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Go in the Strength You Have from Refreshing Hope Ministries on Vimeo.

When I was praying about the message this week, “Go in the Strength You Have” came to me and then this entire message downloaded to my mind over the next minute. The core of the message is this:

The Lord will intentionally put you into hopeless situations, and separate you from those that would have helped, in order to get you to trust in Him. He has done it all through scripture, just as He told Abraham to leave his father’s house and country and travel to a place that He would show him later. Abraham had to trust and go, without knowing where he was going. I have seen similar things happen in our life, time after time.

We are going to begin in the book of Judges, with Gideon. Israel “did evil” in the sight of the Lord and soon they were over run by the Midianites. For seven years, each time the harvest in Israel became ready, raiders from Midian would swoop down and take it away. We pick it up in Judges chapter 6 verse 12 where we find Gideon threshing wheat inside of a winepress in order to hide it from the Midianites when an Angel of the Lord appeared to him:

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? 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.” Judges 6:12-13 NIV

Gideon’s response was “Why has all of this happened to us?” Then “The Lord has abandoned us…” I cannot tell you how many times I have thought and said those exact words. There would be feelings of fear, anxiety, hopelessness, and helplessness flooding in. The feeling that God had abandoned us, and those constant whispers that I was alone, and He didn’t care. Gideon was just trying to stay alive, and he had no hope of things changing.

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…” Judges 6:14-16 NIV

Here we learn that the “angel of the Lord” is actually the Lord Jesus Christ making a rare appearance in the Old Testament, for “The Lord” spoke to him. Jesus apparently took on the form of a common man because Gideon did not recognize who He was, and he was not afraid of arguing with Him. When Jesus said “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior”, He was indeed. “The Lord” was standing right there in front of him, speaking.

Jesus told Gideon to “Go in the strength you have” and save Israel, and then Gideon began to make excuses: “How can I save Israel? My family is the weakest in our tribe, and I am the weakest in my family!” Jesus said “I will be with you.” That is the key to: “How can I?” - “I will be with you.”

Gideon gathered an army of 32,000 men to fight with Midian, but God separated him from them. 22,000 left, then 9,700 left, and Gideon was left with 300 men. That was enough, for when the battle began, Midian turned on themselves and began fighting each other. The strength that Gideon had was more than enough.

Zechariah wrote: “Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the LORD of hosts (Zechariah 4:6 ESV).  Paul wrote this to the Corinthians:

“For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again.” (2 Corinthians 1:8 ESV).

Paul wrote that the afflictions were allowed so that they would rely on God and themselves. It is amazing the lengths that God will go to get you to trust in Him. He will shake up your world and everything that you put your trust in except Him, will let you down.

The Lord is not completely ruthless, but make no mistake, He is a gardener that is not afraid of pruning you back and cutting away things that you no longer need. He will remove your training wheels, when you want to keep them. I cannot count the times that He put someone in my life to teach me the basics of something, and then suddenly removed them so that I would grow myself.

When He began pushing me into my own computer business, He removed everyone that I would look to for answers so that I could only pray to Him. Day after day, His help, His wisdom, His grace was more than enough to do anything that I faced.

When David stepped out to face Goliath, they tried to give him armor, but he would not wear it. He was more comfortable in what he already had on. The strength that he had was more than enough because God’s strength is made perfect in our weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9). In Gideon, Got intentionally chose the weakest in his family, who was the weakest clan in his tribe. 

He will turn your weakness into incredible success if you will put your trust in Him. It does not matter what you face. His Spirit will rush upon you just as it did with Samson when the time comes. Jesus said “the Helper, the Holy Spirit, will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you” (John 14:26). He will teach us all things.

James wrote that if any of us lack wisdom, let him ask of God who gives generously, and it will be given them (James 1:5). That is how Solomon got his wisdom. He was not born as the wisest man on earth. He asked God for it and it was given to him as a gift.

Whatever the Lord calls you to do, if you will just start in the strength that you already have, it will be enough. Anything else that you need will be added along the way.

You can pray this with me if you like:

Prayer: Heavenly Father, please guide me today and speak to me in a way that I understand. I want Your perfect will for me to be done in my life. Help me to focus on the right things and give me a clear vision, in the name of Jesus Christ I pray. Amen.