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 The spirit of Gideon speaking to the end time church-part one

Now in the days of Gideon, a time of judgement, the Midianites and the Amikalites oppressed the children of God. No matter what the Israelites planted, they never got to see the fruits of their labor. The Midianites and the Amakilites would come in like locusts and devour and take everything. And so, Israel was greatly impoverished. Can I suggest that we face the same landscape and problems in Christendom today? We are impoverished spiritually and financially and no matter the work done, it is consumed by the idols and the enemy which seems to be all around us like locusts.

Now, in their distress, the children of Israel cried out to God for a deliverer, and the Lord sent them a prophet. The prophet reminded them of God’s faithfulness and how they had rejected Him (Jud 6:8-10) Now, at God’s appointed time, when all is desolate, He speaks to Gideon who was threshing wheat in the wine-press in an effort to hide his activities from their oppressors.(6-11) “The Lord is with you mighty man of valor.” You see how God is calling what is not as it would be. Hiding from your enemies in a defunct wine=press in an effort to get some bread is hardly the stuff of valor. Brothers and sisters, I want you to see Gideon as a type of the Remnant God is in the process of raising up right now. Do not focus on the 300 as of yet, for that is still a ways off. We as people are not ready yet. Listen to what Gideon says to the Lord.

“Oh my Lord, if the Lord is with us, then why has all this happened to us? And where are all the miracles which our Fathers told us about saying,”Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?” But now the Lord has forsaken us and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites.”(v 13)

How many of us today, brothers and sisters, would cry out the same thing as Gideon just did? Does it not seem to you that we are surrounded by darkness on every side? Maybe in your personal life you feel forsaken? Maybe it’s been a long time since you have experienced the presence of God if ever? Have you ever said in your own heart, just like Gideon ” Where are all the miracles?” Maybe it’s been a long time since you have seen a loved one or anyone for that matter, well saved and radically regenerated?

And after Gideon gets through with his complaints to God, the Lord speaks to him and says “ Go in the might of yours and you shall save Israel…….have I not sent you?” (v 14) You see how God refuses to take on board what Gideon has just complained about and again affirms His calling on Gideon’s life? Saints, take heart at this for God has called you, listen to how Gideon replies and see if this reflects your own heart. ” How can I save Israel? Indeed my clan is the weakest in Manassah and I am the least in my father’s house.” (v15) To which the Lord replies “ Surely I will be with you.”

Can you see how the Lord picked the weakest man from the weakest clan? It’s not about the man brothers and sisters, it’s about the God that goes with the man. If God is with us, who can be against us? This truly represents the Remnant believers today. We are the weakest men and women. The reply that Gideon gave to God is the right reply in the right spirit. Without God we are nothing and can do nothing, but by the same token, when God is with us , and He says to Gideon “Surely I will be with you,’ then there is nothing we cannot do. This is the spirit of the people of God today. They acknowledge their own weakness and this is through their personal experience. They have experienced failure and they know what it is like to feel abandoned, this has been a journey and it ends with them knowing their utter helplessness without God being with them

Now brothers and sisters, this is a theme all through Scriptures. Consider what Moses says after forty years in the desert after fleeing Egypt and believing ( rightly) that he would be used to deliver his people. Again it comes in encounter and the Lord commissioning , this time in a burning bush “ Who am I that I should bring the children of God out of Israel? (Ex 3:11) You see, as with Gideon, there is an encounter with God. Consider Jeremiah as he encounters God ” Before I formed you in the womb I knew you. Before you were born I sanctified you. I ordained you as a prophet to the nations. Then said I, Ah Lord behold I cannot speak for I am a youth.” (Jer 1:6) You see the reluctance of the prophets who know their limitations but it is God who calls and it is God who send and it is God who goes before.

One more example would be the prophet Isaiah in chapter six. He encounters God and cries out ” Woe is me for I am undone because I am a man of unclean lips.” (Isa 6:5) There are many objections, and they are sound reasons, these prophets are not lying when they tell God how unworthy they are or how unable they are or how they cannot speak or are so very very weak. God knows these things. Yet God will share His Glory with no man. He picks the weak things of this world to confound the wise and to bring glory to Himself. It is He who does the calling, and it is obedience to the calling that is required. If you are not allowing God to use you because of how weak you are then maybe all of these prophets should not have moved forward with God either?

 2016/3/8 19:44





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