Killer Grasshoppers by Bill Pevlor
The relationships we develop are important
to the quality of life we live. Good relationships will greatly enhance your life. Bad
relationships will equally diminish, and possibly destroy your life. Considering the
profound effect relationships have on our lives, it seems odd that we don’t put more
thought, planning, effort and prayer into the kind of relationships we develop.
We attend a great soul-winning church; Word of Life Church in St. Joseph, Mo. As a leader in the
Altar Workers ministry, I have the awesome honor and privilege to be one of the first
people to exhort the new believers. One of the things I often tell them is, as new
believers in Christ, they need to decide who they are going to hang out with. I share 1
Corinthians 15:33 with them - "Do not be misled: Bad company corrupts good
character." If you hang out with a bad crowd, no matter how good you desire to
be, their "bad" influence will corrupt you. On the other hand, if you hang out
with "good" company, their influence will enhance and preserve you.
When you consider how to enhance the quality of
your life, the most important decision you can make is to believe on Jesus Christ and
yield to His lordship of your life. The second most important decision is determining the
kind of people you will have as close friends. Most people never consciously consider what
kind of friends they will have. They plod along life’s path, becoming friends with
whom ever they seem to "hit it off" with. Friendships are developed because of
convenience, availability and, all too often, the commonality of poor or negative
character traits. Not only is this unwise, it is down right dangerous; especially to your
spiritual life.
1 Corinthians 6:14 says "Do not be
yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common?
Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?" We’ve all heard this
scripture used to discourage believers from marrying or having close business and personal
relationships with unbelievers - that is, those who are not Christians. It is an obvious
and correct use of this scripture, but I want to take it a step further. There are many
Christians who we share the glory of salvation with, yet, who are not walking in the same
kind of faith we desire to walk in. To be more specific - we believe in God’s
promises for victory, divine health and healing, deliverance and prosperity, the Baptism
of the Holy Spirit, etc.. We know many Christians that we love and respect who do not
believe the same things…or, at least, to the same level that we are stretching our
faith for. In regard to the issue of salvation, they are "believers." In regard
to many of the other issues of faith, they are "unbelievers".
To have very close relationships with the
"unbelievers" will hamper your own faith and could keep you from attaining your
God-given destiny. An example of people of faith who suffered because of their
relationship with "unbelievers" is found in the book of Numbers, chapters 13 and
14. The Israelites had seen miracle after miracle from God that led to their freedom from
Egyptian bondage and sustenance in the wilderness. God had led them to the very border of
their promised land and said to Moses, "Send some men to explore the land of
Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites." (13:1)
Moses picked 12 leaders, one from each tribe,
to explore Canaan. He said, "Go up through the Negev and on 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 on it or not? Do your best to bring back some of the fruit of the land." (It
was the season for the first ripe grapes.) (13:17-20)
Moses wanted a report. He was not asking for a
theological dissertation. He was not looking for a consensus of opinion. He simply wanted
to know what it was like in this "promised land." It is important to
note…he sent "leaders" from each tribe. These were not a few guys they just
picked at random.
At the end of 40 days of exploration they
returned with some of the produce of the land and began their report… "We
went into the land to which you sent us, and it does flow with milk and honey! Here is its
fruit." (13:27) The entire Israelite community would have been greatly blessed if
they would have stopped there. They came back with a report that should have boosted their
faith. God had told them they would find a land flowing with milk and honey and
that’s what they found. When you see the promise of God manifest before your eyes,
doesn’t that super-charge your faith? If they would have encouraged themselves in the
reliability of God’s Word, this story would have had a different ending, but, of
course, the report didn’t stop there.
They continued… "But the people
who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large. We even saw
descendants of Anak there. The Amalekites live in the Negev; the Hittites, Jebusites and
Amorites live in the hill country; and the Canaanites live near the sea and along the
Jordan." (13:8) The report they had begun on such a sweet note was beginning to
turn sour.
Now Caleb was a man with a different spirit. He
was listening to the report, that was still basically factual, but he could sense the
rising negativity in their voices. Caleb saw where this report was leading and he was
determined to head it off at the pass. The Bible says "Then Caleb silenced the
people before Moses and said, ‘We should go up and take possession of the land, for
we can certainly do it.’" Now there’s a man of faith. God bless Caleb!
Once again, if the conversation would have
ended there things would have gone much better for the Israelites. However, the
"gloom and doom society" are always insistent on spreading their poison. And
spread it, they did. Here’s how the scripture records it "But the men who had
gone up with him said, ‘We can’t attack those people; they are stronger than we
are.’ And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had
explored. They said, ‘The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people
we saw there are of great size. We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come
from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to
them.’ That night all the people of the community raised their voices and wept
aloud." (13:31-14:1) One of the saddest lines in the Bible is when they
said "We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes."
