We are in the age when God wants to move and accomplish great things on earth through us. God's biggest hurdle with us has been FEAR! He had to go through this with Moses, Joshua, Gideon and every man he has ever worked with since creation. We will take a look at these exceptional soldiers that earned a place of honour in David's army. Their peculiarity was that they conquered fear.

David was chased all over the country by King Saul and had just escaped from the king of Gath to the cave of Adullam. There, streams of men came looking for him to join him in his embattled situation. (See 1 Sam. 22:1-2)

These were not the kind of men society could be proud of. In fact, a glance at each man's dossier would be enough to send them packing out of the army if they were lucky to find themselves there. The Bible describes them as being in trouble, financial debt and as men who were generally unsatisfied with life.

If they were, by any means promising soldiers, King Saul would no doubt have mopped them up into his army for he had a record of taking in the best. The truth is that these men were not even qualified to join the army! Their lives were riddled with fear. It was in this state that they gathered themselves to David.

'Fear' here has nothing to do with the 'spooky' feeling we feel when we're in the dark, it is more than a feeling it is an attitude. Sometime in 2004, I visited a brother I had earlier led to the Lord. At his house, we had an engaging discourse on the story of Joseph and how God could still use a man despite all odds. To my surprise, he confided in me that just before I walked in, he had been worried about how his life would turn out. According to him, he worried so much, he was afraid he would run mad but after our discussion on Joseph's travails and eventual glory, he could conquer the fear of the unknown.

Psychologists have names for all kinds of fears (Phobias). Everything, from water, failure and even the future can terrorize certain people. Paul the apostle tells us in 2 Timothy 1:7 that fear is not of God. Also, in Hebrews 2:14, 15, he names fear as Satan's tool with which he puts mankind in bondage. In spite of a man's obvious abilities, fear cripples him and makes him seem impotent. It makes man irrational, almost always making the wrong decisions like Adam did by hiding from God when he sinned.

Adam ate the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil and discovered he was naked. When God came calling, he went hiding. Today when believers get into trouble with sin, they go hiding from other believers and their pastors; some do not even show up in church! The things we need the most are the things we dread the most; fear makes you run from your solution. It is rooted in sin and Satan and like every attitude; it only grows when its fed.

How then can I conquer fear? Simply by starving your fear; it will surely die out and the best way to starve your fear is not to focus on it because whatever you focus on dominates you. Now I'm not advocating denial of fear nor am I saying that focusing on other things will deal with fear in your life. What I'm saying is that we take our eyes from the things and thoughts that will feed our fear and focus on God's Word, which is able to attack that fear.

For instance if God asked you to do something for Him that will bring opposition from respected people, you will like Jeremiah have to deal with the fear of man (Jer. 1: 4 - 8). When thoughts like:

"What will people say about me?"

"How miserable will it be when my ordination license is revoked?"

Look to God's Word in Psalm 27:1 which says:

"The Lord is my strength...whom shall I fear?"

You do not only starve your fear, you at the same time attack it with God's Word. Anything outside of God's Word is not competent to deal with fear. I'm certain that the men of Honour in our main text had this privilege of attending to God's Word while with David. A brief look at their exploits will convince you that this men conquered fear...

Josheb Basshebeth

Killed 800 men at one time!

Eleazar, son of Dodai

When Israel drew back from battle, only he stayed and fought until his hand got stuck to the sword. The retreating army came back to find corpses everywhere. (Sounds like Hollywood stunts? well, it's as real as can be).

*Shamah, son of Agee

Israel drew back from battle in a vegetable field but he stood in the middle of that same field and won the battle for Israel.

Years later, around this same cave of Adullam, David muttered a wish to drink from Bethlehem's well. Guess what? These three men literally broke through Philistine's army and got King David the water. The king on his part could not drink it...he couldn't get over the fact that they had risked their lives to get him water.

May I remind you that it did not take these three men overnight to change their profile. Fellowship with God through prayer and meditation on His word will change a victim of fear to a man of honour and make yours the story of the fearless.