Courting Failure

And the officers shall speak further unto the people, and they shall say, What man is there that is fearful and fainthearted? let him go and return unto his house, lest his brethren's heart faint as well as his heart. (Deuteronomy 20:8)

I want us to look at one main cause of failure in our Christian endeavours.

And I do this because I have never heard or read of it being addressed anywhere all my life.

You see, our generation loves the masses. We love the crowds. We love the applause.

We have no place for the lone wolf. We have no place for the lone fighter except in movies.

The social media is the clearest evidence of this. And it thrives therein.

No wonder they pay a premium to influencers irrespective of their content. And we know that what trends most is normally controversial, if not openly gross.

We transfer that to the spiritual and the results are plain and gross wickedness.

But we love the mega church. We love mass evangelism. We are excited at seeing our pastor trending on social media for whatever reason. A congregation boasts for long when their services are aired on TV without realising that the media station may have chosen them because their sermons are simple social commentaries or entertainment and comedy, not heavenly discourses.

This has led us to the point where we think it is wrong to set standards on anything because standards chase some, at times, most people.

Incidentally, the only thing a crowd is able to do effectively is mob justice that has no positives.

But that is not how God operates.

From beginning to end, we see God discriminating, setting standards, disqualifying, in His choices and calling. We see Him narrowing His choices all the time.

What am I saying?

We choose people to join our teams without caring to know whether they are adequately prepared to fight the battles we are calling them to.

Then we are disappointed when they run off and leave us to fight alone. We can even call curses on them because we feel that they disappointed us and exposed us to failure.

But are we justified?

If truth be said, we are the cause of our failure.

Not only had we not counted the cost as Christ taught, we never even told them that there was a cost before calling on them to join us.

I believe that the very basic training of a soldier ingrains in him the expectation of death. A soldier must be ready to die any time he is performing his duties. It is therefore inconceivable for him to be scared to fight.

In the passage where our verse comes from, we are able to see that very clearly.

Is there some unfinished business you have left? Then go back and finish it because you might not come back alive.

When a man hath taken a new wife, he shall not go out to war, neither shall he be charged with any business: but he shall be free at home one year, and shall cheer up his wife which he hath taken. (Deuteronomy 24:5)

That is the same reasoning.

One goes to war ready to die. He must release himself to death before he can be of any worth as a soldier.

That expectation of death is what deals fear a death wound. And that is what makes a soldier able to function.

That can only be dealt with at a personal level because nobody dies in a crowd.

But chasing the crowd will diminish our followership. I know someone is countering. And of course it will.

Remember in Gideon’s time what happened when Gideon did that at God’s command?

Almost 70% of his army went back. And that is the reality even today.

But the alternative is not feasible. This because you would rather ten geared up fighters than a thousand-strong chickenhearted crowd.

We fail tremendously when we invite the whole church for evangelism, even guilt tripping them to come.

We fail when we insist that every member of the church attends the overnight prayer meeting and fasting.

We fail when we insist that every member gives sacrificially for this or the other battlefront.

We kill people when we force them to the battlefront. But we kill the battle itself by doing that.

And this because they have no capacity to face the dangers inherent in the battles we are inviting them to.

Allow me to deal with one aspect of this topic because the rest are understandable.

He that receiveth a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet's reward; and he that receiveth a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man's reward. And whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward. (Matthew 10: 41, 42)

I want us to look at ministry support and giving in general.

The person who supports me in ministry becomes a partner in the ministry I am involved in.

This means that he must in effect be involved in the warfare my ministry attracts.

That is the reason that in times of intense spiritual warfare support goes down tremendously and then resumes after the season ends.

Why do you think that happens?

I am sure it is because God wants to spare my supporters the shrapnel that warfare will release through their support, especially because very few know that there is any warfare involved in giving.

Even the ones who will continue giving will also have to deal with quite some warfare on their side, a warfare they may not associate with the warfare I am involved in.

Allow me to give an example.

One time a mother (not my mother, but she was a mother to me in many ways) fell sick.

She went to many hospitals and her problem could not be diagnosed yet her condition continued worsening, even becoming desperate. Yet it was in high end hospitals

It pained me to see the suffering she and her family were going through.

I prayed a prayer I think I will never pray again (of course unless God specifically orders me to).

Then I became sick, almost to the point of death.

It is interesting that when I was able to get out of bed she was also out of hospital.

Standing with and for someone has a huge cost to it, a cost with a direct relationship with whatever the one we are standing with or for is battling.

There is a great cost to supporting ministry, a cost many ministers and supporters do not know exists.

Of course there are rewards. But that dimension has been preached and taught bare so I will not waste any time mentioning it.

And she said unto Elijah, What have I to do with thee, O thou man of God? art thou come unto me to call my sin to remembrance, and to slay my son? (1Kings 17:18)

Standing with Elijah was the cause of the widow’s loss.

And it is because the evil one looks for the weakest link to try to kill the assignment (I will write more conclusively on that later), and the carrier of that assignment is many times adequately prepared for any opposition and warfare. Remember the same thing happened with Elisha and the Shunamite?

Preparing our supporters is therefore more important for us (and especially safe for them) because it then opens their eyes to the cost of supporting us as opposed to the rewards which are very easily seen.

It would be very immoral for me if my supporter loses their job because they are supporting me and I had not prepared them for that eventuality. It would be very wicked of me if my supporter loses their child as those two cases I have highlighted and they are not even aware why it happened, and especially if I do not have any antidote for that spiritual attack, just because I do not associate it with their supporting me.

As usual I will leave this post here for your meditation.

I want you to fill the gaps, probably write an even fuller post on the same.