Fearlessly Courageous
Desk of Dennis Piller
10/18/2022
How can you say you’re helping me in the middle of this?
Judges 6 11-16 The angel of the Lord came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites. 12 When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said, “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior. Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us?
The Lord turned to him and said, “Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand. Am I not sending you?”
Gideon is terrified, “I am the least in all my tribe, why me? The angel says, I will be with you and you will strike them all down alive. Vs 18 show me a sign, but first, I will get an offering, before I expect something”.
That looks very different from the millions who show up at church with their hands out. Gideon, in all his inferiority, says, “I give first to you!”. What did God want Him to know? Why did He want him to know that, and in what context did God want him to hear it? “Go in the strength you have. Am I not sending you!”.
How can one perceive that other than there IS greatness that lives inside of you! That the Lord of Host will give you to the power of Samson to slay the enemy! Would you agree that God has more plans than you see right now?
Why would we struggle with the belief that there is greatness in us?
Number 1, we are humbled by such talk. Who Me? We often don’t believe or can’t believe that because of past failures and circumstances and by a false sense of humility… Oh no not me…. But the strength the angel told him to walk in was not an earthly greatness. He was talking about a spiritual greatness!
You may remember Mark 9:33 it relates an argument about who is the most significant of Jesus’ followers. This opened the door for a discussion on who among his followers will be the greatest. People have a problem with greatness, but Jesus did not and does not!
Whose the greatest?. He didn’t say nobody! The greatest is who will be a slave, a servant…He didn’t say a doormat or subserviate, The servant meaning in greek… means to deploy his gifts. God’s NOT offended by the greatness of your gifts but by you not using your gifts and the greatness he has placed in you to use!
He says everywhere in his instruction manual… I need you to deploy them. We are so busy with our employ, we forget to deploy our gifts.
He is often speaking about the Fruit of our lives and the tree that it grows from. Have you ever noticed that the tree, doesn’t eat its own fruit? The fruit is designed to be given away. Could one say that Christian hoarders are stealing the fruit? What happens when you keep it? It gets hard, and when left uneaten it gets bitter and rotten and goes bad. The fruit seeds have potential and a life, but it has lost it purpose, to nourish and strengthen and give life because we have stopped deploying.
There IS greatness inside of you. Do not let it rot on the vine.
Do not let this beautiful fruit that God has gifted to you be wasted. Through grace by faith, he has endowed you with these wonderous abilities and spiritual treasures but they are only unlocked and unleashed as we give them away. As we shower our love onto those around us. Your love is unique to your purpose in life… your purpose in living, it was meant for such a time as this…
to be spread abroad to those around you.
To love the Lord thy God with all thy breath and strength and to love your neighbor as yourself. It is part of the greatness that God has placed inside of you to spread his love and heart abroad before it decays and is rendered useless and wasted. How dishonoring is it to have such a lavish gift but to let it sit on some dusty shelf and never be used for the great purpose it was intended for?
Lord help me to see what you see. help me to see the greatness you have placed in me. Help me to believe that it is your strength that will be the power in its inception and its finish. In you be all the glory. In me Christ the cornerstone who is able to do all things! Lord help this poor meager person be the same warrior you called Gideon to be.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgpaULjZOl8&list=RDMM&index=6
Casting Crowns – Praise You In This Storm
Excerpts are taken from Man Event Daryl Black Grace Family Church
