God Ain’t Done Yet || Part 7

God Ain't Done Yet || Part 7, Day 5

Judges‬ 6‬:1‬-16; 8:1-9‬ NKJV‬‬‬‬‬‬

Then the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord. So the Lord delivered them into the hand of Midian for seven years, and the hand of Midian prevailed against Israel. Because of the Midianites, the children of Israel made for themselves the dens, the caves, and the strongholds which are in the mountains. So it was, whenever Israel had sown, Midianites would come up; also Amalekites and the people of the East would come up against them. Then they would encamp against them and destroy the produce of the earth as far as Gaza, and leave no sustenance for Israel, neither sheep nor ox nor donkey. For they would come up with their livestock and their tents, coming in as numerous as locusts; both they and their camels were without number; and they would enter the land to destroy it. So Israel was greatly impoverished because of the Midianites, and the children of Israel cried out to the Lord. And it came to pass, when the children of Israel cried out to the Lord because of the Midianites, that the Lord sent a prophet to the children of Israel, who said to them, “Thus says the Lord God of Israel: ‘I brought you up from Egypt and brought you out of the house of bondage; and I delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians and out of the hand of all who oppressed you, and drove them out before you and gave you their land. Also I said to you, “I am the Lord your God; do not fear the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell.” But you have not obeyed My voice.’ ” Now 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. And the Angel of the Lord appeared to him, and said to him, “The Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor!” Gideon said to Him, “O my Lord, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all His miracles which our fathers told us about, saying, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the Lord has forsaken us and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites.” 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?” So he said to Him, “O my Lord, how can I save Israel? Indeed my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.” And the Lord said to him, “Surely I will be with you, and you shall defeat the Midianites as one man.”

Now the men of Ephraim said to him, “Why have you done this to us by not calling us when you went to fight with the Midianites?” And they reprimanded him sharply. So he said to them, “What have I done now in comparison with you? Is not the gleaning of the grapes of Ephraim better than the vintage of Abiezer? God has delivered into your hands the princes of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb. And what was I able to do in comparison with you?” Then their anger toward him subsided when he said that. When Gideon came to the Jordan, he and the three hundred men who were with him crossed over, exhausted but still in pursuit. Then he said to the men of Succoth, “Please give loaves of bread to the people who follow me, for they are exhausted, and I am pursuing Zebah and Zalmunna, kings of Midian.” And the leaders of Succoth said, “Are the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna now in your hand, that we should give bread to your army?” So Gideon said, “For this cause, when the Lord has delivered Zebah and Zalmunna into my hand, then I will tear your flesh with the thorns of the wilderness and with briers!” Then he went up from there to Penuel and spoke to them in the same way. And the men of Penuel answered him as the men of Succoth had answered. So he also spoke to the men of Penuel, saying, “When I come back in peace, I will tear down this tower!”

What is the Bible telling us? If you keep allowing mixture to come in, that mixture will produce a life that is a slave to sin. Any life that is a slave to sin is a life that is living under the curse. This is why many people are going to church from time to time. They are living the American dream, but they are under the curse. Why?

The blessing must have a place to fall. The Bible says a curse cannot land without a cause. Well, in order for the blessing to land, it must have a place to land on. It must have a life to land on. The blessing always lands on righteousness.

Church, I’ve come to tell you today get rid of the mixture! Make a resolve in your spirit today that you will not conform to this world. God ain’t done yet!

Then Gideon comes to the place called Penuel. He tells the men of the city the same thing, and they give him the same response. They tell him, “When we see that you have the two kings in your hand, then we will give you bread to eat.” Gideon gives them a different response than the men of Succoth. He tells them, “When I come back, I am going to tear down this tower.”

Why was Gideon’s response different to them? Even though they answered Gideon in the same way, their problem was not mixture. Their problem was doubt. In other words, they had to see God do it before they believed it would actually happen. It did not matter to them what God had done in the past. They were still needing evidence from the future to believe in their present.

It did not matter that God had taken a man who is the least in his family, and his family was the least in their tribe, and their tribe was the least in all Israel. It did not matter God had taken this man, and did not surround him with 300,000, did not surround him with 30,000, did not surround him with 3,000, but surrounded him with 300 men and defeated a mighty army.

None of this matters to them, because their faith was not in God. It was in the tower of their city. In other words, their faith was not in what God could do, their faith was in the work of their own hands. Their faith was in their dependency upon themselves.

Hebrews 3:12, “Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God.”

Luke 18:8, “I tell you that He will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?”

Church, it is amazing to me how often we will allow our flesh to take over and doubt God. It’s amazing to me how Christianity has shifted to mocking people of faith, instead of celebrating people of faith. We treat people who have a strong resolve that God will come through as if something’s wrong with them. Can I tell you something? Nothing’s wrong with them. Something’s wrong with you.

The people of the city had seen God show up time and time again. They had read and heard stories of how God brought the children of Israel out of Egypt. They had heard the stories about how He split the Red Sea. They had heard the stories about how He brought water out of a rock. They had heard the stories about how He brought the walls of Jericho down. They had heard the stories of how God gave the children of Israel land that they did not buy, houses that they did not build, and vineyards, they had not planted.

And now they are looking in the face of a legit miracle of God. But instead of allowing that to be an opportunity to step to a higher level, they go back to their tower of doubt. They go back to the strength of their own hands. They go back to dependency upon themselves. So, Gideon tells them, “When I come back, I’m tearing that tower of doubt down.”

Church, I have come to tell you today it’s time to tear down the tower of doubt! God ain’t done yet!

Pray with me…