Sometimes we find ourselves in an impossible place. And then we get this whacky idea that God wants us to do … what? When? You have to be kidding me!! How … how do I know that this is coming from you God? Ever had that. Well, you wouldn’t be the first and you won’t be the last either.

We’re continuing this week on the program in our “journey of discovery” to discover the power of God in our lives. Power’s an amazing thing, people want it and when they have it they want to hang on to it and never let it go.

It’s an interesting fact that here in my own country, Australia, which is a true democracy where governments are elected by the people every three years or so, the very last Prime Minister to leave office at a time of his own choosing was Sir Robert Menzies way back in 1966. It’s over half a century ago. All those who followed him have clung on to power for too long and they’ve been ousted either by the people in a general election or by their own parties.

Isn’t that crazy? Why would you do that? Why wouldn’t you let go and leave at a time of your own choosing? Because people are seduced by power and they hang on to it for too long.

But the sort of power that we’re talking about on the program again this week isn’t human power; it’s the power of God. The power of God which is available to every man, woman and child who trusts their lives in this Jesus, Gods only Son sent to us to set us free from the devastating impact of sin. The power to be free, the power to honour God, the power to make a difference in this world. That’s the sort of power that really matters and the only place it’s to be found, the only place, is in Jesus.

Last week we saw how God’s power was promised to a man named Gideon and a man who’d honoured God, a strong man in his own right but one now called to overcome an enemy of his people, against absolutely impossible odds.

The Midianites and the Amalekites were ravaging the Promised Land of Israel. They were trampling the land, destroying the crops and so keeping God’s people oppressed and in poverty and famine. There was a reason for that. God was punishing Israel for worshipping other gods but the time had come for God once again to redeem His people because that’s His whole purpose, to draw His people close to Him.

And He chose to do that through a man called Gideon. As we’ve already seen the first thing that had to take place was to turn the hearts of the Israelites away from this foreign god, Baal, and back to God. So Gideon had been called to destroy the altar built to this false god. Boy that caused a stir. But it had the desired affect.

But when God called Gideon to lead the army to overcome the oppressors he for one wasn’t entirely sure he was hearing it straight from God. Have you ever had that problem? Well I’ve got to tell you, so have I. Let’s have a look, Judges chapter 6, verse 14 to 16:

Then the Lord turned to Gideon and said, ‘Go in this might of yours and deliver Israel from the hand of Midian. I hereby commission you.’ He responded, ‘But sir, how can I deliver Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh and I’m the least in my family.’ But the Lord said to him, ‘I will be with you and you shall strike down the Midianites, every one of them’.

Well you know I understand how Gideon felt. God was asking him to do a huge thing. Not only to risk his own life but the lives of all his countrymen and so God gave him a sign. Literally some fire from heaven. Lets continue looking at it, Judges chapter 6 beginning at verse 20:

The angel of God said to him, ‘Take the meat and the unleavened cakes and put them on this rock and pour out the broth.’ So he did. Then the angel of the Lord reached out with the tip of the staff that was in his hand and touched the meat and the unleavened cakes and fire sprang up from the rock and consumed the meat and the unleavened cakes and the angel of the Lord vanished from his sight.

Then Gideon perceived that this had been an angel of the Lord and Gideon said, ‘Help me my Lord God for I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face.’

Now you’d think wouldn’t you that this would be enough to convince Gideon but again as the reality of this huge ask from God, fighting the Midianites and the Amalekites who vastly outnumbered Israel, when that reality started to sink in the old Gideon got to thinking. Oh man, this is crazy, what if this wasn’t from God? What if …

And so he asked God for one of what is these days one of the best known signs in the Bible, Gideon had to be sure. Come and have a read with me, Judges chapter 6, verses 36 to 40:

So Gideon said to God, ‘In order to see whether you’ll deliver Israel by my hand as you have said, I’m going to lay a fleece of wool on the threshing floor. If there’s dew on the fleece alone and it’s dry on all the ground around it then I shall know that you will deliver Israel by my hand as you have said.’ And it was so.

