“6b Now He was going around the villages in a circuit, teaching. 7 He summoned the Twelve and began to send them out in pairs and gave them authority over unclean spirits. 8 He instructed them to take nothing for the road except a walking stick: no bread, no traveling bag, no money in their belts. 9 They were to wear sandals, but not put on an extra shirt. 10 Then He said to them, “Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you leave that place. 11 If any place does not welcome you and people refuse to listen to you, when you leave there, shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them.”
12 So they went out and preached that people should repent. 13 And they were driving out many demons, anointing many sick people with olive oil, and healing them.”
Mark 6:6b-13
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These disciples were sent out to live on faith. They had to depend on God’s provision through other people, trusting that He would provide what was needed for the work.

That can be a very difficult thing to do, but it was essential for their training. They had to learn what it meant to trust completely in God and His provision. It wouldn’t have been the same experience if they had their own money bags or food stashes. Instead, their forced reliance on God’s work through others kept their faith and their egos in check.

It would have been easy to have an ego issue. Jesus is gaining popularity, and they have a close association with Him. They could have been sent our feeling like they were hot stuff, guys to be admired. They were part of the inner circle after all…
But that attitude would have kept their hearts from hearing and their faith from growing. So, Jesus tells them that they are to go out and live on the generosity of strangers, trusting that they will be provided for by God through them.

There are plenty of opportunities in life for us to depend on something or someone else, rather than God Himself, for our provision. We cannot be faithful witnesses if we ignore the provision of God and trust in anyone or anything but Him. Our testimony, given as we GoLove in His Name, needs to be born from a faith that trusts fully in Him and carries no false gods.