We Can Be Transformed By God

Posted on March 23, 2018 by dkoop

In the last post we saw that God often puts us through tests.   We may not like it but there’s an important point in our story:  Power in our Christian life always comes after testing not before.  We all need power to break bad habits and power to live as Christ has called us to.  The path to power is through a test.

In Luke 4, Jesus demonstrates this for us.  Luke records that Jesus was full of the Spirit and He was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil.  For forty days He went without food and He was in the middle of the desert.  And the devil tempted Him.  Jesus was perfect but was still tested.  It was a tremendous test.  Notice in below in Luke 4:1 how Jesus went into the test and in Luke 4:13 how Jesus came out of the test forty days later.

Luke 4:1 “Jesus, full of the Holy spirit, returned from the Jordan.  He was led by the Spirit in the desert.”  Does the Spirit lead us into testing sometimes?  Yes, definitely.  Sometimes God specifically leads us into a test.  “Where for forty days he was tempted by the devil.”  It says he was led of the Spirit and He was full of the Spirit going in.

But look at how he came out.  Luke 4:13 “At the end of forty days when the devil had finished all his tempting he left him until an opportune time.  And Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit.”  The way that we get power in our Christian life is by passing the tests.

How do you handle tests?  When you have a trial in your life, do you get cranky and irritable?  Cuss God out?  Say, “I’m not going to be a follower of Christ anymore!” And quit church?  How do you handle the irritations in your life?  If we handle them incorrectly, we may have to take the test again.  If we pass we grow in power!

After the test, that’s where Gideon receives God’s power in his life.  Judges 6:34 “Then the Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon.”  Now he’s ready for service, ready to be a leader.  God says, I’m going to help you. I’m going to put my power in your life.  He’d promised His Spirit, now it’s a reality.  The secret of Gideon’s life is that now God is working through him.  “The Spirit came upon Gideon” literally in Hebrew means “the spirit clothed himself with Gideon.”  It’s like saying “Gideon, I’m going to take over your body.”  God works in the world but he does it through people that are usable.  God and Gideon — one plus God equals a majority.  Now he had the power, now he had the confidence, now he had the strength to take on this mighty army. And the Spirit was going to help him.  Gideon was transformed by God’s Spirit from fearful to faithful, from loser into a leader.

Gideon responded correctly.  When we read the rest of Judges 6 and 7 we have the conclusion of the story.  Gideon was now ready. He was transformed into a leader.  He goes out, blows a trumpet and says, “Everybody rally around!” and thousands of people rallied around him — a man, who a few weeks before, was in the bottom of a wine press hiding out.  He cries out, “Who wants to follow the Lord into battle?” and 32,000 people showed up!

God says, “Gideon, that’s too many people.  I want you to thin the ranks.”  That doesn’t make sense.  It tells us that the enemy had 135,000 in their army.  They were camped out in the valley in their tents with their camels.  Thirty-two thousand is still grossly under rated compared to 135,000 in a battle.  God said, “That’s too many because I don’t want the people to get the credit for it.  I’ll take the credit.  It’s going to be a miracle.  So, Gideon, you tell every one of those 32,000 people who are afraid to go home.”  So Gideon gets up and says, “Everybody who’s afraid, go home!” and 22,000 went home. Evidently there were a lot of people like Gideon during this time.

God said, “That’s still too many.  I want you to do a test.  Take them down to the river.  Those who get down and lay on their stomachs to get a drink, drinking straight out of the water, send them home.  Those who hold their spear to their side and lap up water with their hands, and keep looking for the enemy, those are the trained ones.”  Some were careless and some were careful.

So he took them down and gave them that test and sent another 9,700 home.  That left 300 men.  God not only often uses unlikely people, he uses an unlikely strategy!  Three hundred men against 135,000 are odds of about 450 to one.

Then God says, “Here are the tools you’re going to take into battle.  Number one, give every one of those 300 men a clay pot.  Gideon must have thought,  “Of course Lord!  I’ve always thought clay pots were a very effective weapon!”  Then not only that, give everybody a horn.  Gideon could have thought “Of course!  That’s standard issue weapons a horn and a clap pot!”  And number three, “give everybody a torch.”