When he rose early the next morning and squeezed the fleece he wrung out enough dew from the fleece to fill a bowl with water. But then Gideon said to God, ‘God, don’t let your anger burn against me, let me speak just one more time. Let me please make trial with the fleece just once more. Let it now be dry only on the fleece and on all the ground let there be dew.’ And God did so that night. It was dry on the fleece only and on all the ground there was dew.

Now that’s a pretty specific ask of God, I mean really detailed. Very much a belts and braces approach. Tonight Lord, would you do me a favour? Put dew on the fleece but not on the ground and tomorrow night, listen, do this trick again God but put the dew on the ground this time and not on the fleece. Let me ask you, isn’t this putting the Lord our God to the test? And isn’t that something that we’re not supposed to do?

I’ve heard people say that Gideon did absolutely the wrong thing here. He just didn’t have enough faith, he should have just gone forward and done what God was asking him to do and not ask for any signs. Poor old Gideon. Well maybe there’s some truth in that but I try and put myself in Gideon’s shoes and wouldn’t you want to make absolutely sure that this was definitely God calling you to do this crazy thing against impossible odds.

The future of the whole nation was at stake and you know something, I kind of understand that. From time to time I’ve been called by God into impossible situations. Not as dire as that of Gideon and Israel but you know tough spots. And when I sit down in the morning early and pray, as I do most mornings and I read God’s Word and I think about it I sense maybe God leading me in this direction or that, to kick off our ministry in Africa before we had any of the funds.

Impossible and to tell you the truth before I race off out into the way blue yonder and do something foolish I want to know that this is definitely from God. It’s not so much that I’m afraid of failing because I decided a long time ago I am prepared to fall flat on my face in order to follow after God. No, if I’m going to invest energies and resources into something I want to know it’s definitely God’s call because more than anything I want to honour God. I don’t want to race off and do something that I think needs doing if it’s not in God’s plan.

And whilst I’ve never thrown a fleece out onto the balcony and asked God for the dew to fall on it and then off it, I have asked Him for signs. A word through someone else, super naturally inspired, an event that confirms it, something else that I read in God’s Word. Some confirmation that I am indeed headed down a path that God has chosen and anointed for me because God’s power, the power to overcome impossible odds, that sort of power is only found in one place, when we’re in the centre of God’s will.

Not when we’re racing off somewhere wherever our fancies take us, doing things that we think need doing. Jesus said, “Apart from me you can do nothing.” And as I’ve learned, the hard way sometimes, He was absolutely right.

Ever been in a tough place – and so you pray and you pray … and you pray. And instead of getting better, things just go from bad to worse. Fat help it is being a Jesus follower. Humph. That’s so often what we feel. But what if … well, what if God is up to something? What if He’s getting us ready, to experience His power? Hmm?

Now I know that sometimes in life I can be a bit of a slow learner, really I can. But fortunately God puts brick walls there in my way for me to run into so that I can learn. And one of the things I’ve had to learn is that when God wants something done, not only does He want it done but He’s meant to get all the glory, not me.

So the way He tends to do things is that He achieves them through His power and not through our strength. Sure, He involves us through our gifts and abilities and our natural motivations and the desires of our heart and our resources and our energies, of course. But when God is up to something it happens in His power, in His time, often despite thee and me.

Whether it’s something huge like defeating an army against impossible odds or whether it’s something more at the micro level, changing a person’s heart, healing a difficult relationship. I have to tell you, time and time and time again I have had to learn this lesson, when God is up to something it happens in His power not mine. Albeit that He may give me some small role to play in all of that.

As I said I can be a slow learner, how about you? How often do we kind of think to ourselves, “Gee, God needs a helping hand here. Maybe He’s missed this bit. Wow, I need more resources. I need to do more. I need to be more involved. Without me God just can’t get this thing done.” Hello.

