How is the best way to fail?  by doing nothing, by not going forward.  Everyone faces problems in life, that’s just life.  Problems can either stop you, or they can be your best friend, challenging you to defy fear and obstacles and be better than you’ve ever been.  It’s your choice.
We read the following from Exodus chapter one:
Exo 1:1  Now these are the names of the children of Israel, which came into Egypt; every man and his household came with Jacob.
Exo 1:2  Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah,
Exo 1:3  Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin,
Exo 1:4  Dan, and Naphtali, Gad, and Asher.
Exo 1:5  And all the souls that came out of the loins of Jacob were seventy souls: for Joseph was in Egypt already.
Exo 1:6  And Joseph died, and all his brethren, and all that generation.
Exo 1:7  And the children of Israel were fruitful, and increased abundantly, and multiplied, and waxed exceeding mighty; and the land was filled with them.
Exo 1:8  Now there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph.
Exo 1:9  And he said unto his people, Behold, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we:
Exo 1:10  Come on, let us deal wisely with them; lest they multiply, and it come to pass, that, when there falleth out any war, they join also unto our enemies, and fight against us, and so get them up out of the land.
Exo 1:11  Therefore they did set over them taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens. And they built for Pharaoh treasure cities, Pithom and Raamses.
Exo 1:12  But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew. And they were grieved because of the children of Israel.
Exo 1:13  And the Egyptians made the children of Israel to serve with rigour:
Exo 1:14  And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage, in morter, and in brick, and in all manner of service in the field: all their service, wherein they made them serve, was with rigour.
Back in the day of the Israelites living in servitude to Egypt, the LORD told Moses that he would lead Israel out of slavery with a strong hand, and lead them to a land flowing with milk and honey.  Well, the Israelites certainly had a snoot full of slavery, and they were ready for the good life.  Or so they thought.  Most people reading the Bible account of the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt would think there was nothing but good times ahead for the Israelites once they were gone from their taskmasters. And actually, that was God’s plan for them.  But there was a problem that has often arises that keeps people from enjoying God’s best; and that is their own free will.  Who wouldn’t want God’s best for their life?  Believe it or not, that would include the vast majority of people yet today.  Oh, they want God’s best alright, they just don’t want to follow God into that perfect will for their life.  I call it a “Lord” problem.  People want to be their OWN lord.  They want the blessings, but they don’t want to obey God fully, instead wanting to pick and choose they ways they will obey God.  And if what they want to do conflicts with God’s will, they will choose their own way most every time.  And then they wonder why nothing seems to work out for their good, that just when it looks like breakthrough is finally here, the bottom falls out of the bucket again.  Well, the Israelites coming out of Egypt had the very same problem.  It wasn’t God’s fault, it was their own fault.  You see, God wants only the BEST for His children, but often His children are willing to compromise and settle for second best, or third or fourth best, or hundredth best as the case usually is.
So, how do you break free of that cycle?  Well, when God told the Israelites to go over the Jordan and take the promised land, they sent twelve spies into the land to check it out.  And sure enough, the land WAS flowing with abundance and it was there for the Israelites taking.  God told them He would go before them and allow them and drive out the inhabitants before them a city at a time.  All they had to do was to be bold and follow the LORD.  So, the bottom line is they heard from God, but they chickened out.  How many times have WE chickened out when the LORD told us to do something?  We look at impossible circumstances and say “I trust God”, then look again, and indeed it seems impossible, so we give up.  And guess what?  We just missed out on a blessing.  So we wait for “second best” to come.  Sometimes it does, sometimes not.  But most of the time, we even chicken out to go after “second best”.  And then we wonder why we aren’t happy.  Well, I don’t know about you, but I’m not happy with second best, or third best, or so on down the line.
I often minster about healing, and I firmly believe it’s God’s will for us to live in perfect health all the time, not just “some of the time”.  And I’ve lived that perfect health life for twenty years now, because I haven’t been willing to accept “second best”.  Why should I, when God paid the price for me to have the best?  I believe it would insult the LORD for me to be willing to tolerate any form of sickness whatsoever.  And that same attitude has applied to the other areas of my life.  Why tolerate poverty when the LORD says He is my shepherd and I shall not want (Psalm 23:1)?       You see, the devil comes telling you that you can’t have God’s best, that you must strike a deal with him, and if you’re lucky, you’ll have enough to live on, and you’ll be sick from time to time.  But think about it:  if Christ Jesus is YOUR Lord and Savior, you don’t have to let the devil kill, steal and destroy in your life.  Ask yourself, who is YOUR Lord, for that is who you will serve, and that determines every aspect of your life.  Does that mean you won’t have problems?  No, the Israelites were going to have to do battle for the Promised Land.  God told them to take the land, and HE was going to make sure they won every battle.  But how could they take the land if they wouldn’t obey God and go take it?
