Judges 7: 2-8 The Lord said to Gideon, “You have too many warriors with you. If I let all of you fight the Midianites, the Israelites will boast to me that they saved themselves by their own strength. 3 Therefore, tell the people, ‘Whoever is timid or afraid may leave this mountain[a] and go home.’” So 22,000 of them went home, leaving only 10,000 who were willing to fight.4 But the Lord told Gideon, “There are still too many! Bring them down to the spring, and I will test them to determine who will go with you and who will not.” 5 When Gideon took his warriors down to the water, the Lord told him, “Divide the men into two groups. In one group put all those who cup water in their hands and lap it up with their tongues like dogs. In the other group put all those who kneel down and drink with their mouths in the stream.” 6 Only 300 of the men drank from their hands. All the others got down on their knees and drank with their mouths in the stream.7 The Lord told Gideon, “With these 300 men I will rescue you and give you victory over the Midianites. Send all the others home.” 8 So Gideon collected the provisions and rams’ horns of the other warriors and sent them home. But he kept the 300 men with him.
We call our time the end times. God has a standard on His vessels in this end times. If we only knew His standard, we will speak, think and move accordingly. God uses quality not quantity. God uses a spiritual army who is has excellence in quality. Then how does a quality army created?
In college, a student must choose classes according to the student’s major. In order to graduate, a student must pass the classes and obtain the required credits. Christians have required classes also. The classes consists of suffering, discipline, test and tribulation. When we become a Christian, difficulty and tribulation comes on our way. Why must these difficulties follow us? I focus on the power that God grants us.
Jeremiah 33:3 “ Ask me and I will tell you remarkable secrets you do not know about things to come.”
There is a reason why God handles us in such a way. It is because God desires to raise us into His army. God moves us according to His own will. After a process of much training, we will realize His love. Then we will love Him. But we will be responsible for many things when we love Him. God wants us to become a saint who has power and strength. In order to be one like that, we must receive proper training.
The Lord is within us. The word said,
“Examine yourselves to see if your faith is genuine. Test yourselves.” (2 Corinthians 13:5)
We must do right so that the Lord who is in us is manifested and works through us. This is our test. If we do not pass the test, we will have fear. But when we pass the test, we will taste freedom, joy and peace both mentally and spiritually. When we pass the test, He will give us a blessing of finance/materials and open up the circumstances and our situations. We must test ourselves on a regular basis.
The word said, “Are any of you suffering hardships? You should pray.” (James 5:13)
When you go through suffering, you don’t really need any person to comfort you. When you go through suffering, you must come before God and pray. When you are happy, you should sing praises. You must not be boastful. When you boast about happy things that has occurred onto you, you might cause other people to be envy and jealousy. When you receive a spiritual gift, pray without being boastful. You will know a person’s spiritual realm/spirituality depending on how they speak. How they think and feel will come out through their mouths. When you encounter a person who judges and condemns others, this person belongs to that kind of spiritual realm. When you continue to converse with a person like that, you will be swept away. People meeting with other people are contacting spirit to spirit.
Numbers 26, God had commanded to count the people who will go out and fight to conquer the land of Canaan. Among all Israelite, there were about 600,000 young man. When the Israelites first came out of Egypt they were nothing but slaves. In the wilderness, there is no water to drink nor food to eat. There is no person who wants to go through suffering and adversity. Without proper training, you will not be able to be useful. In this world, there are many churches. Many Christians became Sunday Christians. Worship and praise only on Sundays.
When we want to be used by God and be totally controlled by Him, we must pass this fearful training. Our thoughts do not develop and grow fast enough and this is one of the reason why our prayers are not answered quickly. When the answer does not come quickly, we begin to think what is the cause for its long delay?. As we think and ponder, we will strengthen our spiritual muscle. The content of our assignment is suffering. It is very important how we resolve the assignment that is given to each and every one of us. God has given assignment to countries, cities, churches, families and to individuals. The content of our assignment are suffering, pain, discipline and training. You must think right and ask why the things in your life do not go well but are always twisted. Sometimes, we would wrestle only with one problem at a time.
The training in the wilderness is a must for all Christians and it is something in which we must pass. After the Israelites came out of Egypt and right before entering the promise land of Canaan, there were two census. Between the two census, the Israelites had a time of great training. Their training in visual, thinking, mind, attitude, speaking and with variously types personal training. There are times when God uses a great number of people according to His will but in today’s passage, God desires a small number of army like Gedeon’s three hundred.
One day, the Lord showed me a vision of a horse with only three legs.
“Lord, what is this?”
“You must raise, nurture and train this horse into a battle horse.”
“How can this horse become a battle horse when this horse has only three legs?”
But, in a vision, I saw this horse grow a fourth leg. The Lord was wearing an iron armor made of fire. He then got up on a horse and sat on it. Actually, the Lord was riding on many battle horses. He had grabbed the horses’ bridles as the horses ran fast. Only with the light touch of the side of the running horses with the Lord’s foot and the horses stopped right away. When the horses faced obstacles, they jumped over it.