We’ve been journeying with Gideon this last week and a half and we’ve seen that God called him to do something impossible. To raise up a small army from amongst Israel in order to defeat the mighty armies of the Midianites and the Amalekites who were oppressing Gods chosen people. So finally God deals with the Israelites by having Gideon tear down the altar to the false god Baal that stood in their midst.

Finally God gets Gideon to the starting line here, the old Gideon wasn’t so sure that he was the man for the job and that this was in fact Gods calling on his life. But despite the people, despite the leader, despite us human beings who think we’re so vital, so indispensable in God’s cause, despite us God is ready to do His great and mighty work.

But there’s still another thing He has to deal with. Of course given these impossible odds Gideon does what he thinks he should do. He assembles the strongest and largest army that he possibly can but slow learner that he is what he doesn’t realise is that this battle, by and large, is Gods gig not his. Lets have a listen to the absolutely crazy thing that God does next because friend from where you and I sit, from where Gideon sat, from our limited, tiny, narrow, human perspectives the thing that God does next is just plain nuts. Let’s have a listen, Judges chapter 7, verse 1 to 7:

Then Jerubbaal (that is Gideon) and all the troops that were with him rose early in a camp beside the spring of Harod and the camp of Midian was north of them below the hill of Moreh in the valley. The Lord said to Gideon, ‘The troops with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hand. Israel would only take the credit away from me saying, “My own hand has delivered me”.

Now therefore proclaim this in the hearing of the troops, ‘Whoever is fearful and trembling let him return home.’ Thus Gideon sifted them out, twenty two thousand returned and just ten thousand remained. Then the Lord said to Gideon, ‘The troops are still too many. Take them down to the water and I will sift them out for you there. When I say this one shall go with you, he shall go with you and when I say this one shall not go with you, he shall not go with you’.

So he brought the troops down to the water and the Lord said to Gideon, ‘All those who lap the water with their tongues as a dog laps you shall put to one side. All those who kneel down to drink putting their hands to their mouths you shall put to the other side’. The number of those who lapped was three hundred but all the rest of the troops knelt down to drink the water.

Then the Lord said to Gideon, ‘With the three hundred that lapped I will deliver you and give the Midianites into your hand. Let all the others go to their homes’.

So let’s get this straight, even with the greatest army they can muster Israel is still facing completely impossible odds. We find out later on that there were around one hundred and thirty five thousand Midianites and Amalekites. Just stop, one hundred and thirty five thousand. But now God reveals His hand because above and beyond winning the battle He has another purpose. To glorify Himself so that His chosen people Israel would seek Him and honour Him and give Him thanks and worship Him.

God is in the business of restoring His throne amongst His people. Have another listen to His thinking here:

The Lord says to Gideon, ‘The troops that you have are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hand. Israel would only take the credit away from me saying, “My own hand has delivered me”.

Do you see it? God wants His people to know that He delivered them by His might and His power. And so first He weeds out the weak hearted, those who rather wouldn’t stand on God’s behalf, send them home He says to Gideon but then the strangest thing, get them to drink water. Those who kneel down and cup the water with their hands get rid of them. Take the ones who crouch down more like dogs to lap up the water. Take the minority, the weaker ones, the ones who behave more like dogs than like human beings.

Do you see Gideon? With this remnant I will deliver you. As I said it’s completely nuts from a human perspective but not from Gods because God was in the business of winning this battle on Israel’s behalf and in order that they should understand that and acknowledge that they had won in God’s power and not through their own strength. He pares back their strength so that there can be absolutely no mistaking that it was God’s power that overcame the enemy.

Have you ever found yourself in a place where things aren’t going so well? Where you’re facing impossible odds, things are just going terribly. So you pray and you pray and instead of getting better they just go from bad to worse. And we kind of wonder, “What the blazes is going on? God, what are you doing? Didn’t you hear my prayer? Aren’t you going to deliver me? What You’re doing here God is nuts, it doesn’t make sense.”