We often want God to go take the “promised land” for us and serve it to us on a silver platter.  It just doesn’t work that way.  No, we must trust God and step out in faith, REGARDLESS of how impossible the problem looks to us.  Remember, God went before us and already set it up for us.  That means we must remove our posterior parts from our recliner and rise up and go take our Promised Land.  That’s the part that stops most people, the “rise up and go” part.  It shows God you don’t really trust Him, and that you’re only giving Him lip service.  God indeed will direct and guide you up to a point.  But when you stop obeying Him when He says “GO and take the land”, sooner or later He will stop going before you to set up blessings for you.  After all, why should He if all you’re going to do is plant your posterior in your recliner and stay there?
You CAN be fail-proof if you really want to.  How?  Simply by obeying God when He puts in your spirit “do such and such”, “go there”,” say what I tell you to a certain person I will lead you to”.  Once you’ve heard from the LORD, be bold as a lion and go do it, for He has gone before you to prepare the way for you and make you fail-proof.  Only be courageous and fear not.  Yes, do it afraid if you must, but just do it.
In 1995 the LORD told Jenny and me to sell our small house, for He was going to give us a brand new house.  I not only couldn’t afford a new house, I could barely afford the small $25,000 home I had already been in for nearly twenty years.  The LORD told us to write down on a paper exactly what kind of house we wanted, every feature.  He didn’t tell us to write down what we thought we could afford.  Well, we lived in a three bedroom home with one bathroom.  I use the term “bedroom” very generously, for they were only about 8×8 rooms, for the whole house only measured 24×34 feet.  Day by day we added things to the “want list”.  Our kitchen and dining room combination only measured 10×8 feet.  Jenny wanted a bigger kitchen.  I wanted a proper garage and a workshop.  We wanted bigger bedrooms, a fireplace, a front porch, a deck,  and some other things we wrote down on a list on the refrigerator.  Every day we looked at that list and the list grew longer (and more expensive).  It looked like an impossible dream, ok, but we kept adding to the list.  After all, it costs nothing to wish, right?  So if you’re going to wish, wish big.
We put our home up for sale, and started looking at other homes.  I got bold and looked at $30,000 homes, but we found nothing we liked, then $40,000 homes, and still nothing we liked.  At a last resort we looked at a $50,000 home, and was disappointed and sadly slinked back to our $25,000 home in despair.  One day the realtor called and said she had time to take us out home shopping, but she had to go to a brand new home being built to speak to the builder if we didn’t mind riding along.  So we went with her.  She went to this HUGE new home in a real nice subdivision. We stepped inside and the LORD said, WELCOME TO YOUR NEW HOME!  I almost fell over.  It had 3650 square feet, five bedrooms, three baths, a big garage, front porch, deck and a lake in the back yard, a huge (30+ foot) kitchen, fireplace, and the master bedroom was (ready for this?)  24×34 feet.  And a nice workshop for me, all for the paltry sum of $149,000 with an unfinished basement.  They said they would finish the shop and basement and make me a drive-around driveway for another $50,000.  They LORD said “Put a contract on it and buy it.”  Every bank in town laughed at me when I applied for the loan and told me I couldn’t afford it.  One bank loan officer laughed so hard when he read my income that he nearly fell out of his chair.  It was around Christmas time and he thought I was applying to be the bank’s Christmas party comedian.  I told him no, I really wanted to buy that house, and he laughed and said I was hired, that boy I was really funny.
But the God of the IMPOSSIBLE got us that house, and we’ve lived there since December 1995.  Don’t tell ME that God can’t make you fail-proof.  I had every opportunity to chicken out trying to buy that house.  But I believed God, and we stepped out in faith and we’re living in our Promised Land.  And you can too.  Only be courageous and fear not, for God will go before you and fulfill all His word to you.  And you will be fail-proof.