Very often we forget that the greatest heroes in the Bible typically began as those voted least likely to succeed in their graduating class. One of my favorites is Gideon. We are told in the book of Judges, “The angel of the Lord came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites. When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said, ‘The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.’ ‘But sir,’ Gideon replied, ‘if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our fathers told us about when they said, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up out of Egypt?’ But now the Lord has abandoned us and put us into the hand of Midian.’ The Lord turned to him and said, ‘Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand. Am I not sending you?’ ‘But Lord,” Gideon asked, ‘how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family’ (Judges 6:11-15).

The context of the story was that God had indeed turned Israel over to Midian because of decades of unrepented sin and idolatry. Midian had totally oppressed Israel and had taken everything of value from God’s people including the crops they harvested. Israel had little food, less money, and no standing army or even a cache of weapons. In addition, during seasons of Israel’s rebellion, the Lord was often very silent and his word was heard only on rare occasions.

In the midst of that, Gideon was threshing wheat in a wine press as he hid from the Midianites. An angel of the Lord appeared on the scene and opened the conversation with a strange statement. He said, “The Lord is with you mighty warrior.” Undoubtedly, Gideon must have thought this was a case of mistaken identity. As far as we know, Gideon had no military experience. He certainly didn’t view himself as mighty or as a warrior. His identity was that of a poor, insignificant man from an insignificant family.

Interestingly, he didn’t even bother to respond to the “mighty warrior” part, but simply asked, “if God is with us, then why are we in such a deplorable mess?” It was his way of saying, “Yeah. Right.” In his lifetime, he had not seen any of the miracles he had heard about when God brought Israel out of Egypt and into the “promise land.” He had not experienced the “milk and honey” of Canaan that God had promised through Moses. He had not witnessed great victories by the Jewish military as in the days of Joshua. All of those things must have seemed like bedtime stories or exaggerated legends from the past.

We are not so different. God tells us who we are in Christ. He tells us that we are children of the King walking in great authority. He tells us that he has given us power to heal, raise the dead, and cast out demons. He tells us that we each have great destinies in Christ. In essence, he tells us that we are mighty warriors and too many of us respond just as Gideon did. Our view of ourselves doesn’t match God’s declaration over us so we think, “Yeah. Right. I sure don’t see any of that in me and where are the miracles I used to ask for?”

The truth is that, at some point, we are all Gideon’s. God sees us differently than we see ourselves and begins to speak a destiny over us that we must choose to accept or reject. The question is always whether we give God’s word more authority than our feelings or past experiences.

The praiseworthy quality in Gideon was first honesty and second was his willingness to work with God on the proposition that he might be a mighty warrior who would eventually free Israel from Midian’s oppression. There are three things we must always keep in mind about our God.

1. God does not lie (Titus 1:2).
2. When God sends forth his word, it accomplishes his purpose (Isa.55:11) .
3. God calls things that are not as though they were (Rom.4:17).

When God called Gideon a mighty warrior, it was not flattery but destiny. The qualifier was that God would be with him. For God to be with us in a venture, we must exercise some level of faith. Gideon’s faith was a bit tenuous to start, but he took first steps. The first was to ask for confirmation that he was hearing from God through this “man” and not from some misdirected prophet or from the jumbled wells of his own imagination. God honored the request. The angel who had appeared as a man, touched a rock with his staff where Gideon had placed an offering. Both the offering and the angel disappeared in a burst of flame.

As you read the story, Gideon kept asking for more confirmations and taking next steps. In asking for confirmations such as the fleece he put out twice, Gideon wasn’t doubting the character of God but rather his own ability to hear God. God was willing to work with Gideon’s imperfect faith because Gideon was willing to take next steps as God answered his requests for confirmation. In the end, Gideon did become a great warrior through whom Midian was defeated and in the process saw the miracles of God he had only heard about before. God did not lie; his word did produce a mighty warrior, and what he had called out that did not exist before, did come to pass.

When God speaks our identity and destiny over us through his written word, through a whisper from the Spirit, or by a prophet, he wants us to believe enough to engage in the process. Take next steps and even ask for confirmation that we have heard him correctly. In the beginning, Gideon could only see himself as a man who was an insignificant son tin an insignificant family in Israel. Like all of us, he hoped for more but could just not see it with his own eyes. But God had planted that hope in him to be more and, at the right time. invited him to become more than he ever imagined. He wants the same for us and has promised to be with us.

Our part is to believe. Engage with God in conversations about what we think we are hearing or sensing and, at least, be willing to take the next step of faith as God prepares the way. So…mighty warrior…what will you do for Him today?