That’s how we carry on, that’s how it looks from our narrow perspective. But more often than not God is testing our hearts. He’s teaching us His ways. He’s knocking our support mechanisms out from under us, no more leaning on this crutch or that one because He wants us to trust Him, not anyone else, nothing else, not in our own strength.

God, we want more and more, He wants less and less because less is more. Why? Because when we have nothing left in our arsenal and when we have no one else to turn to then God is our only one. And friend it’s in that place, that apparent lonely wilderness that God comes in His power to deliver us.

We’re going to look at that together another time, how He delivers us. Today though, today I just want to encourage you in the knowledge that however impossible the odds appear, however big the problem, however bad things are getting, He is in that place with you, He is at work in your circumstances. Even the ones that appear so negative and He will, He will deliver you and when He does blind Freddy will be able to see that it was His power and not yours that won the day. That’s something He never ever wants us to forget, ever.

Doesn’t matter how strong we think we are, when we’re faced with impossible odds, our heart wavers. The problems (which are so close – right in front of our eyes) seem so much bigger than God – who right now seems a million miles away. We want to believe in God in the middle of this mess but …

We’ve been looking, the last couple of weeks, at the power of God. How to lay hold of that power even in the midst of the most impossible of circumstances. And yesterday we saw how Gideon, at Gods behest, assembled a great army to fight against the armies of the Midianites and the Amalekites. Even with Gideon’s army it was a David and Goliath affair. I mean Gideon had a minnow of an army, the Israelites, against one hundred and thirty five thousand Midianites and Amalekites. I mean crazy.

But then God, God pares down Gideon’s army to a mere three hundred men because God wanted Israel to understand that it was by His power that they would be delivered in this battle not through their own strength. I often wonder what Gideon was thinking and feeling in those days and weeks as God reduced his numbers and sent him on what was almost certainly a Kamikaze mission, a suicide mission. Surely no one could win this battle and from a human stand point that’s often how it feels.

Things in our lives are going from bad to worse. Instead of our prayer making things better, things seem to spiral downwards and we’re left wondering, “God, what are you up to?”

Now maybe Gideon was made of sterner stuff than thee or me but even so he needed to be certain that God was in this. So God, by His grace, gave Gideon an insight how He had already gone before this tiny rag tag band of three hundred to a sure victory against this mighty army. Let’s have a listen. Judges chapter 7, verse 7 to 15:

Then the Lord said to Gideon, ‘With the three hundred that lapped I will deliver you and give the Midianites into your hand. Let all the others go to their homes’. So he took the jars of the troops from their hands and their trumpets and he sent all the rest of Israel back to their own tents but retained the three hundred.

The camp of Midian was below them in the valley. That same night the Lord said to him, ‘Get up, attack the camp for I have given it into your hand but if you fear to attack go down to the camp with your servant Purah and you shall hear what they say and afterwards your hand shall be strengthened to attack the camp’. And he went down with his servant Purah to the outposts of the armed men that were in the camp.

The Midianites and the Amalekites and all the people of the east lay along the valley as thick as locusts and their camels were without number, countless as the sand on the seashore. When Gideon arrived there was a man telling a dream to his comrade and he said, ‘I had a dream and in it a cake of barley bread tumbled into the camp of Midian and came to the tent and struck it so that it fell. It turned upside down and the tent collapsed.’

And his comrade said, ‘This is no other than the sword of Gideon, the son of Joash, a man of Israel. Into his hand God has given Median and all the army’. When Gideon heard the telling of the dream and its interpretation he worshipped and he returned to the camp of Israel and said, ‘Get up for the Lord has given the army of Midian into your hand’.

Do you see what’s going on here? God is about to move in Israel’s favour with incredible power through this tiny band of no more than three hundred men. God is about to route one hundred and thirty five thousand Midianites and Amalekites. Just stop and think about that. The sheer and utter and complete impossibility of that proposition as you and I are standing in the night in the middle of our band of three hundred.

