God Is On Your Side

The same Holy Spirit who worked through Moses, Joshua, Gideon, Daniel, Peter, Paul, and so many other great men and women of the Bible is the same Holy Spirit who is working through you. God does not change. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8). The same power that split the Red Sea, dried the Jordan River, and shut the lions’ mouths is the same power living inside you. And when you grasp this, you will realize that the ways God can use you to demonstrate his glory is limitless. He will do the impossible in your life. All he wants is your surrender.

Gideon, a mighty warrior who God used to deliver Israel from their enemies was an ordinary man just like you and me. He was considered the least in his family, and he was fearful, doubtful, and had low self-esteem. When the Lord appeared to Gideon, he was threshing wheat in a winepress to hide it from the Midianites, and he told Gideon, “The Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valor” (Judges 6:12). “Surely he can’t be talking about me,” Gideon must have thought to himself. No doubt, he was looking around, wondering who the angel was talking to.

“Oh my Lord, if the Lord be with us,” Gideon responded, “Why has all this happened to us? Didn’t the Lord deliver us from the Egyptians? Where are all his miracles now? The Lord has forsaken us and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites.”

The Lord ignored Gideon’s doubts. “Go in this thy might,” he said, “And thou shalt save Israel from the hand of the Midianites: have not I sent thee?” (6:14). God is speaking to somebody right now. Go in the strength you have. You are waiting for the breakthrough to come from someone else. But God has invested a lot into you, and he is telling you he will use you to make a difference, heal the hurting, save the lost, and break that generational curse off your family.

But like Gideon, many of us do not feel qualified. Gideon responded, saying, “Oh my Lord, wherewith shall I save Israel? behold, my family is poor in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house” (6:15). I’m just an ordinary person from an ordinary family. Some of you are making the same excuses. I don’t have any connections or education or money. But God doesn’t need your experience. All he wants is your “yes”. When God calls you, he equips you and qualifies you to fulfill his will.

The Holy Spirit will anoint you to do whatever God calls you to do. You cannot succeed without the Holy Spirit. Without the Holy Spirit, you are just mere flesh and blood. The Bible says, “But the Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon, and he blew a trumpet; and Abiezer was gathered after him” (6:34). Gideon mustered an army of 32,000. That’s a man who’s assuming the leadership and the position God called him to. When he stepped into that position, the Holy Spirit anointed him to fulfill that role.
 
But God put Gideon’s army to the test, reducing it to 300, so Israel would not boast that their own strength saved them. So with an army of only 300, Gideon approached the enemy’s camp. There were so many of their enemies that their camels alone could not be numbered (7:12). But Gideon told his men, “Arise; for the Lord hath delivered into your hand the host of Midian” (7:15). Gideon blew his trumpet and his small army did likewise. And God worked a miracle. “And the Lord set every man's sword against his fellow, even throughout all the host: and the host fled…” (7:22). God confused the enemy to the point that they turned on each other.

And God saved Israel and delivered them from their enemies because of one man, a fearful man who had low self-esteem, a man who did not believe that God could use him. But Gideon answered God’s call on his life, and through the power of the Holy Spirit, he defeated an army of a half million with only 300 men. It’s not by might nor by power but by my Spirit says the Lord (Zechariah 4:6). God is on your side, and when God calls you, he will equip you through the Holy Spirit to do the impossible.

God bless,
Pastors Sean and Aimee Pinder

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