Mobility

And thus shall ye eat it; with your loins girded, with your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and ye shall eat it in haste: it is the LORD's passover.
Exodus 12:11

But God's word is not chained.
-The Apostle Paul, 2 Timothy 2:9 (NIV)

After 400 years, some of which had been spent in slavery, 600,000 men of Israel, besides women, children, and possessions, moved out of the land of Egypt in one night. That is mobility! If we undertook the same feat today we would use trains, planes, trucks, and ships. We would have better equipment but might not prove as mobile.

Mobility as a principle of war is not absolute. It must not be measured against how fast we could move yesterday; rather it must be compared with the enemy's mobility. We must move more quickly, farther, and for a greater period of time than the enemy. Mobility was defined in the statement of General Nathan Bedford Forrest, "I git thar fustest with the mostest."

The French of World War II could move their armies, but they were not as mobile as the armies of Hitler. Hitler's Lightning Warfare (Blitzkrieg) was mobility in action. The early successes of the Japanese in the same war were largely dependent upon the mobility of their striking and invasion forces. The political and military surprises of both Germany and Japan could not have been effected without military mobility.

The opposite of mobility is immobility. To be immobilized is to be at the mercy of the enemy. An army or any other unit that is immobilized is incapable of attacking, evading, or retreating. It can only defend until surrender or to the end. The American defense of Corregidor is an example of immobility.

In the Gulf War in Kuwait, the Iraqi army was effectively immobilized for three reasons:

  1. They were dug in.
  2. They were fearful.
  3. They were finally surrounded.

In Christian evangelism the greatest cause of immobility is fear. Fear is not a principle of war or it would get a long chapter in this book. Fear is not bad, if we are fearing the right one. "And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell" (Matthew 10:28, RSV), and "Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!" (1 Corinthians 9:16, RSV ). It is fear of those who can kill only the body that immobilizes Christians.

The British Army was defeated in France in 1940. If it had reached the coast and found that it was immobilized, it would not have suffered defeat only; it would have been annihilated. It was the British mobility at sea that saved the Army at Dunkirk. If the Germans had been as mobile at sea as they were on land, they could have followed the British across the Channel. In this case the defenders were mobile and the victors became immobile.

In World War II mobility was demonstrated in the existence and actions of the U.S. Third and Fifth Fleets. One component of the Third/Fifth Fleet 1 particularly exemplified mobility. This was the Fast Carrier Striking Force, Task Force 38 (or 58, under the Fifth Fleet) under the command of Vice Admiral Marc Mitscher. This force could move hundreds of miles overnight in any direction and strike hundreds of miles farther with the Air Groups. It consisted of fifteen or sixteen carriers and scores of screening ships.

The nuclear submarine and the Strategic Air Command are probably the most mobile of present-day combat units. In the infantry the Army's Airborne Divisions and the FMF of the Marine Corps are probably the most mobile. One of their characteristics is their ability to strike a decisive blow any place of their own choosing. The offense could never be mounted in concentration without the ability to move. An army must be mobile.

Jesus Christ said, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature" (Mark 16:15). From this command and other texts in the New Testament we, in previous chapters, drew the conclusion that "every creature" is the objective and that preaching and prayer were our two main means of offense. From the same text we see that mobility is a requirement if we are to carry out Christ's command to" Go."

Within the church there must be an ability to move to the place or to the people where the offense will take place. We must convey our firepower where it will be used. Securing this mobility is simply a matter of obedience to the command "Go."

We can move our firepower in many of the ways that physical weapons of war are moved. We can walk. Philip left Samaria and was, in obedience to God, crossing the desert when he encountered the Ethiopian eunuch. Philip taught Christ to him from Isaiah 53, and the man believed. David Brainerd moved on horseback and led hundreds of American Indians to Jesus Christ. In Jungle Camp the Wycliffe Bible Translators are trained to move by foot, raft, and dugout canoe. The Missionary Aviation Fellowship provides mobility superior to that of the enemy in territory that is otherwise inaccessible.

There are other ways of delivering the Word of God besides taking the messenger to the physical location. One is that of correspondence. God put his stamp of approval on this means of mobility when much of the New Testament was given to us in letters, this being necessitated in part because the messengers, Paul and John, were immobilized as prisoners. Praise God, his Word is not bound (2 Timothy 2:9).

