Fear No Fear

(All scripture from the World English Bible, ebible.org, all rights reserved)

But if you are afraid to go down, go with Purah your servant down to the camp.
Judges 7:10 (emphasis added)

There were a LOT of raiders. Verse 12 says: “The Midianites and the Amalekites and all the children of the east lay along in the valley like locusts for multitude; and their camels were without number, as the sand which is on the seashore for multitude.” Ever seen a swarm of locusts out of control? It’s a lot. If Gideon was afraid to go down against them with three hundred men (verse 7), then what difference would one man beside him make? All the difference in the world, actually.

Right from the beginning the Lord established us as people people. That doesn’t come naturally to all of us because we’re flesh creatures in a fallen world. I know something about this. I am not a natural people person. I’ve had to train myself to be one. I would be perfectly happy in a cave somewhere as long as I had a source of food and water that wasn’t stolen or that involved me killing and roasting animals—it’s just not my thing. But the alone part? I’d be fine with that. I have an active mind and don’t feel I really need people. But feelings aren’t real and God knows what He is about. “The LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make him a helper comparable to him” (Genesis 2:18). Now even before that in Genesis 1:27 it says God created humanity as male and female. But here it is spelled out for those like me: it is not good to be alone. We were designed for fellowship.

It wasn’t just a companion. Someone who would be beside the male. It was much more than that. A suitable and complimentary other half. A beneficial counterpart who balanced him out. An equal who was different, but made of the same stuff. In fact, Genesis goes on to say that God brought every land animal and bird to him. Every livestock animal and every field animal and every bird of the air. All of them. And in all of that variety and complexity and function—sorry dogs—not one was suitable as a companion for the male. We needed someone who was like us, but also unlike us. Someone who could reason like us and do everything we couldn’t. Someone equal. We wouldn’t have to shepherd them. We wouldn’t need to be babied by them. Equal partners. On exactly the same level as the other. Two halves of the whole. That was our design. It is how we are meant to function. Everything else (the issues with the structure of authority for example) came after the Fall. In the Garden, we were perfect. Each to their tasks, tasks complimenting, and perfect harmony and togetherness with no rough edges, no resentment, no domination, no submission, co-equal halves of the whole unit. That’s the model God delineates in Genesis 2:24 and Jesus affirms in Matthew 19:4-6.

It is the model of procreation, of course. That’s basic biology 101. No matter what anyone today might tell you about their feelings and who they really are regardless of how they feel they were born, remember that in all of creation the predominant model of procreation is male and female. There are a plethora of ways they accomplish it, but that’s how it works. When the animals were preserved in the ark, they were preserved male and female in pairs and groups of pairs (Genesis 7). But the pairing of two together is more than about procreation. It is about two becoming one. Two blending together and working together and becoming so much more than one can become alone. This is what marriage is all about. It isn’t about coming together to have kids. That’s great and a fulfilment of the commandment to be fruitful. But coming together as one to produce in life is just as important as producing life. We are meant to subdue the earth, to tend it, to have dominion over it. You don’t do that by having babies. You have to work together and do something. Being fruitful with your lives. Being a blessing to those around you and enabling them to prosper. Being fruitful with your walk with the Lord together. Being a witness to those around you. Being the light shining out Jesus’ goodness. This is all being fruitful. Being who Jesus has called you to be—together, not just individually. Couples are help-meets to each other. Partners. Co-conspirators. Friends. Miniature models of the trinity: Jesus-husband-wife, Father-Son-Spirit. Two becoming one in Jesus. But the model of two together goes beyond just marriage.

As with today’s verse, we are given partners in various endeavours. People who are to work together to accomplish great things. Or maybe just silly things. There’s a lot of value to that as well. But the Lord often calls us out together. Partners to work together, complimenting each other, and accomplishing things side by side. He’s been doing it from the get go of the church. “As they served the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, “Separate Barnabas and Saul for me, for the work to which I have called them”” (Acts 13:2). When Paul and Barnabas parted ways, Paul did not go out alone but took Silas with him (Acts 15:40). Paul wrote most of the New Testament. He was certainly capable of accomplishing his work alone, but he didn’t think it was good. But then, Paul had been a pharisee and well versed in the Old Testament. “Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their labour. For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow; but woe to him who is alone when he falls, and doesn’t have another to lift him up. Again, if two lie together, then they have warmth; but how can one keep warm alone? If a man prevails against one who is alone, two shall withstand him; and a threefold cord is not quickly broken” (Ecclesiastes 4:9-12).

There is something about two people together who can do mighty things. “Now it happened on a day that Jonathan the son of Saul said to the young man who bore his armour, “Come! Let’s go over to the Philistines’ garrison that is on the other side.”” But he didn’t tell his father” (1 Samuel 14:1). These two guys went out and started the fight that drove the Philistines away from Israel (1 Samuel 14:1-13). They did it side by side, together. Each one taking strength from the other. In fact, those that Jonathan didn’t kill his armour bearer did. The armour bearer left no one able to rise up and take Jonathan from behind. What one could not complete, the other one did. A team. Like minded. Joined in their hearts: “His armour bearer said to him, “Do all that is in your heart. Go, and behold, I am with you according to your heart”” (1 Samuel 14:7). It is a powerful combination. Jesus utilised the model in order to really cement it to us.