I mean it’s nuts right? And so Gideon’s heart, well it’s wavering, why? Because what he’s been asked to do by God is just completely unnatural. We humans have a strong sense of self preservation and so when God asks us to do something that from where we sit looks completely mad, well our hearts are going to waver. It simply isn’t natural for us to be in a dangerous place and wait for God to move in power.

It simply isn’t natural for us to rely on the fact that God has already gone ahead of us to ensure victory because through our sense of saving our own skin we look at the problem and the risks and the danger that looms so hugely, so ominously before our very eyes and we’re afraid.

The wife with the difficult husband. She’d love to flee it and leave him but in her heart she honours God, she believes in the sanctity of marriage and so she endures the impossible. Can she really believe that God has already gone ahead of her to change this impossible man?

The employee with a difficult boss who would love nothing better than to flee this horrid, oppressive work environment and go and get another job but in his heart of hearts he knows that God wants him here in this workplace to shine the light of the love of Jesus into that dark hole. So he stays on. Can he really imagine that God is doing things in these people’s hearts that he can’t yet perceive?

Do you see how this isn’t just some myth from the past? It’s a true story, it’s an historical account of the power of God and I wonder if sometimes we miss out on seeing Gods power because we just run away from the impossible just way too early. Gideon didn’t because he asked God for signs as his heart was wavering as any mans heart would do facing almost certain death.

Gideon asked the angel for a sign and fire came down from heaven and then not once but twice Gideon throws out the fleece, God tonight put dew on the fleece but not on the ground then I’ll know it’s from you. So God does that and the next night Gideon says, ‘Well don’t get angry with me God but just to make sure could you do this the other way round? Could you put the dew on the ground and not on the fleece?’ So God does that.

And here he’s about to attack this huge, HUGE enemy camp and again God gives him a sign. The two men talking on the boundary of the camp, the fear in their hearts of Gideon. That same night the Lord said to him:

Get up, attack the camp for I have given into your hand. But if you fear to attack go down to the camp with your servant Purah and you shall hear what they say and afterwards your hand shall be strengthened to attack the camp.

Don’t you love that? God knows our frailties, He understands our fears and so by His grace He leads us through the difficult times. But you and I we’re so often afraid, we’re dejected, we’re busy panicking, running around in circles, flapping, running away, man we wouldn’t hear God if He shouted. We want to see God move in power in our lives, we want to understand what He’s up to, we want to be encouraged by God and yet we run away and then wonder why we didn’t experience the power of God.

Listen to me, by definition if we’re going to see God’s power in full flight in our lives then it’s going to be in an absolutely impossible situation against impossible odds and that place, for a time, perhaps for a short time maybe even for a long time, that place is going to be uncomfortable and dark and scary. That’s the place where God does things through His power. So that we can be in absolutely no doubt that it came from Him and not through us.

And friend in my experience, really, it’s only as I look back on those times that I can truly see and really comprehend just how amazing God’s power is. Just because you and I or Gideon are afraid doesn’t mean that God’s lost His power or that God’s not going to show up. Fear is natural and I believe that what God is saying to us today is just get still and listen and let Him lead us and show us what He would show us and then like Gideon our hand will be strengthened to the battle.

Doesn’t matter how dire things seem, how dark the night, how lonely the wilderness – when God gets involved – nothing, nothing can stop Him from exercising His power. That’s a great theory, but knowing that, believing that deep inside – well, on those dark nights in those lonely wildernesses – that’s another thing entirely.

Discovering the power of God, that’s what we’ve been talking about these last few weeks on the program. How can you and I lay hold of the awesome power of God. Because here’s the thing, anyone, anyone who has put their trust in Jesus, anyone who believes that He is the Son of God, that He came to pay for our sins, that through faith in Him we have Gods complete forgiveness and a new life. Anyone who’s in that place has access to the awesome, awesome power of God in their lives.

