By Ryan Shaw

Review

In the last Memo, we detailed God's speaking to Gideon through an angel (or a manifestation of Jesus Himself) and affirming Him in a deep and overwhelming manner. God is doing the same with many today. He is whispering to our hearts and spirits, "I am with you!" I believe with all my heart that we an identity crisis among the people of God today. We really don't believe that He truly loves us or is with us. Similar to Gideon! Yet, the Scripture emphatically reminds us that we are not to refer to ourselves or see ourselves in the insecurities or inadequacies of our natural person, but according to what our great Redeemer says of us. We are saints in the eyes of God through the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is our identity and as a result of this God declares, "I am with you!" whether we feel it or not. End of story! We either believe it and walk in spiritual freedom and are useful in the hands of God or we remain defeated reminding ourselves of all the ways that we are definitely not saintly. Feelings usually don't come at first, but God promises that part of the joy of walking with Him and maturing in Him is the lavish love that He pours out upon our emotions, giving us times of wonderful communion in the manifest presence of our God.

Radical Obedience

Now we move on to Judges 6:25-32. In this portion we find the Lord instructing Gideon to destroy the altar of Baal and He shows him deliberately how to go about doing so. Gideon, in much fear and trembling, is obedient to the command, but does so under the cloak of darkness instead of during the day. The townspeople awake the next morning in utter horror at what has taken place and are livid. This town was a solid stronghold for the worship of Baal. They inquire as to who has done such a thing and it is revealed that it had in fact been Gideon. His father, being a man of influence in the town, is able to get his son out of this mess using wisdom that undoubtedly God had given him.

Painful Confrontation

There are several critical points in this narrative that demand our consideration as those seeking to follow hard after God and be used of Him as His global Message Bearers. The first is the natural consequence brought upon Gideon as a result of his obedience to God's mission. It brought him face to face with a confrontation with his family. Though his father got him out of the situation, he was not happy with his son. They had all become faithful Baal worshippers and were influential in the religious decisions of the town. Gideon's actions brought a division between he and his family as he was responding in obedience to a foreign God that they did not know or understand. Often, God requires of His people that they show themselves absolutely loyal to Him alone. Before He releases His primary purposes to us, God will call us to actions of testing. In Gideon's situation it surrounded being willing to stand for God against idolatry (and his family) and do something physical to show that stance. Gideon was extremely fearful and thus did the job at night when no one would see him and yet he was faithful. What is God asking us to do today that might be a test to our loyalties?  

Bringing Division

Jesus was quite clear about this in Luke 12:51 as He states, "Do you suppose that I came to bring peace on the earth? I tell you, not at all, but to bring division." What a statement! What did He mean by this? I think He was partially getting at this point of loyalty and spiritual hunger. Jesus' desire is to meet the needs of those who are absolutely desperate for Him. Half-heartedness has no place in His Kingdom. This could be one reason why we don't see as many miracles and signs and wonders in the west as in other regions of the world. We mostly fail to show ourselves faithful to Him. According to Luke 12:51, this will often be manifested through receiving criticism and hatred by some, even in our own families.

Spiritual Hunger

I've often wondered at the verses where Jesus clearly did not want to be noticed and affirmed because of a miracle He had done or something similar. I think the reason was that He did not want to become the cool new trend in town (though to some degree He did anyway for a time). He knew that such adoration would not last and that it would not sustain the followers through the hard times that were ahead. He was right! But He was getting at something deeper as well. He was getting at the notion of spiritual hunger. He wanted those who followed Him to do so because they really hungered and thirsted for God, and not for the next thing Jesus could do for them (as wonderful as these things are sometimes). It is the same lesson communicated concerning why Jesus spoke so often in parables. Those really hungry for truth got the message tucked away in the parable, while those who were superficial in their interest in spiritual matters went away confused. Only the spiritually hungry who are willing to seek Jesus for who He really is, will find Him and the depth of satisfaction that comes through knowing Him intimately. The others will find a form of religion and a pseudo-spirituality, but not the depths of spiritual riches that God has set apart for the hungry.

The same issues were before Gideon in his confrontation. Whom would he serve as his principles and values differed from those of his family? Today, we struggle with these same realities. Families are the biggest reason why people fail to respond to God with obedience concerning His call. Their values, philosophies, expectations, manipulation, guilt, etc cause many whom God has called and marked for His purposes to forsake those purposes altogether out of pressure.

Defeating Idolatry

We see another issue at hand in this narrative. In the previous verses God had made it clear that Gideon was His choice to be the "judge" He would use to push back the Midianite army and liberate the people of Israel. But in God's command to tear down the altar of Baal first we are given a key spiritual principle. Before the Israelite militia could be mobilized for war against the Midianites, the Baal (or symbol of demonic power) had to be dealt with. Before we can be effective in reaching a lost and dying world through the power of the Holy Spirit, we must make certain our lives and the lives of those serving with us, are free from idolatry. We do this by proactively tearing down each idol that arises and slamming it to the ground as Gideon did. Idols today consist of reputation, control, materialism, over-concern for future security (both physically and financially), pride, self-indulgence, self dependence, misunderstanding of Biblical success, compromise, besetting sins, etc. As a follower of Jesus we each must bear our own cross and daily ask the Lord what idolatries we are tolerating. As He reveals these to us, we take them to the cross and let those parts of us be crucified, in exchange we receive the power of His resurrection (the same exact power that raised Christ from the dead) to walk in freedom from that idolatry.

Power Encounters

On another level, much of the work He has called us to in these days is hindered in towns and cities (and even nations) because of past sin and idolatry that has never been repented of and cleared away. Just as the Baal idol represented counterfeit spiritual power and God required it be leveled, there are counterfeit spiritual forces that can be torn down spiritually by even the weakest of the people of God. In many unreached societies today these consist of brutal racism, witchcraft, murder (in the past or present), abortion, ungodly governing, sex slavery, drug trafficking, torture, and the list goes on. We are called to discern what primary idols are ruling over the towns and cities God has called us to serve in, and tear down the power of these things through prayer and intercession. This is best done in unity with other believers also serving in that town or city.

Whom Will We Serve?

Like Gideon of old, we have a daily choice to make. Though timid, afraid, feeling inadequate, and more, will we succumb to our societies lies about who we really are, or will we believe what God says about us? Then will we listen and wait upon Him to receive our marching orders and even if we don't really like them (I'm sure Gideon was not thrilled with the command of God to tear down the Baal altars) follow through faithfully. Rarely does our flesh like the commands of God, because He often uses specific commands to expose the real state of our hearts in order to mature us. God is waiting for Gideons to arise all over the world. He is calling the emerging generation to respond to Him with outright loyalty and commitment to His purposes alone. He is seeking to tear down idolatries in our hearts to prepare us for the primary purposes He has for our lives and He is consistently testing us to root out wrong motives and misunderstandings we have about ourselves and about Him.

Prayer

"God, I want to arise in my generation to absolute faithfulness to you, no matter the cost. I recognize that their will be a cost involved, but I say boldly to that cost, "It is better to walk faithfully with my God than to not pay the price in serving Him!" Help me to remain steadfast and loyal to You when others stand against me for doing so. For those faithful to you, you promise that divisions will arise as light and dark cannot cohabitate. Show me the idols in my heart and give me the power, Holy Spirit, to deal a death blow to them and to climb onto the cross and have those idols crucified. Thank you for your resurrection power that enables me to live free from idols as I trust in you. God, do this across my generation. Raise up Gideons across the nations willing to stand for you and be used of You among the most unreached around the world. You are doing a new thing in the earth and I desperately want to be a part of it. I love you, Jesus!"  

Ryan Shaw