Healing "Preliminaries"

Stepping Out

Your obedience is required. If you begin to obey, then God will then begin to empower you and thrust you into the very next level. How can He guide your steps if you are not taking any?

I remember the first time I went snow skiing; it was a horrible experience. The first day it was terrible. I was in college. I was doing a retreat. I went because the college group was going, and they asked me to go with them up to Colorado to lead a Bible study in the evening times. The first day I tried to ski, I wondered why anyone would want to do this? The snow was deep, so here I am, I get on one side. I took my lesson in the morning to try to figure this thing out. I learned that 'snow plow' thing pretty good. And then I was on the bunny slope and I had this thing down good. So I went across one side of the trail and then I stopped. How do you turn around here? I had to work out this thing, and I fell down and fell down and fell down. It was horrible. I ate snow all day. I was freezing. And then I finally got turned around and I could make it to the other side. I knew to Snow plow before you get to the end. Stop, turn around. I thought, "This is terrible. I don't like this at all. This is not fun."

Then one of the guys said, "Rodney, before you can turn, you gotta have some speed, some momentum." I said, "That's what I was trying to avoid! How do I know if I am going to stop? There are trees. I gotta make sure I stop before I turn because I don't want to run into trees." But he said, "You're not going to be able to make the turn if you don't have any momentum. It is the speed that enables you to make the turn."

It is like that in our lives as well. What happens is that we want God to move us without us getting some momentum. How can God turn us if we do not have any momentum? God can not guide your steps if you are not taking any steps. He can't direct you unless you are moving. He can't say, "Go right," unless you are going. You have to get started here. You have to take the initiative.

Risk Is Necessary

Our last two lessons looked at the story of Jonathan and his armor bearer in 1 Sam 14:1-15. They were surrounded by an overwhelming enemy army. While other soldiers cowered in fear, they decided to take a risk and see if God would give them a victory. So the two of them went to an enemy garrison, looking for a victory from the Lord. God honored their faith and gave them an incredible victory. How did they get a victory? They got it by taking a risk, trusting that God would meet them as they stepped out in faith. And God did!

Risk is necessary. Jonathan was a man who took a risk -- a major risk. I want to kind of give you the background for this. I want you to see just how risky this thing was. In the previous chapter, it gives us the scoop here on some of the events that led up to Jonathan's risk in 1 Sam 14, Look at the 13th chapter of 1 Samuel, verse 2. It says "Saul selected 3000 special troops from the army of Israel and sent the rest of the men home. He took 2000 of the men with him to Micmash, and the hill country of Bethel. The other thousand went with Saul's son Jonathan to Geba in the land of Benjamin."

Soon after this it is not Saul, but Jonathan, who takes the initiative, "Jonathan attacked and defeated the garrison and the Philistines at Gebeah. The news spread quickly among the Philistines that Israel was in revolt so Saul sounded the call to arms throughout Israel." He sent some guys home, and then he called them back. "He announced that the Philistine garrison at Geba had been destroyed and he warned the people that the Philistines now hated the Israelites more than ever. So the entire Israelite army mobilized again and met Saul at Gilgal. The Philistines mustered a mighty army of 3000 chariots, 6000 horsemen and as many warriors as the grains of sand along the seashore. They camped at Micmash east of Beth-aven (1 Sam 13:3-5, NLT).

Now, did the Israelites say, "We can take them?" Listen to their faith, verse 6: "When the men of Israel saw the vast number of enemy troops, they lost their nerve entirely and tried to hide in caves, holes, rocks, tombs and cisterns. Some of them crossed the Jordan river and escaped into the land of Gad and Gilead. Meanwhile, Saul stayed at Gilgal, and his men were trembling with fear." That is not much faith. They rose and got the army together and they were doing pretty good. But all of a sudden, when the enemy came up and the struggle was inevitable, they ran. They were afraid.

Someone had to turn the tide. Someone had to go in a different direction. Someone had to be willing to take a risk. The safer thing would have been for Jonathan to say, "Well, lets get this army together, and whenever they come, then we will attack them. Let's gather maybe another thousand or two of these special troops and than we will go take on a garrison or two". But he didn't because he knew those two things. He knew that it was the nature of God to conquer the enemy, and he knew that it didn't matter how many people showed up for battle for God to win. He knew those two things, so he acted on what he knew. He just obeyed the things he already knew. He took the initiative. And what keeps some people from taking the initiative is that they don't want to risk. It is a little risky to trust God. They don't take initiative because they might actually have to trust God. They might actually have to depend upon God to get them through. Things may be out of their control, out of their hands. It is scary, because we think: "what if God doesn't come through, then I am sunk?" That is why some people do not take the initiative -- because it is too risky.

However, the struggle is inevitable, so you might as well take a risk. But that risk is going to require a little vulnerability. Jonathan got a little vulnerable. He said, "Lets show ourselves to these guys. Lets make myself a target." You may think, "Oh, I can't do that. I've got my walls. I've got my defense mechanisms. I can't get past those walls of my vulnerability there. I don't want it to show."

When Jonathan climbed up and scaled that cliff, he was vulnerable. He was exposed. One reason people don't take a risk is because they don't want to be vulnerable because that's going to require trust. "I will have to trust God." But you will not take the initiative unless you have a willingness to risk.

Last thing -- don't turn back. I believe God protects as we risk. We talked about in brief the parable of the talents. I will just kind of give you the punch line for that. When you are faithful with a few, I will put you in charge of more.

You know the story. The master was going out of town, so he called his servants together and said, "I am going to give you five talents," which is money. "I give you two talents. I give you one talent." He went away and came back later and said, "You know, I gave you five talents, what did you do with those five talents?" "Well, I took those five talents and invested it and worked with them and got five more talents, so you've got ten!" He goes, "Good job, good deal I like you, yeah." He goes to the next guy and says, "What did you do with those two talents I gave you?" And he said, "I took those two talents, I invested them and did this and that with them and I got four talents." He said, "Good job, good job." He was commending these guys. "You have been faithful with a few things, I am going to put you in charge of many."

Then he went to the guy that he gave one talent to, and said, "What did you do with yours?" He said, "Well, I knew you were a hard guy. You were a tough man. I didn't want to mess with you there. So I took your talent, I buried it in the ground, and here it is." And he gave him back the one talent. The master didn't have a lot of nice things to say about that guy. He ended up taking that talent and giving it to the guy who had five and made some things with it.

From that parable we learn this: The one who plays it safe, loses. If you are unwilling to risk, you lose. But once you take the step and once you take the risk, don't turn back. Jonathan started on the process. What if when he was half way up and he said, "You know, this is a little bit harder than I thought it was going to be. Why don't we back down this thing?" He did not do that, he was really vulnerable to God. God honors risk and we have to be willing to risk. We know God did not bring Jonathan all this way for Jonathan to lose.