Judges Chapter 6 brings us to a man named Gideon. The Israelites are in trouble, and they need someone to stand in the gap, take charge, and engage the nation of Midian, which has invaded the land.
In every believer, there is a warrior heart. Every Born-Again Believer has the Spirit of God in them. The same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead and defeated death resides in you! The same Spirit that went to war against every sickness and every disease dwells in you! The same Spirit that drove devils out occupies your being! Sometimes what we need is a God encounter to awaken that fearless heart into action.
In Judges 6:11, we see God move on a man named Gideon. Now, understand the name Gideon means “Feller of trees” (a warrior.) The word is a word that connects government and leadership. God addresses Gideon as He already sees him, “A Mighty Man Of Valor.”
God sees Gideon as three things.
1. God sees Gideon as STRONG!
God sees Gideon as a man who possesses the quality that allows him to complete the task and face Median. God sees him as one capable of finishing the task with a victory. John 1:12 says, “But as many as have received Him, to them He gave the right (authority, strength power) to become children of God.”
2. God sees Gideon as COURAGEOUS!
We can have all the abilities in the world to do a task, but if we lack the courage to advance, we stand paralyzed. In 1st Samuel Chapter 17, we see the story of Saul’s warriors facing Goliath. These are seasoned warriors who know how to battle, but because of the lack of courage in the leader (Saul), the courage that was in the warriors was stifled and crushed. When David stepped up, confirmed the covenants of God, and faced Goliath and won, the courage in them sprung to life, and they engaged and won the battle. Courage has to be a quality in every warrior. It doesn’t mean that fear is not present, for every opposition can bring a mode of anxiousness or fear. The winning difference is that the courage to push back and not quit is stronger than fear. This quality of courage is for every believer and in every believer through the Spirit of God.
3. God sees Gideon as a man of VALOR and PASSION!
Passion is the force that drives both strength and courage. Passion is the heart that longs for something greater than one’s self. Passion is the hunger to press forward into something that you don’t possess with a desire to possess. Valor carries the vision and sees in the mind or Spirit what you long for.
Gideon carried the passion. He was not willing to be satisfied with the present state of things. Gideon longed for the days of the miracles of God. He was offended at the state of the nation; and was angry that God had not defended them. The passion to move forward must be greater than the temptation to make excuses and choose to stand still and go nowhere. Without passion, you will fight to not have to fight instead of taking the fight that is already in you by the Spirit of God and engaging it in the fight to change your world. (You may want to re-read that.)
The greatest asset we possess as believers is when we are dissatisfied with the state we are in and want change. With Gideon in that place, he was in the right position for God to address him.
Maybe it’s time for you to assess the state of fight that is in you. Are you in a place of dissatisfaction enough for God to address you and awaken the warrior spirit in you? It doesn’t matter if you say, “But I’m a mercy-type person, not a prophet-natured person.” Do you realize that mercy people are some of the greatest warriors? You carry such compassion for people who are hurting that you will fight all of hell sometimes to see them freed. Your personality does not matter. All you need is to be in that place where God can get ahold of you. God wants to touch what He put in you and cause it to stir from an ember into a flame.
God confronts Gideon in verse 13 and tells him to “go in this might that you have, and you will save Israel.” There is enough in Gideon to win, and God knows it. What God is doing is bringing Gideon to the place of knowing what is in him. God wants to touch what He has placed in you for you to see all He has placed in you. Gideon then is concerned about his status in life; God is not. Verse 15, Gideon tries to tell God (who is calling him) that he isn’t good enough for the task. God not only blows it off, but He ups the ante and declares that you will strike Midian not as a slow drawn-out fight, but as if he were one man. The battle will be a miraculous, quick, and explosive fight because the God that put the fight in you, is about to add an anointing that is unstoppable. In Judges 6:16, the Lord said to him, “Surely I will be with you, and you shall defeat Median as one man.“ The final decision is up to Gideon to realize that the fight is in him, that his personal status has no say-so, and that all of heaven is in the fight.
You and I, as believers, can come to the place where God has provided everything we need through Christ. We need to realize that the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead is also dwelling in us to war on our behalf. Rom. 8:26 states that the Spirit in us makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God. Acts 1:8; “You shall receive power after the Holy Ghost has come upon you.” Luke 10:19; “Behold I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you.”
You have the warrior’s heart in you. You have the authority to defeat all the works of the enemy. You have an anointing straight from heaven, and have all of heaven on your side. The time for us to decide that we are not satisfied with the way things are has come. We must allow God to place the finger of His authority on the warrior heart in us. It is time for us to be willing to believe that God is no respecter of persons and that His calling is our calling. As believers, it is time to consecrate ourselves to the will of God, be strong in the Lord in the power of His might, and allow the God that called Gideon to “Awaken The Warrior In YOU.”
I just recently preached a message entitled “Awakening The Warrior Heart In You” and I invite you to take the time to watch it on our YouTube channel. Here is the link – https://youtu.be/vDbuZld_0ik
Blessings,
Pastor Giovannetti
