IS THIS YOU?
John 20:19-29

When the Lord appeared to Gideon, He promised that Gideon was going to be used as the vessel of deliverance for his people from the oppression of the enemy. Gideon wanted to test God if he was actually going to be used for such an assignment. “So Gideon said to God, “If You will save Israel by my hand as You have said— 37 look, I shall put a fleece of wool on the threshing floor; if there is dew on the fleece only, and it is dry on all the ground, then I shall know that You will save Israel by my hand, as You have said.” 38 And it was so. When he rose early the next morning and squeezed the fleece together, he wrung the dew out of the fleece, a bowlful of water.” (Judges 6:36-38) God responded to the request of Gideon as a confirmation of the assignment He bestowed to Gideon. One would expect that was all that Gideon needed for a confirmation, but Gideon asked for more from the Lord when he said, “…Do not be angry with me, but let me speak just once more: Let me test, I pray, just once more with the fleece; let it now be dry only on the fleece, but on all the ground let there be dew.” 40 And God did so that night. It was dry on the fleece only, but there was dew on all the ground. (Judges 6:39-40) Gideon called his approach, ‘testing God’. Are you desperately in need of a confirmation of what the Lord has called you to do? Gideon was not testing God based on doubt of what the Lord can do, and it is clear that it was based on the intention to obey God. The word of God declared in 1 Samuel 1:3, “For the LORD is the God of knowledge; And by Him actions are weighed.” God knows the heart of who wants to test Him in order to reinforce doubt in their heart. Testing God to reinforce doubt is a sin, and it will not produce the intended result, but the attainment of God’s anger. Thomas a disciple of Jesus, having missed the visitation of Christ after His resurrection, needed a test to confirm when he stated, “The other disciples therefore said to him, “We have seen the Lord.” So he said to them, “Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.” (John 20:25) Man has not changed from what they have been made to be, but man’s situations continue to change and affect the world. Gideon and Thomas, do they sound like you? Learn from the written word of God to address your situation.

Prayer for today: In your goodness and mercy O Lord, let me not operate the spirit of doubt in every area of Your visitation in my life

GIDEON TO JERUBBAAL
Judges 6:17-40

The first statement that was released into the life Gideon, by the angel of the Lord that appeared to him was, “…The LORD is with you, you mighty man of valor1” (Judges 6:11) It was an encounter that brought a package of deliverance for the children of Israel, that had been suffering oppression in the hand of the Midianites. Gideon wanted a confirmation of the assignment that had been delivered unto him, that was the salvation of his people, “Then he said to Him, “If now I have found favor in Your sight, then show me a sign that it is You who talk with me. 18 Do not depart from here, I pray, until I come to You and bring out my offering and set it before You.” And He said, “I will wait until you come back.” (Judges 6:17-18) Gideon’s offering was accepted, and it gave Gideon the encouragement to go and destroy the altar of Baal that belonged to his father. Gideon had an encounter, encouragement, before he destroyed the altar of a foreign god that belonged to his father. With the encouragement to destroy the altar in his father’s house, “Therefore on that day he called him Jerubbaal, saying, “Let Baal plead against him, because he has torn down his altar.”” (Judges 6:32) Having been able to destroy a foreign God that belong to his father, Jerubbaal set out to carry out the package of deliverance for his people from the oppression of seven painful years. God is not a God of accidents; He is a God that brings every situation to pass by way of an orderly manner. After the encounter Gideon had with the Angel of the Lord, he was set with encouragement that carried him into the center of his assignment. Jerubbaal (Gideon) successively went even further by the enablement of God to destroy the enemies that had successively raided, destroyed, stole, and oppressed the children of Israel for seven years. Offering to the Lord at the beginning of the encounter was a major provocation of the move of God’s enablement in the calling of Gideon. Do you have a need for deliverance in any area of life? By virtue of the word that you have encountered, with understanding, go and give unto Him an offering that is reasonable, take courage in the Lord. The same God that responded to Gideon will not fail on your behalf. Destroy the altar of foreign God in your life and you will be restored.
Prayer for today: Everlasting God, the One that was, the One that is, and the One that will always be, have mercy on me. Let every force that stands against me be permanently terminated.

