Monday Motivation # 40 What Can’t You Do?
What do you think you can’t do? And do you think you can’t do it because of your education, background, size, status or any other fact or opinion about yourself? In my own life, I have allowed my lack of education, especially compared to those around me, to cause me to believe I can’t do what God has called me to do. In fact, I use it as an excuse to shrink back and deny God’s purpose for my life.
Gideon was called by God to be a warrior and he responded that he was the “least in his family”, likely meaning he was the youngest or smallest. After denial and hesitation, Gideon became the “Mighty Warrior” God called him. Despite being “unschooled and ordinary”, the Apostles, Peter, and John, stood before the council of rulers, elders, and teachers of religious law and boldly proclaimed the Gospel of Jesus Christ. What made the difference in these men? Gideon was “clothed in the Spirit” and Peter and John had been “filled by the Spirit” enabling them to respond to God’s calling for their life.
As believers in Jesus Christ, we have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Like Gideon, Peter, and John, we are clothed and filled by the Spirit. Jesus promised his disciples that when He left them, He would not leave them alone. He would send the Holy Spirit to be with them and in them. So like Gideon, Peter, and John, we can be who God calls us to be despite the words and titles we use to describe ourselves. The Holy Spirit’s power enables, equips, and strengthens us. We just need to believe and surrender to Him.
I may not be the smartest, biggest, or strongest and I may not have great social status but God’s power in me is greater than the traits I may or may not have. The Holy Spirit enables me to boldly teach and speak to women so that they will experience the transforming power of God’s Word in their lives. What’s holding you back from doing what God has called you to do? With the indwelling Holy Spirit, you have all that you need to follow Jesus and fulfill His purpose for your life.
© 2019 Robin R King
Judges 6:11-15 (NLT)
Gideon Becomes Israel’s Judge
6 11 Then the angel of the Lord came and sat beneath the great tree at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash of the clan of Abiezer. Gideon son of Joash was threshing wheat at the bottom of a winepress to hide the grain from the Midianites. 12 The angel of the Lord appeared to him and said, “Mighty hero, the Lord is with you!”
13 “Sir,” Gideon replied, “if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? And where are all the miracles our ancestors told us about? Didn’t they say, ‘The Lord brought us up out of Egypt’? But now the Lord has abandoned us and handed us over to the Midianites.”
14 Then the Lord turned to him and said, “Go with the strength you have, and rescue Israel from the Midianites. I am sending you!”
15 “But Lord,” Gideon replied, “how can I rescue Israel? My clan is the weakest in the whole tribe of Manasseh, and I am the least in my entire family!”
Judges 6:33-35 (NLT)
33 Soon afterward the armies of Midian, Amalek, and the people of the east formed an alliance against Israel and crossed the Jordan, camping in the valley of Jezreel. 34 Then the Spirit of the Lord clothed Gideon with power. He blew a ram’s horn as a call to arms, and the men of the clan of Abiezer came to him. 35 He also sent messengers throughout Manasseh, Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali, summoning their warriors, and all of them responded.
Acts 4: 1-22 (NLT)
Peter and John before the Council
4 While Peter and John were speaking to the people, they were confronted by the priests, the captain of the Temple guard, and some of the Sadducees. 2 These leaders were very disturbed that Peter and John were teaching the people that through Jesus there is a resurrection of the dead. 3 They arrested them and, since it was already evening, put them in jail until morning. 4 But many of the people who heard their message believed it, so the number of men who believed now totaled about 5,000.
5 The next day the council of all the rulers and elders and teachers of religious law met in Jerusalem. 6 Annas the high priest was there, along with Caiaphas, John, Alexander, and other relatives of the high priest. 7 They brought in the two disciples and demanded, “By what power, or in whose name, have you done this?”
8 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers and elders of our people, 9 are we being questioned today because we’ve done a good deed for a crippled man? Do you want to know how he was healed? 10 Let me clearly state to all of you and to all the people of Israel that he was healed by the powerful name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, the man you crucified but whom God raised from the dead. 11 For Jesus is the one referred to in the Scriptures, where it says,
‘The stone that you builders rejected
has now become the cornerstone.’
12 There is salvation in no one else! God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved.”
13 The members of the council were amazed when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, for they could see that they were ordinary men with no special training in the Scriptures. They also recognized them as men who had been with Jesus. 14 But since they could see the man who had been healed standing right there among them, there was nothing the council could say. 15 So they ordered Peter and John out of the council chamber[c] and conferred among themselves.
16 “What should we do with these men?” they asked each other. “We can’t deny that they have performed a miraculous sign, and everybody in Jerusalem knows about it. 17 But to keep them from spreading their propaganda any further, we must warn them not to speak to anyone in Jesus’ name again.” 18 So they called the apostles back in and commanded them never again to speak or teach in the name of Jesus.
19 But Peter and John replied, “Do you think God wants us to obey you rather than him? 20 We cannot stop telling about everything we have seen and heard.”
21 The council then threatened them further, but they finally let them go because they didn’t know how to punish them without starting a riot. For everyone was praising God 22 for this miraculous sign—the healing of a man who had been lame for more than forty years.
