1665 The Devil’s Advocate

BIG Life Devotional | Daily Devotional for Women

Who is speaking into your life? Who is on your team? Who have you allowed into your inner circle? Who gets a seat at your table to discuss the dreams and desires God has placed in your heart?

My sister, who you have at your table matters. Who you allow to speak into your life with their opinions and perspectives are affecting your future. Have you asked God if they’re the right people? Have you considered if these people are guided by the Holy Spirit? Are they strong and courageous with complete confidence in God’s promises and power, or are they pessimistic and fearful, pointing out the negatives?

You know the saying “devil’s advocate”. Whew, that gets all under my skin. When I’m sitting around a table or on a conference call, brainstorming ideas and solutions, and someone speaks up and says, “okay, I’m going to be the devil’s advocate here,” I want to kick them out. The devil doesn’t get an advocate at my table! The devil doesn’t get a voice to point out his lousy, negative perspective and poke holes in a plan of action.

Why would we ever volunteer as the devil’s advocate? Why would we listen to the devil’s advocate? Why would we be okay with their input? NO!!!!!

Where’s God’s advocate? Where’s the person who will speak God’s promises? Who’s the one who will point out God’s power over the situation? Give that person a seat at the table. Hand them the microphone. Let that person speak. Listen to them!

Moses had an absolutely life altering meeting with the wrong people at the table. Too many people were advocating for the devil’s plan, so fear spread. Fear causes us to dismiss ourselves from the promises of God and settle for a little life when his plan was always a BIG life.

Moses was God’s chosen leader for his people, the Israelites. Moses had led them out of captivity in Egypt. They had seen the miraculous hand of God at work around them, guiding them with a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire at night. God faithfully showed them precisely where to go. He parted the Red Sea for their escape, literally making the water stand on it’s end, creating a dry path on the sea bed for all 2 million of them to cross and not a single one was lost or harmed. That’s miraculous. All this time, God was leading them to the land he had for them, the land he had promised them in Exodus 3:8 when he said, “I have come down to rescue them from the power of the Egyptians and to bring them from that land to a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey – the territory of the Canaanites …”

Okay, so that’s clear. God said it, now go. But, here’s what happened along the way …

Numbers 13: 1-16, “The Lord spoke to Moses: Send men to scout out the land of Canaan I am giving to the Israelites. Send one man who is a leader among them from each of their ancestral tribes. Moses sent them from the Wilderness of Paran at the Lord’s command. All the men were leaders in Israel. These were their names:
Sahmmua, Shaphat, Caleb, Igal, Joshua, Palti, Gaddiel, Gaddi, Ammiel, Sethur, Nahbi and Geuel.”

So, 12 were chosen. This was important because what these 12 men returned to say would impact their lives forever. If they advocated for the devil, fear would spread. If they remembered God’s promises, courage would spread. Now notice exactly what God says in this command. He says “Send men to scout out the land of Canaan I AM GIVING TO THE ISRAELITES.” God had already declared he was giving this land to them. That wasn’t the question. It was as good as theirs.

Now verses 17-20, “When Moses sent them to scout out the land of Canaan, he told them, ‘Go up this way to the Negev, then go into the hill country. See what the land is like, and whether the people who live there are strong or weak, few or many. is the land they live in good or bad? Are the cities they live in encampments or fortifications? Is the land fertile or unproductive? Are there trees in it or not? Be courageous. Bring back some fruit from the land.”

So, the scouts go out and spy on the land and they return with their report. Now here’s the problem, the majority of them came back as the devil’s advocates. They were negative, pessimistic and fearful. Some would say honest … yes, but that honesty completely dismissed the guarantee God had already given them.

Verse 31-33, “The men responded, ‘We can’t attack the people because they are stronger than we are!’ So they gave a negative report to the Israelites about the land they had scouted. ‘The land we passed through to explore is one that devours its inhabitants, and all the people we saw in it are men of great size. To ourselves we seemed like grasshoppers, and we must have seemed the same to them.'”