In the middle of the night, Gideon takes his little band of 300 men and circle around the valley and spread out into a complete circle.  Each man with his torch lit but the clay pot over it so that the light would not shine out.  God says to Gideon, “When I say `Go!’ you tell the men to blow the trumpets, to shout `For the Lord and for Gideon!’ and to break the clay pots.  Why?  That will make a noise which the enemy won’t know what it is; it will scare them.  The light will shine out and just a few men will look like thousands.  In their panic the enemy will begin to fight each other.”

That is exactly what happened.  Gideon gave the shout, they cried out, they blew the trumpets, they made the statements, they broke the pots, the light shone out and the Midianites woke up, began running around in their tents with their pajamas on, pulling out their swords and began to fight each other.  Judges records that over a hundred thousand soldiers were killed that day while the Israelites stood there and watched!  It was psychological warfare of the finest degree.  The little group looked like a thousand.  It was a tremendous victory.

Gideon became a national hero, someone who a few weeks before was afraid of his own shadow.  That’s how God works in our lives.

Do you think God could use you in a way like that?  We always live up to our view of ourselves.  If not, God has to start with a new view of you.

Some of us are at number 1 and need encouragement. We talk at church about how we need to believe in God.  True, but God also believes in you!  The Bible says, “We love because he first loved us.”  And God is saying, “I know you.  I made you.  I see your potential.  I know that you’re only using two percent of your brain capacity.  And you ain’t seen nothing yet!”

I think the whole point Gideon’s life is that we limit God by our own unbelief.  God could do so much more in our lives than we have ever imagined if we’ll be available.  Let God give us a glimpse of our potential.  We can do something significant for God.

Some of us are at number 2.  We are ready to experience God personally.  Maybe you’ve had a religion but you’ve never had a relationship.  God wants to know you.  Jesus said, `I have called you My friends.‘  He wants you to know Him personally, be able to just drive down the freeway and say, `Lord, here’s what’s on my heart today’ and talk to Him.  No thee’s or thou’s or fancy phrases.  Make a simple prayer of commitment in your heart, “Father, I want to know You.  Jesus Christ, make yourself real to me and let me have an encounter with God.”

Some of us are at number 3 and we’re getting ready to enter a test.  It’s a test of compromise.  Will you compromise what you believe?  It may be a test at work.  It may be a test at home.  It may be a test at school.  What’s going to have first place in your life?  Status?  Career?  Money?  Things? What’s going to have first place in your life?  Anything that is not God that’s in first place becomes an idol.  Maybe you need to do some spiritual housecleaning.  Say, “Lord, what is the Baal in my backyard?  What is it that competes for my time and energy, that really replaces You?”  Is it the search for a spouse?  Is it the search for a new job?  Is it trying to become famous?  What is it, Lord, that competes with You in my life?”  We like to compromise.  We want the best of both worlds. Yet God says, “I want total allegiance.”

Some of us are ready for number 4 to be transformed.  Are you trying to fight God’s battles in your power and you’re tired?  We need God’s Spirit in our lives.  If we’ve committed our life to Christ, the Holy Spirit is in our life.  Now we need to depend on His power.  It’s not only onetime experience where all of a sudden God zaps us and for the rest of our lives we’re super Christians.  It’s also a moment by moment experience where we daily say, “Lord, I need Your strength in my life.  Spirit, live through me.”

Gideon was a fearful individual who became faithful and powerful when he trusted God.  Will you join me in trusting God?

Darrell

 

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God Will Test Us

Posted on March 22, 2018 by dkoop

Struggling with a low self-esteem? Filled with fear and anxiety?  God will encourage us and God will give us his presence, but unfortunately God will also test us!  God gave Gideon a test and God will test you and me.  Before God will ever use us in a significant way He will test us.  There will always be a test before God can use you in a significant way.  It’s test of whether you’re really going to trust God and obey him.  This is what happened in Gideon’s life.

