Episode #120
This episode highlights an often overlooked aspect of Gideon’s story that is critical to fulfilling our own calling from God.
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EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
DISCLAIMER: The below transcript was automatically generated and has not been reviewed to ensure complete accuracy. Any references or quotes should be taken directly from the audio recording and not the below transcript.
(00:00): Preview
Well, on this episode, we are going to get into Gideon’s story in judges six, but we’re going to talk about a specific aspect of that story that often goes overlooked and it has the potential to be life changing for you. So stick around for the whole episode. Let’s get into it right now.
(00:19): Introduction
Hey, this is Ryan S. Howard. Thanks for tuning into my podcast. I call it your faith at work, because we want to get your faith out of the church and into the world. We want our faith to be active, and I’m here to help you get unstuck and fulfill all the God-given potential that you were created with. I’m going to help you find your God-given assignment so that you can advance the kingdom every single day. We’re going to do that and work in the culture and in life, visit Ryan S howard.com to learn more well,
(00:49): Episode
We’ll be in judges six today, and I’m going to highlight something that, as I said in the introduction has the potential to be life-changing. It’s a small aspect of this story of this history that often goes overlooked. And you may not have heard it highlighted before. And you may not have seen it there before, but we’re going to highlight that because it has an impact on everything that we do in every area of life. Everything God calls us to do, this is one key aspect. It’s like a Lynch pin. And before we get into the details there, let’s read judges chapter six, verses 12 to 16. So it says 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?
(01:44):
Where are all his wonders that our ancestors told us about? When they said did not the Lord bring us up out of Egypt, but now the Lord has abandoned us. And given us into the hand of Midian, 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? Pardon me? My Lord, Gideon replied, but how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family. The Lord answered. I will be with you and you will strike down all the Midianites, leaving none alive. And then it goes on to talk about how he accepted that call and got his man. And they went and tore down. They started with, by tearing down the altar of bale and cutting down the Asherah pole. They did that at night and some men wanted to kill him, others disagreed.
(02:37):
And you know, he went on and to have the, the 300 men and they conquered these tens and tens of thousands and thousands of thousands of soldiers in these other armies. And he did it with just 300 men, but I want to go back and highlight something specific here. If you look at what took place with this little interaction here, just these few verses, now God was with Gideon. But you know, as it said in verse 12, you know, the angel appeared and said, the Lord is with you mighty warrior. And God was with him, but he asked, well, if the Lord is with us, then why has this all happened to us? You know, he asked, you know, where are the wonders that we heard about? And, you know, he, it appeared that he believed that the Lord had abandoned them and abandoned Israel.
(03:24):
And you see, God gave no answer, though. He didn’t give an explanation. He just moved right into his assignment for Gideon. God simply offered, you know, am I not sending you? In other words, you know, what else is needed? What evidence, you know, that that should be that’s enough. That’s convincing enough. He didn’t bother spending time. And it could be that maybe he, you know, we don’t hate it. Didn’t have the capacity to really understand what was going on there, or just wasn’t the time to explain it. And God doesn’t need to explain that, but it’s just incredible. He just went right into his assignment and then Gideon responds by giving another question. But it’s about him personally, you know, Gideon believed see that the angel called him mighty warrior or a man of standing. This is that’s what this word means. You know, it designates a person who has a responsibility or is a upstanding individual in the community, or you know, a man of standing really speaks about their importance.
(04:25):
And he, he mentions that he’s the part of the, his family was the weakest clan and that he was the least in his family. And so he’s basically saying, you know, I, he, I don’t even have standing in my own family and how am I going to lead? All the claim were from the weakest clan. I’m how am I going to lead all the clans, all the Israelites, all the tribes, all the families to go and into battle. How am I going to do that? You know, he didn’t, he believed he didn’t have the ability. He didn’t have the authority and he didn’t have the standing. And he saw himself as, not as a mighty warrior, as, as the angel called him as a man of standing, he saw himself as a weak unimportant man with no authority and with no standing. And well, did he sit there and continue to argue with the angel about it?
(05:18):
Or did he argue with God about it? He didn’t, he, he, he moved on God, responded and said, I will be with you and you will strike down the Midianites. He didn’t sit there and try and convince Gideon that he had everything it took in himself. And he had to do all this stuff on his own. Of course he has a big part to play in this, but God is the one that’s going to do it through him. And God simply offers. I will be with you verse 16, and you will strike down all the Midianites period. End of stories. Simple as that. And Gideon had a choice, meaning he could accept what the angel said about him, what God said about him, that he was a man of standing, that he was a mighty warrior, or he could accept what he already thought in his head about himself was that he was weak unimportant no authority you know, from this weaker family, all that he could have accepted that.
