Champion – what does it mean and are you willing to step up to the challenge? Do you have it takes to be a champion for your church and family? A champion is defined in the Merriam-Webster on-line dictionary as a militant advocate or defender or one that does battle for another’s rights or honor. Within the King James Bible there are two ways this concept is used. The first is seen in Samuel and references Goliath, the enemy of God. The second concept, God calls more than our modern definition of champion, and this is a man of valor. In our modern usage of the English language, it is the second concept I will be using.
The challenge put forth to me by the Lord
The Daily Walk, for the most part, is the vehicle the Lord has given me to share my faith and my walk with my Lord and Savior. As a part of this ministry, I’ve shared my struggles with my faith and the ministry where the Lord has called me to serve. The week before Christmas (2016), the Lord began working in my heart. At the center of the struggle were two verses. Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin (James 4:17). The second verse is found in the Old Testament. Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me (Isaiah 6:8). Within the week of Christmas, two more verses were added to what was already going on in my heart.
At the center of my confusion, the two verses the Lord brought into my mind simply brought everything else into focus. The one that stung the most was: And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God (Luke 9:62). I know the specific ministry the Lord has called me to serve. I also have problems with my past; can our Lord forgive completely? Yes. This has never been the problem and I know I have been forgiven. The problem lies in my own frustration and anger in what I was and the time I wasted pursuing things that have no eternal value.
Becoming the champion that the Lord needs
The last verse the Lord brought into my heart was one penned by the apostle Paul. And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me (2 Corinthians 12:9). Throughout 2016 many people tried to share with me the simple wisdom of this message – if the Lord has called you to do something, he will bring you to the place you can do it. Those two weeks before Christmas and the week after, the Lord began to show me something about myself that I didn’t know. I had become so fixated on worrying about things I could not change that I missed opportunities to serve Him. God was calling me to be a man of valour – not in the future, but now.
The concept of a man of valour is found forty-two times within the King James Version of the Bible. Thirty-five times, you’ll find the exact phrase, men of valour and seven times, man of valour. According to Biblical mathematics, the number thirty-five refers to hope and seven refers to completeness and spiritual perfection. Both numbers added together, forty-two, refers to the oppression of Israel and the first and second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. What the Lord was working on was my heart and the need for men and women to stand up and become these servants of valour – champions the church needs today.
The men of valour were equipped, willing, and ready for combat
As I began to study what made these men so noteworthy that the Lord inspired them to be recorded as men of valour, several traits became obvious. In 1 Chronicles, the Lord gives us a trait: All these the sons of Jediael, by the heads of their fathers, mighty men of valour, were seventeen thousand and two hundred soldiers, fit to go out for war and battle (1 Chronicles 7:11). These were men who knew, understood, and drilled in the art of war. They knew what it took to win the battle and once committed to battle, would only break off an attack when given orders from their king.
The second trait these men of valour possessed is also found in 1 Chronicles: And their brethren, heads of the house of their fathers, a thousand and seven hundred and threescore; very able men for the work of the service of the house of God (1 Chronicles 9:13). The Hebrew word translated here for able men is the same phrase meaning men of valour (חָ֫יִל – Strongs 2428). These men were ready to do the work that the Lord set before them to do. Within our faith as Christians, we have a lot of things in common with the description given of these men. Our Lord and King has left us a specific set of instructions. We know what He’s asked of us, and we know we have all the equipment we need.