The background of the story is that during this time of oppression and depression in Israel, they had decided to take in everybody else’s false gods.  They were trying to worship God and idols at the same time.  They were compromising their faith.  God said, “Gideon, I have a task for you to do.  Before you do anything else, I want you to go and tear down the idol that your dad built — the false god that’s in your little village.”  v. 25 “That same night the Lord said to him, `Take the second bull from your father’s herd, one of seven years old and tear down your father’s altar to Baal and cut down the Asherah [which was another god.  Baal was a fertility god.  It was a sexual cult] Then build the proper kind of altar to the Lord, your God, on the top of this bluff and using the wood of the Asherah, that you cut down, offer the second bull as an offering.”  So Gideon took ten of his servants and he did as the Lord told him.”  He tore down the idol in his life.

What’s the idol in your life?  What is the Baal in your backyard? God could not bless Gideon until he was ready to obey without question.  This incident shows us the three ways that God may test you.  And God will test you one of these three ways or maybe all three ways before He can use you significantly.

  1. God may test me spiritually.

This is a test of Who’s going to be God in my life.  Exodus 20:3 the very first commandment, “You shalt have no other gods before me.”  God wants complete allegiance, total obedience.  He doesn’t want any compromise. Do you want halfhearted commitment in your marriage?   God want to be number one in your life.  A spiritual test is “What is number one in your life?  What’s the Baal in your backyard?  What’s the idol?  It may be a job or a child.  It could be a possession, a position of prominence, status.  It could be a place.  What is it that competes for your time and energy for number one place in your life?  Whatever it is it’s a god and God may say, “Cut it down.”  We need to do some spiritual housecleaning.  Clean up our own backyard.  God may test us spiritually to see what’s really important in our life.

  1. God may test me emotionally.

Notice who’s altar it was.  It was his father’s altar.  It says he went and tore it down at night because he was afraid of his family.  I mean a confrontation with tradition. He’s saying, “My whole family has been worshiping this for years.  I’m going to break with tradition.”  That’s an emotional test.  Family ties.

Do you ever find yourself limiting your Christian life because of what other people think?  Do you keep your faith and convictions to yourself because family members might become upset?  It was his dad’s idol. He goes and smashes it.  Who’s going to pay for it?   There was an emotional test here.  Sometimes following God means that we stand alone if necessary.

Service for the Lord always begins at home.  He said, “Gideon, before you can go out and take on the world let’s clean up your act right here in your own family.  Our service for the Lord starts in our homes.  It doesn’t matter what I do or what I say or what I accomplish if my family is falling apart, nothing else really matters.  That’s my first responsibility.

  1. God may test me physically.

There may be a physical test in our life that God will use to see how willing we are to follow directions and instructions. When you think about this, this was a risky move — go out at night and tear down the town idol.  It didn’t matter that his dad had built it and it was his family’s.  It couldn’t have been the most prominent family in town because he said he was the least family.  But he went against tradition and it wasn’t exactly going to win Gideon a popularity contest.  In fact, it could have cost him his life.  When we read the next few verses, we’ll find that when they woke up the next morning the town formed a lynch mob and came after Gideon because he had done this.

“In the morning when the men of the town got up, there was Baal’s altar demolished and the Asherah beside it cut down and the second bull sacrificed on the altar. They asked each other, `Who did this?’ When they carefully investigate they were told Gideon, son of Joash did it.’  So the men of the town demanded of Joash his dad, “Bring out your son.  He must die because he has broken down Baal’s altar and cut down the Asherah beside it.”   Judges 6:28-30.   This is a physical test.  He could literally lose his life.

The point is this:  If we really get serious about serving God expect tension.  We may cause people to get upset.  We may upset a few traditions.

