It's God And Me

It’s God and me! “When I blow with a trumpet, I and all that are with me, then blow ye the trumpets also on every side of all the camp, and say, The sword of the LORD, and of Gideon.” (Judges7:18) The Bible is full of stories of the under dogs. I mean, when you read the Bible, the one thing that is prominent are the unlikely heroes scattered all over it. It’s almost like God takes pleasure in giving the victory to the goons. At least that is what it appears like when you read the Bible casually. The wisdom in unlikely heroes winning the battle is indicative of the fact that there is nobody who cannot succeed with God on his side. Else you will be living in self deceit if you think because you are the most disadvantaged, then you will win. Ofcourse you would have seen also that likely heroes’ wins in the Bible, it is just that when the likely person wins it is not news. You could also conclude from the stories in the Bible that what makes you a winner (either you are likely or unlikely to win) is your obedience to the instructions of God. Period! When you read the story of Gideon in the book of Judges, you will learn the art of war (by that I mean spiritual warfare) also to be gleaned from this story is the principle of election and the God factor in the affairs of man’s life. As you have known, Gideon is one of the unlikely heroes. He was introduced as one coward who like everyone then was afraid of the enemy, the Midianite to the point that they had to hide their crops from them. It was in this cowardly act that the he had a divine encounter with the Angel of God: In fact, it was a Herculean task for the Angel to convince him about himself, not to talk about the task of being the deliverer of his people, Israel. But once he accepted, he went to action. Notice that Gideon did not change physically, neither did the condition under which they were but his reception of God’s word changed his attitude about the situation around him, hence he was emboldened. You have to understand that when you are in any precarious situation, the first thing God change is you (i.e. your attitude) before then changing your situation. It is as if He ignores your situation and rather speaks to you about His intentions. Why? Because everything in life is about attitude, once your attitude change, it does not matter the situation you will see differently and ultimately, you will act differently. Or put another way, your attitude to any life situation determines the actions you take. So, Gideon’s attitude changed in the face of helpless situation and he acted differently. The fun of the story was what God did with Gideon’s Army. As expected, he called for every able bodied men to rise up and defend the territorial integrity of the land, and multitude of able bodied men rose up, But God was not impressed rather he said to

Gideon, “... The people that are with thee are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel vaunt themselves against me, saying, Mine own hand hath saved me.” (Judges 7:2) Here was a man that threw series of fleece (more like gamble) to be convinced that God was going to deliver the Midianites into his hands and now having been able to gather many people (which should gladden his heart since it is a physical manifestation of victory), God now think otherwise because He didn’t want the people to think the victory was their doing. That is another lesson for us to learn. Your victory in spiritual warfare is not dependent on your ability to fight; rather it depends on how God wants the victory won. He may require much from you to win a small battle while little or nothing may be required to win a supposedly big battle: You must understand my brethren it is all by the grace of God lest you start boasting about your abilities. Whatever victory you are able to boast about spiritually takes the shine off of God to you, and you must know that His glory He shares with no one! And then from an Army of thirty two thousand, God pruned Gideon’s Army down to mere three hundred. Can you beat that? Like I said earlier, Gideon’s attitude had already changed by now, were it not so, it would have been almost impossible for a cowardly guy like that to allow God prune down his ‘large’ Army which should have been his confidence. But at this time, he had learned to trust God enough to let Him have His way. If God has not been able to change your attitude in that near impossible situation, it is most unlikely that you will allow Him to win the battle for you the way that He would, you would rather want Him to do it for you as he did it for someone else. You may even start thinking that he is not fair in His dealing. Victory in life God’s way is only possible God’s way and that is a difficult thing to comprehend by an unrenewed mind. “And the LORD said unto Gideon, By the three hundred men that lapped will I save you, and deliver the Midianites into thine hand... and he retained those three hundred men: and the host of Median was beneath him in the valley.” (Judges7:7,8) Notice again, it was God that told him how the deliverance was to take place, even though he started off as he knew to do it initially. Also I like for you to observe verse 8, that scripture said while he sent off the almost ten thousand soldiers, the host of Midian was beneath the valley spoiling for war. Observe that the Midianites did not withdraw their strong battle ready Army neither did they reduce their ammunitions, yet God was undaunted and so was Gideon. Until your ways and thoughts match up with God’s ways and thoughts, you will live by sight, you will want God to fight your battles against the devil and his cohorts for you fire for fire and soldiers for soldiers. What happened next was most intriguing. The Lord in other to convince Gideon about the victory waiting to happen sent him to eavesdrop at the enemy’s camp in other to hear their testimony. Lo and behold, one of them had a dream of their loss and the enemy nation concluded it was the sword of Gideon. In the battles of life, if only you could eavesdrop at the enemy’s camp you can then hear of the victory which God had already won for you before the battle. If only you knew how the devil and his foot soldiers are already peeing in their pants because of the son of whom you are, if only