The power of God to overcome even the most stubborn and persistent sin. The power of God to defeat satan the enemy. The power of God to endure with joy and peace through difficult and dark and dangerous places. The power to love the unlovable, to serve those who don’t deserve it. That power is available to every man, woman and child who puts their life in God’s hands through their faith in Jesus.

That’s a pretty outrageous claim, particularly if you’re someone who is feeling completely powerless just at the moment. And so you maybe sitting back there saying, ‘Well that’s okay for you Berni but how can you make that claim so boldly? How can you know that for sure?’ Well I’ll tell you how. Because time and time and time again it’s exactly what Gods Word says. Whether it’s through the story of a powerless Gideon that we’ve been sharing together over these last few weeks or whether it’s through the words of the Apostle Paul thousands of years later.

And again if you have happened to have missed it earlier on in this series here is the way Paul puts it writing to his friends in the Ephesian Church. He says to them:

I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him. So that with the eyes of your heart enlightened you may know what is the hope to which he’s called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance amongst the saints and what’s the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe according to the working of his great power. God put this power to work in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places. (Ephesians chapter 1, verse 17 to 20)

So what Paul’s saying here to the Ephesians is that his prayer for them as they get to know God better, as He reveals Himself to them more and more, is that they would know the hope, the riches and the immeasurable greatness of His power that they already have because they believe in Jesus. The very same power that raised Jesus from the dead.

As one of my lecturers way back at Bible College, his name is Barry Chant, taught me those original Greek words which we now translate into the English, immeasurable greatness of His power, if we were to take those Greek words and kind of anglicise them just a tad they’d come out sounding something like this. Hyperbalistic, megathonic, dynamic power.

So here’s the starting point in laying hold of God’s power when we’re facing incredible odds. We don’t need to ask God for the power because we already have it. We need to ask God to give us a spirit of wisdom and revelation to open and enlighten the eyes of our heart so that we can see the hyperbalistic, megathonic, dynamic power that He has already given us through our faith in Jesus Christ.

Now maybe you remember me saying this very same thing last week but the reason I’m saying it again here is that it’s so easy to miss when we’re afraid. And not just you and me, Gideon too. As we’ve journeyed together with Gideon these past weeks we’ve seen how his heart wavered, how he suffered from uncertainty and panic attacks in the face of impossible odds.

But God was in that place. God had gone ahead of him and right now I’d like to share with you what happened when Gideon and his tiny band of three hundred men went up against the Midianites and the Amalekites who numbered one hundred and thirty five thousand. Judges chapter 7, verses 15 to 25. Have a listen:

When Gideon heard the telling of the dream and its interpretation he worshipped and he returned to the camp of Israel and said, ‘Get up for the Lord has given the army of Midian into your hand’. After he divided the three hundred men into three companies and put trumpets into the hands of all of them and empty jars and torches inside the jars he said to them, ‘Look at me and do the same. When I come to the outskirts of the camp do as I do. When I blow the trumpet I and all who are with me then you also blow the trumpets around the whole camp and shout “For the Lord and for Gideon”.

So Gideon and the hundred who were with him came to the outskirts of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch when they had just set the watch and they blew the trumpets and smashed the jars that were in their hands. So the three companies blew the trumpets and broke the jars holding in their left hand the torches and in their right hand the trumpet to blow and they cried, ‘A sword for the Lord and for Gideon’.

Every man stood in his place all around the camp and all the men in the camp ran. They cried out and they fled when they blew the three hundred trumpets the Lord set every mans sword against his fellow, against all the army and the army fled as far as Beth-shittah towards Zererah and as far as the border of Abel-meholah and Tabbath and the men of Israel were called out from Naphtali and from Asher and from Manasseh and they pursued after the Midianites.