But Gideon obeyed completely.  And it affected his father.  It influenced his father in a positive way.  His father actually came to his defense even though it was his father’s idol that had been torn down.  “Joash replied to the hostile crowd round him, `Are you going to plead Baal’s cause?  Are you going to try to save him?  If Baal is really a god he can defend himself.”   Judges 6:31  That’s smart thinking!  If he was really a god he could take care of himself.  He doesn’t need me.  How many things in our life that we put up on a pedestal we think are really important and yet when we take them off the pedestal we realize they weren’t that important at all?  How many things in our life have we thought, “I can’t live without that!” and yet when we do live without it, it’s no big deal.  Those things that we glorify and honor and work and spend our lives for and set as our main goal and then we get it and we think, “It’s not the god I thought it was going to be.  It’s not the pleasure producing item I thought it to be.”

Gideon’s father came to his defense.  Joash saw in his son Gideon something that made him proud.  Courage is contagious.  Faith is infectious. All of a sudden Joash was saying, “My son’s right.  We shouldn’t be compromising.”  Gideon passed the test will we?

After the God’s test comes the final step in God’s transforming process.  We’ll look at that in the next post.

Darrell

 

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How to Fight Against Fear

Posted on March 21, 2018 by dkoop

Who is Gideon? Is that the guy who wrote the Bible in the motel? No, but he is a classic example of an unlikely hero. An ordinary person that God uses in an extraordinary way!

He was a fearful individual which is why we are relating him to the comic book figure “Green Lantern.”  In “A Beginner’s Guide to Green Lantern,” it says that “all Green Lanterns are united in their ability to overcome great fear.”

Gideon was definitely fearful and would overcome his fear.  He was also a farm boy who became a national hero.  Against incredible odds, he saved his nation.  Israel was at the lowest point of their nation. They were spiritually, emotionally, physically, mentally, economically bankrupt.  An enemy nation called the Midianites had come in like a swarm of locusts 135,000 strong and forced all the people who lived in Israel to move into caves.  They were living in caves and eking out survival.  We find Gideon initially down in the bottom of a winepress threshing grain instead of out in the open where the wind could get the chafe out.  He was hiding. If he was seen they’d kill him and take his wheat.

When things get bad, God looks for a person to use.  God often uses the most unlikely person.

Do you think, “God could never use me?”  God often uses the most unlikely people.  This is what the story of Gideon is about — how God turns nobodies into somebodies.  This is the story of the process that God uses to change losers into leaders.  He turns zeros into heroes.  He turns cowards into champions.  That’s what happened in Gideon’s life and it can happen in your life.

Gideon was a very timid person.  His personality was, he was afraid of his own shadow.  He was scared to death.  He had all kinds of insecurities and feelings of inadequacy and self doubt. Psychologists today would say that Gideon had an inferiority complex.  We find him hiding out.  Judges 6:11 “The angel of the Lord came and sat down under the oak tree in Ophrah that belonged to Joash [who was his dad] his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites.]

Out of fear, Gideon had climbed down into the winepress and he is threshing grain to eke out a little bit of wheat to make some bread for his family that’s living in a cave in these dark desperate times when everybody’s lost hope.  They’re helpless. They’re driven to despair.  And an angel of the Lord comes to Gideon and says this (v. 12) “The angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon and he said, `The Lord is with you mighty warrior.'”  Get the irony in that?  This guy is afraid of his own shadow and the angel says, “the Lord is with you mighty warrior.”  How did God change fearful Gideon?

God took him through a four step process. 

 1. Be Encouraged By God

God often starts in our life with a word of encouragement.  He sees our potential and He wants us to see it.  When God starts to work in your life, first He wants you to get a new view of you.  He wants you to get a glimpse of your potential.  He wasn’t looking at what Gideon was; he was looking at his potential.

God affirmed Gideon.  He said, “You’re a mighty warrior!”  Gideon was anything but a mighty warrior.  He was hiding.  Nothing could be further from Gideon’s image of himself than to be called a mighty warrior.  I’m sure Gideon would say, “Hey, you’ve got this wrong.  Don’t you mean Gideon the coward?”  But God was looking at Gideon’s potential not what he was already.

