Why Two of Twelve?

It could be the address of a scripture like verse 2 of chapter 12 of Romans, which is great counsel.     Or Isaiah 12:2 which is great encouragement to us all. Or a myriad of other Scripture locations with the address of 12:2. 

But that is not what it is!

It could be that it is stating that it is 2 minutes before 12 midnight and this is your last chance to get things right or do that item that you have procrastinated about. Even though many who have come to us for counsel are at the end of their rope and nothing else has worked and this is their last attempt to finding a solution. 

This is not why we have named the ministry 2 of 12.  

Many years ago, as I was reading through the book of Numbers, I got stuck in chapters 13 and 14.  This is a very familiar story to most Christians. It is the story of the 12 spies being sent into the promised land, their report of what they saw and the results of their report.

Numbers 13:26-33 reads,

They came back to Moses and Aaron and the whole Israelite community at Kadesh in the Desert of Paran. There they reported to them and to the whole assembly and showed them the fruit of the land.  They gave Moses this account: “We went into the land to which you sent us, and it does flow with milk and honey! Here is its fruit. 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.”

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.”

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.”

And in Numbers 14:6-9, we read,

Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had explored the land, tore their clothes and said to the entire Israelite assembly, “The land we passed through and explored is exceedingly good. If the Lord is pleased with us, he will lead us into that land, a land flowing with milk and honey, and will give it to us. Only do not rebel against the Lord. And do not be afraid of the people of the land, because we will devour them. Their protection is gone, but the Lord is with us. Do not be afraid of them.”

How was it that Joshua and Caleb had the faith to enter into the promised land, while the other ten spies spoke of defeat and rebellion? 

They both saw the same thing in the natural that the other ten had seen. As I studied this further, I became convinced that Joshua and Caleb were able to see the land as the Lord saw the land, a land flowing with milk and honey.  A land that the Lord had led them to, and that the Lord would give to them.They were able to see the land and its current inhabitants through the lens of the promise recorded in Deuteronomy 7:

When the Lord your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess and drives out before you many nations—the Hittites,Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites,seven nations larger and stronger than you— and when the Lord your God has delivered them over to you and you have defeated them, then you must destroy them totally.

God was showing me that as Christians we often see that mountain of issues and circumstances as too big, too insurmountable to even try to overcome it.  But when we see those same issues through the lens of God, we can see the blessings on the other side and that the Lord has moved that mountain.

As believer's in the Lord Jesus Christ:

• We have inherited his kingdom. 

• He has given us His holy Spirit, to comfort us, strengthen us and allow us to commune with God constantly seeing, ourselves, others and our daily walk through the Lord's eyes. 

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I wanted that for my life, and as I have learned to walk in that way, I want to release others to that freedom to enter their promised land.