MAKING DECISIONS IN HIS PRESENCE

In Exodus 28:30 it says, “And you shall put in the breastplate of judgment the Urim and the Thummim, and they shall be over Aaron’s heart when he goes in before the Lord. So Aaron shall bear the judgment of the children of Israel over his heart before the Lord continually.” I believe that it is very important that we make the right decisions. We don’t always know how to make wise decisions, and because of it, we go through trouble and tribulation. Part of the problem is that it is difficult to be decisive when our state of mind is passive, and we wait for God to make decisions for us or bring the right circumstances to pass that make us feel comfortable. When we are passive and we want God to make the decision for us, it takes away our ability to discern between good and evil. It is easy to know what is evil when you judge it by the sin, for example, adultery. However, the root of evil is different from the fruit of evil. The discernment starts when we please God or displease Him. When we displease God, we produce a foundation where everything in our life can produce the fruit of evil.

We refer sometimes to the Joshua generation. I wonder if most of us really know what the Joshua generation means because there is a big difference between Moses and Joshua. The difference was not just in possessing the land because Moses supposedly possessed the land. God never said to Moses that he was going to be eighty years old, die, and that he would try to possess the land, but that God would raise up a younger man at that time to go into the land. It was God’s intent for Moses to lead a generation of people into the Promised Land, but because he made the wrong decisions, Moses could not do it.

Therefore, when we talk about a Joshua generation, we are talking about a people who came as substitutes instead of the original generation that was supposed to go in, according to God’s original plan. It was the generation that experienced God in Egypt and in the desert, and those who saw the miracle power in every area of their life that lacked the ability to come into the Promised Land. I have seen, figuratively speaking, many people who have come out of Egypt, having revival in the desert, but never come into their possession. Revival was not Moses standing before Pharaoh and doing great miracles to proof that God is alive and that He is going to send the children of Israel out of Egypt into the Promised Land. The children of Israel who saw those things died in the desert. They lacked the ability to make decisions.

What did Moses do that he was not able to go into the Promised Land? Moses dishonored the Lord. He did not sanctify the Lord. As God spoke to him and told him to speak to the rock, his emotion over powered his decision. In his anger, although he was supposed to bring the children of Israel a step higher where God’s holiness and majesty and presence could be revealed, he did not do what God had commanded. God said that he was to speak to the rock and that water would flow out, but in his anger, Moses struck the rock. The people drank in abundance, but his destiny came to a halt, and Joshua came forth instead of Moses.

The difference between Joshua and Moses was that Moses was the only one allowed making decisions in the presence of God. Some of us today come out of the presence of God, the move of God, and we still come out without seeing clearly. We must have God’s perception to see clearly for our lives.

In His Love,
      Sigi

• David & Sigi's complete: International Schedule