• What do you have that you were not given? 1 Corinthians 4:7 demands humility and gratitude not arrogance.
• Every good gift every perfect gift comes from above James 1:17 (life, wisdom, love, faith, talents, all serving as blessings for guidance, growth, gratitude and service to others).
• Seeing then that we have gifts different… (Romans 12:6-8), unique abilities and talents given by God to be used to serve others

Every creation of God has gifts given by God, similarly Satan can also give gifts, that is another treatise, but our theme today is how do you know what you have been given? Here’s where Gideon’s story teaches us two important lessons.

We deal first with knowing what God has given you. Judges 6 teaches that God alone can point that out to us howbeit by different instrumentalities of His choice but all with a commonality. Verses 13-16 reveal much, Gideon’s outburst was not kneejerk but an expression, of question and debate that’s been going on it his mind – Gideon was looking for an answer, to what only God saw and only God could answer.

What preoccupies my mind? God the deliverer from prevalent communal challenges or self-issues? God’s response in verses 14-16 is a great poser, what was the strength of Gideon?

And Gideon said unto him, Oh my Lord, if the Lord be with us, why then is all this befallen us? and where be all his miracles which our fathers told us of, saying, Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt? but now the Lord hath forsaken us, and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites. And the Lord looked upon him, and said, Go in this thy might, and thou shalt save Israel from the hand of the Midianites: have not I sent thee? And he said unto him, Oh my Lord, wherewith shall I save Israel? behold, my family is poor in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house. And the Lord said unto him, Surely I will be with thee, and thou shalt smite the Midianites as one man. Judges 6:13-16

Gideon’s thoughts were recalling, thinking on the testimony and the acts of the sovereign, powerful deliverer; almost a precursor to or in the similitude of Psalm 121 (TPT).

• Look to the Lord alone to show you His giftings in your life, don’t be a copycat.
• For Gideon a process of pruning followed, stripping him of self-dependence and human logic until the Lord was all in all. Gideon’s total dependence upon God was his strength, as long as he obeyed instructions, undistracted. With dependence and obedience came discernment (understanding God’s message spoken in dreams), faith in God that translated to courage to lead a people into God’s assured victory.

God sees what man doesn’t see; He transforms the fearful, the inadequate and when God sends you victory is guaranteed as you stay in line with His instructions. Shalom



Pastor Afolabi Oladele