One of my favorites among unsung hero’s is found in 2 Samuel 17, when David had gathered his people and left town because his treacherous son Absalom decided to take over and was looking to take David’s life. King David quickly gathered those who were still loyal to the crown and beat feet out of town. When team David had travelled a pretty good distance, still having managed to escape Absalom’s army, there came three guys who showed up with all sorts of good stuff to sustain the King and his house. 2 Samuel 17:27-29, “When David came to Mahanaim (makh-an-ah’-yim), Shobithe son of Nahash from Rabbah of the Ammonites, and Machir (maw-keer) the son of Ammiel from Lo-debar, and Barzillai the Gileadite from Rogelim (ro-gel-eem’), brought beds, basins, and earthen vessels, wheat, barley, flour, parched grain, beans and lentils, honey and curds and sheep and cheese from the herd, for David and the people with him to eat, for they said, “The people are hungry and weary and thirsty in the wilderness.” It must have looked like a wagon train carrying all that stuff, and it must have been God who got them there.
Manahaim (makh-an-ah’-yim) was a camping place and then became a citynear Jabbok, beyond the Jordan River, it’s where the angels of the Lord met Jacob in the way and he said, “This is God’s camp”, and from then on it was called Manahaim (makh-an-ah’-yim). David and his people found themselves as fugitives, running to escape Absalom who wanted to kill David…..they had stopped to rest and make camp there, when Shobi, Machir(maw-keer), and Barzillai (who was 80 at the time) showed up with provisions. Those three guys were running a huge risk, they had to weave their way, with wagons and supplies, through Absalom’s soldiers going fast enough to get ahead of the soldiers AND catch the fleeing David. i figure they must have been hidden by God and been given Holy Ghost speed to do what they did.
i have wondered, who were those three men who took such an incredible chance? With the exception of Barzillai who is mentioned as having been honored by David in chapt 19, there isn’t anything much said of the three in scripture, but we can possibly draw some conclusions of their character by simply looking at their names. Shobi’s name means “transporter”, a man who had the means to move things in bulk, probably in wagons….. hidden in his name is rescue and restoration, humility and generosity.
Machir is next and his name means “salesman”, a guy who knew how to get stuff. Hidden in his name is the power to actualize potential, meaning he was the “git ‘er down” type of fellow,also a humble and generous man.
Barzillai from Rogelim, his name means “man of iron” or to say, he had a strong constitution, a thinking guy with valor and hope who also was humble, generous with an open hand. So…based on that, we could say when King David was at the camping place called “God’s camp”, the Lord sent rescue, supplication, and hope to help in their time of need….they were essential and came at a pivotal time which was also right on time. What they brought in the time of need was no small provision…they even brought beds. Somehow they knew what they needed to bring with them.
The transporter, the salesman, and the iron heart took a terrible risk, but the Lord led them through all the traps to make the delivery of provision. It was a tipping point in David’s favor during Absalom’s campaign against his father.
The Lord’s hand was against Absalom and in the Lord’s wisdom He allowed the treacherous son’s hand to play out in order to defend David and his loyal people.
Those three, Shobi, Machir, and Barzillai are unsung hero’s. No one pointed them out that we know of after that, for they are exclusively God’s to lift up at the appropriate time. They were available and the Lord used them, for the Lord is always searching to raise up a people who are ready and are willing to lose their name and be mightily used.

We assume so, so much about everything.

We assume loved ones will still be here when we disappear from their lives, we assume our health will remain good, we assume others are telling the truth, we assume the government will take care of us. We assume the lights will come on when we flip the switch, the faucet will run clean hot and cold water, that the toilet will always flush correctly, that the furnace will come on, that so-and-so will always love us, or things will never work out. We assume we will always be poor, always fall short, or never be recognized. We assume we will have our sanity tomorrow when we wake up just like we’ve been in our right mind everyday so far.

Do you realize how much of our lives are built on future projections of assumptions? And do you realize how much of God’s workings in our life is not built on any assumptions but promises and guarantee’s which have never fallen short, ever, in the history of the world? The promises of God are not established by public opinion. Is your relationship with God built on assumptions or is it faith? They are not the same.

God knew from the beginning, that we’d have to live by faith. But in so much of our lives we are taught to operate on assumption and conclusion. Sure, often it is a starting place before some folks get to faith. Assumptions and conclusions were invented by God for us to decide and choose by, like in business. We make assumptions about future business based on past business, projecting about how we should conduct business in the future. It is wisdom. But God did not ask us to live according to assumptions and conclusions based on those assumptions, but by faith. We don’t find our firm foundation in assumptions and conclusions based on those assumptions.

