“Then Jerubbaal who IS Gideon, and ALL the people that were with him, rose up early, and pitched beside the well of Harod; so that the host of the Midianites were on the north side of them, by the hill of Moreh, in the valley.

And the Lord said unto Gideon, The people that are with thee are TOO MANY for me to give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel vaunt THEMSELVES AGAINST ME, saying, Mine own hand hath saved me.

Now therefore, go to, proclaim in the ears of the people, saying, Whosoever is fearful and afraid, let him return and DEPART early FROM mount Gilead. And there returned (left) of the people twenty and two thousand; and THERE REMAINED ten thousand.

And the Lord said unto Gideon, The people are yet (still) TOO MANY; bring them down into the water, and I will try (test) them for thee THERE: and it shall be, that of whom I say unto thee, This shall go with thee; and of whomever I say unto thee, This shall not go with thee, the same shall not go.

So he brought down the people unto the water: and the Lord said unto Gideon, Every one that lappeth of the water with his tongue, as a dog lappeth, him shall thou set by himself; likewise every one that boweth down upon his knees to drink.

And the number of them that lapped, putting their hand to their mouth, were THREE HUNDRED men;  but all the rest of the people bowed down upon their knees to drink water.

And the Lord said unto Gideon, By the three hundred men that lapped I will save you, and deliver the Midianites into thine hand; and let all the other people go every man into his place (home).” Judges 7:1-7

Most know the story of the oppression by the Midianites and they were fierce and when God called Gideon  to lead the people to freedom, he wanted some assurance and…. a little more.. well much more  reassurance that this was God’s will and that is a very good and noble desire. So I would imagine that deep down Gideon pictured this battle taking place with a multitude of the strongest of the strong and with the host of heaven as guard and with back ups for his back ups.

We too, fall into this human realm of thinking, we want that back up, that assurance that our numbers are far superior than those of our enemies, but as Christians, we have our enemies we see and we have the many, many more unseen enemies to our salvation and our walk. God sees things a bit differently, He wants the enemies, the world, and US to know that our victories come through Him and through Him ALONE.

Zechariah 4:6: ” Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This IS the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel, saying, NOT by might, NOT by power, BUT BY MY SPIRIT, saith the Lord of hosts.” 

Things that may not always look quite right to us can be EXACTLY right on target with God’s plan. Our problem come when we question, ponder, and consider the why’s , why not’s, and the dreaded what-if’s.

Instead of pondering we need to go down to that water for a little bit, what was so different about the three hundred?  For starters, twenty-two thousand left for fear, and there is nothing wrong with admitting fear.

And there is nothing wrong with being afraid, that IS why God gave us so much comfort through His word, with scriptures such as, “What TIME I am afraid, I WILL trust in thee” and His promise to “NEVER leave us or forsake us” but that is sometimes and there are sometime when we have that fear we have to just set it out and wait for that fear to pass, because we have all been afraid in life, BUT in the operations of battles of faith, there IS no room for fear. Fear and faith can not coincide because it will lead to double mindedness and we can not waver into fear creating doubt against the very thing we are believing for, that is why we were warned over and over again about fear, remember, ” For God hath NOT given us the SPIRIT of fear; but OF POWER, and of LOVE, and of a SOUND MIND.” (2 Timothy 1:7)

Those fears play over and over attacking our minds with the what-ifs, and why’s and why not’s and that creates doubt and discouragement that stifles the faith that He has given us and the working of His power in our lives and His perfect love which casts out ALL fear.

So now he is down to ten thousand, still quite a number, but STILL too many, because it would have been a little too easy for the flesh to rise up and convince people that they were strong and that was what won the battle.

And God likes to work in the realm of IMPOSSIBLE, that IS His specialty! The test was in the water… they were ALL at the water, the separation came based on how they chose to drink it. The MAJORITY just bowed at the water and the three hundred paid attention and stayed on alert and they USED what they had, they brought the water to their mouth by hand and they weren’t afraid of being inappropriate or considered uncivilized, they had a mission and the mission was there only concern. 

I think this is how the last day harvesters are going to play out, as the separation continues, as we are in the great falling away but we know we are also approaching the pouring out ( I think we have actually already entered into it) people have to know their mission and not look to the left or to the right, ONLY to the Lord because it IS all Him, just like the mighty victory He gave Gideon. Gideon needed ONLY to obey and God gave him every encouragement he could have dreamt of along the way.

Maybe your church doesn’t look quite as full as you’d like, or your ministry seems stuck on auto pilot, life may seem to be taking you everywhere but where YOU WANT TO GO. Have faith, you have no ide what God is doing behind the scenes and if you give up, you WILL never know hat could have been, so DON”T EVEN ENTERTAIN THAT THOUGHT.

The army of the Lord is not for quitters and once you make that conscious decision to stand, even if you are the last one standing, you will be glad you did, when all looks hopeless, when all looks impossible, THAT is when the sweetest victories come, and it makes you stronger in the Lord because you KNOW, HE has allowed you to stand, in the face of the enemy, in the face of your fears, in the face of your hurt, sorrow, and despair, you then can show others, that they too can stand.

Don’t despise the “small things”, don’t question things you may not understand at the moment, stay your course and accept your mission, USE what He has given you, no matter what others may think, when you find yourself at that water, don’t be too afraid drink!

Φλογίζω Σαλπιζω NBJ 2017

LOVE this song! Try singing it!