“Be strong.  Take courage.  Don’t be intimidated.  Don’t give them a second thought because God, your God, is striding ahead of you.  He’s right there with you.  He won’t let you down; He won’t leave you.”  ~ Deut. 31:6 (The Message)

Ever feel like you’re the only one who “gets it”?  That you’re alone and outnumbered?  Frequently, this is the case with entrepreneurs, forerunners or those on special assignments from God to lead others to transformation. 

Consider Moses.  When he commissioned the Israelites and Joshua to enter the Promised Land, he spoke the above scripture from personal experience.  He knew that God would faithfully deliver them and that He would require great courage and the highest level of dependency, trust and obedience.  Moses “got it” because he had already gone through a one-on-one assignment with God in the desert.  He had seen God show up along the way, and he knew God could be trusted.

When we stand alone in big assignments, we are tested.  When we have a mandate from God but no support from anyone else, what will we do?   Will we keep our eyes fixed on the Lord or give second thought to what everyone else thinks and says?  When the assignment sounds impossible and has never been done before, will we trust that God is bigger than the situation?  When the obstacles appear insurmountable, will we trust that God has gone ahead of us to plow a path, that He has spearheaded a victory strategy?  Will we ultimately take His courage and hearken?  Or will we retreat in the enemy’s plan for us: fear, insecurity and ultimate defeat? 

Leadership requires sustainable character.  What’s most important to remember is that our battles are not really with people but with spiritual principalities (Eph. 6:12).  God knows how to defeat any enemy.  And He knows how to prepare us.  Big assignments require big preparations and a big God.

One of the greatest challenges that standing alone presents is gaining team members’ trust in the mission.  Remember when Moses journeyed up Mount Sinai to be with God?  It didn’t take long before his team had fallen in their faith and created their own golden calf of a god, even though “I AM” had made a way for their rescue and had performed prior miracles.  Not surprising really when you consider that they did not have the same measure of leadership training that Moses did.  God selected only one for that call, and he was temporarily out of sight.

Another great challenge that standing alone presents is trusting God to come through when there appears no way in the natural and trusting that we really do hear what He says or shows us to be His strategy.  Imagine how perplexed Moses must have felt when he first heard God’s voice from the burning bush.  Exodus 3:3 says Moses thought of it as a “strange sight.”  And then he hid his face because he was afraid (Ex. 3:6).  Do we really trust God enough to do a new thing a new way?  To do it scared?

Everyday, I need God’s help to journey through assignments He gives me because so much of what He instructs me to do is new to me.  I have learned that without His intimate guidance, I flail, flounder and fear.  It is only by getting up close to Him that I have any sense of direction and ability to operate at all.

God tells us that when we fully obey Him, we are His treasured possessions (Ex. 19:5).  But we must trust Him above all else as He takes us from glory to glory.  Are we ready to be transformed by God, not conformed to man?  Are we ready to receive and walk in His integrity?  Are we ready to stand alone with Him?