I was driving in to the church thinking I would stop and make copies on the way. Then a light came on in my head. "DUH!" I said to myself. I gave the Vacation Bible School to God a long time before. He had been providing me with the lessons, the scriptures, the crafts, and all other ideas. (This was no "Vacation Bible School-in-a-box." It was purely from the Lord.) It was His VBS.

Did He want us to have the necessary copies for the classes? --YES!-- Did He want us to have to run out to make copies for that two weeks? --NO!-- Did He want us to be able to have the use of our own copy machine? --YES!-- Did I have enough faith to go straight to church and make copies on a broken copy machine? --NO!--

It was not easy. I really really wanted to "waver." My human brain wanted to cry out, "But, the machine is BROKEN! You can't make copies on it! For the past two weeks every paper passing through it has jammed up!" I couldn't allow that thought to enter my mind. After praying for more faith I began thanking God for fixing the machine. You see, as I said, I knew He wanted us to have the machine working. Since all things are possible with God I was finally able to rest in His provision before I arrived at the church. (I don't live real close to our church, so it did take a while to get to that point.)

I unlocked the door, turned on the copy machine, put away my stuff while it warmed up, and made all the copies I needed. I called the teacher who needed to make copies and told her to come in. When she got there the machine began jamming up on her. She called me in to the room as she didn't know how to get it unjammed. She tried a few more times and ended up handing me the page she needed copied and asked me to make 10 copies when I got the machine working again.

 I was getting a little confused since I knew God had caused the machine to work for me. I figured He also wanted the teachers to have access to it. I knew I had to "keep the faith" so when she handed me the page I immediately placed it on the machine and pressed "10" and the machine proceeded to make her the 10 copies. Her unbelief was not allowing her to make the copies!

If you really do not believe that God will heal you, protect you, feed you, or whatever else it is that you are asking God to provide then you probably will not receive what God wants to give you! Before we go any further I want you to read a little story about what I mean. It is a good example of how faith and lack of faith can affect things. It is an article I wrote entitled
"Nothing Wavering."

How do you get more, stronger faith? In Chapter 9 of Mark the disciples couldn't cast out a spirit in a boy. The boy's father asked Jesus to help and Jesus told him in verses 23-24, "If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth. And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief." Notice, the father must have heard that Jesus had the power to deliver his son, but was struggling with his faith. In other words, the father might have said, "I want to believe because you say that is what it will take, but I am having difficulty because it is believing something I have not yet seen. Help me to have unwavering faith." So, the answer to the question of how do we get more, stronger faith is to ask for it.

This isn't the only reference to faith being the reason miraculous things happen. Jesus also made reference to moving a mountain with faith in 17:20. It sure seems that this is something that He wanted us to know! Faith is KNOWING. It's not just trusting or believing; it is KNOWING!

How can we get to the point of knowing? Relationship. We have to have a close relationship with God. We have to be able to trust Him implicitly. We have to grow into the place where we know what He wants and know that He wants us to cause it to happen.

We have to get to the point where we are out of this world, too. We have to be able to know that God will cause something to happen no matter what we think, see, feel, hear, or have learned. We cannot trust our own "instincts," "opinions," or our "knowledge."

What would things be like if all people who learned of Jesus, beginning with the disciples, diligently developed closer and closer relationships with God? Parents would have been teaching children what they had learned and encouraging the children to be continually open to what else God wanted to teach them.... God's will would be being implemented on the earth if we, as humans, had been drawing closer to God over the centuries instead of pushing Him away. That's what it would be like. 

How about we start a revolution? Let's begin with ourselves and lay ourselves before God and allow Him to teach us. Let's draw closer to Him and allow Him to draw closer to us. Let's empty our heads of the things we think we know and allow Him to fill us with Himself and His "knowings!"

There will be times when we may even begin to wonder (just a passing thought) that maybe there is no God. There are times when God says wait and we want so desperately to take action.  Over and over we question God and His methods instead of just saying, "Yes, Lord."

God sees our struggles.  He knows it is hard.  He knows that we live in a world that ignores Him.  He knows that we've been taught to pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps.  He knows that we have been brought up in a world that thinks you are a failure if you don't have a title or a college degree.

Our faith is more precious than gold.  The similarity between our faith and gold is that the impurities must be burned away with high heat.  Our faith has to go through these trials to make it stronger. 

