August 28th

The Promise of the Presence of the Power of the Holy Spirit

Then the LORD said to Gideon, By the three hundred men who lapped I will save you, and deliver the Midianites into your hand. Let all the other people go, every man to his place. Judges 7:7

Did you ever realize that the places the Bible talks about are real places? They are!

In fact, one trip to Israel that I went on, I went to the spring where Gideon led his men to give them a drink, where God whittled that army down to three hundred men.

While we were there at Gideon Springs, I got up front and I just starting telling the story of Gideon, telling how the story starts with a pretty good-sized army. It begins with 32,000 guys, but God says, You know what; there are too many soldiers in this army for me to give you the victory. This probably sounds strange to us. Usually, the more the merrier, you know, the more guys you've got fighting for you.

But the Lord says, Nope, we need to whittle this thing down. Just go ahead and tell the guys who want to go home to go home. Just like that, 22,000 leave. 10,000 are left.

And the Lord looks out and He goes, You know what, there are still too many guys here, so take them down to the spring. And the spring is still there. You can go and see the same spring that Gideon goes to there. The Lord gives them all a little test there at the water in how they drink it, and only three hundred men drink in the way He was looking for, keeping their heads up and their eyes open, looking out.

And all of a sudden as I was telling this story, a guy starts walking through our team and comes forward and says, I need to be baptized. He followed our crew down into Gideon Springs and got baptized.

You know, I just really think this is a powerful story, seeing how God not just used three hundred men to deliver Israel from the Midianites, but how God used little-old-me to help bring Nick to salvation.

I just really hope and pray with all my heart that that's your life today, that you've invited Him into your life to be your Lord, to be your Savior, to be your King.

And if that is you today, praise God, and I want to encourage you. Sometimes it might seem to you as if you're the minority. Gideon certainly could have thought that. Our team in Israel could have thought that. But God's on your side. You plus God equals a majority.

And if God is for you, who can be against you?

Prayer Lord God,

Thank You that You are with me and for me! Thank You that You see the circumstances that I face and You see how hopeless I have felt. But now that I know You are with me, please help me and lead me to overcome all that I face!

Amen