Faith is not only something you exercise, but is a place you stand, even when you don’t want to, you still stand. One definition of faith is — trust training. Even when all assumptions and conclusions say no, you still stand. When you have made all your assumptions and postulations, after all the data is gathered, and all the conclusions you can make are made, you still stand. Like when Peter walked on water. He had some assumptions, he possessed the personally observed data that water will not support the weight of a man on his feet, and his conclusion was probably you can’t walk on water. Yet regardless of all logical assumptions and conclusions, he still believed Jesus more than he believed his conclusions about water. He still believed, and did still stand.

Within the Hebrew idea of faith is not even a thin shadow of assumption and conclusion. Assumptions and conclusions based on those assumptions are shifting sand, and faith is solid ground. In fact, the idea of standing is very prevalent within the construct of God’s idea of faith. When we say we live by the “faith of the Son of God”, it means we lean in our heart toward God prior to our leaning towards anything else, it means, first, everything about us is an upward pointing to the sovereignty of God. Faith is about the sound you make before you make a sound, and everything about us follows after our faith, as something so common to us it is second nature. Matthew 6:33, “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”

In Deuteronomy 5:31, where it says, “stand here by me“, it was an invitation to possess faith. In Mark 11:25, the phrase, “whenever you stand praying” is a declaring of faith by planting your feet, and is derived from a similar Greek word for “stand” as used in 2 Corinthians 1:24, and 2 Corinthians 15:1, used 163 times in scripture. 163 times, hmmm, must be important.

i would say standing in faith is a big deal to God.

It means to be stationary and to persevere, as in, after you’ve done all you can do to stand, stand therefore. Don’t just do something, stand there! Moses said to the people “stand still”, in other words, “take a position, and be not swayed otherwise”. Faith, not assumption, is a pillar on which the house stands. AND, “to fall” is a visual of “to be pushed aside or change your position”, as in …. “we can either stand in faith, or fall to sin”, sin being a motivator to change our position towards faith.

Isaiah 7:9 “If you will not believe, surely you will not be established.”

The world says I should not believe God loves me. Possibly according to their reasoning by assumptions and conclusions based on those assumptions, they are not wrong. I still believe he does, i am witness to the miraculous and the evidence. Even when the night is dark, the wind is howling, my sails are ripping, and deep water is coming over the side of the boat, I still believe God.

Years ago, a lady came to our home fellowship and needed a knee replacement, and the Lord told one fellow to go over to her, touch her knee with the tip of his first finger and pray for her healing. By all assumption and conclusion it was a dumb thing to do. He still believed it, and the room became electric. After a brief prayer, nothing dramatic, and declaration of healing, she stood up, jumped up and down, walked all around the room, and by all assumption and conclusion it should not have been so, but she still believed it and it was so.

On another occasion, a man came to our house, and as we sat on the porch talking, i realized he had blisters all in his mouth, so much so he couldn’t hardly talk. All of his joints just ached and screamed at him. He had Lyme Disease. There was a flow of faith in me beyond myself and I said out loud, “You don’t have that disease anymore, be gone in the name of Jesus.” It was nothing dramatic, but more matter of fact, almost casual. By all assumption and conclusion, it should not have been, but I believed it like it was perfect knowledge sitting in my middle. A while later the fellow had no more blisters in his mouth, nor did his joints ache, and it was all so subtle he didn’t realize he didn’t have the problem anymore until he was on the way home. These few stories are not the result of the shifting sands of assumption, but the solid ground of faith. Still we believe God. Still we stand.

Ananias and Sapphira assumed no one would catch them in their scheme. i believe they had done what they were doing before. Wrong. God saw. In Mark 8 Peter assumed he was in a position to advise God, assuming to take upon himself authority he did not have. Wrong. Simon the sorcerer assumed the power of God was a commodity to be bought, sold, or traded. Wrong, God is not for sale and neither are you. To put it mildly, their assumptions didn’t go well. Assumptions and conclusions are part of our decision-making process, and they can also be very wrong to our detriment. God didn’t call us to stand on assumptions. He called us to stand in faith. Hebrews 11:6, “And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who seek Him.”

Is your relationship built on assumptions and conclusions based on those assumptions, possibly, merely parroting someone else, or do you stand on the substance, the solid ground of faith?

What do you think?

Have you ever felt the Lord was challenging your priorities, all the way from your idea of what was most important to what you think is least important?