There was a dramatic difference between what
Caleb and Joshua were saying and what the other ten explorers said. They all explored the
same land together. They all saw the exact same things and yet came away with two totally
different outlooks. What was the difference? The difference was faith. They were all a
part of God’s chosen people; every person a member of the "Body." They were
the people of God but most were "unbelievers".
The unbelievers were walking by sight, not
faith. They allowed the circumstances to dominate their thinking. They neglected to put
God’s Word above everything else. On the other hand, Joshua and Caleb noted the
circumstances but didn’t exalt them to a position of importance above God’s
promise. It wasn’t that they didn’t see the giants, it wasn’t that they
ignored the giants, they just put the giants into their proper perspective - compared to
God, the giants were nothing. From the perspective of the unbelievers, the giants were
everything, they were nothing and God wasn’t a factor. You’ll find believers and
unbelievers still follow the same pattern today.
Hebrews 11:6 says it is impossible to please
God without faith. To say that God was unhappy with the unbelief of the ten who spread a
bad report is a massive understatement. He was also "ticked" in a major way with
the other people who so readily believed the bad report. It doesn’t matter if you
spread a bad report or just believe one, both will land you on the wrong side of
God’s grace. God was so angry He told Moses He was going to strike them down with a
plague and use Moses to start a new nation.
Moses had a talk with God and the sentence was
lightened. The Lord said to Moses and Aaron "How long will this wicked community
grumble against me? I have heard the complaints of these grumbling Israelites. So tell
them, ‘As surely as I live, declares the LORD, I will do to you the very things I
heard you say: In this desert your bodies will fall--every one of you twenty years old or
more who was counted in the census and who has grumbled against me. Not one of you will
enter the land I swore with uplifted hand to make your home, except Caleb son of Jephunneh
and Joshua son of Nun. As for your children that you said would be taken as plunder, I
will bring them in to enjoy the land you have rejected. But you--your bodies will fall in
this desert. Your children will be shepherds here for forty years, suffering for your
unfaithfulness, until the last of your bodies lies in the desert. For forty years--one
year for each of the forty days you explored the land--you will suffer for your sins and
know what it is like to have me against you.’ I, the LORD, have spoken, and I will
surely do these things to this whole wicked community, which has banded together against
me. They will meet their end in this desert; here they will die." (Num.
14:27-35). The passage continues, telling us the men responsible for spreading the bad
report about the land were struck down and died of a plague before the Lord.
Now let’s step back to the beginning of
this message. Remember, I said the relationships you maintain play an important role in
your level of success and victory in the Christian life. This story is an excellent
example. Caleb and Joshua, because they had a different spirit (Num. 14:24), would
eventually possess their promised land. But, because they were hanging around with a bunch
of "grasshoppers", they would have to wait 40 long years. When you hang around
with a bunch of grasshopper-minded people you will be held back from achieving God’s
plan and purpose for your life. Achieving God’s purpose can only be accomplished by
faith. If you allow yourself to be surrounded by unbelieving grasshoppers you will always
be held back. Even though they were full of faith themselves, Joshua and Caleb
couldn’t possess their promised land until all the grasshoppers were dead.
The lesson is clear: grasshoppers will kill
your faith, spoil your dream and delay your destiny. Just try speaking faith around a
bunch of grasshoppers. With lightning speed, they’ll jump all over you to squash your
faith. Grasshoppers will do all they can to keep you and your faith the same puny size
they see themselves. The small-minded, grasshopper mentality will instinctively find a
variety of reasons why your faith will fail. The eyesight of the grasshopper is quite
unique in that it is able to see a multitude of obstacles in several different directions
all at once. They see every giant, fortress and bump you may encounter on the road ahead.
They can see behind to all the problems of your past that will keep you from victory. They
have developed this remarkable vision by doing what grasshoppers do best…walking by
sight.
How much sooner would Joshua and Caleb have
enjoyed the goodness of God and sweet victory if they had been the only two who were sent
to spy out the land? If it were not for the bad report that was spread by the grasshoppers
in their group, it’s likely all of Israel would have entered into the promised land
after hearing what Caleb and Joshua had to say. Instead, they believed the grasshoppers
and languished for forty long, boring, unfruitful years in the wilderness until they
died…the whole time, only a few steps away from their divine destiny.
As you can see, it is important to carefully
consider who you are going to hang out with. Start taking a serious inventory of your
close friends and associates. Are you hanging around with the kind of people who are going
to encourage you to your divine destiny? Or are you hanging out with a bunch of
grasshoppers? Are they people who are telling you to dream a big dream, step out in faith
and believe God for the victory? Or are they people who frown at your enthusiasm, warning
you not to take this faith stuff too far? (These questions assume, of course, that you are
stepping out in faith and reaching for your divine destiny. If not, go back to square one
- get saved and begin to seek God’s will for your life.)
