Dr. Norman Campbell Ephesians 4 Teacher and Conference Speaker | Faith Teachings | Teaching Manuals | Notable Quotes | | Biography | Comments | Subscribe | Past Newsletters | Links |

God is ADEQUATE, He's SUFFICIENT, He's MORE THAN ENOUGH!

ATTITUDE NOT APTITUDE DETERMINES YOUR ALTITUDE!

Two men were building a wall.

First one said, "This is boring, I'm fed up laying these bricks!"

Second one said, "I'm working for The Lord He's my boss, I 'm building to please Him!"

It's all in the attitude!

Two truck drivers doing long distance driving:

First one said "I'm bored", so he had a wreck!

Second one said, "I'm driving for The Lord and I get a chance to enjoy His wonderful creation in the country every day!"

It's all in the attitude!

In the book of Numbers there is a great story about attitude, I'm sure you've heard it before but it's worth repeating again.

In Numbers the early chapters the Children of Israel are coming up out of Egypt towards the promised land, but they are taking almost 40 years to do a journey that they could have done in a few days really, because of their attitude.

In chapter 12 the last verse it says in NIV

16 After that, the people left Hazeroth and encamped in the Desert of Paran.

Then in Chapter 13

13:1 The LORD said to Moses,

2 "Send some men to explore the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites. From each ancestral tribe send one of its leaders."

3 So at the Lord's command Moses sent them out from the Desert of Paran. All of them were leaders of the Israelites.

4 These are their names:

All the names, we won't read them go to verse 16

16 These are the names of the men Moses sent to explore the land. (Moses gave Hoshea son of Nun the name Joshua.)

17. When Moses sent them to explore Canaan, he said, "Go up through the Negev and on into the hill country.
18. See what the land is like and whether the people who live there are strong or weak, few or many.

19 What kind of land do they live in? Is it good or bad? What kind of towns do they live in? Are they unwalled or fortified?

20 How is the soil? Is it fertile or poor? Are there trees on it or not? Do your best to bring back some of the fruit of the land." (It was the season for the first ripe grapes.)

21 So they went up and explored the land from the Desert of Zin as far as Rehob, toward Lebo Hamath.

22 They went up through the Negev and came to Hebron, where Ahiman, Sheshai and Talmai, the descendants of Anak, lived. (Hebron had been built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.)

23 When they reached the Valley of Eshcol, they cut off a branch bearing a single cluster of grapes. Two of them carried it on a pole between them, along with some pomegranates and figs.

24 That place was called the Valley of Eshcol because of the cluster of grapes the Israelites cut off there.

25 At the end of forty days they returned from exploring the land.

26 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.

27 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.

28 But the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large. We even saw descendants of Anak there.

29 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."

30 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."

31 But the men who had gone up with him said, "We can't attack those people; they are stronger than we are."

31 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.

32. 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."

Here are two different attitudes in the same camp, no wonder they are wandering around all that time wondering about God's ability to get them into His promises. They spent 40 days wondering about God's promise that means they doubted The Word God has spoken to them so they spent 40 years wandering in the wilderness, a year in the desert for every day they doubted God.

Some churches are like that, two different attitudes in the same camp, then they wonder why God is not moving and things are not growing and increasing in the work.

Amos 3.3 KJV Can two walk together, except they be agreed?

If you disagree with your brother, your sister, your husband your wife, your pastor you end up in the wilderness.

Some of you are in the wilderness; financially; in your health; in your family; and other ways.

YOUR ATTITUDE DETERMINES YOUR ALTITUDE!

Think about this adversity can be prosperity to a man with a good attitude, because he can turn things around by agreeing with God's Word over his circumstances.

Look at v33 again

33 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."

They looked at the giants and fear entered their hearts, because they compared themselves to the giants and they looked small in their own eyes.

There may be giants in your life right now, but you need to look past those giants and see them in comparison to God and not see yourself in comparison to the giants.

Turn to 2 Corinthians 4 and see what Paul has to say there about this attitude.

V13. It is written: "I believed; therefore I have spoken." With that same spirit of faith we also believe and therefore speak,

14 because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you in his presence.

15 All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God.

16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.

17 For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.

So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

Attitude is what causes you to win in this life and prepares you for the next, this is a practice run for eternity.

A man with a small business in a city and he was surrounded by big businesses who wanted his piece of property so they could expand. They gradually bought up all the property around him until he had a large multination on either side of his small business, but instead of selling out or burying his head in the sand and crying because they were so big and he was o small, he just ordered a special new banner and put it over his front door. All this banner said was MAIN ENTRANCE!

Now that's an attitude, so many put a lid their potential at first sign of problems, you can overcome all the difficulties by a winning attitude.

Proverbs 23.7 says, "As a man thinketh in his heart so is he!"

When a flea trainer is training his fleas for the flea circus, he puts them into a jar and screws the lid on. The fleas jump up and hit their heads on the lid and after a while they realise if they keep jumping this high it hurts their head.

So they jump but not enough to hurt their head, when the trainer takes the lid off they continue to jump but only to the level they have learned not to hurt their head, so they never jump out of the jar.

There are many flea trainers in pulpits around this country today, people are trained to go so high but no higher. Don't get too carried away with all this Word, after all what if it doesn't work.

Well all I have to say is what if it DOES WORK!

Job 4.8 KJV "As I have observed, those who plow evil and those who sow trouble reap it."

Gal 6.7-9 Living Bible " Don't be misled; remember that you can't ignore God and get away with it: a man will always reap just the kind of crop he sows!

8 If he sows to please his own wrong desires, he will be planting seeds of evil and he will surely reap a harvest of spiritual decay and death; but if he plants the good things of the Spirit, he will reap the everlasting life that the Holy Spirit gives him.

9 And let us not get tired of doing what is right, for after a while we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don't get discouraged and give up."

Attitude is everything. The difference is 'attitude'.

Remember, adversity is prosperity - to the man with a great attitude!

Consider the kite: the harder the wind blows, the more it rises.

Brother, sister today, your attitude will either lift you above your circumstances, or bury you beneath them.

When the twelve spies returned from Canaan, all they could talk about was the giants.

Listen: "We felt like grasshoppers before them they were so tall!"

There it is again -'the grasshopper complex', and a lot of us have it.

But Caleb said, "Let us go up at once . . . for we are well able . . . "

The Israelites saw Goliath as 'too big to kill!'

David however saw him as 'too big to miss!'

Same giant - different attitudes.

Which one is yours today?