When You Come Upon New Land

Not only did this week mark the one-year anniversary of my return to coastal South Carolina after 4.5 years in Virginia, but it also marked a strong bout of, “I wonder if I should move somewhere else.” If you have moved to a new location geographically, emotionally, spiritually, or physically in any area of your life because God sent you there, chances are you have also experienced big questions, concerns, hurdles, challenges, and obstacles. As a friend who recently moved to heaven told me, the devil loves to “contest” the moves we make for the Lord. The devil would like nothing better when we takes possession of new land God has called us to than to get us so stressed, confused, uncertain, fearful, and anything and everything that we want to do nothing other than turn back and away from the place God has called us.
Just when I finally felt truly settled in to my new life in South Carolina, the question popped into my mind, “Should I move?” I didn’t stumble across this thought because I hate South Carolina. I love it. I didn’t think this because I can’t find a wonderful church here. My father in Christ and his wife live across the river from me, and I have a new church in addition nearby that I love with super strong Bible teaching from a wonderful pastor. I didn’t think this because I hate the climate. Despite an oppressively hot summer, I love the climate in South Carolina. Nor did I think this thought for any legitimate reason at all. Quite frankly, the reason really doesn’t matter. The devil concocted it, and I started to fall for it.

The devil’s tactic is to get us to feel like grasshoppers and get us to move out of the place God has called us by making us belief that there are “giants” in the land. The giants can be anything at all – fear, sickness, family issues, physical storms, false beliefs, problems with friends, etc. More than likely, the devil will choose giants about which we would be particularly sensitive, intimidated, challenged, and afraid. My giants may look totally different than somebody else’s giants, depending on what the devil knows would make me most likely to run away from where I have been called.

So what do I do when I face giants in a new land? Whether my new land is a physical location, a new job, a new relationship, a new church, a new understanding of the Bible, new growth in my faith in God, trust in Him I have never had before, or anything else concerning God, I face the same reality. Where God is calling me, the devil is calling me away. So how do I handle the giants?

I have two options. I can get into fear and run at full speed away from the new land. Or, I can seek God’s face, study and apply His Word, spend quality time with Him, listen to His instructions, and continue to follow Him – and remain in the land He has called me for whatever purpose He has for me there. Just like in the Old Testament He gave very specific instructions to people concerning different battles, He gives me specific instructions concerning my battles with the giants.

When I come upon a new land, when I face the devil’s giants, I need to set my eyes and heart upon the Lord and trust Him to equip me with everything I need – including instructions – to take and keep possession of the land to which He has brought me.

³² And they gave the children of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying, “The land through which we have gone as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great stature. ³³There we saw the giants^[a] (the descendants of Anak came from the giants); and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.” (Numbers 13: 32-33 NKJV)


^1″And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments which I command thee this day, that the LORD thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth:” (Deuteronomy 28:1 KJV)

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