(06:16):
Now that is the linchpin that I’m talking about. Look at all that he did when he accepted the identity and the call that God gave to him, regardless of his background. And regardless of what he thought of himself, you know, he went on to unite, Israel to take down these high places, these places of idol worship. And then he went on to conquer the Midianites and on and on and on and on and all these great conquests, but it all started when he accepted what God said about him. And, you know, he looked at what he would’ve missed out on. If he continued to deny his true identity and see himself as just this week, unimportant man with no authority and no standing, but praise God that he didn’t. And he, but he would have missed out on all of that. But if he continued to argue with God about that, and so he didn’t though, and his background didn’t matter.
(07:13):
He needed to change his self image to do what God had called him to do. I say that again, he needed to change his self image to do what God called him to do. How does he see himself? He needed to see himself the way God saw him otherwise, how’s he going to pick up that trumpet to blow it and have the men come and follow him, come and go to battle with him, go to war with him. You know, he’s going to have to hear from God, he’s going to have to do and take the, take the action. But if he doesn’t really see himself that way, it’s not going to have confidence. It’s not going to do, you know, he needs to see himself the way God’s saw him. And, but it’s, it’s not because of his abilities. It’s because God is with him.
(07:56):
God has called him and God will, God will, has given assurances of the victory. And so and God is sending him. So the question I have is what identity has God given you to have? Are you accepting it or are you arguing with God about it? Do you keep going back and forth or are you just accepting it? Has he called you to a certain career? Has he called you to a certain way to manage your family? Has he called you to a certain group of people? Has he called you to start a company to start a business? You know, whatever it is, maybe something smaller. Has he called you to lead a Bible study? Has he called you to disciple someone? Has he called you to share Jesus with somebody? Has he called you to pray for someone while I’m not that kind of person?
(08:45):
I don’t really pray out loud. I don’t really put myself out there really. Is that what God says about you or what you say about you? You know, so really you need to put it through the ringer. And this has been huge for me. I have, this has been monumental change for me, you know, throughout my life, where if you just see yourself, the way God sees you and the right way where you want to be, well, then you can go there and you actually will act differently. You will act as though you are that versus not acting that someday, you know, someday. So this, this mindset, the way you see yourself is very important. And what I think is really interesting is when God didn’t try to convince Gideon that he had everything that was needed to do what God called him to do.
(09:34):
He, he said, God told Gideon that it was because God was going to be with him. And because God was sending him, that’s why he should see himself that way. That’s why he will have the victory and he needed to go forward. He needed to accept that. So do you see yourself as someone who’s weak and lowly and no authority and no standing, or has a messed up past, or has made the same mistakes over and over, or doesn’t have the right background or doesn’t have the strength needed? Or do you see yourself as someone God has called and someone that God is with someone that God has equipped someone that God has given power and authority to do everything that he has called you to do. That is how you need to see yourself. You are someone God has called, and you are someone that God is with period.
(10:24):
End of story. Victory is already won. It’s already assured. And we just get to enjoy God while we’re doing this. And see. So like I said, Gideon went on to unite the Israelites against their common enemy, but he defeated them. He United them, he defeated them. He did this assignment, he did this, he fulfilled his calling with God’s power after he accepted what God said about him and that it would was in God’s strength that he was going to do it. And this, the spirit of the Lord was on Gideon. When he sounded the trumpet, all the warriors came to join him in the fight. It wasn’t sound the trumpet and then go and try and figure out how to scheme and get all these men to come join him. No, God put it in their hearts. God gave him the assignment. He accepted it, accepted the identity, and then God made everything happen around him.
(11:20):
And, but that was the linchpin. He had to accept the assignment. He had to accept his identity, what God said about him and, and, and well, what, what is it that you need to accept? And so he went on to fight and have all these great conquests and these victories that God did through him. So what is it for you? What is it that God has called you to do? Who is it that God has called you to be what’s in your heart right now? What is coming up to the top? What is it that you need that you’re looking for permission to see, as you know, if somebody came to you with what you’re thinking about right now, what advice would you give them? Would you tell them, you just need to own it. You need to own that. You need to accept that about yourself, what God says you need to move forward and, or, you know, would you be a little more discouraging?
(12:11):
No, that you wouldn’t, you would be very encouraging. You would lift them up. So why talk to yourself differently? So, so what is it commit, see yourself that way. Start to tell yourself, start to start to imagine what life would be like, seeing yourself that way. And if you really have no idea, nothing’s coming up. See what about mighty warrior man of standing or woman of standing and authority, spiritual authority, and things will change around you, that you had nothing to do with God is doing it, but see yourself the right way. And you will start to see these shifts happening. Just your mentality will be different things that you used to get caught up in mentally before. Just not there anymore. So take a step. What is it for you? Actually write it down, write it down and come back and look at it later today or tonight, and then look at it again tomorrow and look at it again the next day and look throughout the day. Just keep reminding yourself and keep, actually visualizing it and making sure that it happens and takes, takes fast action. Do something with this today, right now. What is it going to be, be committed to only believing about yourself, what God says about you, and you will see that it will make the world of difference in you accomplishing everything that God has created you and assigned you to do.
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