 If we didn't have trials our faith would wither away because we wouldn't need it.  It is during the trials that we must have faith.  It is during the rough times that we must lean on God.  We must have faith (believing without seeing) that God is carrying us through the trials.  When we come out the other side we will see proof that He was right by our side!  It is during the trial that we can't feel Him, hear Him, or see Him.  

We will learn from our failures.  Our faith will become a little stronger each time. He knows we will mess up.  Heck, look at Abraham.  Twice he was afraid that he would be killed so a leader could have his wife so he lied and said she was his sister!  (Gen 20:2 and Gen 12)  Yet, Abraham is considered by God to be a great man of faith!  (Rom 4, Gal 3:9, and Heb 11)

So, you see, God knows our faith will be tried.  When we fail that means we have learned something and our faith will become stronger and stronger and stronger.  So, bring on the trials!  (Gently, please, Lord!)

 Gideon had gotten hold of some wheat and was hiding behind a winepress and threshing it.  (A winepress is a large vat in which grapes are crushed to make wine.)  He was probably keeping an eye out for the enemy.  He had to take the chance of being caught because he and his family was probably in danger of starvation. Then, all of a sudden, an angel greeted Gideon and told him he was a man of valor. 

Gideon had to have some interesting thoughts running through his head.  It seems he didn't know for sure that he was actually in the presence of an angel until he got proof in verse 22.  We can imagine some of the other thoughts he was having based on his reply.  He wanted to know why, if God was with them,  He wasn't doing miracles to save the people from their oppression like He did for them when they were wandering in the desert with Moses.

That was a good question.  Don't we often entertain the thought of wondering why God doesn't do more to help us in the world today?  "Why did He let my father die?"  "Why does He let those houses burn?"  Things like that.

The angel then said, "Go in this thy might, and thou shalt save Israel from the hand of the Midianites: have not I sent thee?"  I can picture Gideon reacting to this shocking statement.  He probably thought, "Who?  ME???"  He obviously didn't feel qualified.  He protested by saying he came from a poor family and that he was the least in his father's house. 

 It seems that his protests were not the truth.  He didn't seem to come from a poor family.  He had a minimum of ten servants (see verse 27). I wonder, if by saying he was the least in his father's house (what did he mean by least? Youngest, smallest, least qualified to lead, dumbest??) that he was actually speaking the truth or was just speaking out of fear or low self-esteem. 

Normally we have a tendency to think of ourselves as the greatest in most situations.  Gideon might have been reacting as I know I would have and was speaking from his feelings of inadequacy.  After all, how many of us who have never led an entire nation to victory would feel competent? Amazingly enough, Gideon didn't totally reject the thought, but asked for verification that this person actually was an angel from God. 

That is a good way to determine if something is actually of God if we are doubtful.  I would hope that, if God decided to send me to do something huge like that, I would have enough faith to just say, "Yes, Lord."  However, when you have never been called to do something HUGE then probably it would need verification. 

The good news is that God will verify things for us.  If He wants us to know something then He WILL verify it. So, Gideon got his verification that it was God talking with him.  God then told him to tear down the altars to other gods that his father had built.  Here's something else that indicates that Gideon didn't come from a poor family.  The Bible says that God told him to tear down the altars that his father had.  Gideon feared his father's household and the men of the city that worshipped there.  It sounds like Gideon's father was a very influential and wealthy man.

So, at this point, Gideon believed that it was God communicating with Him.  Yet, he tore down the altars and built one to God at night because he feared getting caught.  Gideon had been told that he would save Israel from the Midianites.  That was foretelling the future past the point of tearing down the altars yet Gideon still feared what man could do to him.  Shouldn't he have said to himself, "Since God is going to use me to defeat the enemy then I know for a fact that He will protect me no matter what I do prior to that time?"

That reminds me of Abraham saying Sarah was his sister so the rulers of the territory they were passing through wouldn't kill him.  When he was lying to protect himself he had already received a promise from God that hadn't been fulfilled yet.  It seems he would have known that his life would be spared under all circumstances since he had such great faith.  Even though he wavered in his faith, he is referred to as a man of great faith in Hebrews!

Let's pause here and apply this concept to our lives.  As humans it is way easier to walk by sight and not by faith.  Our logic is our faith's worst enemy.  Our eyes see danger and our brains try to figure out how to survive it.

Once we receive a promise from God we need to push it to the front of our mind and keep it there.  We have to cause it to block out everything our senses are experiencing that go against that promise. 

