Judges 6: 1-12
Impoverished people cry out for help and warriors hear their cry!
The people of Israel were suffering under the power of Midian. Their story is told in the Bible in Judges chapters 6-9. For 7 years the Midianites invaded the land of Israel to ravage it, “And the Israelite’s cried out to the Lord for help!”(Judges 6:7).
There is a cry going up to God out of the mouths of God’s people in Canada. This cry is a cry of “What is wrong with our country?”. Charles Colson in his book The Good Life (Tyndale 2005) speaks of a culture where people of all age groups have stopped seeking truth because “they have been told from their preschool days on that one person’s opinion is as good as another’s, that each person can pick his or her own truth from a multicultural smorgasbord.” Abdu Murray carries this same sentiment in his book Saving Truth (Zondervan 2018) written 13 years later. Murray says, “The creep of post-truth is seen in how we gather information about the world to conform to what we want to be true, not to what is actually true.” There is an impoverishment in our land brought on by the invading virus of post-truth thinking.
God’s solution to impoverishment is to send “a prophet” and “a mighty man/woman of valor” (Judges 6:7 & 12). The prophet delivered the Lord God’s message to the people whereas the man of valor stepped into the battle. Both are necessary in order to destroy the outworking of the enemy of impoverishment in Canada today
Destroying the enemy is about following the path less traveled by! This path invites us to choose it IF we, as warrior hearted men and women of God want to address the outworking of impoverishment in our land. The pressing question is, “How will we respond to the voice of God?” Without doubt God hears the cry of impoverishment from His people. Without question He is prepared to respond.
What is needed are warriors prepared to say, “Yes God!” Saying yes demands a level of reckless abandonment to God’s purposes that is rare. Saying yes demands that we crucify our egotistical aspirations to the selfless aspirations of Jesus and subordinate our own ambitions to the ambitions of God.
The Path less travelled by …
Is the path of displacement! The inner being of a warrior must be so full of Jesus’ ways, the truth about Him and the life that arises out of obedience that there is no room in us for anything but Him. Displacement does not come by the want of God. It comes by the will of the warrior who wants more of Jesus! Our decision to replace untruth with His truth demands habits only warriors create for themselves. Displacement is key in rising to new heights of spiritual – maturity, authority and capacity in Christ!
