Growth and Maturity are Required to Join the Army and Fight for God’s Testimony

In the book of Numbers we see how the Israelites were formed into an army to protect God’s testimony and fight for His move on earth; for this, an Israelite male had to be at least twenty years old, which is related to growth and maturity.

This week in our deeper study of the book of Numbers we come to the topic of, The Growth and Maturity Required for the Formation of the Army to Protect God’s Testimony and Fight for His Move on Earth.

As believers in Christ, we are members of God’s family, and we all are at different stages of the growth in life unto maturity.

We simply need to come to the Lord as we are, based upon His precious blood, and He will come to us where we are to wash our feet, feed us, supply us, enlighten us, unveil us, and help us to have the proper understanding of where we are in our Christian life.

Then, we can let Him supply us and also touch any part of our being that needs to be touched, so that He may remove any hindrance and frustration to achieve in us what was in His heart for every member of His Body.

The Father loves all His children; He has appointed His Son to be the Christ to do everything and be everything, and He wants to serve us and minister to us, for He has a great need.

God’s need is to obtain a corporate testimony on earth, a group of people who will express Him and represent Him to exercise His dominion and cause Satan to suffer serious loss. For this, He needs an army; He wants to move in country after country all over the earth, but wherever He wants to go, there’s fierce resistance, so He has to move by fighting.

On our side, there’s a desperate need, an urgent need; He desires to have believers who the necessary growth and maturity in life and who would present themselves to the Lord to uplift the prayer ministry of the church, so that many prayers would be offered at the incense altar to meet God’s need.

This week we will focus in particular on the spiritual significance of the age of twenty mentioned in Number; this was the qualifying age for the males in Israel to join the army and fight for God’s interest.

We need to have a clear understanding of what is the spiritual significance of the age of twenty; the Lord didn’t say that those who would join the army would be thirty-five, fifty-seven, or seventy-two but twenty.

In our human understanding we can say that at twenty we come to the end of adolescence and are in the early years of maturation; we are becoming a young adult. To join the army we don’t have to have the maturity of the Apostle Paul or the Apostle John but a degree of maturity is required to be enlisted in the army.

God’s People are being Formed into an Army to Protect God’s Testimony and Fight for His Move on Earth

The emphasis in the book of Numbers is how the people of Israel – who have been redeemed, received revelation, and were being trained by God – we formed into an army to protect God’s testimony and fight for His move on earth (Num. 1:2-3, 19-20).

God’s testimony needs protection, for it is on the assault everywhere on the earth. Again and again, there’s wave upon wave of attack upon the testimony of God, so there’s the need for an army that would surround and protect the testimony of God.

The Tent of Meeting was surrounded by the army, so God’s testimony was safe and secure; the enemy had no way to penetrate, and the people of Israel fought for God’s move and testimony on the earth.

Today we need to be formed into an army to protect God’s testimony and fight for His move on earth; when we surround and protect the testimony of God, His testimony will be safe and secure, the enemy will have no way to penetrate, and God has a free way to move on earth.

God wants to move all over the earth and especially in Europe, and He wants to move in all the Arabic nations; for this, we need to have the growth and maturity in life and fight in prayer for God’s interest.

There’s a need for more than enthusiasm – there has to be the spiritual age of twenty and the enlisting in the army for God’s interest to be carried out on earth.

Since the earth created by God was ruined by Satan, God needs to gain a group of people to be formed into an army for His move on earth.

Numbers shows how God formed His redeemed people into an army to surround and protect His testimony (Num. 2:1-2, 32, 34). In particular in the first four chapters of this book we see how the Israelites were formed into an army according to God’s arrangement.

In order for the children of Israel to be formed into an army, they had to be numbered; only after being numbered could the Israelites be formed into an army (Num. 1:2-3, 19-20).

We as God’s people today need to see that God has a need – on the positive side He wants to be expressed by a group of people who live a corporate God-man life, and on the negative side He needs an army to deal with His enemy.

May we allow the Lord to train us and form us into His army, and may we grow in life unto maturity to reach the spiritual age of twenty so that we may be enlisted in the army of God to fight for His move on earth and protect His interests.

Lord Jesus, we give ourselves to You to grow in life unto maturity and reach the spiritual age of twenty so that we may be enlisted in Your army and fight for Your interest and move on earth. Amen, Lord, may we be formed into the holy and priestly army to protect God’s testimony and fight for His move on earth. Gain the army that You need, Lord, on earth, the army that will give You the cooperation in prayer necessary for You to move on earth and for Your testimony to be protected and safeguarded.

Growth and Maturity are Required to Join the Army and Fight for God’s Testimony

In Num. 1:3 we see that an Israelite male needed to be at least twenty years old to go forth for military service; this is related to growth and maturity.

There were approximately two million Israelites, but only 603.550 were twenty years old and upward, so only these were able to go forth for military service (vv. 45-46); all the other Israelites were precious and necessary, but they could not be warriors.