I had a similar experience once.  It was about a miracle relating to a copy machine, "Nothing Wavering."  Gideon could have tried telling himself over and over, "The Lord is with me, the Lord is with me, the Lord is with me."  He would have had to replace his fear with God's promise.  However, he gave in to the fear and did the job at night. 

 Abraham could have reminded himself, "I'm going to become the father of many nations."  However, he gave in to the fear of being killed and lied about Sarah. The problem is that we have become conditioned through our life's experiences.  When we see certain things we react in a way to protect ourselves.  The good news is that God knows this.  He still used Gideon to free the Israelites.  He also considered Abraham a man of great faith. 

So, you see, God is not surprised by our reactions.  He knows how hard it is for us. What we can do is practice our faith.  Faith takes action.  We have to learn how to use it.  We have to work at having enough faith to believe that God will do something.  Once we get the feeling or a promise that God will do something then we need to begin practicing the faith. We must force out all feelings of doubt and fear and replace them with faith. 

We must not give in to our flesh and must not allow our previous experiences influence us to think negatively.  We must push past all temptations to take over the situation ourselves.  If we do take over then God just might let us handle it.  I'd rather that God handle it.  The outcome would be much better!

Back to Gideon.  In verse 34 Gideon got a dose of the Holy Spirit.  "...the Spirit of the LORD came upon Gideon...."  The Hebrew for "came upon" is "clothed with."  The Holy Spirit clothed himself with Gideon.  What a beautiful spiritual picture that is!  Then Gideon blew a trumpet.  The Israelites then began gathering and coming to Gideon.

Gideon still wasn't comfortable with the position in which God had placed him.  He still wasn't convinced that God would defeat the enemy under Gideon's leadership.  So, Gideon asked for proof and got it (36-38).  The first proof he got was good, but Gideon still wasn't convinced.  Perhaps he thought someone might have poured water on the fleece to trick him.  I don't know. Gideon asked for more proof.  The second time was enough to shore up Gideon's faith in God.  God then did something that would prove that the conquest of the enemy was all Him and had nothing to do with the strength or intelligence of man.  Keep in mind, he had already called someone to lead them who had a bit of a leadership problem.  He wanted to make sure that the Israelites wouldn't look back and say that it was their own skill and strength that had completed the job.

He had Gideon take only 300 men out to meet the enemy.  God knew that Gideon's faith would waver again.  He gave Gideon a way to see that the enemy was already running scared.  Gideon took God up on the offer to hear that the enemy was scared (7:9-15).   Finally, Gideon had come to the conclusion that he could do as God was directing as God WOULD fulfill His promise.

The story that followed is that of 300 men going out with nothing but trumpets, empty pitchers, and lamps and scaring the socks off the enemy.  They enemy began fighting among themselves out of fear and took off running with the rest of the Israelites chasing after them.  It's a great story (7:16-25)!

Let's apply another concept to our lives.  God used Gideon in a big way.  Gideon was a liar (said his family was poor).  He witnessed three miracles and still was doubtful.  Yet, once he grasped hold of the concept of trusting in God he became a brave leader.  God used him in a big way, in spite of his shortcomings.

God can use us as we are.  We don't have to be perfect.  We don't have to have arrived at any particular spiritual milestone.  We don't have to be particularly spiritual.  We don't have to be recognized by other people as being someone God can use.  We don't have to be healthy.  We don't have to be strong.  We don't have to be talented.  The only thing we need to be is willing. However, don't think that it isn't necessary to grow spiritually just because God can use us where we are now.  If we increase our faith, increase our knowledge about God, increase our understanding, and continue our spiritual growth then God can use us in bigger and bigger ways.

The main thing to do is to not label ourselves as unfit or unusable in the Kingdom of God.  In the Bible there are examples of God using liars, prostitutes, thieves, rich men, poor men, popular men, unpopular men, old people, and young people to serve Him and to accomplish his will.  We aren't qualified to judge whether we are usable or not.  That is something that only God can do.

It takes deep concentration and effort to hold fast the profession of our faith WITHOUT WAVERING.  It is just too easy to be distracted by the things of the world.  After all, we can hear, see, taste, touch, and smell the things of the world.  Spiritual things are in another realm.  Since we don't hear, see, taste, touch, or smell the spiritual things all the time it takes work to stay focused on them.

 That's where teamwork helps.  When we are in contact with other Christians who are as serious about their walk with the Lord as we are then we can work together to remind each other to stay focused on the spiritual things.

