Though None Go With Me

2/5/2013

What if you see people playing it safe?

I think one thing you can do is look at a week and not really have exerted much effort to actually do something constructive for God. You just feel like “we’re Godly people,” for a week, as opposed to actually thinking about a letter we could send to somebody, or a note of encouragement to a brother or sister, or staying up a little later and praying for ten more people by name than you would have. In a given week there ought to be some things like that. If someone asked us to write down what extra-effort things we did this week, there would be some things like that. The willingness to talk to somebody at a restaurant that you saw nod and pray. “I see the light of a possibility there, not a token, not a duty, but the light of a possibility. I’ve seen something that surprises me, and so I’ve got to be faithful to try to follow through with it, even if it’s slow going.” So there’s that whole thing.

Another thing is just a vision aspect. I was thinking a minute ago, just before you started to talk about that song, “I have decided to follow Jesus,” that there’s one verse, “Though none go with me, still I will follow.” There’s a way we can view ourselves, as we sing that song, that is to imagine ourselves in a world where nobody else cares, and everyone else is turned away from God, and we decide that we are still going to be passionate and are still going to spend ourselves because this is not about a group dynamic. This isn’t about a shirt-tail thing. “I know that Jesus died for me. Though none go with me, still I will follow.”

So, if you sing that song you could say, “Well, if I don’t go, then you should still follow.” That is a really, really compromised way to view that. “Though I not go, you still should,” rather than really consecrating our mind and singing it properly, by choice. “Though none go with me, still I will follow. Jesus I will. You bled and died for me. You underwent scourge and insult and opposition of sinful man and said to those at the foot of the cross, ‘Father forgive them. They don’t even know what they’re doing.’ You separated yourself so far from anything on this planet, Jesus, and I want to live for you, who died for me. Though none go with me, still I will follow.” That’s a really focused thing to do.

The two tribes that didn’t go across the Jordan River into the Promised Land sang the song the other way. “Though you go, I’ll help you go, but I’m over here and you’re over there. Yay for you. Bravo, bravo. Go for it, girl!” It’s just this separation thing. The song in that verse is meant to be, “Though none go with me, still *I* will follow.” It’s like Jonah going into Assyria and there are all these carnivorous, cannibal people that are just known for their barbarianism and the worst of the worst of the worst, and he went by himself. And a hundred and twenty thousand people who didn’t know their left hand from their right, many of them from all the way up to the king, were converted. He had the attitude that “me, with God’s Spirit living in me, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, in my heart and my mind, supernatural things can happen.”

Release of the Spirit. I can empty myself, and God himself who rose Jesus from the dead can manifest Himself in this environment. It’s not me trying to be somebody, but it’s me getting out of the way. I believe that, that the power that rose Jesus from the dead works mightily in me. I believe what God said, and I will accept no other thoughts. I reject any other thoughts about “poor me,” and “I can’t do it.” “I don’t want to be a leader. Somebody else can be a leader.” Who’s talking about being a leader? We’re talking about being like Jesus. Period. Was Jesus a leader? Yeah, He had certain qualities of leadership, I suppose, but that’s not really the point. The point is: do I accept something less than the full measure of the stature of Christ in my life? Or is that my only objective and the only acceptable outcome? The full measure of the stature of Christ.

Release of the Spirit. I’m going to be broken enough with all my selfish things. I’m going to reject all the foolish thoughts that satan wants to put in my head. I’m going to allow myself to be pure enough to allow God to rise up from within me. “Though none go with me, still I will follow.” That’s not really a statement of bravado. It’s a statement of consecration. It’s very different. Bravado is an adrenaline thing where I want to be somebody and do something. Consecration is: I want to be so separated for whatever God wants, that whatever it costs me, I’m available. And I may never have anything to show for it in some tangible, visible way, but I’m going to be totally His. “Though none go with me, still I will follow.”