Numbers 12:1-15
To be familiar with the right person or people has its benefits and advantages but overfamiliarity can cost us.
People carry different graces, people have unique covenants with God, and people have sacrificed to different degrees one from another to operate in certain dimensions and degrees.
It is through people God works on the earth in most cases.
As a result, the grace on a vessel God is using should be respected.
Moses was a prophet of God, specifically handpicked and chosen by God for a purpose; the purpose of delivering and leading God's people.
He had the authority, the mandate and commission from God to do what he did- challenge Pharaoh for the freedom of the Israelites.
Moses had divine presence with him, he heard clearly from God, and he was obedient to God.
Exodus 3
Moses had life's experience, he was elderly when God called him to the assignment of bringing His people out of Pharoah's bondage, he had gone through due preparation.
Such a man should be respected, such a man should be revered.
Unfortunately there was a generation of Israelites who missed the promised land because they took the leadership of Moses for granted.
They were overfamiliar with Moses.
Overfamiliarity has its dangers, we see this in the Bible.
The siblings of Moses Aaron and Miriam also took Moses for granted due to overfamiliarity.
Their overfamiliarity with Moses led to grounds to murmur against Moses which brought the wrath of God upon Miriam and God's rebuke to Aaron.
Numbers 12:1- 15
Miriam and Aaron allowed the enemy to sow seeds of jealousy in their hearts towards Moses because they were too familiar with Moses.
They questioned Moses being the only one who heard God.
Moses was their younger brother, they shared the same parents, they know some of his flaws, they remember his childhood, they refused to accept there was anything 'special' about Moses.
They gossiped about Moses choice of a partner.
It cost them.
The children of Israel got too familiar with Moses and an entire generation of them missed the promised land.
They would murmur, complain, provoke Moses and they disbelieved when Moses sent spies into the promised land to spy it out.
Numbers 14:20-35
They were a privileged generation, they were the generation chosen to see God's raw power at work on a national scale, they were the generation of Israelites meant to make it into the promised land, they were the generation meant to benefit from many generations of praying/crying to God over a 400 year period.
But they missed it, they got too familiar with Moses, took him for granted, got him angry and perished in the wilderness. Caleb and Joshua were the only ones who made it into the promised land from that generation, along with the children of those who perished, children from 20 years old and under..
Irrespective of the relationship you have with a vessel of God, never take him or her for granted.
When that person is doing the Lord's work, see him or her as a servant of God not merely your friend, social media acquaintance, relative, sibling, spouse or someone who owes you money.
You may know his or her past, you may know his or her mistakes, and questionable things they did.
It doesn't change the fact the Lord has chosen and is using that individual.
Overfamiliarity blocks our ability to receive from the vessel God wants to use to minister to us spiritually and get us blessed.
Judas Iscariot was not only greedy and had the love of money, he was overfamiliar with Jesus!
That wrong approach to the Messiah cost him dearly.
Those who felt too familiar with Jesus marveled at his wisdom, miracles and works but could not receive from Him.
They felt they knew His father, His mother, His siblings, they knew when He was born, they knew Him as a toddler and saw His childishness.
They didn't have the right perspective and context, they missed out on benefits they could have received from Jesus.
Overfamiliarity acts as a spiritual blockage to what we should receive, it creates loopholes which put us at a disadvantage, it puts us in harms way, causes regrets and becomes a character flaw.
If the enemy can get us overfamiliar with the agent God has sent to us, the enemy can steal, kill and perhaps destroy in our lives.
We have to guard against this and avoid being overfamiliar with the man of God or woman of God the Lord has sent to us irrespective of what we know of or about them or what access we have to them.
Overfamiliarity will make you take for granted who you should not, and it gives the enemy the chance to sow seeds of offense, doubt, envy and jealousy.
There were those who were offended Jesus declared His divinity by saying He is the Son of God, and they found the revelation hard to accept because they made themselves overfamiliar with Jesus's earthly story. Or so they thought.
Overfamiliarity doesn't make us recognize and accept who God has sent to us.
David's older brother Eliab spoke against David when David was making inquiries as to what would be given to the man who defeats Goliath, he was too familiar with David and couldn't see his youngest brother as a champion or warrior.
He felt he knew David, and he didn't see David beyond being the boy who looks after his fathers sheep.
1 Samuel 17:28-30
God had other plans and better plans for David.
Eliab was mistaken due to overfamiliarity.
Olutosin Ogunkolade, a Teacher-Pastor shares this teaching!
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