So, guess what happens? Fear spread like wildfire. Now, there are 2 million people crying, angry, frustrated and fearful. They are now stuck in a desert with nowhere to go.

But 2 of the 12 scouts spoke up and said in verses 7-9, “The land we passed through and explored is an extremely good land. If the Lord is pleased with us, he will bring us into this land, a land flowing with milk and honey, and give it to us. Only don’t rebel against the Lord, and don’t be afraid of the people of the land, for we will devour them. Their protection has been removed from them, and the Lord is with us. Don’t be afraid of them.” These two were Caleb and Joshua.

Instead of being the devil’s advocate, they were the God’s advocate! They spoke of God’s promises and power. They spoke with faith and confidence.

Guess how the crowd responded … they wanted to stone them. So ultimately, here’s what happens. Fear won, the devil’s advocates were loudest, and God’s promises were forfeited. Because they didn’t obey God and faithfully step into what he had promised them, God withdrew his offer and declared none of them would live in the land he had promised them, and only the two who believed would receive it.

Only God’s advocates would get the promise. Only Caleb and Joshua. And 40 years later, that’s precisely what happened.

What went wrong here? That’s been my question as I study this. How can I get the Calebs and Joshuas around my table and be led by faith filled reports instead of fear and worry? How can I ensure I’m not settling for anything less than God has promised?

Here’s what God showed me … GET THE RIGHT PEOPLE and ASK BETTER QUESTIONS.

What if this all started because Moses asked the wrong people the wrong questions. Where’s the interview process for these selected scouts. Hey you, do you believe God is bigger than our problems? Do you believe God will make a way for us? Do you believe God has already given us victory and the land of Canaan? You do, okay, you’re my scouts. You’re the ones I want to send.

Second, look at the questions Moses asks. Moses asked the scouts to go see if the people were strong and many. Then the scouts come back with the truth … yes, there are many of them and yes they are huge and stronger than us.

Wrong questions get the wrong answers.

What does it matter if the odds are against you if God is for you? What does it matter if the competition is better when God has already declared you the champion? They asked the wrong questions, so the wrong answers were spread and promises were forfeited.

My sister, it doesn’t matter how hard this is going to be for you, you’re going to make it! It doesn’t matter how long it will take, you will get there in God’s divine timing. It doesn’t matter what anyone else says, only what God says.

Get yourself in the presence of faith filled, Spirit led people and remind one another of the power of God you each carry within you! We spend entirely too much time telling God how big our mountain is. No, girl, tell that mountain how big your God is! Are the people at your table focused on the mountain in the way, or focused on the God who can move it?

When you ask the right questions in alignment with God’s promises, you get the right answers. Instead of fear, you find courage. Instead of all the reasons you can’t, you find the reason you can. The only reason you need is because God said!

Give the Calebs and Joshuas in your life the microphone. The ones who are confident in God’s promises and certain of his power … they’re the ones who get to speak. Everyone else needs to sit down and hush.

Have you been showing up as the devil’s advocate, pointing out flaws and problems? Is that you? STOP THAT. The devil doesn’t need an advocate. He is loud enough with his lousy insight, he doesn’t need someone speaking up for him.

Have you been allowing a few devil’s advocates a space in your circle and a seat at your table? God is showing you now how that can infect everyone with fear and negativity. Shut that down. Draw some lines. You can’t afford to allow the devil to have a say in the dreams and desires God has given you. A defeated mindset infects others with assumed defeat.

We are not defeated. We are not helpless, hopeless or stuck. We are God’s chosen girls with a future filled with hope. God has planted dreams and desires within our hearts as seeds of purpose. Let them grow. Let God prune and perfect them. Don’t dismiss it just because it will be hard. Don’t settle into choosing only what will be easy … if you do, you will forfeit the fullness of life Jesus came to give you here on Earth.

Find your Calebs and Joshuas and dream together! Be someone else’s Caleb or Joshua and speak into their dreams. Remind them of God’s truths. Remind them of God’s power. Don’t let them settle in fear and give up in worry.

Don’t be afraid. The Lord is with us! That’s how you advocate for God instead of the devil.

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