SELF-CONTAINED
Judges 6:1-16

A man in the Bible identified himself as the least among his clan, and coming from the weakest clan. The man did not consider himself to be anybody. Above all, he dwelt among a group of people that had been suffering oppression from the enemy. His group of people was greatly impoverished because of continuous raids by the enemy. While the man continued to live in a self-contained box, “…The Angel of the LORD came and sat under the terebinth tree which was in Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, while his son Gideon threshed wheat in the winepress, in order to hide it from the Midianites.” (Judges 6:1) Gideon did  not know who he was, and he was in the process to continue hiding, just like his people. The Angel of the Lord that appeared to Gideon was on a mission that would allow Gideon to know who he was, and not what his environment called him to be. Often times, having dwelt too long in an environment, the environment will begin to define the dweller, instead of the dweller defining himself to the environment. Gideon had been where the people had been hiding in the caves and strongholds that were in the mountains. (Judges 15:2) The Angel of the Lord that appeared to Gideon, identified Gideon, “And the Angel of the LORD appeared to him, and said to him, “The LORD is with you, you mighty man of valor!” (Judges 16:12) Having dwelt for a long time among the oppressed, the mighty man of valor could not see himself as a mighty man of valor, because he became a part of them and began to think like them. Despite all the testimonies of God, despite all that have been revealed through the pages of scripture, there are believers of the Word of God that continue to live and suffer like the believers of the word of the world. In the process of getting a self realization, the Angel of the Lord eventually spoke power into the life of Gideon, “Then the LORD turned to him and said, “Go in this might of yours, and you shall save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Have I not sent you?” (Judges 16:14) The word that was released into Gideon’s life, could not sink into Gideon immediately because he had been in self-contained box for too long. Gideon wanted to questioned the validity of the word that came into his life, but the Lord assured him, “And the LORD said to him, “Surely I will be with you, and you shall defeat the Midianites as one man.” (Judges 6:16) When He sends His own, He always backs His own up. With the current world order, victory is certain when there is boldness and character.
Prayer for today: My God and my Father, I ask for your deliverance that will bring me out of every self-contained box.

GOOD PART
Luke 10:38-42

“Now it happened as they went that He entered a certain village; and a certain woman named Martha welcomed Him into her house. 39 And she had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus’ feet and heard His word.” (Luke 10:38-39) It is a great privilege to have Jesus welcomed into your house, while not making yourself present with Him in the house is nothing but a huge disaster. Many have given their lives and accepted Christ as their Lord and Savior, but they are constantly not available at His visitation. Martha was the one that welcomed Jesus, but she was busy serving unreasonably. Any service that takes a believer from receiving what it takes to know Him in truth and indeed, is not a reasonable service. While Martha was busy serving Jesus, Mary was busy getting fed at the feet of the Master. Mary was receiving all that matters, all which could help her in growing to become the kind of woman that the Lord wanted her to be. There is nothing wrong in serving the Lord, but so much is wrong when serving takes away the believer from receiving what it takes to grow in the word of God. Today many are busy serving in different areas but the Word of God is not touching different areas of their lives. “But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached Him and said, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore tell her to help me.” (Luke 10:40) Martha knew what was going on in her life. She recognized that her service was nothing but a distraction that was taking her away from where she needed to be and what she needed to be getting from the Master. It is very possible that leaders can be impressed by service they observed in every server, but it is important that service counts before the Master of all. Martha realizing her deficit, decided to take her case to the Master, “And Jesus answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things.” (Luke 10:41) Worrying is not of the Lord; it is an evidence of anxiousness. Jesus made Martha realize her misplaced priority. In everything where preparation and planning has been adequately laid down, every activity should fall in the right order. Jesus mentioned to Martha, “But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.” (Luke 10:42) Know how to prepare for your service; if it is short of getting fed by the word of God, you are not getting from the good part.
Prayer for today: What ever is taking man away from getting the good part in You, O Lord let it not be my portion in Jesus name.  

REJECTED?
1 Samuel 15

King Saul, anointed by Samuel to be the king over the children of Israel, disobeyed the Word of God and that made God declare to him, through Samuel, “I greatly regret that I have set up Saul as king, for he has turned back from following Me, and has not performed My commandments.” And it grieved Samuel, and he cried out to the LORD all night. (1 Samuel 15:11) God’s regret over Saul resulted to Saul’s rejection as the king for the children of Israel. For a long time, Saul continued to be the king for the children of Israel, before every man and woman, while he was no longer a king, but a rejected vessel before God. Saul disobeyed God when he made a choice to walk in his own way outside of God’s way. God commanded Saul, “Now go and attack Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and do not spare them. But kill both man and woman, infant and nursing child, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.’” (1 Samuel 15:3) Saul did not dispute God’s command, but he went and disrupted God’s plan and purpose to punish the Amalek. God regretted setting up Saul as the king because of his disobedience. To disobey God’s command is turning your back on God. To stop following God’s command is the avenue to fall from grace. Whatever you have heard from Him needs to be carefully obeyed, before becoming rejected by God. Despite the fact that Saul had been rejected, he remained as king without God’s presence and while he was king, the Word says, “But the Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul, and a distressing spirit from the LORD troubled him.” (1 Samuel 16:14) Saul, the anointed king by God, no longer carried the presence of God, yet he remained to be king for the people of God. God is not a rusher, and He will always go by His timing, not by the timing or the feeling of man. It is possible to make the work of God look good by investing time, energy, and money. It is also possible for the job to be attractive to the multitude, or good in numbers, the question is: Can God be found in the good work that you are doing? Anointing in place is not evidence to the presence of God. Disobedience is evil; it is a great sin, a demonstration of the lack of fear for the Lord. Ecclesiastes 8:11, “Because the sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.”God does not overlook sin; He will act at His appointed time.
Prayer for Today: Father I ask in the name of Jesus for your deliverance and preservation of my life from every walk of sin and iniquities.