Jesus often did this.  Encouragement is a powerful form of motivation.  Jesus would look at Peter and say, “Peter, you’re going to be a rock.”  Peter was anything but a rock.  He was Mr. Impulsive.  Mr. Impetuous.  He was always putting his foot in his mouth.  God said, You’re going to be a rock.

God looked at Gideon and said, “You think you’re a weakling but you are a mighty man of valor.”

Notice Gideon’s reaction.  Gideon started making excuses.  v. 13 “But sir,’ Gideon replied.  `If the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us?  Where are all the wonders that the fathers told about us when they said, `Did not the Lord bring us out of Egypt?  But now the Lord has abandoned us and put us into the hands of the Midians.'”  Circle these words in v. 13.  These are the words of the vocabulary of an insecure person.  “if”, “why”, “where”, and “but”.  Those are words of insecurity.

Gideon started making excuses.  Who me?  You’ve got to be kidding!  He’s protesting.  “I’m no mighty man of valor.”  He had so much self-doubt that three times he had to ask God for a confirmation that He was even talking to him.  That’s doubt!

He came up with all kinds of excuses.  v. 15 “`But Lord,’ Gideon asked. `How can I save Israel?  My clan is the weakest in Manesseh and I’m the least in my family.'”

Pick out these excuses.  In the first place Gideon says, “You’ve got the wrong village, God.”  Gideon was born in Ophrah.  Ophrah is a little, tiny village.  Ophrah means in Hebrew “the place of dustiness”.  Does that sound like a lot of potential?  Does that sound like a place where you’d want to launch a national campaign?  The place of dustiness.  He said, “You’ve got the wrong location, Lord.”

On top of that he says, “You’ve got the wrong family.  We’re the poorest family in my entire tribe.  We’ve got no financial backing.  We’re weak.  How could I launch a campaign against a 135,000 enemy soldiers.”

On top of that, he said, “You’ve got the wrong guy in the family!  Even if you did pick my family, I’m the youngest kid in the family.  I’m the runt.”  God often uses and chooses the most unlikely person, the youngest guy of the poorest family in the most unknown town at the bottom of a well. God says, “You’re a mighty man of valor.”  God starts with encouragement.

Many people miss God’s plan for their life because they just can’t see themselves in that role.  They just can’t see themselves as a dynamic Christian.  They can’t see themselves as a leader.  They can’t see themselves as being an influential person spiritually.  “I could never do that!” they say.  “Who me?”  Do you see yourself as a dynamic leader?  Do you think God could use you the way he used Gideon?  No?  Then this post is for you!  God always starts with encouragement.   He says, “You can be more than you are right now.”  You underestimate your potential.  The greatest way we limit God is limiting Him by saying, “Lord, I can’t do it!”  So God had to expand Gideon’s vision.  He had to give him a glimpse.

Notice God’s response.  v. 14 “The Lord turned to him and said, `Go in the strength that you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand.  Am I not sending you?’ …  The Lord answered, `I will be with you.  You will strike down the Midianites as if they were but one man.'”  He said, it will be a cinch!

God’s response to our insecurity is three statements here:  I’m sending you.  I’m going to be with you.  You can’t fail.

When we’re doing God’s will we cannot be a failure.  When you’re doing God’s will you cannot be considered a failure. God’s will is perfect.

He’s saying “I’m with you.  I’m sending you.  You can’t fail.” Romans 8:31 “If God be for us, who can be against us?”  When God wants to change you from a loser into a leader, when God wants to change you from a coward into a champion, He starts first with encouragement.  “You can do it.  You can change.  You can be something you never thought you could be before.” Are you listening to God’s encouragement?  The second way we fight fear is to…

  1. Experience God

Gideon had a personal experience with God.  The fact of the matter is, when God wants to change me, first He encourages me and second, He meets me.  He gets to know me.  He shows His presence to me.  I have a personal experience with God and hope you can too.  Life should become more than a religion but a relationship.

