Got Faith?
The four battles
Your degree of faith (How Hot) is measured by your emotions, feelings, and Actions!
The level of your faith (How solid) is based on your experience with God!
If the mountain you are facing is too big, maybe it’s God who put it there.
Judges 6:11, 12, 14, 15, 16, 36-40
Judges 7: 2,7 Gideon started with 32,000 against 120,00. Then the Lord dropped that number to 10,000, and then again to 300.
V9, 11-15
I Samuel 17:45 –48 David & Goliath
2Chronicles 20: 10,11,12,15, 17,22,23, 24, 25 Jehoshaphat
2Kings 6:15-23 (Elisha & his servant paraphrase) The king of Syria tried on several occasions to ambush the king of Israel, and thought that there was a spy giving his secrets away, because the King of Israel knew where he was going to be each time. Then the Syrian king’s servant told him that Elisha was warning the king of all that he was doing. Now read 2Kings 6:15-23
Let’s look at each of these men, each battle and the way that God worked through them. Let us compare the first two:
Gideon was the one with the lowest self-esteem. He saw himself as being in the least of the tribes of Israel, He saw his family as the least family of that tribe, and he saw himself as being the least in his family. Mr. Gideon was about as low on the self-esteem register as one can get.
Yet God chose Gideon. I wondered why? There had to be men better equipped for the task. There had to be at least some warriors in Israel.
God chose Gideon, because Gideon knew that he was incapable of doing this thing, and not only that, but God knew that everyone in his family his tribe, and for that matter all the tribes knew that Gideon was the No intellect, no Character, no strength, and no courage!
God allowed Gideon to test Him twice. Gideon wanted the fleece to be wet and everything around it dry, then he wanted the fleece dry and everything around it wet. After all of that God still knew that Gideon was terrified, but was too afraid to ask God to give him one more sign, so God without even being asked gave Gideon another sign in order to give him the courage that he needed to obey God. (Sometimes when God tells us something we start to wonder was that really You Lord or is my imagination working over time? We feel better if someone who is not aware of what is going on comes up to us and confirms what we have been struggling with.) So God knowing Gideon says, “Go down there with your servant and you will hear what the enemy has to say about you! That was the extra-added bit of faith that Gideon needed to obey what the Lord had asked of him.
So what was Gideon’s job? Let his light shine, and blow God’s horn. It was God who turned the enemy against itself. And God got the Glory!
On the other hand David had a different life experience, then Gideon. David being a shepherd developed courage for that task. By necessity being alone in the field when an animal came after his flock he chased it down, killed it and rescued his sheep. David didn’t know he could, until he did. Now because he did, he knew he could. Once you have experienced the empowerment of the Lord, you become confident that He will allow you to experience it again.
Because he had a relationship with God already, he having made up songs and had been singing to the Lord for quite some time, and God inhabiting the praises of His people, God inhabited David, and David knew it!
Hear the difference in the two men when confronted with their mountain and see which question you are asking when you are confronted with yours.
Hear Gideon, Judges 6:13 Gideon said to Him, “O my Lord, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? Where are all the miracles….. (Why me Lord?) This is a man who has no relationship with God. This is a man who not only doesn’t know who he is, but he doesn’t even know whose he is. Yet God had and wanted a relationship with him.
Contrast this with David’s question when confronted with his mountain:
I Samuel 17:26 Then David spoke to the men who stood by him, saying what shall be done for the man who kills this philistine and takes the reproach (meaning the shame) from Israel? For who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?
David simply assumed that someone would step up to the plate and kill this guy! He said in v45 you come to me with sword, spear, and javelin. But I come to you in the name of the Lord! In verse 47 he said for the battle is the Lord’s.
In verse 48 So it was when the Philistine arose and came and drew near David, that David hurried and ran toward the army to meet the Philistine.
The difference in the two men was their experience with God! David had to trust God every day for his life and the lives of his sheep. Gideon stayed out of harms way as best he could.