you knew how much your dread is upon them mightily in spite of their strong army, then you will stop being afraid, you will stop looking at your inadequacies instead you will be filled with victory songs because you have already won before the fight begins. Based on what Gideon heard at the enemies camp, he worshipped God for the victory he had received (even though he was yet to fight), gathered his Army, charged them up by telling them before the fight that God had already given them the victory. Ladies and gentlemen, how do you confront the affronts of the enemy against you, from the position of victory or as a warrior? He then arranged His army (when you confront the enemies camp based on the victory God has given you, you do not bother about the arsenal of the enemies, rather you are too consumed about the victory). He gave each a trumpet, pitcher and a lamp in the pitcher. From all indications, Gideon’s Army is the most unserious you could ever come across. They were outnumbered and now they were not armed as soldiers of their time. You see? That is why God always change our minds and attitude with His word first before He carries out His plan. You must realise that it is God on your side that guarantees you victory against the devil and not your arsenals. That is why the scripture says, the weapons of our warfare are mighty through God. Without God, my people the weapons of your warfare mean nothing. And so with the unserious looking men, He told them, “once I blow the trumpet, you do same and break the pitcher and shout the sword of the Lord and of Gideon”. They did as they were told and guess what? Yeah, you guessed right, the camp of the enemy was in disarray and of course they got the victory. I want you to observe something very important in our base scripture. The word ‘sword’ is written in italics meaning it was not in the original translations. If you check other translations like the Amplified, it is written, “For the Lord and for Gideon.” Now that is the crux of the victory, for what Gideon and his army were saying is, “One with God is majority”. Their shout was like they were saying, “Its God and me!” If God be for you who can be against you? The victory of this Army is instructive as it related where their strength lies. It was not in their ability, it was not in what arsenal they had, neither it was in their number. But it was in God by their side and that they acknowledged to the camp of the enemy. You may seemed weighed down by the enemy of failure, lack, barrenness, poverty, sickness, bondage, family troubles, I am here to let you know this day that it doesn’t even matter if they are more than you at the ratio of 1million to one. As long as you have God on your side and you walk in the that consciousness, as long as you keep your attitude of victory based on the word of God, as long as you are calm enough to allow God to do it His way, and as long as you can be bold enough it the midst of your inadequacies to go to the enemy’s camp and shout, “Its God and me oh”. I guarantee you that those supposedly immovable mountains are coming down in Jesus name. For He had said that at the

mention of His name every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess, of beings in heaven, earth and hell, that He is Lord. I dare you to shout at those overwhelming situations defying solutions, “IT IS GOD AND ME OH, I AM NOT ALONE IN THIS BATTLE AND I HAVE OVERCOME YOU.....(whatever it is name it) BECAUSE GOD IS ON MY SIDE. Congratulations victorious ones. Please make sure you share your testimonies for I see them manifesting already as you take this bold steps.