In Matt6:33, when Jesus said “seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you”, do you think He was pointing out how we should arrange our priorities, challenging what we think is important versus what God says is important? i do.

i’ve read His words, agreed with His words, but often my priorities didn’t change. i can’t tell you about you, but i can speak with some authority concerning myself. There have been times in my life, long periods of time, when sitting down on the couch was more important than wiping the kitchen counter, being silent was more important than calling a friend in need, reading a magazine was more important than reading my Bible, and, i’m sad to admit, many times doing absolutely nothing was more important than talking to God. i ask myself, “Why is that so? It is ugly Lord and it must change.”

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Joseph Ivimey in 1821commented on a section of John Bunyan’s book,  Pilgrim’s Progress written in 1678: he wrote, “Our author intimates that God sometimes communicates spiritual knowledge and heavenly joy by “dreams and visions of the night.” The Holy One “works all things after the counsel of His own will,” and employs whatever methods He pleases to bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. The effect produced by dreams must be brought to a test. Here is a good, short statement expressing a rule to test concepts and dreams by….that what leads to God, must have come from God” If God has sent us, He will go with us.”

Right there is an observation and insight worthy of a lot of contemplation, “That what leads to God, must have come from God.” It is a good test of what we believe, hear, and dream….does what i hear, think, and believe lead to Christ?, and if it does, then it must have come from God, for the Lord is the only One who can lead us to Himself. Let us think and explore these things not fearing our doctrines will fall apart. And if they do come to pieces in our hands under the inspection of scripture, then they weren’t worthy of being held as the truth.

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As to getting your bearing, your direction, or heading…. Arriving at our bearing requires we have a reference point of some sort. How do you get a reference point so you can draw out your bearings? Everyone has ideas, but are they good ideas? It would be easy to quote some scripture, which, don’t get me wrong, that’s a good thing, but if it’s not really owned and practiced it’s not much of an answer….it’s more of a reply that sounds good, and makes us look like we know something, but really underneath the layers of acceptable Christian-eze,  we’re often still pretty clueless. We want to own our stuff, i mean take real ownership of our situation….and not blind ownership either, which means we just agree without knowing what we’re agreeing to, or we agree just to get someone off our back. Blind ownership is really no ownership at all, so we’ve got to be more surgical about getting down to the truth of exactly what it is we are owning about the Lord along with understanding our “set and bearing” in Him.

Having your bearing means we must, simply must have a good reference point. We say Jesus is our reference point above all reference points, but our attitudes and actions often point to a very different story. We don’t need “A” bearing, we need “true bearing”.

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“God’s standard of love, for the whomsoever’s, applies across the board. His directing us to address our subjective doctrines is a mercy and  kindness and reflects his heart for us to, “come up here”, come up to a higher place where we can see better. I believe there is a “seeing” that happens over and above what regular people can see the moment people believe in Jesus. However they come to that faith is how they come to that faith and God gives them a seeing into the distance which they did not have before… of course what we do with it is another story.. It is a mercy that the Lord untangles our heads and all of the man-made stupid stuff that just floats around and bind us up in craziness. Like the seeds planted in my head from when I was a child, my mother’s words “what will people think of you” grew in my head many years ago and even bugs me to today. God says “don’t worry about what people say, that’s their problem.” Just getting the silly little doctrines out of my head, like “don’t judge me”, may seem small but  they are major attitude and life tipping things that float around in there which prevent me from knowing Him, and it is a mercy that He is untangling us. Primarily I want my madness untangled, not so I can get it right to make sure other people know that I’ve got it right, but so I can know the Lord. So let us go, let us press on to know the Lord. His going forth is as certain as the dawn. He will come, he will come to us like the rain, like the spring rains watering the Earth. And In Heaven There was a book brought forward and the names of his people who spoke on his name often was written down for a remembrance.

Social Porter said, “I want to be in that book more than I want to be in the movies.” He said: “One day i came to the end of myself, so,

When God’s face is in our face, and His voice is in our voice, even the least attractive of our efforts can go around the world, touching lives everywhere.
You may not be a world leader, or a national leader, you may not be a local leader, or someone noteworthy even in your fellowship, but when the Lord is with you, the Holy Ghost impact on people changes hearts, even when our works look rough and are not our best.
By no means does that mean we produce slip-shod works believing God will take up our slack. For me, i want to be responsible with what God has given me, and do my best for His highest. But sometimes, we are completely unaware of how poor our efforts are until years later, after we’ve had experience and are well on our way to having a finely honed craft. We often look back at the music, video, or sermons and cringe at how immature, poorly spoken, or miserably crafted things were, but chin up my friend, when God’s face is in our face, His voice is in our voice, the height of mountains and depth of valleys can be leveled, because God is with us.