God has brought some friends to me that are perfect for me.  We have enough of the same experiences that we can help each other through them.  We are able to share our excitement about something we read in the Bible or something that God tells us.  We are even able to communicate about very deep spiritual things because we understand each other and don't need to keep searching for words to describe the spiritual things. 

For example, I had received a revelation about something that was so deep spiritually that there were no words that would adequately describe it.  When I tried to describe it to my Thursday morning prayer partner I tried as best I could and had to stop in the middle because I was just not able to find adequate words to describe it.  Then I realized that my prayer partner was nodding her head excitedly because God had helped her understanding of what I was trying to share!

God has brought certain people to me because He knew I'd need their support and prayers.  He has brought others to me because He knew that, together, we'd be able to complete things that were too difficult for one person to do alone.

The next verse after verses 23 and 24 is, "Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching."  It is very important that we get together with others of like mind.  We must be open to any encouragement God wants us to give someone because, as humans, we have a tendency to feel discouraged now and then.  We must be ready to share what He gives us with each other.

I am grateful for the friends that God has given me.... friends I get to visit face to face as well as Internet friends.  He does a very good job of matching us up with each other.  I guess that's why He is God.  He's very good at what He does, isn't He?

He was talking to the Pharisees who wanted Him to quiet them down. The people were praising Him.  If the praises were stopped Jesus said the stones would begin to cry out.  Do you think He meant it?  Think about it before you answer. Stones are stones.  Have you ever heard a stone sing?  talk?  praise?  Are stones alive?  Do they have a mouth?  My brain says stones will never cry out.  What about yours?

On the other hand, Jesus said they would.  Water turned to wine, the blind gained their sight, lepers' rotting flesh was made whole, and the dead were brought back to life in Jesus' presence.  Is it harder to believe that stones will cry out?

We either believe it or we don't.  If we don't then we say Jesus was a liar.  If Jesus was a liar then we are doomed.  There was no perfect sacrifice for our sins.

I'm going to choose to believe that Jesus was not a liar.  I'm choosing to believe that the rocks would and still will cry out if praise and worship is stopped.  I choose to believe that Jesus also told the truth when He said, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father."  (Jo 14:12) 

Now you are going to do your own study.  Ponder the above scripture.  Do you believe in Jesus?  Then you are the "He that believeth."  You are the one who shall do greater works than what Jesus did.  You have it in you because Jesus said so.  What do you think might be holding it back?  Examine for yourself why we, the members of the Body of Christ, are so feeble in the miracles department.  I think we all are probably parking in the Disabled parking spaces.

Has God lost the ability to do miraculous things through us?  Has He forgotten how?  Or is the problem on our end? OK, time for you to finish this study on your own.  Each of us needs to examine our faith and our beliefs.

Is it the words that come out of their mouths?  Is it the expressions on their face?  What is it?

Last week someone made the comment that I looked like I didn't have a care in the world.  That made me wonder what it was that made them say that.  I have plenty of cares.  There are a lot of things happening in my life that are frustrating, annoying, irritating, and even heartbreaking.  At least every week something new happens that is not a good thing. Why am I not reflecting that on my face?

 Let's back up seven verses before our verse we show above:
"The LORD looketh from heaven; he beholdeth all the sons of men.
From the place of his habitation he looketh upon all the inhabitants of the earth.
He fashioneth their hearts alike; he considereth all their works.
There is no king saved by the multitude of an host: a mighty man is not delivered by much strength.
An horse is a vain thing for safety: neither shall he deliver any by his great strength.
Behold, the eye of the LORD is upon them that fear him, upon them that hope in his mercy;
To deliver their soul from death, and to keep them alive in famine."

When something comes along I know that I don't have the answers.  I don't usually even have the strength, mental or physical, to handle it.  I am not expected to handle everything by myself.  God is by my side.  He is my help. He is my shield.  Nothing will happen to me that He doesn't allow. He can keep me alive in a famine.  He can deliver my soul from death.  He can do anything! 

The only time I start feeling frustrated and hopeless is when I allow myself to think that I have to solve my problems all by myself.  The only time I allow any anger to show on my face is when I am only thinking of my own self and how I've been taken advantage of, insulted, or hurt in some way.

If I am focused on God then I am only concerned with what He wants me to be doing or saying.  I am able to dump my problems in His lap.  I can focus on what He wants to happen instead of what is actually happening.