“Now after these things, the Lord also appointed seventy others, and sent them two by two ahead of him into every city and place where he was about to come” (Luke 10:1). “He called to himself his twelve disciples, and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every disease and every sickness” (Matthew 10:1). The twelve disciples and the seventy others. He appointed them for a task and He sent them out two by two. He kept the model in His personal ministry as well. “He allowed no one to follow him except Peter, James, and John the brother of James” (Mark 5:37). “After six days, Jesus took with him Peter, James, and John his brother, and brought them up into a high mountain by themselves” (Matthew 17:1). Jesus and three others, making two groups of two. Jesus did things in groups of two or in larger groups divisible by two. Was that why Jesus had twelve disciples? First off, Judas wasn’t in it in his heart so it was Jesus and eleven faithful—pairs of 2. Secondly, after Jesus went to heaven there was appointed one to take Judas’ place leaving again a perfect group of pairs of two. Interesting, right?

We as modern believers are held to the same model. “Again, assuredly I tell you, that if two of you will agree on earth concerning anything that they will ask, it will be done for them by my Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 18:19). Now that is a powerful statement. That shows the strength of blending two together. It isn’t just the power of agreement. It is also the power of checks and balances. James warns us in his letter that “You ask, and don’t receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures” (James 4:3). If two together are gathered and are seeking the Lord’s will, it is much more likely that they will not be selfish or wrong in their motives since both will be individually praying as well as corporately. They can stop one another and talk things out. Check their motives. Seek scripture on it. Compare notes about what the Spirit is telling them. Keep one from rowing off in a crazy direction. We are given to each other to help each other stay on the path even as the Holy Spirit also directs us to stay on the path. We are to work together for edification of ourselves and each other and all the churches around us (Ephesians 4:12).

No one likes to stand alone. The Lord in His wisdom as a loving Father looks down on us and smiles. He knows that the army is camped in the valley beneath us. He knows we are outnumbered. He knows we’re scared. That we don’t like the idea of going up against them. So He fondly points to someone else and says ‘Go with them’ and suddenly we think that maybe we can. We have someone to physically hang onto. We have someone to talk to. To build up even as we are built up. To encourage each other. Do not despise the ministry of encouragement. Encouragement got Saul into the church where he became Paul and a mighty instrument of God (Acts 9:26-29). Encouragement got Gideon down into that camp to hear the dream of a heathen prophetically describing Gideon’s victory over this much greater military force (Judges 7:13-15). Encouragement can keep us going when we think maybe we heard God wrong or made a mistake. Encouragement can keep us blowing the coals of our call from God. Encouragement can keep our dream that God gave us alive until it’s fulfilment.

If there is one thing that we as a church can never get enough of it is encouragement. The world is all about taking you down. Telling you that you aren’t enough. That your dream is foolish. That it cannot be done. The church should be the opposite. Since in Jesus and with the Father all things are possible, then why not let ourselves dream the big, impossible dreams that God lays on our hearts? Why not gain confidence from each other that we in fact do serve an impossible God. That in fact He can do things that we cannot see the end of. That in fact we as His instruments can build that building, claim that healing, expand our facility, buy that house, rent that car, have that child, eat the next meal, and anything else that the world is screaming at you that you cannot do. It is hard to believe that your empty cupboards are going to have something in them. It is hard to believe that the finances are going to come through. It is hard to believe that you are going to make it through the storm that is tossing you about. But with someone beside you, holding your hand, looking you in the eye with confidence, it is easier. Easier to say Yes, Jesus told me this was mine. Easier to say Yes, Jesus has a way. Let’s find out from Him what we are to do. Yes, Jesus can do it. Let’s give Him the opportunity to lead us.

A companion in ministry is one of the best things that you can have. They can help get you on your knees regularly to seek God. They are there to encourage you to check in with Jesus. To see where and how the Spirit is leading you. But it is a greater gift for that person to encourage you in what you have already received. To help you through the test the enemy has devised to convince you that you did NOT hear from the Lord. That you did a YOU thing and not a GOD thing. That it was a good idea, but not a God idea. That you caused all these problems and they are evidence that you missed it. A companion in encouragement can help you through all that.