Repentance is a foundational concept in the New Testament and is a requirement for entering the kingdom of God. Both John the Baptist and Jesus launched their kingdom campaigns by preaching, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.” On the Day of Pentecost, in the first post-resurrection gospel sermon, Peter declared, “Repent and be baptized everyone of you…” Repentance is a very important key to the kingdom.

The Greek word that is translated “repent” is metanoeo. It means to change your mind or your way of thinking, to adopt another view, or to feel differently about something. It often carries with it an emotional component of regret or remorse for the foolishness or even evil of former ways of thinking. Most of us have been taught that repentance is about stopping sinful behaviors and replacing those behaviors with good deeds or better ways of thinking. That is included in the concept of repentance, but repentance is not limited to that. In fact, limiting repentance to a change of behaviors greatly hinders our life in the kingdom.

The truth is that our behaviors flow out of our beliefs and perspectives. Sin is a fruit of thinking that is misaligned with the Father’s thinking. Doing away with sinful behaviors is the fruit of having changed the way we think about how we have been living. If we are simply changing behaviors and not changing our thought patterns, perspectives, and values, then we will continue to sin in our hearts and our thoughts regardless of our actions. We will also continue to sin in our actions, only in more subtle ways that are not so obvious to others.

The failure of religion is that it focuses on behaviors much more than an essential change of heart and mind. Jesus addressed that problem in his “sermon on the Mount” recorded in Matthew 5. In that section he keeps saying, “You have heard that it was said…But I say unto you…” Each time he would point to a behavior (anger, adultery, retaliation, etc.) that had been defined by the Law of Moses, but would then point them to a change of heart that went much deeper.

To truly enter the kingdom of God, we must change the way we think, the way we view life, the way we see ourselves, and the way we see others. We must learn to focus on the spiritual rather than the natural and on the eternal rather than the temporary. We must learn to love our enemies and bless those who curse us and our words must reflect what is truly in our hearts.

Kingdom living requires an extensive remodel of our thought lives. Paul counsels us to make every thought obedient to Jesus Christ (2 Cor.10:5) and calls us to no longer conform to the pattern of this world, but to be transformed by the renewing of our minds (Rom.12:2). If I only focus on the things I should do or should not do, my thought life will be minimally transformed and my life will be minimally transformed as well.

When I’m angry, I should ask the Holy Spirit to show me the source of my anger. Was it pride, fear, insecurity, or a damaged self-image that prompted the anger? When I discover what makes me vulnerable to an angry response, then I need the Word of God and the Spirit of God to change my perspective (my mind and my heart) about God, others, and myself so that the responses of broken and hurtful people toward me don’t trigger anger, but rather compassion, blessing, and prayer.

The gist of this is that we should focus on our thought life more than our behaviors since what we do flows out of what we think. Our actions and emotions are clues to our thought life but are symptoms rather than causes. David was wise enough to pray, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” (Ps.139:23-24). Many of our deepest thoughts, beliefs, and values can be hidden from us and so it is wise to ask the Spirit, who searches all things, to reveal our thoughts or beliefs that are opposed to God’s word.

When we discover those beliefs, we should test them against God’s word, his values, and his truth. Repentance is bringing our thought life and belief systems into alignment with his word in every part of our life. Study, meditation, memorization, spiritual conversations, and prayer all work to renew our minds and to rewrite those things that are misaligned.   When our minds begin to mirror the mind of Christ, then we are able to perceive more of the kingdom and more of the kingdom is released to us. Bottom line…learn to think about what you are thinking.

In an instant, microwave culture, we often grow weary of prayers that have not been quickly answered and lay them aside believing that God has said “No” to our request. It is true that sometimes, our prayers will release almost instantaneous results. A person may be healed immediately or within hours. A check will come in the next day’s mail. A house will be sold in the afternoon when the prayer was offered in the morning, and so on.

But typically, like seeds, the words we have sown into the spiritual realm through prayer will seem to make no difference for a season. Like a woman who has just planted a garden, we will go out daily to see if anything is pushing up through the soil. Initially, there may be no evidence of God moving to establish what we have prayed. Like a master gardener, we will need to have faith, watch the soil, and continue to water with our prayers and declarations until we see the first green sprouts breaking through the soil.

Even after the first evidence of life, we will need to guard the initial progress with faith, diligence, and prayer. We will need to pray against the involvement of the enemy or command him to stay away in the same way that we would be vigilant to keep insects and “critters” from killing young plants. Eventually, we will witness a plant growing but that is still only the promise of a harvest. Then, after a season of growth, the harvest will come and there will be the full answer to our prayers.

