Armor Bearers

Today in a meeting the staff of Barefoot Church discussed how to develop the spirit of an armorbearer. 'In the Old Testament an armorbearer was the one responsible for carrying his master's shield into battle. He had the awesome responsibility of seeing to the safety of his officer.' With all the changes going on in Barefoot Church, it is so very important that we all understand and believe in the vision the God has put in Clays heart. Now more than ever he needs our support, he needs armorbearers.
In translation from the original Hebrew words nacah ("to lift") and keliy ("to end") we see that 'the duty of an armorbearer is to stand beside his leader, to assist him, to lift him up, and to protect him against any enemy that might attack him.' Letting pride and negative attitudes get in the way can be seriously counter-productive. We must always be learning and growing in our relationships with Christ and the people he has placed around us. We must support the vision and the leader, always trusting in what God is doing. The ability to be able to do this can only really be achieved through an intimate relationship with God.
To use an analogy given in the meeting today - "The vision" is like a pregnancy in a way that it is conceived out of intimacy with God. We are aware the some pregnancies are not necessarily conceived out of intimacy but rather some other sort of superficial relationship. The same can occur with vision, and when the vision becomes reality - or is born - and the intimacy isn't there you may not fully understand or even like the product. So in order for us to be true armorbearers for our leader we must have an intimate relationship with God.