This is what happened with Gideon.  v. 17, “If I’ve now found favor in your eyes, give me a sign that it’s really you talking to me. Please don’t go away until I come back and bring an offering and set it before you.’  And the Lord said, `I’ll wait for you to return.'”  God waits.  God waits for us.  God was ready to use Gideon right there.  But Gideon said, “I’m not ready yet.”  Gideon went back home and prepared a meal at great expense and he brought it back to God and offered this mean to this angel of the Lord and it was supernaturally consumed.  He realized then that he was talking to God.

vs. 22 “When Gideon realizes that it was the angel of the Lord he exclaimed, `Ah, sovereign Lord! I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face.’ But God said to him, `Peace.  Don’t be afraid.  You’re not going to die.’  So Gideon built an altar. And he called it `The Lord is peace’ and it stands there to this day.”  Gideon had a personal experience with God and it says he made an altar.  He piled up some stones.

What does an altar represent?  In the Old Testament, an altar always represents a personal commitment to God.  It was a reminder.  Gideon was saying, “I don’t ever want to forget this so I’m going to put some stones up here and make an altar so that every time I pass by here I’ll remember that I encountered God personally, face to face here.  I had an experience with God.” This represents where God meets man.

Notice he named the altar.  He named it, “The Lord is peace”.  In Hebrew, Jehovah-shalom.  Why did he do that?  He’s getting ready to go into battle.  The world is falling apart.  It’s total chaos around him and yet he says, “The Lord is peace.”

That’s the natural consequence anytime you have an experience with God.  For the first time in Gideon’s life he felt at peace.  He felt at peace with himself.  He had peace of mind.  No matter even though the circumstances around him were falling apart he had internal peace.  That’s the result of committing it all to God.  It always brings peace.

Before we are ready to fight external battles we must have internal peace.  Before we are ready to face the tough times we’re facing at work or at home or out there in the world, we’ve got to have an internal peace inside, capable to handle the battles.  Where do we get that?  We come to the point that Gideon did, an encounter with God.  Pray for it, desire it, ask for it.

First, God’s encouragement:  “You can do it!”  Second, God’s revelation:  “Gideon, I’m here.  I’m going to help you.”  All of a sudden God reveals to you and you realize, “I’m not alone in this situation.”  That’s a revelation.

Have you had that experience with God yet?  Or are you still trying to face all your battles on your own?

Then there’s the third stage to fighting our fears.  And this is the toughest phase in how God changes us from fearful losers into faithful leaders. I want to spend a little bit of time on it in the next post.

Darrell

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You Too Can Be Wonderful, Part 2

Posted on March 21, 2018 by dkoop

Does fear or opposition paralyze you? Would you like to have more courage in the face of oppostion? How did Deborah walk forward despite her fear and opposition?  It was to lead her people into battle against the odds.  Look at God’s command in Judges Chapter 4.  It says,

 10 At Kedesh, Barak called together the tribes of Zebulun and Naphtali, and 10,000 warriors went up with him. Deborah also went with him. Judges 4:10

So how was Deborah able to add so courageously?  Here’s the key.  She didn’t just become courageous at that instant.  She had becoming courageous slowly and surely throughout her life.   Courage isn’t a characteristic that you can just pull out of a hat when you need it.  Courage is a habit developed over time by doing the little things courageously every day.  Courage is a habit that is developed by repetition, by repeatedly advancing boldly despite your fear.  Aristotle wrote this about character, “Moral excellence comes about as a result of habit.  We become just by doing just acts.  We become temperate by doing temperate acts, and we become brave by doing brave acts.”   Sometimes we get it reversed.  We think, “I need to become brave before I can do a brave act.  I need to become courageous before I can do a courageous thing,”  but that’s not the way it works.  We have to do a courageous act before we become courageous.   We are not born brave.  We become brave.  How?  By doing the very things that we are afraid of.  Want to know how to become brave?  Do the very thing that you are most afraid of.  As a result, you become courageous by doing what you are afraid to do and you don’t become courageous a second before you do that.  Unfortunately, our natural tendency is to run away from our fears. Or we try to find a nifty way around them.   When we do that, when we don’t face our fear, it leads to more fear and more regret and we still have that burden of fear no matter how many times we run from it.  We have to face your fears head on and that’s why I love this quote by Robert Frost, “The best way out is always through.”   When I take action to confront the area of greatest fear it does two things.  First of all, when I confront the fear I will see that its not as bad as I imagined.  Secondly, when I confront the fear head on I begin to develop more character and confidence.   Don’t avoid it, go through it.