Even though there are so many believers on earth, only a small number among them are mature in life to the extent that they are able to fight for God’s testimony (Eph. 4:12, 15-16; 6:10-12).

In the church life in the Lord’s recovery there are a large number of saints, but only a small number are mature in life to the extent that they can fight for God’s testimony.

When we speak of maturity in life, for growth and maturity are required to join the army, we need to realise that maturity is a stage.

Those in their twenties are mature – there is some maturity there, and those in their fifties are more mature, while those in their eighties are even more mature; this doesn’t deny the degree of maturity that a twenty-year old has, which will also increase.

It is the same in the spiritual realm; we are speaking of the basic qualification of the age of twenty, the age in which we’re able to receive a particular training to be formed into an army.

Numbers mentions the age for those enlisting in the army, which was twenty years old and upward, yet this book does not mention the age for retirement.

There’s no age-ism in the army; there’s no retirement age when it comes to the spiritual war, and there’s no upper age limit.

Caleb was eighty-five years old, and he set his eyes on Hebron to take it, and he said he was as full of vigor as when he was twenty; in Hebron there were huge Nephilim and gigantic Anakim, but Caleb said, They are our food!

God’s army was strong, just as Caleb was able to fight and was as strong before God in his eighties as when he was in his forties (Josh. 14:6, 10-11). This signifies that we as believers in Christ must have both life and maturity in life in order to be numbered by God.

According to the book of Numbers, neither children nor women were numbered; children signify immaturity, and women signify weakness.

The fact that only males who were twenty years old and upward were able to engage in warfare signifies that among the believers only those who are mature in life and strong are able to fight in spiritual warfare.

In the application of this principle to us, all brothers and sisters alike can be “males” in the eyes of God for the formation of the army, having both growth and maturity in life to be strong and able to fight in spiritual warfare.

Those who were numbered needed to be confirmed by Moses, Aaron, and the leaders of the twelve tribes (Num. 1:4, 16-18).

There may have been some under the age of twenty who wanted to join the army, and their heart was appreciated, but they had to be assessed both by Moses, Aaron, and the leaders of the tribes.

Our joining the army is to be confirmed by the discernment of those who have the genuine spiritual authority; these have to be able to testify on the behalf of the household that we are not isolated individuals, we don’t want to be “heroes” but rather we’re part of the community and we live in fellowship.

Moses signifies Christ as the Head of the Body who executes His authority, Aaron signifies Christ as the High Priest who exercises His priesthood, and the leaders of the twelve tribes signify the elders and leading ones in the church (Col. 1:18; Heb. 8:1; Acts 14:23).

This indicates that we as God’s people are being numbered for the army based on life and maturity in life, and this is confirmed by spiritual authority.

Life, maturity, and the confirmation of spiritual authority are required for the formation of God’s army.

In order to be numbered, the children of Israel were required to be in the fellowship of the life of their father’s households and had to grow in life unto maturity, which is signified by the age of twenty (Num. 1:1-16).

We need to be in the fellowship of the church and be one with the church; if we are fighting for God’s family, we have to be at peace and in oneness.

Lord Jesus, grant us the growth and maturity in life necessary for us to be enlisted in Your army to be able to fight for Your testimony. Amen, Lord Jesus, may we continue to grow in life unto maturity so that we may be able to receive the training we need and be formed into the holy and priestly army of God on earth. May we grow in life unto maturity day by day, and my our growth and maturity in life be confirmed by spiritual authority. Amen, Lord, keep us in the fellowship of the Body in the church life, and gain us as Your army on earth who fights for Your interests to protect Your testimony!

This article can also be read in the Romanian language / Citiți acest articol în limba română vizitând următorul link, Creșterea și maturitatea sunt necesare pentru a intra în armată și pentru a lupta pentru mărturia lui Dumnezeu.

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by bro. Ron Kangas for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1960, vol. 1, ”Synopsis of Numbers,” ch. 2, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Numbers (2), week 2, The Growth and Maturity Required for the Formation of the Army to Protect God’s Testimony and Fight for His Move on Earth.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # O Jesus Christ, grow Thou in me, / And all things else recede; / My heart be daily nearer Thee, / From sin be daily freed. / Each day let Thy supporting might / My weakness still embrace; / My darkness vanish in Thy light, / Thy life my death efface. (Hymns #395)
  # Let us move together with the Lord through prayer; / For His move on earth we must prepare. / Lord do grow in us ’till we’re matured in life, / As Your army fully qualified. (Song on, Let us work together with the Lord through prayer)
  # To inherit the good land, we must be renumbered; / Make a willing vow to Him to fulfill His standard. / For the Lord’s up-to-date move, let’s fight and pay the price, / Enter and possess the land, our all-inclusive Christ! (Song on, Christ in Numbers)