In the last days, many people with quality will be used. The reason why many Christians are not making it is because they are not properly trained. What kind of training do we have to go through? First, you must be humble and pure before God and man. Second, you must be honest. If you are not humble, pure, honest, you must repent. Third, do not sell yourself out for money or material things. Fourth, you must believe in uncompromised truth. Fifth, you must not be ashamed of yourself or the things you have done in the past. Sixth, you must firmly believe that God is with you and He loves you. Then God will raise you and use you.
God decided to choose the people for battle against Midian. But the number of the enemy was too many to count.
Judges 7:12 “The armies of Midian, Amalek, and the people of the east had settled in the valley like a swarm of locusts. Their camels were like grains of sand on the seashore—too many to count!”
Those who are worried and scared must leave. So twenty two thousand left and only ten thousand were left in the scene. But God said to Gideon that there are still too many people. In order to win the battle there must have smaller number. After sorting out the people through how they drank the water, only three hundred left to fight against the enemy. Those who had drank the water on their knees and with their hands lapping with their tongue were chosen. With those people, God led the battle and to victory.
God break us to meet His standard of how His servant should be so that He could properly use us. Also, through our daily habits, He sorts out. Therefore, it is very important for us to have good habits. If we are not faithful and truthful, we will be sorted out.
People who do the work of God must not give excuses. You cannot say “I can not do this because I do not have this and that.” These people will endure for a while but eventually they will reach their limit and fall away. One may appear to have genuine faith but there may be unbelief underlying within that person. When some kind of circumstances are created those problems are exposed. Your thought and mind are severely attacked by demons. This is why those people who habitually doubt and speak negatively within their daily lives are very dangerous. You have to correct your thinking, emotion, feeling, and conduct. God has a standard on the believers. Satan has a higher standard than how we measure ourselves as believers. The standard is Job. He had no resentment towards God even though his wealth was taken away, when he was struck by sickness, and when all of his children were killed. Those tests did not offend him. This is the standard our faith is required. A faith that does not resent toward God. If you say that you serve God, you must have the faith like Job. It breaks my heart to see who had potential to be used by God but gives up or falls away. We can not please God without having faith.
God’s answer comes to us in dreams and visions first. But in reality, our circumstance is miserable. But do not move impatiently, if you do, you will become a fake. God calls us to entrust a mission. Before He really entrust some kind of kingdom work, He will test us by making all our effort end in vain. The same thing happened with Moses. Even though he asked the Egyptian king to let his people go, the king continuously rejected him. God made the Egyptian king’s heart more harden. God makes our situation twisted and hardened. This way, we will learn to be spiritually matured. I call this paradoxical grace or ironical grace. Grace within suffering.
Once God begin to intervene in a person’s life, this person becomes a special person. This person will become pure, honest, will not fall into a material things, and will live by the word of God. God said, you have not choosen Me but I have chosen you and raised you.
John 15:16 “ You didn’t choose me. I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce lasting fruit, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask for, using my name”
Those whom God uses must endure and hold their ground in the midst of battle. Those whom God uses must bear stress. You must not straggle, dismay, or show any hint of hesitation within the battle, danger and stress. Like Isaac, the promised one will be given after waiting with patience. God completely breaks us, mold us, and train us.
First, God will remold our way of thinking. Second, we must create a new relationship with God. Third, we must be equipped as a spiritual leader. Fourth, we must read the bible many times and we must pray without ceasing. We must be equipped with the spiritual message in us. Fifth, we must change our perspective. If we understand and care from the perspective of others, we can be a leader. But becoming a leader is very dangerous, because one corrupted leadership can destroy whole churches.
Why have we been born in this generation? What do we have to do? We have lived our lives with our old ways of living. But even after we become a christian, our circumstance do not change. It does not matter how much we pray, we seem to be in a difficult life. But we must find our identity within the suffering.
When you do not want to pray, you must be on your knees and pray. There will be come an appointed time, you must not miss it. You are praying for that timing. You must change your thinking and receive new perspective. When the tests and tribulation comes your way, think beyond your situation. Within the tests and suffering, there are God’s power and blessing.
Apostle Paul had his revelations while he was in jail. Joseph experienced God’s power while he was in jail. Praying is not a trivial matter or playing a game. Pray and receive what we really need. With prayer, you must open the door which has been closed. It does not matter what happens, do not be dismayed or give up. Sometimes, God radically works and answers. There is a time to wait but there will be a time when God’s sudden answer comes. You may feel like the answer is being very delayed but once God answers and works, the things in your life will be restored in a moment.
When we meet some type of people or when we face some kind of event, the things that were hiding within us become a problem and are revealed. Those hidden problems must be sorted out in order for God to seize and use us. This is why we must daily entrust ourselves to the Lord. You must be satisfied by knowing that the Lord is with us. If you still have some things that are bothering you, you must daily come before the Lord and confess and repenting. I pray that all of you pass and meet the God’s standard.
Pastor Kim, Yong Doo
South Korea
The Lord's Church
Author of "Baptized by Blazing Fire" books
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