Here’s my challenge to myself.  I want to confront my fears.  What is your area of greatest fear?  What is the area that is pinning you down and enslaving you the most, that you are afraid to move because of that fear?  What is that fear?  My challenge for myself and to you is to take action.  Take the first step toward defeating that fear.  Make that your number one thing to do.  Don’t walk around another day with that burden of fear that is paralyzing you.  Is there a phone call that you need to make?  Is there a confrontation that you need to make?  Is it a spiritual next step?  What is your step to confront that fear?  The next step to being wonderful…

Work with Others      

 Most difficult tasks require someone to help us. God tells Deborah to go to battle and that He will give Israel victory.  So she goes to the commander of the Israelite army, Barak, and says—Barak, why don’t you take the army and go fight.  He says—I’m not going to go unless you go.  This is how Barak responds to Deborah in Judges 4:8-9.

8 Barak told her, “I will go, but only if you go with me.”
9 “Very well,” she replied, “I will go with you. But you will receive no honor in this venture, for the Lord’s victory over Sisera will be at the hands of a woman.” So Deborah went with Barak… Judges 4:8-9

Barak wouldn’t go by himself, only if Deborah went with him.  As a result, he lost the glory for the victory.  But Deborah was prepared to go forward and obey God no matter what.  That’s what her courage was.  That was an exhibition of her courage.  She was going to believe God and move forward despite her fears.  Now, it’s easy to blame Barak.  Right?  He messed up.  He should have gone forward and the victory would have been his.  I really can’t blame him too much because in some ways I am like him.  It’s scary to go out alone when no one will go with you.  There is a saying, “Life is a team sport, and it’s best done together.”   You don’t have to live your life all by yourself.  You don’t have to try to be a person of faith and do it all by yourself.  There is a church here that wants to help you do that.  The best way to have people in life that encourage you and support you is to get connected in a group.  When we act in wonderful ways we get to experience wonderful things.  Like

 Watching God Give the Victory

What is the result of Deborah’s faith?

14 Then Deborah said to Barak, “Get ready! This is the day the Lord will give you victory over Sisera, for the Lord is marching ahead of you.” So Barak led his 10,000 warriors down the slopes of Mount Tabor into battle.
15 When Barak attacked, the Lord threw Sisera and all his chariots and warriors into a panic…        16 Then Barak chased the chariots and the enemy army… killing all of Sisera’s warriors. Not a single one was left alive. Judges 4:14-16

When we advance in spite of our fears, God steps in and helps and we become stronger and braver.  Today is the day for us to step outside of your comfort zone because  remaining where we are does us no good.  Fear paralyzes us.  When we don’t move, we end up missing out on what God has for us.    Don’t be afraid to move forward with your life.  Don’t be afraid of what the future holds if you step out of your comfort zone to obey God.  What is it that is holding you back?  What is your area of greatest fear, where God is asking you to act?  Is God is asking you to step outside of your comfort zone in a certain area?   Believe what God says and believe that He will provide for you if you will obey.  Recognize that your fears aren’t from God, that they are doubts placed in your life to keep you from experiencing God’s best in your life.  Then walk forward against the fears by taking action.  And then if you have to, venture alone, but rely on your church family and your Connect group to support and encourage you whenever possible.  Realize that you don’t have to do life alone.  Then finally, expect God’s victory.   Decide you are going to take the first step to obeying God and stepping outside of your comfort zone today.   God doesn’t want you to live your live cowering in the corner. That’s not freedom, that’s slavery.  Join me in living a courageous life where we experience God’s very best for our lives.

Darrell

 

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