Paul encourages us by saying, “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up” (Gal. 6:9). The harvest comes if we do not give up. Undoubtedly, much of what God wants to do or is willing to do on the earth gets choked out because his people plant their seeds but do not continue to water them with prayer and other expressions of faith. After a short season, we too often decide that God is not going to answer our prayer or honor a prophetic word so we stop tending the plant and it is choked out by the enemy or by our own unbelief.

Speaking though his prophet, God said, “I foretold the former things long ago, my mouth announced them and I made them known; then suddenly I acted, and they came to pass” (Isa. 48:3). In this passage we are told that God’s word had been issued long ago and then suddenly everything came to pass as it had been declared. From an earthly perspective, something incredible happened all at once. From a heavenly perspective, however, God’s word had been germinating; things had been lining up for years; and all the ingredients had been assembled. Then, suddenly, the harvest came.

Have you ever driven down a familiar highway or street and suddenly noticed a large building that you swear wasn’t there two weeks earlier when you last drove down that road? It just seemed to materialize, as if someone had delivered an inflatable office building during the night and pumped it full of air so that is was standing straight and tall when the sun came up. The truth is that someone had been planning that building for months or years. Land was acquired. Architects had drawn up detailed blueprints. Loans had been secured. The general contractor had been accumulating materials and lining up crews. Prefab walls had been assembled and shipped to the sight. Cranes were contracted to be on the property on a specific date to lift the walls. All the permits had been issued. Concrete trucks had been scheduled along ago and were waiting to deliver.

Suddenly, when the day came, the workers and the materials converged on the sight and, within a few days, an impressive building stood where a week before there was only a vacant lot. It might take months to do all the finish work but something incredibly substantial seemed to spring up overnight. The harvest came in a week but the seeds of that building had been germinating for months and, perhaps, years. God often stores things up in the spiritual realm to be released in a moment. Not growing weary in the process is the key. If we know something is the will of God, then continuing to pray, declare, and command until everything has been arranged and released from heaven brings the harvest.

Too often we look for immediate results to determine whether God is responding to our prayers or not. We should be careful to never judge what is going on in the spiritual realm by what we see in the natural. To do so is to live by sight rather than by faith. The biblical record does show that numerous healings and deliverances from demonic oppression or enemies seemed to happen suddenly with no long-term, expectant faith prompting the miracles.   But it is also full of answered prayers that had been lifted up for decades and even centuries before the time was right for the answers. Abram and Sarah prayed for a child for decades. The Hebrew people cried out for deliverance from Egypt for several hundred years. The Psalms are filled with laments asking God how long it will be before he responds to the cries of their hearts.

The principle of sowing and reaping is such a constant theme throughout the scriptures that we must always remember the lag time between placing a seed in the ground and the actual moment of harvest. Time, temperatures, soil condition, and water all determine when the harvest comes. Paul says that one plants while another waters as God gives the increase. That is all process. Process takes time and some plants only bloom once in a hundred years. When we begin to pray into a desire, a dream, or a prophetic word that God has given us, we must be prepared to persist and not give up.

If the desire persists in your heart and if it lines up with God’s heart as revealed in scripture, keep praying unless the Lord tells you clearly to stop. If you have laid a prayer aside because of weariness, you may want to pick it up again. Paul tells us in Galatians that God will not be mocked. Whatever a man sows, that is what he will reap. Praying is sowing and the promise is that we will receive a harvest if we do not give up. Take heart. A harvest is promised and God is storing up all the elements of your harvest in heaven as you pray. If we continue in faith, the answer will suddenly appear and be all the sweeter because we have persisted.

Spirit-Led is one of the most common terms batted around in the modern church today. We even have it in our Mid-Cities Community Church Mission Statement. It has become part of our Christian jargon to the extent that we may say it without really having much understanding of the term. It is a biblical term. Paul wrote, “but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God” (Rom. 8:13-14).

There is an encouraging move in most denominations today toward an understanding and acceptance of the ministry of the Holy Spirit. More Christians are becoming comfortable with the idea of God speaking to us through his Spirit (The View not withstanding), not just through the written word, and many are opening up to the possibility that all the gifts of the Spirit may be in operation today. So the term Spirit-led is gaining wider usage…which I think is a very good thing.