When Gideon sent messengers to all the hill country of Ephraim saying, ‘Come down against the Midianites and seize the waters against them as far as Beth-barah and as far as the Jordan.’ So all the men of Ephraim were called out and they seized the waters as far as Beth-barah and the Jordan. They captured the two captains of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb. They killed Oreb at the rock of Oreb and Zeeb they killed at the wine press of Zeeb as they pursued the Midianites. They brought the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon beyond the Jordan.

Wow. See what happened here? What happened was the absolutely impossible, that’s what happened and why? Was it through the might and the power of Gideon’s army? No. It was the power of God who had already gone ahead to unsettle the hearts of the Midianites and the Amalekites. It was because God was in that place in all His power that the Israelites prevailed against the completely, completely impossible odds.

My friend when God is in that place the enemy must flee. When God speaks, when God moves, when God is up to something, well let me tell you, nothing, absolutely nothing is going to stand in His way. It’s exactly what the Psalmist writes in Psalm 46 beginning at verse 4:

There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy habitation of the most high. God is in the midst of the city, it shall not be moved. God will help it when the morning dawns. The nations are in an uproar, kingdoms totter, he utters his voice and the earth melts. The Lord of hosts is with us, the God of Jacob is our refuge.

Friend that is the sort of power that we’ve been talking about and it’s that power that’s available to each one of us when we put our trust in Jesus Christ. Let me encourage you again, to spend some time over this coming week, just immersing yourself in this story of God and Gideon because it’s a story, not just about Gideon, not just about the Israelites, it’s a story that speaks volumes to us here and now about who God is and how He brings His power to bear in our lives.

The Old Testament, the Book of Judges, reasonably early on, chapters 6, 7 and 8. And may God just rock your socks off as you receive His Word of power into your heart.

Friend God is in the impossible situation with you just as God is in the impossible situation with me and when we’re afraid, when we’re doubting we go to Him. He encourages us and when God moves in power watch out because no one will stop Him.

It’s easy, when we’re confronted by difficult situations – it’s easy to imagine that everything’s up to us. I have to fix the problem. I have to work harder. I have to …. But … what about God? What about His power? What about His ways and His will. How can we get out of the road and make room for Him?

I have to be honest with you I am something of a slow learner. When it comes to laying hold of God’s power in my life, which is what we’ve been talking about together over these past few weeks, I am truly a slow learner. Why? Because time and time again I’ve fallen into the trap of thinking, “You know what, it’s all up to me.”

Even though I’ve seen God do so many powerful things in my life. Even though in this ministry of Christianityworks that I’m so privileged to be part of, we’ve seen miracle after miracle. We wouldn’t exist, I wouldn’t be with you right now had God not delivered this ministry by His power over and over again.

In its 53 year history there have been so many times when Christianityworks the ministry has been threatened by this or that, you wouldn’t believe how satan has arrayed the armies of hell against this ministry that tells people about the saving love of Jesus.

And in my short time, just on a decade now in Christianityworks I have seen God do so many miraculous powerful things and yet still each and every time I’m confronted with a situation where we’re facing impossible odds it seems that my default position is, well you know, it’s all up to me.

In part that’s my personality type, I’m a leader like Gideon, the gift that Gods given me is my strength but as I look around I’m not alone. We all seem to be like that, we think it’s all up to us. Well let’s get a revelation here, it ain’t. If it were all up to us what would it mean for God to have power and to use that power on this earth?

We’ve been looking at God’s power these past weeks through the story of Gideon, chapters 6,7 and 8 in the Book of Judges in the Old Testament. And what I’ve seen is a man, Gideon, who’s a natural leader; he’s naturally a strong person. Some people’s gifts lie more in their compassion or in serving or in giving. With Gideon his natural gift is his strength which makes him an ideal leader because he’s able to crash through things using that strength.

As I’ve said I really relate to that because that’s my natural motivation too. People don’t come to me so much for compassion or counselling, people come to me when they need something done because I’m one of those people who will crash through obstacles and make things happen and I absolutely love doing that. Gideon was one of those personality types too, have a listen, Judges chapter 6, verses 11 to 14:

Now the angel of the Lord came and sat under the oak at Ophrah which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite as his son Gideon was beating out the wheat in the wine press to hide it from the Midianites. The angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, ‘The Lord is with you, you mighty warrior’.