A companion can also warn you of when you are getting too big for your bible. That you are stepping out on your own, and not in the Lord. That the Spirit is yes, telling you no. They can help keep our ego in check. To diminish ourselves in the limelight so that we can shine it on Jesus. It is notable that as soon as Jesus had been baptised and anointed, the enemy came to defeat Him. Jesus passed with flying colours. But then Jesus IMMEDIATELY got Himself disciples. Companions. Men of different ages and backgrounds. Different personalities to blend with His own and give Him a firm footing. We think of the disciples as being led around like sheep. But sheep are loyal and social. Jesus had them to look to when He felt the pricks of ego. Jesus had them to look to when the crowds were clamouring to make Him a messiah of their own mould. Jesus had them to commune with, fellowship with, and be human with. Jesus was led by the Spirit, but supported by His friends. Jesus had a spiritual path that was very much Him alone, but He chose to tread it with friends beside Him. Even at His worst moments, John and Peter were following Him. Even on the cross, disciples and followers were there. Everywhere in Jesus’ earthly life He had supportive people journeying with Him. He had trials alone, yes. But there were always people to see Him into them and help Him rest after them.

The Lord knows that it is not good for a human being to be alone. The Lord designed us for fellowship. Checks and balances. People around us to question our thoughts, words, deeds, and feelings—if we will share them. There are always times of personal growth, personal reflection, and private revelation. But there is also great benefit to walking with a companion both in private relationship and in public fellowship. In ministry and business. In hobby and work. People are designed to rely on other people to get from point A to point Z arm in arm, hand in hand.

“Now there are various kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are various kinds of service, and the same Lord. There are various kinds of workings, but the same God who works all things in all. But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the profit of all. For to one is given through the Spirit the word of wisdom, and to another the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, and to another gifts of healings by the same Spirit, and to another workings of miracles, and to another prophecy, and to another discerning of spirits, to another different kinds of languages, and to another the interpretation of languages. But the one and the same Spirit produces all of these, distributing to each one separately as he desires. For as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, being many, are one body; so also is Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptised into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether bond or free; and were all given to drink into one Spirit” (1 Corinthians 12:4-13).

This is why we are not to forsake the gathering together with like-minded believers in Jesus (Hebrews 10:24-25). This is why we are to encourage each other (1 Thessalonians 5:11). This is why we are to pray for one another (Ephesians 6:18). Together we are greater than the sum of our parts (Romans 12:3-8). Let’s help each other not to stumble. Let’s pick each other up when we fall. Let’s be known as the people who love one another. The people who endure together. The people who bless everyone else. The people who support each other. The people who challenge each other. The people who correct each other. The people who build up each other. Let’s be people of love even as Jesus loves us. Let’s go together into that camp and hear the word of the Lord. Let’s go up together against what is arrayed against us and see what the Lord does. Let’s follow the call, walk in His dreams for us. Let’s be more than we can be alone. Let’s be all we can be together in Jesus so that He can be our all in all. Amen.

Daily Affirmation of God’s Love: Joshua 1:5

This was a promise to a man who had lost everything. He’d left the only home he had ever known. He had followed a mentor and a master through trials and tribulations. He had fought wars under the guidance of a prophet, defending his people and fulfilling the will of Yahweh Most High. And now here he was. Alone. Head of a stubborn people. In charge of leading them into something they had been promised for hundreds of years. Stepping in the shoes of a prophet and man of God who would not be equalled until Jesus came bodily to the earth. No pressure, right? If anyone on this planet had ever needed a friend, companion, co-conspirator, counsellor, and partner, it was Joshua. The closest thing he had was Caleb—the other Israelite who had said they could take the Promised Land because God said they could (Numbers 13-14). But the Word doesn’t show that they were particularly close. Joshua needed to feel that he wasn’t standing alone. God met him right there. God told him that he was not alone. That he would never be alone. That God would be with him every step of the way. Joshua got reiterated to him all the promises that God had for the people. God encouraged Joshua that he was going to be the one to lead them in. But God also let him know he had responsibilities (verse 7). In verse 8 God says “This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it; for then you shall make your way prosperous, and then you shall have good success.” That’s some statement. But there is more in verse 9: “Haven’t I commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Don’t be afraid. Don’t be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.” Follow the Lord’s Word to be prosperous and successful. Don’t let it leave your eyes and ears. And then don’t let yourself be afraid or dismayed because God is with you. Don’t LET YOURSELF. If you’re in the Word every day to meet Jesus. If you are in the Word every day to be fed by the Spirit in your spirit. If you are looking every day to inform your thoughts, words, and deeds by what you find in the Word. If you are using it as a tool to remind yourself that God is right there beside you, then you can CHOOSE not to be afraid or dismayed. You can CHOOSE not to be anxious, stressed, or depressed. If you are in the presence of the Lord and the presence of the Lord is beside you—regardless of how you feel—then you can choose to rely on that. If you rely on that, then how can you fear? How can you be anxious? How can you be depressed? Those are feelings that can be superseded by facts. And the FACT is that if God is for you, then who or what can succeed against you? Nothing and no one. Jesus overcame the WORLD not just part of it. The world and all that is in it. That’s who has your hand. That’s who is beside you. That is who you are covenanted with. That is your God, your Lord, your Saviour, and your groom. He will NOT fail you. He will NOT forsake you. He will NOT forget you. He is WITH you. Choose not to be afraid.

Your Daily Confession of God’s love to YOU:

Today God loves that I _______.