However, we need to be clear about what it means to be led by the Spirit. I sense that what many mean by Spirit-led is that they are responding to a voice or impression they have received in their mind or emotions. I agree that the Spirit does lead us by those expressions and others, but not every voice or impression we experience is from the Spirit. Because of that, John cautions us, “Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God” (1 Jn.4:1).

We should all want to be Spirit-led but we should also rigorously test what we are hearing or feeling. It is helpful to have a grid by which you can test the spirits so I want to offer a few bench marks for testing those things we hear, sense, or feel.

The first question should always be whether or not what I believe to be the leading of the Spirit lines up with scripture? All scripture is God-breathed (2 Tim.3:16) and the breath of God is his Spirit. Since the Spirit “inspired” the writers and since God is unchanging, then whatever we hear from him now will not contradict or disregard scripture. Everything we need to know for living a life pleasing to God is written in scripture. The first facet of being Spirit-led then is to live a life consistent with biblical principles and commands. If we are not willing to obey what is clearly written, we may not hear from the Spirit at all since only those who are faithful in little will be given more.

The written word is always our plumb line and first test for authenticity. Of course, we must know scripture in order to determine if what we are hearing lines up with it. If we don’t know scripture, then we should find someone who does. We should also remember that although God will never contradict his word, he may contradict our understanding of his word. If we are to be Spirit-led, we may need to be open to a fresh understanding of his word and his ways from time to time.

Secondly, does the message you are hearing reflect the Spirit of Christ who is humble, gentle, and loving…even in a rebuke? If the voice you are hearing as you attempt to be Spirit-led is angry, demeaning, threatening, or abusive in any way, it is not the Holy Spirit. If the voice is troubling rather than depositing peace in your heart, it is not from the Lord because Jesus said, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid” (Jn.14:27).

Another test is whether the voice is calling you to holiness or is giving you permission to satisfy the desires of your flesh. I have known too many believers who have determined that God told them to leave their spouse for someone they had developed an emotional relationship with at work, church, or the gym. Their rationale was that God wants them to be happy and the other person is what would make them happy. However, God is much more interested in our holiness than our happiness. I have also known too many who were “told by God” to find another church as soon as they experienced some disappointment or relationship problem in their current church. And I have seen too many take the higher paying job although it would leave them no time for their family – confident that they were being Spirit-led. All of those scenarios turned out badly so we need to be sure that if we do whatever we are hearing, it will honor God, draw us closer to Jesus, and call us to a righteousness based on God’s standards not the standards of the world.

Another important test is confirmation. God is fine with us asking him for confirmation that what we have heard is from him and not from ourselves or the enemy. When you are hearing a voice that is calling you to significant life change or risk, you may want to have other godly people who regularly hear from the Lord pray for that confirmation as well. You may experience that confirmation as peace in your heart or an unusual experience that clearly points you one way or the other. Gideon asked God for confirmation that what he was hearing was from God rather than his own fantasy about being a hero for Israel. He set out a ram’s fleece twice asking for a different sign each time. God provided the confirmation without rebuke. He will do the same for us. Asking for confirmation is not doubting God, but is rather the recognition that we are fallible.

To be Spirit-led we must be sensitive to his voice or promptings. It is not so hard to hear his voice in our quiet times, when journaling, or in worship. But for most of us, it is much more difficult to sense his promptings in the crowd, in the midst of a busy day, or in the heat of crisis. At those moments, we may not have time to search the word, call others to pray for confirmation, or scan our hearts for selfish motives. When we feel prompted to pray for a stranger, share what we hope is a prophetic word with someone, stand up and speak out in a meeting, or share the gospel in the checkout line at HEB we will have to respond quickly. The basic question then is whether what we are about to do might be something Jesus would do. If the answer is “Yes,” then do it. Willingness to act on the prompting of the Spirit is more important in heaven then whether you heard The Spirit accurately or not.   A willingness to risk embarrassment for obedience is highly valued in the Kingdom of Heaven. As long as you act in love, you probably can’t go wrong. As we “experiment” with those spur-of-the-moment promptings, we will learn better how to discern the Spirit’s leading in those moments.

Spirit-led is our goal. It begins by allowing the Spirit to lead us through the written word and then comes to maturity as we learn to hear his voice and know it so well that we no longer need to question what we are hearing or even seek confirmation. Jesus said that he would send us the counselor, the teacher, the one who would lead us into all truth, and the one who would reveal the secrets of the Father’s heart to us. What an amazing gift. I’m thankful that more and more believers are beginning to discover that life can be Spirit-led and when it is, it is amazing. Blessings in Him.