You Have the Power to Go! | Answering the Call

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And the Lord looked upon him, and said, Go in this thy might, and thou shalt save Israel from the hand of the Midianites: have not I sent thee?Judges 6:14

Gideon heard the message but he felt unqualified. He supposed he was inadequate for what God called him to do, stating that his family was “poor in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house” Judges 6:15.

Have you ever been there? Questioning your ability to do something beyond your normal scope of operations?

You are not alone. Many struggle daily with feelings of overwhelm, believing that this is just beyond my personal capabilities.

But can I tell you, where we see inability, God sees a victor in the making.  Where we see someone who can’t, He sees someone who can. Where we feel we would lose, God sees one who is built to conquer. It is not, nor has it ever been about what we see, think, or can do within ourselves.  It’s all about what God can do through us.

Gideon going up against the Midianites (read Judges 6:1-8:21) and winning against his enemies with an unusual victorious battle plan seems just as ludicrous as a skinny teenage boy like David going up against a great warrior like Goliath (both were outmatched and outsized).  But, anytime God places a call on someone’s life, He doesn’t measure their ability to do the job by the individual.  He doesn’t measure it by some fantastic gift they have in them, or their stature, or anything else one might use to determine the probability of success on the outside.  God measures it by what He knows He can do through that life on the inside; that person who will just “go” at His calling.   

The victory He had in mind for Gideon was so great that it was going to be as if “one man” (Judges 6:16) took down a whole army.  In our walk of faith, we must take our eyes off what we can do and focus more on what God can do through us, answer His call on our lives, and just “go”, “Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began,” – 1 Timothy 1:9

My friend, you can do this. His holy Word reminds us:

“Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.” – Jeremiah 1:5

“But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light;” – 1 Peter 2:9

And let us also remember:

“For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.” – Romans 11:29

A Sweet Creation

Have you ever witnessed the taffy-making process?  It is a very interesting process to watch for sure.  After mixing sugar and other ingredients together, you are left with this massive blob of sweet goodness lying on the work table.

What can one possibly do with such a non-conformative mess?  You can stretch it and pull it until it becomes a pliable consistency to be used for the sweet creation you had in mind.  Whether by hand or through the use of a machine, eventually the blob will yield to the purpose and intended design, becoming something very useful and delicious to the one who created it.

 My friend, you and I are the sweetness of God’s Creation.  So much so, in the beginning, He said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness…” Genesis 1:26.  There is something genuinely sweet and uniquely beautiful in the reality that the God of all creation wanted a special creature in His “likeness.” 

Sadly, this beautiful, sweet creation has been tainted, corrupted, and susceptible to the dregs of sin this world produces.  But that doesn’t stop the story.  Thank God!

There is something more in the eyes and in the heart of the Father for this lowly being.  He still sees the possibility of all they can become and with His holy hands, He begins His own process of pulling and stretching.  And like the taffy maker, He’s watching, and working, and drawing hearts near for the end result – a sweetness we can never feel, experience, or imagine on this side of glory.

But as with the blob of candy turned treat, there must be a willingness to yield to the pulling and stretching work God wants to perform in you and through you. 

The question is, will you truly let God have His way in your life.  Oh, I know the sentiments we say, the songs we sing, and the prayers we pray – but when it’s all said and done, as uncomfortable and sometimes painful, will we yield our all I holy surrender to become those sweet creations?

“But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.” James 1:22

“Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” James 4:7

“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.” Romans 12:1

“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.” Jeremiah 29:11

“There are many devices in a man’s heart; nevertheless the counsel of the Lord, that shall stand.” Proverbs 19:21

“But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light.” 1 Peter 2:9

“I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well” Psalm 139:14, and it is truly a sweet thing.

Blessings~

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Are You Willing?

My friend, if you are willing, that means you have a heart prepared to go and do what others may not be willing to do.  You see the possibilities and enthusiastically embrace and receive what may be ahead simply because the Master wants to use you.

Willingness for what?  Ah, my friend, only you can answer that question because only you can know the call you have been hearing or the pull in a certain direction that you have been feeling.  But it is not until the feet of faith have moved to the fulfillment of those things does your willingness shine through.

And shine you will.  For those who respond to God’s drawing in to follow and fulfill – that one, moving in obedience, shines, for “Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.  Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven” Matthew 5:14, 16.

That three-letter word “let” is asking for your permission to be allowed to be used by Him.  It’s asking are you willing?  Are you ready to respond in the affirmative with a steadfast “Yes”?

Second Corinthians 9:7 reminds us that God loves a cheerful giver.  Stretch that possibility beyond the gathering of an offering to be worked out in our everyday lives.  Are we cheerfully giving of ourselves?  Are we allowing the Master to use us as vessels fit for the job, “prepared unto every good work” 2 Timothy 2:21?

Many are agreeable in tongue, but has our willingness reached the point of being ready, pliable, and active in services to our King?  Paul implored the Roman church, and us, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service” Romans 12:1.

Are you willing?

Giving God My All

Giving God my all.  What exactly does that mean?

What are you holding?  What do you possess?  What is important to you?  Where does your love rest?

There are many parts of us.  And while many parts make us us, there is only one God, and He is to be over all.  Not just over all in the sense of His complete Sovereignty – but over your all, personally.

So, I ask you again, what is near and dear to you?  What do you treasure and hold in high regard?  There are no areas to be withheld from Him.  Wherever He wills, He can touch.  But how do we respond when He touches it?

As I ponder those questions, I am reminded of the time when adverse circumstances struck Job’s life in many different ways, all at the same time (Job 1-2).  Job’s response may seem mind-boggling to some for we are told in the midst of it all, he “worshipped, And said, Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither: the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord” (Job 1:20-21). 

Job may not have understood everything, and he may have felt sorrow and experienced grief, but even in this, he surrendered everything he held dear in his choice to worship.  He held on to his integrity and “In all this did not Job sin with his lips” (Job 2:10). 

How does our heart respond when that which is dear to us has faced times of crisis?  Do we really surrender all to Him, trust, and move forward even if our steps seem heavier than before?  Or do we shut down as we try to hold on to the very last thread of that beloved thing?

To “love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength” (Mark 12:30) means there is to be no part of me, or what I am, or what I have that comes before God.  Everything else must be willingly surrendered so that my love for Him shines first.