Small but Smart!
Judges 7:1:He divided the 300 men into three companies, and he put trumpets and empty pitchers into the hands of all of them, with torches inside the pitchers.”
While I was talking to the wife of a senior pastor of a huge church with more than 50 pastors working under them, I asked her how they managed the team, she replied:” when there is an important work to be finished, there are just only 2 pastors who would ‘finish’ the work given to them without giving any excuses, whereas the rest of them would conveniently ‘duck’ out with lame excuses. Did you hear that? My daughter Shalina directs the Christmas and other programs which are done elaborately at our Abide School, run for the poor, and we stage it in an auditorium; however, during the selection process, I would clearly point out to her who would come no matter what. Some may look very keen and interested but they would just vanish at the last moment, do you know anyone like that? Yes, they are right there next to you. Well, a leader needs to have discernment regarding this otherwise there would be mayhem.
STAY ALERT!
From the huge crowd of 32,000 people, 22,000 were sent home and then another 9,700 were sent back home leaving just 300 men. Small but smart! God knows who would endure the heat and who will scoot away, there are few leaders who go crazy with just a little bit of pressure and lack patience during the initial stages. What happens FAST goes away fast too! Caveat! Gideon divided the 300 men army into 3 groups, gave them a trumpet to be held in the right hand and a pitcher with torch inside in the left hand, so their two hands were full now. Soldiers should be capable of using ALL they have in order to win. I saw the mother of a class 5 student, of our school (who is strong and healthy boy) carry his bag after school, so I called her and told her not to spoil her son by carrying his luggage, instead he should be taught to carry his own luggage. Parents! Make a note of this. Train your kids to carry their own stuff, do their own laundry and be independent, which would surely help them in the long run.
A 17 year old teenager came to our meeting, heard my message and surrendered his life to Christ, continued to be connected with us, I named him Stephen, three years back he left for UP to serve as a missionary in Varanasi. He is now ALONE at his home in UP during this Corona quarantine days, I asked him his daily schedule, this is what the young man said:
• Morning devotion
• Bible reading
• Spiritual book reading
• Cooking, washing and cleaning
• Intercessory prayer
• Again night : Bible reading and prayer
• Weekly twice he also does night prayer
He showed no sign of loneliness! How about you?
Night watch!
Judges 7:19”So Gideon and the hundred men who were with him came to the outskirts of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch, when they had just posted the watch; and they blew the trumpets and smashed the pitchers that were in their hands.”
NIGHT VIGIL:
No more do we see the Gideon that we met in Judges 6:13, who asked umpteen questions but he is now a man who meticulously followed the plans of God and brings it to execution. Well, the timing that was selected for the finale was superb – beginning of the middle watch, which was around 11 pm! Ah! While the Midian army would have just hit their pillows after heavy dinner was the time Gideon chose to attack them with trumpet, torch and pitcher. No swords. God’s plan might look weird but watch the end! While everybody talks about divorce, God would tell you to pray for your husband who has been caught in adultery, this might sound weird but the end would be transformation and happy home. Did you get that? Wake up in the night and pray! Glory to Jesus! Yes, others can afford to sleep, but if you want victory, success, deliverance, power and God’s glory to cover and fill you then you got to spend time doing night prayer. Monthly once you got to separate time to spend the night in prayer, which is just awesome – tough but doable.
The God we serve does not sleep nor slumber, He does His BEST at night! Psalm 121: He will not allow your foot to slip; your Protector will not slumber. 4Behold, the Protector of Israel will not slumber or sleep. 5The LORD is your keeper; the LORD is the shade on your right hand.… C’mon friends, give Him a mighty hand of praise!
Some kind of problems like drug addiction, rebellious children, debts, demonic attacks, frequent accidents, marital problems, mental disorders and a lot more need deep praying and at times we got to wake up midnight like Gideon and pray. Are you listening? Some of us want easy way out but like Hannah we got to get up from the comfort zone and enter into the God zone for all the curses to be cut off from our life. The closed womb of Hannah was opened only after she got up from the presence of her husband who was pampering her and she went into the presence of God with deep mourning, weeping and tears. God watched that. God answered her.
PAY HARD:
I have to also mention the vow that Hannah made to offer her first born to the Lord. (1 Samuel 1:11) Many of us do not even give our tithes and offering to the Lord properly but we have great expectations from the Lord. Learn to sacrificially give to the Lord then there would be a great breakthrough. I got to also mention Zaccheus here who gave away half of his wealth to the poor and said “if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will give back four times as much." (Luke 19:8) When Zaccheus did that there was salvation for his entire family on a single day! Great miracle! Stretch today to pray and pay!
Would like to quote a few scriptures where Jesus and the saints prayed for an important cause through the night:
Luke 6:12 : It was at this time that He went off to the mountain to pray, and He spent the whole night in prayer to God.
Genesis 32:24: Then Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until daybreak.
1 Samuel 15:11 :"I regret that I have made Saul king, for he has turned back from following Me and has not carried out My commands " And Samuel was distressed and cried out to the LORD all night.
Conclusion: People are paranoid or even resentful when they find out that they didn't measure up for a job or promotion, they blame God and curse the society for abandoning them, but from the life of Gideon we learn that a man can do great things WITH God. Yeah, with God! When we allow God to call the shots in our life then it would be magnificent.
Step by step, God guides Gideon and at one points Gideon boldly commands: "do as I do" (Judges 7:
17) "Look at me and do likewise. And behold, when I come to the outskirts of the camp, do as I do.
Proverbs 4:7 “Wisdom is the principal thing; Therefore get wisdom. And in all your getting, get understanding.” You get this kind of wisdom through spending several hours of reading the Word of God.
Huge gamut of people are running in the wrong direction for counseling and direction and alas they are frustrated and lost without a clue. The conundrum is that why we stiffly refuse to go the right way? Are you listening? Today we get to hear some of the best preachers speak to us right into our living room through a wide range of Christian networks. We just have no excuse other than our own stubbornness of closing our ears to the truth!
