A monthly column on purpose, passion and power in Jesus.
I’m writing a book I should’ve written long ago.
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At one point, while typing away, I felt, ‘Oh my! I can’t believe I’m telling this story- again! ”
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For the first time in many years I was tired (and bored) of this particular story.
It was a remarkable story- but it had run its course.
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At first I felt a tinge of guilt for feeling this way — because God had done something truly incredible in my life — how could I be “bored” with it?
Then I felt what I believed was God’s Voice in my head saying: “Finally! To be honest Hannah, I’m bored with that story too!”
God and I laughed together.
I felt relieved that I wasn’t being irreverent at what He had done for me.
And then I thought, “OK God, I’m ready for the next Big thing You have for me”.
He was too. And by the sound of it, He’d been waiting a long time for me to get to this point.
As though to tell me I was fully justified in how I was feeling, God started to speak to me through the story of the children of Israel.
If their journey to the Promised Land was meant to only have taken 11 days, (as the Bible tells us in Deuteronomy 1:2), then it would be fair to say that the manna, and other supernatural provision God made for them, in the desert, was meant to have also been for 11 days. Only.
But The Children of Israel would not leave the desert.
While they moaned every chance they got (about the desert), when they got the opportunity to move to the Promised Land, the Israelites chose to return to God’s miracle of supernatural provision in the desert, rather than move on to the next great thing God had for them.
The miracles of manna falling from Heaven and water flowing from rock were great- but they should only have been for 11 days. Not 40 years.
It’s absolutely no wonder the Israelites got tired of manna!
Any sane person would get completely and utterly tired of eating the same thing for 40 years!
God’s heart for the Israelites was the Promised Land not manna till they died.
The provision in the desert was supposed to only carry them through the journey, not sustain them for a lifetime.
Those who died in the desert died with their last meal being manna- When they could’ve enjoyed a lot more abundance God had for them, including grapes so deliciously enormous they had to be carried by two men.
Instead, they died drinking water from rock when they could’ve lived in a land that flowed with milk and honey.
God had outrageously more for them.
He wanted to bless them so absurdly that every other nation on the planet would envy them.
Sadly, while other nations heard of what God had done for Israel and feared the Israelites, I doubt anyone envied them, eating manna, all day, every day, for 40 years.
At some point they got quail too — but that quickly got tiring as well.
As much as they blamed Moses, and God, the Israelites chose their fate by refusing to move on to the next Big thing God had for them — Because they were afraid.
Moving into unknown territory can be terrifying, but it’s the only way we can enjoy the more God has for us.
The “more” comes with giants, but God knows that; He already has a strategy to obliterate the giants. But He won’t do a thing until we move.
The great things God did for us once upon a time, while they were amazing, phenomenal, even mind blowing, they weren’t all God had in mind for us.
How about we not bore (ourselves) and God by making Him a one hit wonder-
What a waste for us to live where God meant for us to only stay a while.
