A Uniting Call to Resiliency

This week Ryan sent a message to the Leadership Council as the team was preparing for a meeting with the City of Medford. We all prayed as they met to discuss building permits and max capacity decisions based on the current state of the Great Room in this phase of the project. Following the meeting, Ryan shared the encouraging news that we are officially approved for 299 max capacity (kids and teachers in classrooms and youth room are not included in the Great Room max capacity count), and that as a church we remain in healthy relationship and partnership with the City of Medford. 

After the report I was considering the number of 299 and immediately my study of Gideon came back to my mind. When God is taking Gideon into the promised battle to defeat the Midianites and Amalekites, the army starts out with 32,000 warriors. God tells Gideon he has too many soldiers and instructs him to shave it down…to 300. 

Three Hundred. Camped at the crest of the hill, God begins taking Gideon and these 300 on the most incredible adventure of getting to know him as the miracle working God Gideon had heard about (Judges 6:13), the Rescuer and Deliverer. Initially this army had gathered on the common ground of oppression. Now they are moving forward into a uniting call of victory. The invitation came first to Gideon, but it was always intended for all the children of God. Encouraged by miraculous signs and dreams with interpretations, Gideon rallies his troops. Their hearts were stirred and their blood was pumping with adrenaline. The 300 took torches, clay pots, and trumpets to the battlefield in the middle of the night. 

My own heart is stirred! We aren’t fighting against flesh and blood, but against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms (Ephesians 6:12). This is the Resilient Community we’ve been talking about! The pressure on the body of Christ to divide and split is as real to us today as the Midianites were to the Israelites. The heart of God is to reveal himself to us in such a way that we are united in the light of truth and advancing forward against the threat of division. 

Since then I’ve been praying for our church family, that we would experience the indwelling of the Spirit and see the fruit of his presence among us in a way that unites us and empowers us to be resilient. I pray our hearts would be stirred! I pray we would ask for revelation of the character of God and he would put his love on display for us in miraculous ways. I pray for dreams and interpretations. I pray for plans of action and victorious shouts of celebration at all hours of the day and night. 

Once Gideon and his men surrounded the dark valley beneath them where the Midianites were camping, they made a joyful noise unto the Lord! Every clay pot was shattered, the trumpets blasted into the darkness, the light of the torches blazing in the night sky above each of their heads (maybe a foreshadowing of Holy Spirit arriving in fire above the heads of his disciples!?!). They shouted out in unison and victory as the enemy turned on its own people and in confusion fled from the 300. Gideon sent word throughout the land. The conquest motivated the rest of the Israelite people to join in the battle and they cut off the enemy armies at the Jordan River, gathering the plunder of the triumph along the way. Evidence of darkness: confusion and division. Evidence of light: unity and resiliency. 

Gideon was born into a heritage of hiding, but by the power of God and the leading of the Spirit, he was delivered into freedom gave that inheritance to his generation. 

Jesus, stir our hearts. At the announcing of your arrival, the angels could not help themselves but to burst into song and light the night sky with their celebration. Put a victory song on our lips and bind us together in resiliency for your kingdom! We long to see an even more full revelation of you, amongst our own church body and in breath taking expressions of your love. We say yes to your invitation!