Another important means is the mobility gained through Christian books and literature sent via mail or passed from hand to hand. The ministry of moving Christian books, magazines, booklets, and Bibles is hardly being used at all. The Christian may be physically immobilized because of his profession or state of health. Yet if he used Christian literature he would not find the Word of God limited just because he himself was immobilized. The objective would be taken in near or distant places, though the Christian was absent.

The giving and sending of books is just the beginning of fast mobile communication of the gospel. Records and tape recordings can bring to anyone's living room the most powerful preaching and teaching that is available today. Christian leaders are broadcasting the gospel of Jesus Christ on hundreds of radio stations weekly. But this does not guarantee that people will have radio receivers tuned on at the time or to the right station. A telephone call to each of our friends immediately before the program would greatly increase the listening audience.

Then too, we should consider mobility with the use of the weapon itself. If a weapon has a 360-degree field and the soldier keeps it trained in one direction only, then he is not using the weapon's inherent mobility.

Our weapon, the Word of God,

...is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart (Hebrews 4:12, RSV ).

We must use it to the maximum of our capability. It has no limitations. The limitations are in us. Let us learn to use the Word as a defensive-offensive weapon. It is a tragedy to see Christians immobilized in a specific witnessing situation because they do not know how to use a very powerful and effective weapon. If we are versatile in the Scriptures, we can strike an effective blow at the place of our choosing. Continual personal study of the Bible is the only adequate preparation for use of the Word.

All of this so far has had to do with the mobility of our firepower, or, in other words, our witnessing. But from the chapter on the offense we recall that our offense is directed with prayer in addition to preaching. We must be mobile here, also.

Like the Word of God, prayer has no limitations. The limitations are in us. Prayer of intercession has greater range, accuracy, speed, and power than the greatest intercontinental ballistic missile we will ever produce. The prayer of intercession is one that agrees with God in his desire and purpose to win men to himself. We can use as our guide the prayers of Jesus and of the apostles, both for Christian brethren and for those who are still under the command of the enemy.

Jeremiah 33:3 says, "Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not." Let us ask for big things, things that we have never previously experienced.

Mobility serves no purpose if we have no intention of going anywhere. Do not stay at home in your intercession. Be mobile. It costs nothing to go to Africa via God's throne in prayer, except time and a concern for people in Africa.

Dawson Trotman recounts a personal experience in the booklet Born to Reproduce. He and a fellow worker in the Navigators, when that organization was still very young, decided to pray for the development of their work in every state of the union:

So we made a list of forty-eight states, and we prayed. Morning after morning in these little prayer meetings we would look at our list and ask God to use us and other young fellows in Washington, in Oregon, in California, and in all other states of the Union. Five weeks went by, and we did not miss a morning. We met at four oĠ£lock on Sunday morning and spent three hours in prayer. During the sixth week the Lord put it on our hearts to get a map of the world, and we took it up to our little cave in the hill. We began to put our fingers on Germany, France, and Italy. We put them on Turkey and Greece. I remember looking at one little island near China you had to look closely to see what it was and we prayed that God would use us in the lives of the men in Formosa.

If you know of the worldwide ministry of the Navigators today, you know that this prayer has been answered.

The united witness of which we are a part is also the result of the prayers of many Christians. Let us not stop now; let us individually and together pray to take the objective for Jesus Christ. Pray that we will be used in the lives of others.

The effectiveness of our ministry in the spiritual war largely depends upon the individual mobility in the use of our capabilities: the Word and prayer. We must know something of the range and depth of the word of God, and we must experience the range and accuracy of intercessory prayer.

And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer, and while they are yet speaking, I will hear (Isaiah 65:24).

Questions:

  1. Study 1 Timothy 2:7.
  2. Are you immobilized in your witness because of your lack of knowledge of the Bible?
  3. Are you immobilized because of not praying?
  4. Think of ways that you as an individual can and will increase your mobility with the gospel.
  5. How will you implement these new ways?

A suggestion: Each of you reading this book has at least one extra Bible. Give it to someone you know (or dont know), or send it to me and I will send it to Africa or China or to a university student in the United States.