In the book of Judges, chapter 6, the Angel of the LORD, who was probably Jesus Christ, appeared to Gideon and called him into his future. The enemy always calls you back to your past, but the Lord calls you into your future. He sees your potential when you cannot, well beyond today.

(Judges 6:11-12 NKJV) Now the Angel of the LORD came and sat under the terebinth tree which was in Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, while his son Gideon threshed wheat in the winepress, in order to hide it from the Midianites. And the Angel of the LORD appeared to him, and said to him, "The LORD is with you, you mighty man of valor!"

I love that. Gideon certainly didn't feel like a "mighty man of valor." He was the least in his family, and there were others far more qualified. Even that day, he was hiding wheat from Midianite raiders, whereas Samson would have probably beaten them down with their camel. His dad had an altar dedicated to baal, so Gideon wasn't chosen because of his family's faithfulness to the Lord either.

(Judges 6:13-14 NKJV) Gideon said to Him, "O my lord, if the LORD is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all His miracles which our fathers told us about, saying, 'Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt?' But now the LORD has forsaken us and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites." Then the LORD turned to him and said, "Go in this might of yours, and you shall save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Have I not sent you?"

Notice that it says, "the LORD turned to him." That's the secret ingredient. That is what turns the least in the family into the mighty man of valor. The LORD told the Apostle Paul, "My strength is made perfect in weakness" (2 Corinthians 12:9). Gideon was a perfect choice to display the Lord's strength.

(Judges 6:15-16 NKJV) So he said to Him, "O my Lord, how can I save Israel? Indeed my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house." And the LORD said to him, "Surely I will be with you, and you shall defeat the Midianites as one man."

Now it is the LORD speaking to Gideon and telling him, "Surely I will be with you." Doesn't this sound a lot like the encounter that Moses had at the burning bush?

(Exodus 3:2-4 NKJV) And the Angel of the LORD appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush. So he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, but the bush was not consumed. Then Moses said, "I will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush does not burn." So when the LORD saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, "Moses, Moses!" And he said, "Here I am."

Again, we see the Angel of the LORD appear and then "the LORD saw" and "God called to him from the midst of the bush..." Then the LORD sent Moses, as He sent Gideon.

(Exodus 3:10-12 NKJV) Come now, therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring My people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt." But Moses said to God, "Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?" So He said, "I will certainly be with you..."

Moses had recently turned a sprightly eighty and had been a shepherd for the last forty years. Yet, the Lord's strength is made perfect in weakness, and Moses was a perfect choice to display it through. He only needed the secret ingredient: The LORD.

Now, we know that Gideon took three-hundred men and routed an army "like locusts" and their camels "as numerous as the sand on the seashore" (Judges 7:12). Without the LORD, Gideon would not have stood a chance, but with Him, he was undefeatable. The LORD told Gideon, "Surely I will be with you."

Moses went to Egypt and faced Pharaoh. The LORD did incredible miracles through Moses, the ten plagues, parting the Red Sea, bringing water from rocks, and surrounding the camp with quail. Before he met the LORD, Moses had been a simple shepherd. The LORD told Moses, "I will certainly be with you."

Those are Old Testament stories; what about today? In the early 1990s, I got laid off from a supervisor position over a crew for an international construction company. I spent months out of work because no one would hire me after seeing my last salary, saying I was overqualified and probably wouldn't stay long.

While out of work, I prayed for the LORD to put me somewhere where I could listen to the Bible. I had begun attending Bible College at night, and listening to the Word during the day really helped. In my last job, I couldn't, and I also worked twelve-hour shifts on Saturday and Sunday, so I couldn't attend church either.

On the last day of my unemployment, I got a call from a temp agency I had applied to. They had an opening at a brass plant. I went the following day, and when I met the manager, he said, "Ready to start? Bring something to listen to. It gets really boring in here." I heard the Holy Spirit whisper, "This is what you asked Me for." So I said, yep...

So, after months out of work, I ended up polishing brass at a buffing machine for one-third of the pay for one year. I came home each day black from the buffing compound and green from the brass dust.

It was strange. It was one of the worst jobs I had ever had in a dimly lit, hundred-year-old building, freezing cold in the winter and sweltering hot in the summer. I was working for a temp agency with absolutely no benefits except a paycheck. The roar of the buffing machines was deafening, and you were covered in a thick soot. Yet, I knew without a shadow of a doubt that that was where the LORD wanted me, and I was content.

I calculated my tithes each week in the back of my seminary notebook, and though I was now earning one-third of what I had earned at my previous job, there was no lack. The LORD brought in other streams of income, such as playing music gigs and a handyman job here and there. Sometimes I would open my Bible and find money inside. I learned that the amount of your salary actually matters so little in having an abundance. It is not how much you make, but what you do with it. If you won't tithe on a little, you certainly won't tithe on a lot. Don't expect Him to reward unfaithfulness.

(Luke 16:10-11 NASB) "He who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much; and he who is unrighteous in a very little thing is unrighteous also in much. Therefore if you have not been faithful in the use of unrighteous wealth, who will entrust the true riches to you?"

Life in the fast lane certainly slowed down, but that gave me time to listen to the Bible all day, complete seminary, graduate, and become ordained. One day, I was at my buffing machine, polishing some brass faucet handles, listening to my CD Bible, and praying in the Spirit, when I felt something like oil being poured over my head.

I thought someone was pranking me and spun around, but there was no one there. There was such a sweet fragrance in the air. I felt my hair, and it was dry. Something changed that day. I could quote a scripture, and some would begin trembling and weeping. A mini-revival began right there, and I led some people to the LORD.

Soon, I began to work on computers at night in the garage. I had always loved technology and gadgets, but this was the LORD pushing me into something new. Companies began getting my phone number from a friend of a friend and calling me. I remember one of the first calls I got from an accounting office in Pawley's Island, SC. They had a corrupted network database containing years of clients' accounting data and tax returns, and it wouldn't open.

I had never seen a network database before, and I was about to say no, thank you, but I heard the Holy Spirit whisper, "Go, and I will go with you." The same as with Gideon, the same as with Moses. They were desperate and had no one else, so I went and prayed the entire forty-minute drive.

I walked in, and they took me to the network server. Computers mostly ran DOS then and used a command prompt. As the office stood around me watching, I heard the Holy Spirit whisper commands to type. It's been decades, but one was similar to RepairDB. The server churned for a while, then finally printed, 'Completed successfully.' The accounting app opened, and they could go back to work. They thought I was a network guru and were my clients for about the next fifteen years.

Soon, I had fifty clients like that and was working full-time on my own. The secret ingredient is the voice of the LORD. He makes all things possible. He opens doors no man can shut. He will teach you all things and can make everything you do prosper. The "Go, and I will go with you" is just as relevant today as it was thousands of years ago.

You can pray this with me if you like:

Prayer: Heavenly Father, please speak to me in a way that I understand and fulfill Your will in my life. Open the doors that You want me to go through and close the doors I should stay out of. Make what is important to You, important to me. In the name of Jesus Christ, I pray. Amen!