we"? And they said, "Yes you are". Here's what got me. That, I never seen this. I never heard this. I've never seen this. This messed me up. This is the whole sermon that I've been hurrying to get to. Here it is. They said, "We were in our," plural, "We," plural, "In our sight as grasshoppers".
The problem was not only how I see me. But it's how I see you. It's how I see you, not just me that can determine whether or not I get into the promised land. It's how, if I see you, and you, and you, and you, and you as grasshoppers, grasshoppers, she's not important. She's not important. She's not important. Well, she doesn't have that much money, and she's not this, she doesn't have the right kind of red bottom shoes. She, and you, and you, and you, and you, and when you start seeing others that God has called you to be grouped with as insignificant. They had an improper respect for each other. The grasshopper's just a little insect that you step on. It makes no difference. There's nothing special about a grasshopper. And God said, "The reason they can't go in is because they see each other as grasshoppers".
They see their children as grasshoppers. You might be talking to the next President of the United States. You might be changing the diaper of the next Senator from Georgia. Quit seeing those whom God has put in your life as grasshoppers. Because your children and your children's children are part of the plan of God's destiny for you in your life. I'm telling you, I'm so glad when I came to this church 30-something years ago, and stood in that pulpit. When I got up, I made crazy statements like, "One of these days, we're gonna preach the gospel to the whole world from these red clay hills of Northeast Georgia". That may be 300 people. "Did he say the whole world"? But I didn't see those people as grasshoppers.
Oh, I feel like shouting. When you hear your little child in there having piano lessons, don't see them as a grasshopper. They may be the next songwriter that brings a song that touches the world. When you see that child in there, we need God to show us who we are and who we have around us. There's not a grasshopper Because here's the deal. They didn't make it in. Not because of the giants and the walls, but because of unbelief. Because of intimidation. And because they saw themselves and the others around them. There were people in this church who God would give me messages and I would preach them like I believed it. And I knew it was gonna take millions and millions of dollars to do everything God's called us to do.
And so, I knew there wasn't enough money in that building right there to get it done. So I had to stop seeing those people as grasshoppers. I'm not praising myself, but God gave me lenses of faith, and I would see 'em, some of 'em, as multimillionaires. Well, well, well. "I don't believe that that would happen". Well, that's why grasshopper. Why don't you get a new revelation and say, you know what? If that's part of God's plan and I can't shake it, I might as well get under the blessing and say, "God is no respecter of persons, and He doesn't just have to have me". Maybe the next trillionaire ought to be a woman of God full of the Holy Ghost.
Why don't we stop seeing ourselves of grasshoppers? You don't need a man. You've got a man. His name is Jesus and He'll supply all you need. And then get a man. I dare you to reach over and grab a woman and link up with her and say, "Let's march into promised land together". I'm not asking are you a grasshopper, cause I'm not one. And I don't wanna link up with no little pitiful, poor me, pitiful me, woe is me, he left me. Who gives a rip? Jesus said, "I'll never leave you. I'll never forsake you". Grab hold of a sister and say, "Let's do this". We can do this. We can raise families in a demonic time. We can raise champions for the glory. We can see our sons and daughters prophesying. Let's do this.