Author: admin

Our mountaintop experiences are never meant to remove us from the fray, but to prepare us for battle. Too often we settle down to savor our encounter with God while He intends for that encounter to propel us into action.

Gideon had just experienced the most glorious worship experience of his life. He could have spent days reliving that moment or discussing the theological implications of what God had said and done. But God didn’t allow him that luxury.

The same day God captured Gideon’s attention He spoke to His servant again, giving him further orders. Divine encounters are not meant to make us idle but to make us usable. Before Gideon had met with God, he was unprepared to serve God. But after that encounter, Gideon began receiving assignments that scared him to death!

If you have recently had a powerful time with God in prayer or corporate worship, beware. After the encounter inevitably comes the assignment. The divine encounter will be perfectly suited to prepare you for the task at hand.

Even our most startling and compelling encounter with God can fade in our memory over time. Just ask the people of God who crossed over the Red Sea! At the time, you would be willing to swear that you would never forget the powerful way God worked in your life. You would never allow time to burnish the divine encounter that so dramatically changed your life. But inevitably the divine encounter “wears off” and we return to business as usual.

As soon as Gideon recognized he had just encountered God, He built an altar to commemorate that moment. He wanted a spiritual marker to remember the time when God set the direction for his life. For the remainder of his days, every time Gideon passed by that way, he was reminded of what God told him.

Gideon might become distracted over time. He could become extremely busy and preoccupied. He might even have his faith waiver in the face of a new challenge. But whenever he saw that altar, he was reminded that he had a calling on his life and that God had spoken to him clearly.

There are many ways to mark a spiritual high water moment in your life. The means is not as important as the fact that you built a spiritual marker by which to remember it. Be sure to visit your spiritual markers regularly and to recall what God said to you.

Whenever the Bible records a person’s meeting an angel of God, they typically have the same response. They are terrified! The first words out of the angel’s mouth are usually, “Peace! Don’t be afraid!” Why? It is because it is a fearful thing to be in the presence of a heavenly angel. It is far more unsettling to enter the presence of almighty God.

Interestingly, even after the angel burned up the offering with fire, the biblical writer did not assume it would be obvious to Gideon he was standing in a holy place. Gideon still had to “perceive” he was in God’s presence.

Sadly we often do not perceive when we are in the divine presence. People often pray: “God be with us!” This is not because God is not with them, but because they do not perceive how very present He actually is.

How can you tell which people at your church recognize God’s presence in their midst? They are the ones with a holy trembling. They are the worshipers who come away from the encounter changed.

How are you leaving your place of worship? Do you recognize the heavenly realities taking place all around you?

When Gideon worshiped God, God’s way, fire was the result. There was no question about God being pleased with Gideon’s sacrifice. It was obvious.

How could you tell if God was pleased with your worship of Him? If there is no physical fire, does God have any other means of assuring you He is pleased with your reverence of Him? If you can’t measure God’s pleasure of your life, how can you know if your life and your actions are acceptable to God? Or, are you merely assuming that they are?

We may have grown far too accustomed to worshiping God without fire. We grow satisfied with humdrum church services rather than dynamic, breathtaking encounters with the living God. Once the angel of the Lord departed, Gideon knew full well He had just undergone a life changing divine encounter.

When was the last time you felt that way as you left church?

Don’t assume you know how to properly worship your God. Just because you enjoy your worship or feel comfortable with it, does not entail that God is equally content. We tend to think that God is far too easily satisfied. We can inadvertently behave as if He is some pitiful, elderly grandfather figure who is just grateful that someone chose to stop by to visit Him.

He is not. He is God. It is not enough that we worship God; the manner in which we worship Him is also critical. It is all too possible to worship God casually, carelessly, or capriciously. We can be distracted and half-hearted. We can also give God far less than our best. While this might meet our sense of need to worship, it does not satisfy God.

Rather than being guided by our own likes and dislikes, we must seek God’s opinion on how we are to relate to Him. Only He can tell us if our worship is acceptable. Only He has the standard that matters.