They were both out sized, and out numbered, yet God won the battle and got the glory, but when he uses you, some of His glory splashes on you, and He makes you look good
Just as a side note let’s read Judges 8:18 And he said to Zebah and Zalmunna , What kind of men were they whom you killed at Tabor? So they answered, “As you are , so were they, each one resembled the son of a king! Just don’t forget Whose battle it was and Who won it!
Third battle: Jehoshaphat had some experience with God in that he had gone to battle with Ahab and God found favor with Jehoshaphat. So he was aware that God could work miracles, but he hadn’t had enough life experience with the Lord to have an unshakeable confidence. But he knew what to do. He repented, fasted and reminded the Lord of His promises. The Lord told him to show up singing and he would be able to watch the Lord win the battle. For the battle is the Lord’s.
Lets look at Elisha’s life experience. He served Elijah. He experienced the miracles of God with Elijah. He saw God’s chariot of fire take his mentor into heaven. He received a double portion of Elijah’s spirit.2 Kings 2:9 He saw the glory of God operate in his life daily. He witnessed the power of the Holy Spirit operate in and through him. So when it came to a little thing like an army surrounding him, he simply relied on his knowledge and experience with God to take care of the problem. There was no crying out, or pleading. He didn’t ring his hands or get excited, he simply asked the Lord to open his servant’s eyes so he could see what Elisha already knew.
Elisha simply asked God to blind the enemy. When the Lord put these men in a stupor, Elisha escorted them inside Samaria where they were surrounded and out numbered. God has a great sense of humor.
Four examples of God’s mercy and deliverance. Four different men, each blessed by God, and given a unique ability to overcome their mountains. four battles, each battle won by the Lord, and God dealt differently with each man according to the man’s ability to believe, receive, and accept.
God spoke the world into existence, but this was before He gave the world to man, and then man gave it away, so God came down to earth bought it back and re-gave man the dominion and authority. This is why God needs our co-operation and agreement with Him in order for His will to be fulfilled on this earth as it is in Heaven.
Which of the four men do you relate to? We are all in a different spiritual walk, because of our own unique experience with the Lord. Some know, not only who, but also Whose they are. And therefore are not moved by the mountain before them, others know He can, but aren’t so sure that He will, at least not for them.
Gideon being one of the weaker vessels backed away from the mountain and watched to see God deliver him! After he saw God work with his own eyes, only then did he get into the battle.
David represents the Christian zealot, with reckless abandon he ran directly at the mountain, convinced that God would deliver Him! Knowing the quicker he got to the mountain the quicker God would deliver him from the trial.
Jehoshaphat seems to represent the serious Christian moving toward the height of maturity. He was reverential he fasted prayed, cried out and reminded the Lord of His promises, he was fearful, yet believed the prophet which gave him enough faith to show up and sing sacrificially to the Lord. He was willing to do what the Lord asked of Him.
Elisha represents the goal of all Christians. He demonstrates the height of maturity. He was confident before, during and after the mountain was leveled!
When the battle is to great it means that God is about to glorify Himself. If we simply see ourselves as instruments to be used of God in the way that He chooses to utilize us. Remembering that he will work through us knowing our maturity level, our personality, and our ability to trust Him.
In each circumstance it was God who made sure that the battle looked like it was impossible to win, so there could be no doubt in anyone’s mind that THE BATTLE IS THE LORD’S!
How big is your mountain? God doesn’t want you to be able to overcome it! He wants you to trust that He is your provision, your protection, that He will rebuke the devourer in your behalf. If you win the battle then you will take credit for it! God shares His glory with no man! In each of these circumstances the Lord said, The Battle Is the Lord’s!
Matthew 8:10 When the centurion told Jesus to simply speak the words and his servant would be healed, it said, When Jesus heard this He marveled, and said to those who followed, Assuredly, I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel. The Lord wants to impart a new measure of faith into you this night, “The Elisha faith.” What you can perceive and believe you will receive!