If you want to move on with God, you will have
to leave your small-minded grasshopper friends behind. When I got saved and decided to
move on with God, I ended up leaving all of my old, unsaved, friends behind. I wasn’t
consciously trying to avoid them. I didn’t make any big speeches about not wanting to
be around their sin. It was simply a natural drifting apart. I was going toward God and
they were not. I could have continued to hang out with them, but then where would I be
today? I certainly wouldn’t have gotten any closer to God.
If you want to reach your God-given destiny and
not "die in the wilderness" you need to be around people of faith and vision who
will encourage and pray for you. Think about it this way…if you want to climb a
mountain, don’t hang out with a bunch of shop keepers; hang out with a bunch of
mountain climbers. The shop keepers may be kind, well intentioned, fun loving folks, but
they won’t help you get where you want to go. Hang out with the shop keepers and
they’ll soon convince you life at the bottom of the mountain is just as good, if not
better than at the top. After all, look at all the other people who are doing just fine -
and they never climbed a mountain. And don’t forget, Great Uncle Wilbur tried to
climb the mountain once and fell off.
One of the great ironies in the process of
getting closer to God and reaching your "promised land" is that it may require
leaving your church. Often times, the very people who you would expect to be the greatest
help are the ones who are holding you back. Keep in mind, Joshua and Caleb weren’t
chumming around with a bunch of Philistines or Canaanites; they were hanging with the
people of God. Even though they were the people of God, the majority of them were
unbelieving grasshoppers. Oh, I’m sure they were some of the nicest people on
earth…but they had a grasshopper mentality. I’m sure they were well meaning,
sincere folks…but they were grasshoppers. I’m sure that all of their family
belonged to that "church." In fact, Great, Great, Great (etc.) Grandfather
Abraham was the founder of the church…but they were all grasshoppers now.
People come up with some of the lamest reasons
for staying in a church of grasshoppers. They are willing to set aside a closer walk with
Jesus and their divine destiny because of a misplaced loyalty to a denomination, a
building, some position they hold, pressure (or fear of pressure) from other family
members or the fact that great grandfather was a founder of the church. If Great, Great,
Great (etc.) Grandfather Abraham were alive, he would have told Caleb and Joshua to leave
that church of killer grasshoppers and find a church with faith. Unfortunately for Joshua
and Caleb, there was no other group of "believers" for them to hang out with.
They were stuck with the one and only "church" on the earth at that time. You,
however, have a choice - but do you have the courage to do something about it?
I know, for many, this is a hard teaching to
accept. I know how difficult it can be to separate yourself from people that you’ve
grown close to. You may even think that you are strong enough to overcome all the doubt
and unbelief around you. Even though I may not know you personally, I can say, without a
doubt, that you are not strong enough. How do I know? Because of the difficulty our Lord,
Jesus had with the same problem.
Jesus had a level of faith that far surpasses
any of us. There was nothing lacking in Jesus; nothing wavering about His faith. And yet,
the "grasshoppers" prevented Him from doing all that He wanted to do. The
Gospels of Matthew and Mark describe a time when Jesus returned to His hometown. Because
the people were familiar with Jesus, they had watched Him grow up, they didn’t put
much stock in what He had to say. You can imagine them saying "Boy, Jesus goes away
for a little while and thinks he’s some kind of big-shot prophet. We’ve known
him, practically his whole life. He’s just a simple carpenter with visions of
grandeur." Their indignant attitude prompted Jesus to say "Only in his
hometown and in his own house is a prophet without honor." (Mat. 13:57)
The next verse tells us how the grasshoppers
hindered the ministry of Jesus. "And he did not do many miracles there because of
their lack of faith." (Mat. 13:58) Remember, Jesus, in and of Himself, had no
deficiency; He operated in perfect faith. Even so, the grasshoppers around Him prevented
Him from healing all their sick, as He had done throughout the rest of Judea. If Jesus,
with all His faith, understanding and spiritual strength was hindered by the grasshoppers,
how much more will they affect you. If Jesus couldn’t overcome their doubt and
unbelief, how could you possibly hope to hold your own when surrounded by grasshoppers.
You can’t, you won’t and your faith (and all that can be attained by faith) will
suffer because of it.
If we follow the ministry of Jesus through the
gospels, it is plain that Jesus understood this truth and made adjustments in His ministry
to counteract the grasshoppers. Often times we see Jesus limiting the crowd when He prayed
for some to receive miracles. A couple of good examples are when Jesus raised the daughter
of the synogogue ruler from the dead, He first cleared the room of the grasshoppers (Mark
5:35-43) and when He took the blind man out of the village (away from the grasshoppers) to
heal him (Mark 8:22-26). After Jesus healed that blind man He "sent him home
saying ‘Don’t go into the village.’" I believe Jesus knew the
grasshoppers would present enough of a challenge to the blind (now sighted) man’s
faith that it could jeopardize his healing.
