When Giants Look Like Grasshoppers: Winning the Battle for Influence in Your Life

Have you ever felt like a grasshopper facing giants? I was watching TV this morning at 7:30, checking the weather, when they featured a segment on something called an "influencer." This particular person was a restaurant influencer with 300,000 followers on her TikTok account. That's a lot of people listening to what you have to say. "I guess if you're saying good things, that's good. But if you're saying not so good things, then we could be in trouble."

This morning we're thinking about the battle for influence - but not the kind you might expect. We're talking about the influence that shapes our destiny, our future, and ultimately determines whether we step into God's promises or shrink back in fear.

The Promise and the Problem

The Israelites were on their way to their promised land. God had made a promise that he was going to give them a big chunk of property that would be theirs forever. After being released from captivity in Egypt through miraculous interventions - ten plagues, the parting of the Red Sea, receiving the Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai - they finally reached the point where "it was going to become a military operation as much as a spiritual operation."

Moses picked one spy from all 12 tribes to explore this promised territory. His instructions, found in Numbers 13:17-20, were thorough: "Go north through the Negev into the hill country. See what the land is like and find out whether the people living there are strong or weak, few or many. See what kind of land they lay in. Is it good or bad? Do they have the towns have walls, or do they. Are they unprotected, like open camps? Is the soil fertile or poor? Are there many trees? Do your best to bring back some samples of the crop you see."

The Tale of Two Reports

After 40 days of reconnaissance, the spies returned with evidence of the land's abundance. Numbers 13:23-24 tells us: "When they came to the valley of Eskol, they cut down a branch with a single cluster of grapes, so large that it took two of them to carry it on a pole between them. They also brought back samples of pomegranates and figs."

Their initial report was encouraging: "We entered the land you sent us to explore, and it is indeed a beautiful country, a wonderful country. A land flowing with milk and honey. Here's the kind of fruit it produces" (Numbers 13:27).

But then came the devastating "but."

"But the people living there are powerful. Their towns are large and fortified. We even saw giants there... We can't go up against them. They're stronger than we are... The land we traveled through and explored will devour anyone who goes there to live there. All the people we saw were huge. We even saw giants there, the descendants of Anak next to them. We felt like grasshoppers and thoughts. And that's what they thought, too" (Numbers 13:28, 31-33).

Ten spies - over 80% - said it was impossible. Only two men, Caleb and Joshua, had a different perspective. "Let's go at once and take the land," Caleb declared. "We can certainly conquer it" (Numbers 13:30).

Why We Love Bad News

"The people listened to those 10 men. They spread the bad report. And people like listening to bad reports. Somehow it's just in our nature. We like listening to bad stuff, don't we? You know, the gossip, the malicious, the ugly rumors, the juicy, terrible stories about other people. We want to listen to it and feed off of it."

Here's what struck me: "Nobody was denying about the size of these people. Nobody was denying about their fortified cities or the fact that they were giants. And maybe some of those Israelites did truly, truly feel like grasshoppers around those people from those other nations. Nobody is trying to minimize that."

The obstacles you and I face in life are real. "It could be a medical situation. It could be an emotional situation. It could be a financial situation. It could be an employment situation. It could be an abundant number and types of situations. But those obstacles can be real, and they can be very, very intimidating."

Three Keys to Moving Forward

So how do you move in the direction God is leading when challenges seem insurmountable?

1. Break the Mirror - Don't Look at Yourself

"You've got to look, break the mirror, and that is that you don't look at yourself and what you can do. You do not look at yourself and see what you can do. Because there are conflicts, there are battles, there are obstacles out there that are simply larger and more powerful than you can. And me."

2. Embrace Your Limitations

"You have to embrace your limitations. You know, God has that way of working in the lives of those who consider themselves to be hopeless and helpless. It's amazing how he does that. You're feeling weak. You're feeling like, I feel defeated today. I just feel like there's nothing I can do. I feel overwhelmed. You're the kind of person that God is looking for, and here's why. Because he can come alongside of you and he could do some things and he will do wonderful things in your life and he will get all the praise and the honor and the glory."

3. Redirect Your Focus to God

"You want to redirect that focus onto God, the one you claim to follow, the one you claim to trust."

