“We rebuilt the wall in troublesome times,” Nehemiah says.
As we step into 2021, awful days will give way to days of awe.
How will this occur? Let’s rehearse Gideon’s storyline, the judge in Israel who confronted and defeated the harvest stealing lawlessness with a radical, representative Remnant.
Much of what we have given ourselves to for twenty years points to a critical character trait now separating the kingdom into parts. God did this with Gideon when God was ready to deliver the people from Midian.
We must stop the harvest stealers! The pirates must be stopped dead in their tracks by an internal implosion.
The Cowering Cowardice of Kingdom Leaders
- We must restore the true grit of kingdom leadership if we are to confront the terrorism of lawlessness.
- We must expect a tender-hearted fathering that carries a she-bear gruffness and impatience with folly.
- We must eradicate foolishness from the people of God.
Hiding in a hole processing harvest can no longer be the accepted state of affairs for kingdom leaders. Gideon had a terrible sickness of identity deterioration, but God had Gideon listed in His book of generals and champions.
“Mighty-man-of-valor” must become the gut-level response of kingdom leaders. God calls Gideon a man of “incredible, heroic strength in battle.”
Gideon is actually a whining, sniveling weenie, hiding in a hole in the ground, afraid that Midianites might find out his garden grew some tators and melons.
Gideon looks a lot like a pastor in a contemporary church who has no record of punching the deacon board chairman in the nose when challenged for his kingdom leadership calling and assignment.
Gideon looks like a pastor of a 2020 ministry, afraid to say, “Vote for Trump or go to hell with the antichrist candidates from the Democrat betrayal of America.”
Gideon looks like some of the prophets turning their previous declarations into a formula for breastfeeding cowards when the most remarkable election fraud of history made them look suspect.
Gideon looks like you holding onto some things of trivial significance in a moment when the champions are laying it all on the line for God’s purposes in their generation and nation.
God says casually, “Hey, you buzzardly buffoon of bloated blithering, I created you to lead an army into battle against the heated hordes of hell! How are you doing?”
Gideon’s Vision of Natural Despair
Gideon projects his decrepit discouragement back upon Yahweh, “Well, if things are so great, God, why is our nation eating like rats, running like dogs, and hiding like hares while our enemies steal the harvest of Your holy land?”
Gideon says, “God, I heard You were pretty strong back in the days of founding this nation when You brought us out of Egypt and left Pharaoh floating in the Red Sea. Where is all Your greatest now?”
Gideon says, “The compulsive lawless ones guzzle the harvest, living only to destroy, devour, and despoil. “We The People” of law and order are now the victims of lawlessness.”
Gideon calls God, the Deliverer, out for forsaking His people.
Projecting Identity: “Yahweh Turned”
When God shows up to project His identity upon you, a most incredible moment of personal angst occurs. God reveals how you have been projecting your identity upon Him.
The Bible says, “Yahweh turned.”
The Hebrew panaw means “to turn.” It is a primitive root. It is not a term shaded with meaning providing translators some creativity. It means “Yahweh turned.”
“Go, save Israel from these Midianites with this might, Gideon. I have sent you,” God projects His identity upon Gideon to reveal the identity He created.
“You were born for this” has never been more clearly stated by the revelation that God created Gideon for this.
God turned Gideon from a vision of the natural environment as his identification context to spiritual intention as the identity of a champion of heroic strength who would transform that natural environment.
The Season of Champions
After one of the most powerful moments of the campaign with Dutch Sheets, in Pheonix, Arizona, we sat around a table discussing some vital statistics of the present offensive against lawlessness.
I turned to Dutch Sheets and said, “We see the rise of a new generation of kingdom champions.”
He immediately said, “Yes, we are!”
When God projects His identity in you and reveals the created identity of your intended purpose, your identity crisis reaches ultimate internal implosion.
Your momma never saw this, even if she was prophetic enough to catch a glimpse. The identity crisis must occur in the context of its most significant challenge. The greater the natural environmental challenge to that identity, the more closely you approach the ultimate revelation.
We now enter the days of awe of us in God as the days of awe of God in us.
The awful days are now the days of awe.