I am not suggesting that you separate yourself
from the rest of the world. I am not advising you to find one or two more people that
believe just like you do and eliminate any association with anyone else. I am saying, if
you want to get closer to God, if you want to achieve your divine destiny, if you want to
flow in the power of the Holy Spirit and see miracles, you are going to have to be
selective about who you hang out with. I have a lot of friends from every level of faith
and a multitude of different denominations and church experiences. When we come together
on occasion, I can fellowship freely and enjoy their company. However, I don’t invest
a lot of time in building deep relationships with any people who are not like-minded and
may hinder my faith. If I’m going to be close friends with someone, invest in a
relationship, it’s going to be with someone who will be a help to my walk of faith
and not a hindrance. I need to have people in my life (and so do you) who can
enthusiastically "Amen" my declarations of faith and believe with me for the
impossible.
I need to be part of a church (and so do you)
that is led by godly men who are continually urging me on to a greater walk of faith. I
refuse to settle for leadership that is not "ahead" of me in the walk of faith.
We probably pass by fifty or more churches on the way to the church we attend. Why
don’t we go to a church that is closer, more convenient? Because my family will not
get what we are getting at Word of Life Church. Is it really worth the extra time and
effort? Only if I truly desire to move to a higher lever of faith and fulfill my God-given
destiny.
Jesus had a multitude of followers that spent
time with him every day. But Jesus limited the people closest to Him to the twelve
apostles. And even within that select dozen, Jesus allowed Peter, James and John to be a
part of His innermost circle. Jesus often excluded the others from some of the miracles
and greatest times of difficulty in His life. If Jesus was selective about who He hung out
with, shouldn’t we be?
I’ve found out that everyone has
grasshoppers in their lives. Some have a few, others are surrounded by a swarm. Most
people can easily identify the grasshoppers in their life. The difficult part is not
knowing who the grasshoppers are; it’s doing something about them. It is hard to
change relationships, especially close ones. It is difficult to separate yourself from the
grasshoppers, because even with grasshoppers there is a certain level of
comfort…after all, they don’t require much from you. You can let your spiritual
life drift aimlessly and no one will notice. And let’s not forget, some of them are
truly wonderful people, if you can set aside the spiritual lethargy. Relatives can often
be the biggest grasshoppers in your life.
Alright, you can’t just write off all your
friends and relatives - but you can modify your relationship with them. Like Jesus, you
can limit their input and influence on your spiritual life. You can make a solid decision
to step outside of your comfort zone and seek new friendships that will strengthen and
encourage your growth.
When I want to play tennis, I try to find
someone who is a better tennis player than me. I want to improve my tennis game and know
that playing someone I can easily beat will not accomplish my goal. In the same sense,
when I’m looking for people to build relationships with, I’m looking for someone
who is at a higher level of faith than me…someone I can look up to. I’m looking
for someone who will believe with me for God’s greatest in my life and encourage me
to greater exploits of faith. And I want to be someone who will encourage others to
greater heights as well.
If you are attending a grasshopper church, you
can begin looking for a church with "a different spirit." Your church is (or, at
least, should be) the greatest spiritual influence in your life. I believe every Christian
should be committed to a local church. It needs to be a good one. Never settle for second
best. Sure, none of this is easy; all of it takes work. Of course, the alternative is to
continue to hang out with the grasshoppers and miss out on the "Promised Land"
God has for you.
Think of where you’d be if you were still
hanging around with the people you hung out with before you were saved. Not a very pretty
sight, is it? Now take that same reasoning up a level to your life of faith now. Look
around you. Are the people around you Killer Grasshoppers or giant killers. The Christian
life is an upward call. When you look three years into the future, are you, and the
friends you hang out with, going to be farther up the hill…about where you are
now…or losing ground? A good indication is to think back to where you were three
years ago.
God is a big God who has big plans for you -
beyond what you can even imagine. He’s looking for people who will believe He is a
big God and act in faith on His Word. When faced with obstacles, fortified cities and
giants do you see yourself as a grasshopper? I pray not. But, even if your faith is
strong, even if you believe God’s Word, like Joshua and Caleb, you will never walk
into your promised land if you have to wade through a sea of grasshoppers. Don’t take
this message lightly. It’s a matter of life and death for your faith. How you respond
will profoundly effect the quality of your life and your relationship with God…and
your families’, as well. Killer Grasshoppers are serious business.
© 1998 Victorious Faith Ministries
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Ministries
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Phone: 920-487-5775