There are things in my life that I am not accepting.  I see bad things happening with my eyes.  I hear things happening that I don't like to hear.  I am not focusing on those things.  I am not planning ahead for those bad things, either.  I am finding out God's will in those matters and I am focusing on that.  I am not going to let what I see in the natural affect what I know God wants to change.

I am living each day one at a time.  I am behind the shield that is God.  I am keeping a smile on my face even though another person in my position would be crying.  I am full of hope when another person in my position would be in despair. Am I in denial?  Am I only hiding from the inevitable?  Am I in for a big fall? NO!  My God is bigger than any circumstances that surround me. 

Verses 21 and 22 finish out that chapter in Psalms with,
"For our heart shall rejoice in him, because we have trusted in his holy name.
Let thy mercy, O LORD, be upon us, according as we hope in thee."

 I trust in God.  He is the maker of the heavens and the Earth.  Is He not able to do what He has said He would do? As Christians we need to understand who we are in God.  We need to find out what He expects from us and what He has empowered us to do. 

We need to quit acting like we are whipped puppies.  We need to get our heads out of the sand and stand up tall.  We need to wipe the tears off our faces. Who are we?  We are children of the most High God!  We are children of the King of the Universe!  We are not defeated! 

We are OVERCOMERS!

We ARE in denial!  We deny the things of the world!  We deny that we are powerless!  We deny that the things we see cannot change!

ARE YOU WITH ME??

Sounds wonderful and comforting, doesn't it?  Hang on to your hat because verse two does NOT say Jesus prevents satan from sifting him:
  "But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren."

In other words, satan was being allowed to sift Peter.  The word "desired" means "to ask or beg for one's self, to ask that one be given up to one from the power of another".  Jesus was praying that Peter stay strong WHILE BEING SIFTED BY SATAN!

What is sifting?  It is the process of putting something through a separating device to sort out the good from the bad.  In people it is an uncomfortable process because the good and bad things are usually mixed tightly in together.  Sometimes we have bad things in us that we don't even know are bad things.  Sometimes a good thing is good but not 100% good so it turns bad.  (For example, when you say something that you knew you should say although you didn't want to, that's good.  If you say it with the wrong facial expression, it is no longer good.)

Satan is interested in pushing us to the limit to try to stop us from doing things for God.  The things we do for God are destroying what satan wants to do in the world.

When we know that God wants us to be doing something then we must stand firmly on what we know to be true.  The things that God wants from us are not always easy.  We live in the world in bodies of flesh.  The things of God are supernatural and spiritual.  The Word of God creates.  We can't fully comprehend that. 

Right now I am going through the hardest thing I've ever had to do.  What I am doing flies in the face of everything I've learned all my life.  It goes against what I tried to do for many many years in not looking like a fool in front of other people.  It defies the "rock-sold" logic I have.  It goes against what I have had to do financially to make ends meet which is "don't spend money without knowing you are making a wise purchase".  I've always been taught to believe only facts that I have seen with my eyes.

I am having to stretch my faith in God farther than I have ever stretched it before.  I am having to stand on a rock that I cannot see.  That rock is God telling me to speak life into my cat.  I am standing on an invisible rock while an actual storm tries to wash me off that rock.  My own brain tries to tell me that there is no rock because I cannot see it with my eyes.  Other people look at me like I should not be allowed out of a padded room because I am telling them I'm standing on a rock and they can't see the rock, either! 

As I continue to plunk down large sums of money on a sick cat my brain keeps telling me that I wouldn't spend that amount of money on a healthy cat.  "Reality" keeps hammering at my head trying to get me to acknowledge what my eyes see and my ears hear and to quit being foolish.

Those things are the things that need to be sifted out and blown away.  The only things that will remain are the things of God.  I may look around me after I've been completely sifted and think that there is nothing left in the sifter because my eyes don't see anything.

"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."
Heb 11:1

"While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal."
2Cor 4:18

"But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him."
1Cor 2:9

After we are sifted then the worldly ideas and things will be separated from the spiritual things that God has placed in us.  It isn't easy.  Many people will give up before the process is finished.  Let's pray for each other, for the Body of Christ.  Let's pray that God have His way in each of us and that we learn how to stand strong in Him IN SPITE OF WHAT THE WORLD SAYS!

NOTE:  I will be putting together a synopsis of what happened regarding speaking life into my cat(s).  It's a long story for those of you that haven't heard it and there is a moral to the whole story that needs to be shared.