God, in history, has, often, asked his people to do things that defy human reasoning. If God asked you to wait on Him, when it didn't make common sense to do so, could you wait? How long? A little while? How long could you trust? Is your faith strong enough, your relationship deep enough, your trust in God sure enough that you could believe and obey? Or would you cry out, "God this doesn't make sense!", and have to run to fix it, to reason and be your own god, in control? These are tough questions!
Right now, God is asking me to do something that doesn't compute for me. I need a job, I've been filling out applications and putting in resumes, willing to take any job, any amount of money! Why, Jim, my husband took a job one time, sweeping floors at Alaska F.I.S.H., a commercial fishing store in Homer, AK and in months God made him manager. We had stepped out in faith and moved from Florida to Alaska, with Jim's parents and another couple, the Sunthimer's, to plant God's church. We moved to Homer, not having jobs, not knowing where we would live. God said, "Go!" and we did, we didn't think, we didn't reason, we got there and God provided for every single one of us! He provided all we needed! Faith stories require faith! It's easy to run around and apply ourselves and help God fix it, but what if he says, "Be still, trust me, if you move on your own, you'll miss my blessing, be still, sit at my feet, wait for it, wait for it!" How long? What? When? Lord, I need to know this is you! This doesn't make sense!
In Exodus 3, Moses was tending sheep, when God called to him from the burning bush in verse 7 of chapter 3 and God said, "I have, indeed, seen the misery of my people (Israel) in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So, I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians." In verse 10, God says, "So I am sending you to Pharoah to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt." Moses asks God, "Who am I that I should go to Pharoah and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?" In verse 12 God promises to go with Moses. Moses has more questions, "Who should I say sent me?" (in verse 13) Moses asks, "What if they do not believe me or listen to me?" And God answers Moses by having him throw his staff down and it becomes a snake and Moses runs from it! Lol. God said, "This is so they will believe I appeared to you", God was giving Moses a sign, a miracle, to prove God sent him.
In Exodus 4:6 God has Moses put his hand inside his cloak and take it out and it was leperous, like snow, and when he put it back inside, as God instructed, it went away. Then God said that if they didn't believe the first two signs to take some water from the Nile and pour it on dry ground and the water will become blood.
Do you know what Moses' response was? After seeing all these miracles, Moses has an excuse, as to why he shouldn't be the one to go! In Exodus 4:10 Moses claims he's never been eloquent! We want to say, "Come on man, you are hearing the voice of God and he's given you three signs, stop being such a wimp! Get over it already!" Really? Would we really be so quick, as one man, to go to Egypt, alone, and go before Pharoah knowing of his powerful army, knowing he's got the nation of Israel in slavery? Would we really have the courage to go alone? I know God said He was going with him, but this is new to Moses.
God knows the heart, He knew Moses' and He was patient with Moses' fear; He understood. God was asking something of Moses that was, totally, outside the thoughts of human reasoning and common sense.
Was having the faith to step into the tumultuous Red Sea and to expect to cross on dry ground within human reasoning? What about expecting (food) manna, to fall from heaven to be fed or water to come from a rock? What about your clothes and shoes not having to be replaced for 40 years?
Let's look at the story of Gideon, in Judges 6 beginning in verse 1, it says, "Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord, and for seven years He (God) gave them into the hands of the Midianites." They were living in caves and the cleft of rocks because the Midianites were so oppressive. The Medianites were stealing and destroying their crops and they spared no living thing for Israel, neither sheep nor cattle nor donkeys. In verse 5 it says the Midianites were like a swarm of locusts! In verse 6 it says that the Midianites had so impoverished the Israelites that they cried out to the Lord for help. Later, in verse 11, the angel of the Lord appears to Gideon who was HIDING in the winepress threshing wheat to keep it from the Midianites and God addresses him as "mighty warrior".
The Lord then calls Gideon to "go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian's hand. Am I not sending you?"
Like Moses Gideon, now, has some serious questions. In verse 15, "But Lord, how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family." The Lord responds, "I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites together." Gideon then pleads with God not to be angry with them but asks Him, "give me a sign that it is You really talking to me?"(I always thought God's voice was audible in the Old Testament, but Gideon obvious has the same struggle we do here.)
Boy, can I relate! I believe God, I trust him, He's proven Himself worthy of my complete trust! This is exactly where I am right now~ "God, I trust You, but I have to know this is You asking me to do this and not some old ladie's craziness! Lord, I will obey, but I have to KNOW it's Your voice!"
Gideon, asks for a sign two times and both times, God does what Gideon asks. Gideon asked for the fleece on the ground to be wet and the ground to remain dry and God did it. The second time Gideon asked for the fleece to be dry and the ground to be wet and, again, God did it.
Gideon, then, pleaded for the angel of the Lord to wait, while he prepared a sacricfice and when it was ready, Gideon place it on the rock, as God had told him and God consumed it.
God came to Gideon a second time in verse 25 and ask him to take a second bull from his father's flock, tear down his father's altar to Baal and cut down the Asherole Pole, and offer the second bull as an offering. In verse 27 it says, that because Gideon was afraid of his family and of the men in the town, he did it by night. This is the same man, the angel of the Lord addressed back in verse 12, "The Lord is with you, MIGHTY WARRIOR." This is the same man that hid in the winepress to thresh wheat! (God understands our feet are made of clay and is patient.)
Later, in chapter 7 Gideon and all his men are camped at the spring of Harod. The Lord tells Gideon that he has too many men for the battle! Too many men? Why? How could that be? This is a battle, you want all the men you can get!
But God says in verse 2, "because, (in order that), Israel may not boast against Me that her own strength saved her." God wanted the glory! He was going to cause Gideon and the 300 men do the impossible, something that they couldn't do on their own and HE wanted the glory for it! (I'm sorry, but God is asking something that goes against human reasoning.) Would you have the faith to do this?
So, God took twenty-two thousand and narrowed them down to ten thousand and then He further directed Gideon in the downsizing to only the 300 men!
God was mindful of Gideon's fear, because He said to Gideon, in Judges 7:10, "If you are still afraid, go down to the camp with your servant Purah and listen to what they are saying. Afterward, you will be encouraged to attack the camp. You can read about the dream Gideon overheard and how God used the 300 men to wipe out the Midianites in Judges 7, it's a true story!
But what I want you to see and recognize today is that sometimes what God asks us to do, isn't reasonable to the human mind. It takes faith, to move with God! If you want God to use you, if you want to count for eternity, you have to grow in your faith, to be willing to move out of your comfort zone! You will need to KNOW Him, intimately, to trust Him and to KNOW His voice. You will need to have Him first and foremost in your life, to be able to move against the fear. You, also, will have to move beyond your dependency on self, the desire to be your own god, your own decision maker!
Is your faith strong enough? Is your relationship deep enough, to know when God is speaking? Are you selfless enough, to put down your life and follow God, in total submission?
Come to God, more intimately, through His Word! See it for yourself! Search for Him! God calls ordinary people, like you and like me, to do extraordinary things! God does not look at the outward appearance. Praise God! He looks at the heart!
God is looking for a heart that is fully His, someone who is willing to be, completely, obedient! Someone who is willing to lay down their dreams and purposes and live for God alone! Join me my friend, I have not yet attained this, but let's search the depths of God together and go deeper still! Let's let Him mature us and use us, "In His Name And For His Glory"! May God empower you to be all He created you to be! Seek His face ~ He has a plan and a purpose for your life! Will you live for yourself or will you deny yourself and live for Him?
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