There’s nothing quite like being “in the flow” of the Spirit of God. The alternative is to be stuck in stagnation and end nowhere. Not necessarily in dim chambers of dying religious duties; more likely in a back billabong of memories about amazing things you once saw and may never see again.
One man questioned, “If the LORD is with us, why then has all this [trouble] happened to us” And where are all his miracles that our fathers told us about?” (Judges 6:13) But his people had done evil in the sight of the LORD, which is why He delivered them into the hand of a nearby enemy for seven years (Judges 6:1).
Gideon, the man who asked the question, saw himself as a nobody. But the Angel of the LORD appeared to him while he was threshing wheat in a winepress. How was that contradictory act working for him? The Angel’s message? “The LORD is with you, you mighty man of valour!”
Is the presence and power of the LORD evident in your life? Are you not seeing the great things you saw God do many years ago? God’s answer to Gideon’s question ended with an exclamation! Gideon was the answer to his own question! The Angel said, “You are the Man!” I guess the lesson from this is that if you don’t want God to place an exclamation mark after your name, then don’t ask Him the question!
I like that the Angel of the LORD sat down under a tree and watched, while Gideon worked hard to thresh wheat in a place without wind. Was he a bit bemused by Gideon’s odd behaviour? If so, it’s likely that he was not the first angel to be bemused by a contradictory quirk in human behaviour.
It worked out in the end, of course — as it does always when God chooses a man or woman for a Divine Mission. The beginning is more often than not the hard part; when that is past, the rest is relatively easy. (For Gideon the beginning was the destruction of his father’s idol to Baal in the dead of night. Judges 6:25-27.)
Are you doing something which you know is contradictory? Are you doing it to preserve something you need to keep secure? If chosen by the Lord to do a thing that seemed impossible, would you rather that God chose someone else — anyone else? Would you try to evade responsibility by describing yourself as “the least of the least”? Gideon tried all these. things.
Well, then, welcome to God’s Call on your life! That is, if you have received one. But don’t even begin thinking you’ll not receive one just because, in your own eyes, you don’t qualify as a leader — much less one destined to become a national hero! Even though a reluctant one. Is God calling you to do something far too big for your liking?
“Me?” Yes, you! Your very inability for the task is your qualification! You need to see yourself as God does. As a hero. Now, where to get started…