Fellowship with God

It is tragic to want what is right, but to lack the courage, discipline, or vision that would stimulate us to take the necessary steps to produce the desired right-ness.

But when we fellowship with God, we understand His Greatness and His investment in us, we realize that our faith can conquer the issue of courage, our love for what He loves can conquer the issue of discipline, and our understanding of His plan for the Kingdom can conquer any lack of vision.

I believe that it is primarily by practiced and regular fellowship with God that we are transformed by His nature; emboldened, centered, and beholding of His purposes.

Pursue Him.

We want to live where we can confidently confess:

"I will bless the LORD who has given me counsel;
My heart also instructs me in the night seasons."
Psalm 16:7

Greater Vision, Greater Things

Luke and I had dinner last night with some folks who had the most interesting insight into the moon-landing.

They visited Kennedy Space Center the other day and noted how powerful the vision to get us to the moon was. Kennedy said, in a speech at Rice University in September of 1962, "We choose to go to the moon...in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard."

The technology was nowhere near advanced enough to get us there, but the vision and the resolve was strong.

In the Kingdom, great things are accomplished through great vision.

When we set our hearts on a God-inspired goal, it isn't the technology or the "pieces-in-place" that carry us to success, but the vision and faith in God Who provided the vision, that insures our victory.

What God-inspired visions do you carry in your heart?

With the Word in our hands, the Word in our heart, Godly counsel, and faith and vision for victory, we join God as partners in the "all things are possible" realm.

How Can I...?

God's people were suffering under a siege, of sorts.

The Midianites, Amalekites and others had Gideon and the rest of the Israelites pinned up in the mountains, their frequent and plunderous raids driving God’s people to dens, caves, and strongholds.

Reeling from generations of on-again off-again roller-coaster service and non-service to God, the Israelites cried out for deliverance. God heard their cry and sent a prophet to the people and then sent an Angel of the Lord to Gideon .

“…You shall save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Have I not sent you? ” the Angel asked. Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress. Out of options and out-of-place, Gideon responds, “…how can I save Israel? Indeed my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house”.

This unlikely hero had every reason to reject the idea that he would be used in bringing victory to God’s people. First of all, it was clear that they didn’t deserve it. God Himself had given them over to the Midianites because of their idolatry and worship of other gods. In Gideon’s mind, it would be reasonable to think that deliverance was unlikely. It would be more likely for the Angel to strike him dead right there on the spot for his lack of faith than for the Lord to use him to deliver Israel!

But the Lord had a different plan. And Gideon, the least of the weakest, was chosen.

After a bout with doubt and a fleece or two to seal his faith Gideon, in a daring nighttime raid of his own, destroyed the tokens to the false gods and built an altar to the Lord. This cleared the way for this unlikely hero to deliver the victory the Angel had promised.

What would you say to an Angel of the Lord Who asked, “Have I not sent you?”?

Gideon’s “How can I…?” is probably not too far from my response. Gideon then went as far as to require the Angel to provide proof of Who He was. And in spite of his questionings and call for credentials, God still used Gideon.

What does this say about God’s choice of heroes?

This is no place for a dissertation on predestination or the sovereignty of God. Indeed, I am ill-equipped theologically to hold you to any of my opinions on the subject. But scriptural evidence is there to testify to the impression that God will use whomever He wills.

Gideon was far from the man of great faith and conviction that we, in the contemporary church, contend is necessary for victory.

I think we disqualify ourselves when we don’t live up to an ideal. Gideon doubted. Gideon questioned. Gideon was far from ready for what God required of him. But God still used Gideon.

On this side of the cross, WE are God’s choice. Imagine that. In spite of our questions and doubts and issues of self-worth GOD HAS CHOSEN US! We are His partners in the conquest of His creation for His Glory. That’s why Paul could write:

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, 4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, 5 having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved."

(Ephesians 1:3-6)

and...

"For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. 27 But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; 28 and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, 29 that no flesh should glory in His presence."
(1 Corinthians 1:26-29)

The very things that we think exclude us sanction us for His service.

God loves the impossible. He lives in that realm. We limit ourselves to what we believe we can do when what He is calling us to do is what we can’t do!

When we look at the unlikely heroes – Gideon and others - their uncertainty, doubt and weakness didn’t invalidate them. One could argue that faith needs uncertainty, like a ladder needs a wall, to reach its height.

With certainty, faith is not needed, and without faith it is impossible to please God.

Could you be an unlikely hero? It's very likely.

How Big is Your God?

What you believe about God will determine who you are and what you can do.

Many people have reduced God to the size of their biggest problem. Their confidence in Him stops short at the threshold of the problem or challenge or at the extent of their limited hope for themselves. Because of this faith-deficiency, they are destined to live with the problem. It can't be overshadowed or overtaken. It reigns supreme. It becomes their god when it goes beyond the reach of what they believe God can do.

"As a man thinks in his heart, so is he" (Proverbs 23:7). What a man thinks about God becomes the limit to what God is able to do in his life.

The Word of God is the substantive antidote to the poison that restricts our ability to think beyond our fears and to believe beyond our challenges.

"So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God" (Romans 10:17).

Faith from His Word takes us further so we can believe and see above our circumstances, through our problems, and beyond the bounds of our own short-sighted dreams when we understand that God is bigger than any challenge, more powerful than any threat, and more far-reaching than any of our best plans for ourselves in Him.

As we read, believe, and act on His Word we grow in faith. We become able to see God doing more so our problems shrink and our possibilities expand before us.

How big is your God?

Try Bigger.



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