The Heart-Breaking Response

The response was so overwhelming that Joshua and Caleb "tore their clothes." This wasn't just frustration - it was their way of showing deep sorrow, mourning, despair. "You take that thing and you rip it apart. All of a sudden, what's laid bare your heart, it was like, it was more than just a demonstration of frustration and anguish. It was a laying before God of your heart and the hurt that you're feeling."

They weren't just rejecting the land - "they were rejecting their future. They were rejecting the promised land. It wasn't only their future, it was the future for their children." They were "rejecting a better understanding of God" and ultimately "rejecting God's plan and God's future for their life."

"I ask you, if you reject God's plan for your life and God's future for your life, what do you have left?"

The Critical Question

Joshua and Caleb's response in Numbers 14:8 reveals the heart of the matter: "If the Lord is pleased with us, then he will bring us into this land and give it to us. A land which flows with milk and honey."

"So is the Lord pleased with you? Does he delight in you this morning? Does he have a smile on his face about what you're living like right now? Your lifestyle, your behaviors, your attitudes, maybe the things that no one can see but you, sir, feel him."

I'm reminded of an old hymn: "I am satisfied with Jesus he has done so much for me he has suffered to redeem me he has died to set me free... but the question comes to me as I think of Calvary. Is my master satisfied with me?"

"That really is the only thing you need to worry about in life, be concerned about. Is God satisfied with you? Is he pleased with you? Does God delight in you and how you are living your life today?"

A Modern Application of Ancient Truth

The Ten Commandments provide a practical framework for pleasing God today. Let me ask some 21st-century questions:

• Who are you trusting? Is it God alone, or do you need supplements because you don't trust Him completely?
• What's your first priority? Remember, "God says, hey, learn this about me. I'm jealous, okay? I am jealous."
• When you speak about God, is it always with seriousness and integrity, honestly reflecting His character?
• Are you taking one day a week for rest and worship?
• Are you honoring marriage as God designed it - between a man and woman, with sexual relationships existing only within that sacred bond?

"Are you content with the provisions that God has entrusted to you?"

The Consequences of Rejection

The ten spies who gave the bad report? "It wasn't very long at all before those 10 guys that came back and gave the bad report, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. They fell over dead, all 10 of them." But that was just the beginning. The entire generation would wander in the wilderness for 40 years, and "everybody 20 years of age and above, they were going to die. Hundreds of thousands of people died in the wilderness."

Your Victory Strategy

How do you deal with the mountains and obstacles around you? Three final principles:

Don't Rebel Against the Lord

"They had a covenant relationship" with God. "It wasn't some kind of a contract. God says, this is what I want you to do... I want you to love me and I want you to obey me. That was pretty much the essence of it." When you rebel, "you're breaking your covenant. You're breaking your vow."

Don't Be Afraid

"Don't fear the people of the land, for they'll be our prey. They're going to be like our supper. We're going to go and we're going to whoop them." Every battle they fought, they won (except when someone disobeyed God). "Just how big is your God? Or if you're afraid, maybe I should ask, how small is your God?"

Remember God Is With You

"Their protection has been removed from them... And the Lord is with us. The Lord is with you. The Lord is with you. The Lord is with you."

As Jeremiah declared: "But the Lord stands beside me as a great warrior. Before him, my persecutors will stumble. They can't defeat me" (Jeremiah 20:11).

Jesus is called Emmanuel - "God is with us." "You're walking down a dark alley. You hear something, you see something, you come upon somebody that could, you know, easily whip somebody. Like Chuck Norris, the Pieces. But here you are with God... He makes Superman look like a wimp. He is with you."

Putting It Into Practice

Whatever challenge you're facing right now - medical, emotional, financial, family, school, or work issues - "God wants you to know that he is with you. But God also wants you to know that you need to act and live like he is with you."

The simplest way to please God? "Just to act and live like you're with us. You know, not doing things that we'd be ashamed to do in front of you, because if we do, we're doing them in front of you anyway."

"These challenges that are real in our lives, and they're seemingly overwhelming at times, they're genuine. We're not making this stuff up... But with you and your children, there's nothing too big to handle."

The question isn't whether the giants are real - they are. The question is: Will you focus on the giants or on the God who has promised to give you victory? Will you be a grasshopper in your own eyes, or will you remember that the Lord of hosts fights beside you?

Your promised land awaits. The choice of influence - fear or faith - is yours.