God had specific instructions for Gideon. Anything less would have been inadequate. Perhaps God He has some particular behaviors He’d like to address with you as well.

“So” can be one of the most important two-letter words in our life. There is always a “so” after we hear from God. So, after Gideon heard a word from God, he responded immediately in obedience. Heaven always waits to see our response to His divine summons.

Some people choose to argue or enter into a prolonged debate with their Creator. Others agree with what they heard, but hesitate to take action.

Gideon not only responded immediately, he also acted vigorously. There was no food in the land, yet he offered a princely sacrifice. He might have excused his niggardliness due to poverty or hard times, but once Gideon heard from the Lord, he offered up the best that he had.

We often think of Gideon as being the “least” in his family. But God saw his heart and knew He had found a servant He could be pleased to use.

For all of Gideon’s weaknesses, he did have a heart that honored God. The moment it was clear that he had encountered God, Gideon’s immediate response was to worship.

In those moments when we face difficult circumstances or fierce opposition, we need to watch for the opportunity to have a worshipful encounter. It is often in the midst of our difficulties that we see God in ways we never had before.

If we become consumed with the task of obeying God, or if we immediately focus on the problems and difficulties, we may miss the opportunity to enjoy a powerful, fresh encounter with almighty God.

Gideon had just been given an extremely difficult and dangerous assignment. He might have become consumed with logistics. He might have had his mind racing with tasks that needed to be performed. But his immediate reaction was to take time to worship the One who had just spoken to him. Perhaps this glimpse into Gideon’s heart reveals why God chose to work through this fearful farmer in the first place.

One of the greatest challenges today for God’s people is that we do not know God as we should. His voice is unfamiliar to us. He speaks, but we are uncertain it is Him.

There are no shortcuts to knowing God. We must spend time with Him. We must learn what is on His heart. We must be still and listen.

Gideon was a member of God’s people, but he did not know God. When God initiated a powerful work that would free a nation from bondage, He first had to introduce Himself to His servant. Gideon may have believed in God, but he did not know Him.

Gideon’s question was not whether God could do what He said, but whether it was truly God speaking to him at all. Once he was certain he was hearing the divine voice, the timid farmer proceeded to obey.

We cannot afford to miss a word from God. There is too much at stake. Take time to familiarize yourself with His voice. Listen to Him. Observe how God dealt with others in the Bible. Prepare yourself for the word that is coming.

Imagine what the Church would be like today, if only His people had trusted Him.

The problem today is not the condition of unbelievers. They have always refused to believe or obey God. Nothing has changed. The problem is never God. He is just as powerful and willing to perform a great work as He has ever been. The one variable that always determines the extent to what God does is God’s people. Will we trust Him? Will we obey Him?

We spend far too much time and energy trying to explain to God why we cannot do what He told us, rather than immediately stepping forward and watching for a miracle. We claim that we serve a mighty God, but we live as if He is feeble and out of touch with the realities of our world.

We need to trust that God never asks us to do anything for which He is not fully prepared to make us successful. God can overcome any enemy. He can provide for our every need. His one great challenge is getting us to believe that.

The focus of our service for God can never be on us. It is never about us. When God asks us to do something, it is always about Him. It is His assignment, His provision, and His glory.

Yet when God gives us a task, we have a troubling tendency to talk more about ourselves than about the God who commissioned us. We immediately begin evaluating our strengths and weakness. We worry about the opposition. We fret about adequate resources. We anticipate people’s objections and criticisms. Our mind can review a thousand reasons why it will be difficult to impossible to do what God just said.

It is at this critical juncture in our life that our future spiritual growth and victory hinges. There are watershed moments in every Christian’s life where they either trust God and take a huge leap forward in their spiritual growth, or they wallow in worry and excuses and never experience what God intended to do in their life.

Has God been speaking to you about something? Are you trusting Him? Are you moving forward?