< 1%

My church is gearing up for a big weekend so all week we've had morning prayer from 6-7am. I struggle with corporate prayer sometimes because I don't normally prayer quietly or in one place. I'm a pacer and a talker; on the move and out loud.

This morning I was sitting still and reading Judges 7. Pastor Mike Haman talked about Judges 6 a couple of days ago and I kind of got hung up there. I felt like God was using it to encourage me in what He's going to do this weekend (Miracle Offering). In this chapter Gideon has been called by God to fight the Midianites so he gathers up his troops (32,000 of them). God basically tells him that if he uses all his troops then they will claim the victory for themselves instead of giving God the glory. So, God starts to separate who will go and who will stay. To start with, God says that everybody who's afraid can go home; 22,000 of them tip out. Of the 10,000 that are left God has all of them drink from a stream and the ones who cup the water in their hands to drink instead of sticking their face in the water are chosen. 9,700 more of them go home. Just to help you with the math, of the 32,000 warriors we started with, only 300 are still in the fight. That's less than 1%.

With those 300 warriors, Gideon defeated the entire Midianite army. The Word says they had a torch in one hand and a ram's horn in the other, and they held their position while the enemy slaughtered themselves.

Here are some interesting points that God showed me:
- less than 1% of the people who showed up actually witnessed the victory, although everyone got to enjoy the freedom
- the only differences between the 300 and the others were that they weren't afraid to fight and they had the sense to keep watch (while drinking from their hands)
- all they had to do was hold their position
- the entire victory was won without a single sword being drawn
- the victory was obtained through obedience to God

I wonder how much more victory I could walk in if I simply showed up, wasn't afraid, held my position and obeyed God. I don't want to be one who simply enjoys the victory, I want to be part of the battle; one who gets to witness the miracle. I believe God is going to do some incredible things this weekend at HPC. I can't wait.

All glory to God!