On Having a Different Spirit

CONSECRATE Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.  Jesus, I belong to you. I lift up my heart to you. I set my mind on you. I fix my eyes on you. I offer my body to you as a living sacrifice. Jesus, we belong to you.  Praying in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen.  HEAR Numbers 14:20–25 (NIV) The LORD replied, “I have forgiven them, as you asked. Nevertheless, as surely as I live and as surely as the glory of the LORD fills the whole earth, not one of those who saw my glory and the signs I performed in Egypt and in the wilderness but who disobeyed me and tested me ten times—not one of them will ever see the land I promised on oath to their ancestors. No one who has treated me with contempt will ever see it. But because my servant Caleb has a different spirit and follows me wholeheartedly, I will bring him into the land he went to, and his descendants will inherit it. Since the Amalekites and the Canaanites are living in the valleys, turn back tomorrow and set out toward the desert along the route to the Red Sea.” CONSIDER About twenty-five years ago I made a new friend who introduced me to today’s text. He and I began working at a church in The Woodlands, Texas, on the same day. Though we were quite different people, we had a lot in common—both from small towns, both fans of country music, and both lovers of Jesus. We first met in the break room of this church we had come to serve. We learned in that encounter that we were both there to help our mutual friend, Bob Swan, begin what would become a profound community of faith within The Woodlands Methodist Church called the Harvest. As we shook hands, I said, “I’m John David Walt.” He replied, “I’m Chris Tomlin.” I should tell you, this was before he really became “Chris Tomlin,” whose songs would go on to become more than a few of the most-sung songs in the world in the last hundred years. I introduced him to our New Room Conference a couple years back, saying, “This guy would go on to become Chris Tomlin, and I am still John David Walt.” So why am I telling you this? After all, Billy Graham once told me to never drop names. I bring it up because soon after we met, we found ourselves talking about the texts and verses of Scripture that had meant the most to us. I have no memory of what I shared, but I will never forget his. He said his life verse was Numbers 14:24. “But because my servant Caleb has a different spirit and follows me wholeheartedly, I will bring him into the land he went to, and his descendants will inherit it.” It takes a person of a different spirit to even claim Numbers 14:24 as a life verse, doesn’t it? At that point in my life and faith, the book of Numbers hadn’t exactly been one of my go-to books for inspiration. I’ll credit Chris, who remains a close friend to this day (lives about two miles from me now) for this stretch, now going on two weeks, through Numbers 13–14. “But because my servant Caleb has a different spirit and follows me wholeheartedly, I will bring him into the land he went to, and his descendants will inherit it.” Behind this word spirit is the Hebrew word ruach. It is the exact same term we see in Genesis 1:2, “The Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.” It’s the same concept we see in Acts 2:2 where it says, "Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting.” And behind this word wholeheartedly, we see the Hebrew term pronounced “maw-lay,” which means “to be filled or full.” It’s the same term we see in Exodus 40, where “the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle.” “But because my servant Caleb has a different spirit and follows me wholeheartedly . . .” Here’s my amateur translation: Caleb has set his sail to catch the wind of the Holy Spirit and the vessel of his heart is filled with the fullness of God. If you are still reading, it’s because you have a different spirit and aspire to follow Jesus wholeheartedly. You are part of the minority report. You stand in the line of Caleb and Joshua. I am writing to people whose hearts beat to the tune of Numbers 14:24. “But because my servant Caleb has a different spirit and follows me wholeheartedly, I will bring him into the land he went to, and his descendants will inherit it.” PRAY Father, thank you for giving us a different spirit, one that causes us to follow you wholeheartedly. Jesus, we belong to you—with our whole hearts. Come, Holy Spirit, and make it more and more and more so every single day. Thank you for encouraging us. In Jesus’s name we pray, amen.