Transformative Calling: Embracing God's Purpose in Weakness

The angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him the Lord L O R D the Lord is with you you mighty man of Valor now that came out of where did that come from here is a man laboring he's angry he's disillusioned he's tired of persecution and here is the Angel Senor he felt no way and he was no way at that point a mighty man of God but God had chosen this man to engage with his purposes. [00:10:54]

I remember when I was an art student in the studio painting and God came I'm here and God is over my shoulder behind me standing there a long time and I said to the Lord what do you want immediately quicker than words I knew God said to me you will be involved in my purposes and God freed me that moment from art school from every other responsibility and you know we are each one called by God for his purposes and it's in that engagement that we begin to realize our full potential it's for God not for me it's for God's Eternal purposes for this sick br broken sinful World in which we live hallelujah what a high calling is ours isn't it chosen by him. [00:12:01]

Paul speaks about the trumpet giving a certain sound to cause men to rise up to battle and you you know we we we sense very deep I said when when Ralph was Shing he senses very deeply as we do the urgency the awful urgency of what we face today in this world and in our nation stuff we never believed we would have to face here is the Army set against the children of God and it's it's in that context that the spirit of the Lord clothed Gideon we are the people of God and God will not fail he will clothe his people the Lord clothed Gideon and he sounded the trumpet we want as a people to God to have a certain clear sound in this day of compromise. [00:16:28]

God calls um he doesn't consider our weakness is our faults where we are and where we are not he calls and as we obey that call the transformation see how this anointing is in context of real life the the anointing of the holy spirit is not a luxury just for me it's for God to fulfill his purpose in the world and in this earth amongst men and women and God cses each one and givs US individually not just for Ministry in the church but out there in the context of the world Hal and that's where we get the anointing not sitting at home not necessarily sitting at church but as we engage with the world and God's purposes for many and women all right. [00:18:14]

Gideon is most famous for his fleece because he says God please excuse me but I need assurance and you remember how he puts out a fleece and when he gets up the next day the fleece is saturated with water and all around is dry and he says well I'm sorry Lord I still am insecure unsure will you do this again for me but do the reverse next morning let the fleece be dry and the whole area around saturate full of water and God does it for him now he's blown the trumpet he's gathered the tribes together and now God does the absolutely most unbelievable thing he says look your army you've gathered is too big because if you win this battle you're going to say I did it I won this battle and God says he not going to be like that so I'm going to reduce your strength I'm going to reduce your numbers. [00:19:05]

The first thing God says look tell the men the soldiers who were fearful to go home off you go and in a moment 22,000 soldiers leave the the battlefield you can imagine Gideon man alive how many how many of you got left this is crazy 22 just like that walk off goodbye going home to my wife and kids and back to normal life and then God looks at these he says well there still too many and Gideon man what was Gideon must have thought about that he said look when to go to the water and I want you to ask every man to drink so they go to the side of the river and they get down and some of them put their head in the water and they drink like this some of them take water out in their hands and they drink like this and there's no significance really in that we're always trying to find significance when sometimes it doesn't really matter but the the result was The Men Who stooped down got the water out of the river and and lapped the water in their palms there were 300 and God said to Gideon with those 300 men I'm going to win the battle all right numbers are totally irrelevant numbers give us security but God doesn't need security he's quite safe quite secure in who he is. [00:21:06]

The angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him the Lord L O R D the Lord is with you you mighty man of Valor now that came out of where did that come from here is a man laboring he's angry he's disillusioned he's tired of persecution and here is the Angel Senor he felt no way and he was no way at that point a mighty man of God but God had chosen this man to engage with his purposes. [00:10:54]

I remember when I was an art student in the studio painting and God came I'm here and God is over my shoulder behind me standing there a long time and I said to the Lord what do you want immediately quicker than words I knew God said to me you will be involved in my purposes and God freed me that moment from art school from every other responsibility and you know we are each one called by God for his purposes and it's in that engagement that we begin to realize our full potential it's for God not for me it's for God's Eternal purposes for this sick br broken sinful World in which we live hallelujah what a high calling is ours isn't it chosen by him. [00:12:01]

Paul speaks about the trumpet giving a certain sound to cause men to rise up to battle and you you know we we we sense very deep I said when when Ralph was Shing he senses very deeply as we do the urgency the awful urgency of what we face today in this world and in our nation stuff we never believed we would have to face here is the Army set against the children of God and it's it's in that context that the spirit of the Lord clothed Gideon we are the people of God and God will not fail he will clothe his people the Lord clothed Gideon and he sounded the trumpet we want as a people to God to have a certain clear sound in this day of compromise. [00:16:28]

God calls um he doesn't consider our weakness is our faults where we are and where we are not he calls and as we obey that call the transformation see how this anointing is in context of real life the the anointing of the holy spirit is not a luxury just for me it's for God to fulfill his purpose in the world and in this earth amongst men and women and God cses each one and givs US individually not just for Ministry in the church but out there in the context of the world Hal and that's where we get the anointing not sitting at home not necessarily sitting at church but as we engage with the world and God's purposes for many and women all right. [00:18:14]

Gideon is most famous for his fleece because he says God please excuse me but I need assurance and you remember how he puts out a fleece and when he gets up the next day the fleece is saturated with water and all around is dry and he says well I'm sorry Lord I still am insecure unsure will you do this again for me but do the reverse next morning let the fleece be dry and the whole area around saturate full of water and God does it for him now he's blown the trumpet he's gathered the tribes together and now God does the absolutely most unbelievable thing he says look your army you've gathered is too big because if you win this battle you're going to say I did it I won this battle and God says he not going to be like that so I'm going to reduce your strength I'm going to reduce your numbers. [00:19:05]

The first thing God says look tell the men the soldiers who were fearful to go home off you go and in a moment 22,000 soldiers leave the the battlefield you can imagine Gideon man alive how many how many of you got left this is crazy 22 just like that walk off goodbye going home to my wife and kids and back to normal life and then God looks at these he says well there still too many and Gideon man what was Gideon must have thought about that he said look when to go to the water and I want you to ask every man to drink so they go to the side of the river and they get down and some of them put their head in the water and they drink like this some of them take water out in their hands and they drink like this and there's no significance really in that we're always trying to find significance when sometimes it doesn't really matter but the the result was The Men Who stooped down got the water out of the river and and lapped the water in their palms there were 300 and God said to Gideon with those 300 men I'm going to win the battle all right numbers are totally irrelevant numbers give us security but God doesn't need security he's quite safe quite secure in who he is. [00:21:06]