Gideon answered him, ‘But sir, if the Lord is with us why then has all this happened to us and where are all the wonderful deeds that our ancestors recounted to us saying, did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt? But now the Lord has cast us off and given us into the hand of Median.’ Then the Lord turned to him and said, ‘Go in this might of yours and deliver Israel from the hand of Median. I hereby commission you’.

Now this is really interesting. The angel calls him a mighty warrior and commands him to go and I quote:

In this might of yours to deliver Israel from the hand of Midian.

God knows what He’s doing. He’s picked a strong guy, a leader. You want that sort of man to head up an army that’s about to fight a much, much, much larger army against impossible human odds, right? You want a leader. But as we’ve seen if you’ve been able to join us over these past weeks on the program, Gideon’s heart wavered. No less than four times did God have to give him a miraculous sign in order to convince Gideon that God was indeed in this and that victory was assured.

Now I love that. I love that because God’s saying to us, “Look I don’t care how strong you are, even if you’re a leader like Gideon, even if you’re one of these strongest of all personality types you can’t do this on your own. You cannot overcome the impossible in your own might.” Do you get it? God deliberately picks a strong man, Gideon, through whom to teach us this lesson. This mighty warrior, this man called to go in his might and deliver Israel. Thank you Jesus.

And the only way that I have learned to let go and let God do the things that only He can do is by learning His ways from His Spirit through His Word. Leaving room for God doesn’t come naturally to me I have to tell you, it’s something I have had to learn and I am still learning. It goes completely against the grain to take my hands off the wheel and say, “Okay God, I’ve done all I can, anything else I need to do just let me know but I’m about to stand back here because I believe I’m going to see Your power do the things that I can’t even begin to dream of or hope for or imagine.”

Take the disciples; they’d been with Jesus, the eleven that remained after His death and resurrection, for just over three and a half years. Quite an apprenticeship, what a Bible College, three and a half years with Jesus.

Watching, seeing, hearing, experiencing the power of God first hand. If anyone was equipped to go and start off the 1st century Church it was these guys but just before He ascends into heaven Jesus says to them, “You’re not ready, there’s something else that you need.” Luke chapter 24, verse 49:

And see, I am sending upon you what my Father promised, so stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.

Acts chapter 1 beginning at verse 6:

So when they came together they asked Him, ‘Lord, is this the time when you’ll restore the kingdom to Israel?’ He replied, ‘it is not for you to know the times or the periods that the Father has set by His own authority but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.

They needed power. Power from on high. Power from above. God’s power. The power of the Holy Spirit who comes to dwell in each person who puts their faith in Jesus. The power of the Holy Spirit who, if we lay our lives down at the foot of the cross, will completely drench us, completely soak us and change us, baptise us with His power.

And can I tell you? As someone who, for much of his life, has laboured at things through his own strength, what an amazing blessing it is. What a joy and a delight it is to see God do things in power in my life. Am I still naturally a strong guy? Of course I am but what a delight it is when the Spirit of God counsels me to hold my tongue or to take my foot off the accelerator or to stop worrying about this or that because God’s already gone ahead of me.

For me a huge part of God’s power is not only moving impossible mountains or winning battles or overcoming obstacles. A huge part of Gods power is changing me, making me malleable in the potter’s hands, taking the selfishness, the anger, replacing it with peace and joy. Friend that takes power, extraordinary power in my case to set me free from my sin.

And that’s the power that God would hand to each one of us, not the way the world gives because the world gives power to the rich and the famous, to those who seize power at any cost. But that’s not how God gives it:

He gives power to the faint and He strengthens the powerless. Even youths will faint and be weary and the young will fall exhausted. But those who wait for the Lord will renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.