Lessons from Gideon, by Ps Ed Silvoso:
One: God has a different opinion of you than the one you have of yourself.
This is important as we see in the life of Gideon; he was in the midst of running away from the disaster, as he franticly put wheat into the jar to flee! As Ps Ed said, he wasn’t preparing to fight, but he was preparing his flight. The first thing that came to his mind was “I need to flee!” However, it was at that God-appointed moment, when he appeared to Gideon and said “The LORD is with you, mighty warrior” In modern context, this is exactly the stuff of sarcasm and utter humour! But yet, God does not see you as the person that’s in the enclosed by the past nor the present, He sees the person that He has destined you to be in the future!
Two: When you live in that revelation, your family and friends will have a higher opinion of you.
As God develops the person in you, he will bring about a change in you and around you. In the later verses of Judges 6, God instructs Gideon to kill the bulls that belong to the father as a burnt offering and to destroy the alter of Baal and Asherah. We are talking about the same Gideon that tried to run away when faced with a terrible opposition a few verses earlier, however, as Ps Ed said, at this point, he was a big mouse, but a mouse nonetheless. Hence he brought 10 other servants to do the job, in the night. When the people woke up the next morning, they confronted the Gideon’s father, which was Gideon’s largest fear. Instead of invoking the rage of his dad, Gideon’s dad defended him and said “If Baal has a problem with my son, let him deal with him!” Now, that is having God’s favour and the favour of your family turned towards you.
Another point that is worth noting, is God’s instruction in destroying the alters. He said “When you’re done destroying the Baal and Asherah alters, I want you to build a proper alter to the true Lord God”. I find this very interesting and this step is as important as the previous step. This reminds me of the story of David and Goliath. When David killed Goliath with his slingshot, he did not just leave the scene and proclaim victory. What he did was to use the sword of Goliath to behead Goliath himself! In the case of Gideon, the used the destroyed alter wood, to burn the bulls as a sacrifice.
Now, I’m thinking this is probably why most social problems never really get solved in our nation. We are very very focused in destroying the drug-taking habits, executing rapists, punishing abusive husbands and fathers and deploying hundreds of security measures everywhere. But once these are carried out, there isn’t any steps taken in putting in place a proper alter of the true God. We let the cut up pieces of the Baal’s alter scattered around and we leave Goliath intact. Now, we can argue that we live in a Muslim nation, but there is no reason why the Church doesn’t rise up and present the nation with a cure perhaps.
Three: Ultimately, God will change the mindsets of your enemies so that they will have a different and higher opinion of you than what you think you were.
Finally, in the realization of Gideon as the mighty warrior of God, God instructs him to go to the enemy’s camp. And only in there, He will give Gideon a revelation and speak to him. This is mighty crazy. But the fact is this, often times the battle is won in the enemy’s ground, rather than in your own turf. This is what God means by claiming enemy territory.
God managed to change the life of Gideon from a coward to a true mighty warrior. What has God called you? He doesn’t see who you are and how you’re feeling. He will only say “Be strong and courageous, rise up mighty man and woman of God. This is your time, this is your moment. March into the enemy’s camp and set the captives free!”
I’ll share more on some true stories of what’s happening in
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home