But my servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit and has followed me fully, I will bring into the land into which he went, and his descendants shall possess it.
– Numbers 14:24
There’s a lot we could talk about here from Numbers 13 and Numbers 14. This is one of the most important significant moments in the Old Testament. God brings his people to the brink of the promised land. The land he’s promised to bring them to. All the way back to the Book of Genesis so many years before. Hundreds of years before.
Numbers 14:24 challenges us to live with courageous obedience.
He has now brought them out of slavery, just like he promised, to this land flowing with milk and honey. It’s sitting there before them and they go out and scout the land. If you remember the story, 12 spies go out. When they come back, 10 of those spies are like, “The land is awesome, but we can’t take it. It’s too risky. We can’t do it.”
And there’s two men, Joshua and Caleb, who say, “Yes, we can. Let’s go up. God has promised to give it to us.” And in Numbers 14, we see God discipline his people because they had concluded they couldn’t trust in God. And God tells them, “Your entire generation is going to pass away before you enter into this land. You’re going to wander in the wilderness, except for Joshua.”
And here’s verse 24, “and Caleb” Why? “Because he has a different Spirit and has followed me fully. I’m going to bring him into the land into which he went.” And you read that description. Don’t you want that to be true of your life? A different Spirit than the spirit of this world? And even sometimes the spirit that we see in those who claim the name of Jesus but are not willing to trust him and to follow him fully? Don’t you want that to be true of your life? To follow Him fully all the way to the end? To not hold back in any way from God?
Numbers 14:24 pictures a life set apart from the world.
I just want to pray this over you and encourage you to live in this way. God, I pray this over my own life and I pray this over every single one of my brothers and sisters listening to this right now. I pray that they would live today with a different Spirit. They would not live according to the spirit of this world. They would live according to, just as we pray to Numbers 11, according to your Holy Spirit in them, you’re a Holy Spirit leading, guiding, directing, and emboldening them to trust you, oh God, to follow you to the full.
God, I pray this in my own life. I pray this over my brothers and sisters. God, we pray, help us to do all that you’re calling us to do today, to not hold back, to live with wisdom according to your word and courage. Lord, help us to obey you today, to turn aside from the ways of this world, and to do all that you’re calling us to do, to follow you fully, to be holy as you are holy, to bear the fruit of your Spirit.
This verse challenges us to be like Caleb, unwavering in devotion.
God, we pray for love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control to flow through us today. And God we pray to you and make us courageous in mission, courageous in obedience, to make disciples of the nations, to lead other people to you. Lord, help us to follow you fully when it comes to this Commission you’ve entrusted to us. God, we pray that you’d give us a bold faith, you’d help us to take risks as we trust in you and the leadership of your Spirit in our lives.
God, as we pray for unreached people, we know they’ll only be reached by people who are like Caleb here or bold, willing to do whatever you call them to do to get the gospel to them.
Prayer for the Dawei People
I pray, oh God, today for the Dawei people of Myanmar, almost half a million of them, Buddhist men, women, and children. Very few of whom have knowledge of you, Jesus. God, I think about Adoniram Judson taking the gospel to Myanmar, and Burma, and risking and losing so much in the process.
God, I praise you for his bold faith centuries ago that led him there and pray, oh God, raise up missionaries with bold faith. Raise up men and women across the church with bold faith to do whatever you call us to do, wherever you lead us to do it no matter what it costs because we know that you are our reward and you’ll bring us into the land. You will lead us, guide us, direct us in ways far beyond what we could ask or imagine when we follow you fully. God, please help us to follow you fully.
God, we pray that what was true of Caleb would be true of each of us. I pray this in Jesus’ name, according to your Word in Numbers 14:24. Amen.
David Platt serves as a Lead Pastor for McLean Bible Church. He is also the Founder of Radical, an organization that helps people follow Jesus and make him known in their neighborhood and all nations.
David received his B.A. from the University of Georgia and M.Div., Th.M., and Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Some of his published works include Radical, Radical Together, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, and Don’t Hold Back.
He lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area with his wife and children.
