Go in the Strength You Have

0:00:00 – (Steve Gray): Hey everybody. Welcome again to a More Faith More Life podcast.

0:00:03 – (Steve Gray): You were made for more than the status quo. I’m Pastor Steve Gray and this is the More Faith More Life podcast. This podcast is for Christians with an ambitious heart who want to be more for their family, do more with their career, and see more of God’s promises in their life. I’ve spent many years as a worship artist, minister, nonprofit leader, bold truth speaker, and most importantly, father and spouse.

0:00:28 – (Steve Gray): When I was in my early 40s, I was craving more. More from God and more from life. I’d done everything I was supposed to do. My life was good, but it wasn’t good enough. So I spent the following years diving into the word of God and searching for the biblical principles that would bring me closer to God and help my purpose and life flourish. That’s what I want to share with you. In every episode, you’ll get practical tools based on real life experiences that you can put into action to redefine your faith and ultimately your life.

0:01:03 – (Steve Gray): So if you’re ready to do more, subscribe to More Faith, More Life and hear an unfiltered biblical truth every week. It’s time to be and experience more.

0:01:15 – (Steve Gray): I got my wife Kathy with me here today and we are so excited to talk about a new book that is going to be released soon. You can pre order and by the time you maybe hear this, even it may be out already, depends because some people listen, Kathy, you know, long time from now. But anyway, a new book, Mighty Like Gideon. Right. And being published by Chosen Books. It should be in all the bookstores, Amazon, I know Target’s going to sell it and all that kind of stuff.

0:01:40 – (Steve Gray): And so it’s coming out and I wrote it, co-wrote it with J.D. king, my son in law who’s also a pastor at Revive Church with us. And it, I think it’s a really, really good book. I was joking with you a little bit ago, asking you. You did read the book and you. Of course she did because you helped edit the book. She was my, my helper and I.

0:02:01 – (Kathy Gray): Was an advisor with so many principles.

0:02:04 – (Steve Gray): Yes. Wow. And. And so since you’ve read it. Yeah. It qualifies you to direct it. Some questions that would help the readers or the people understand that they really like to read this book. It’s a good book and it’s helpful. Yes.

0:02:17 – (Kathy Gray): Well, listen, I think the whole book Mighty Like Gideon is like a blueprint for leadership in every area of spirituality. And Gideon, now the story of Gideon starts with him in the wine press and hiding out and I was wondering how. How can people today relate to the start of Gideon? What can they do in their leadership journey?

0:02:41 – (Steve Gray): Right, so obviously it starts out Gideon is hiding in the winepress. And we take that word hiding, and a lot of times we add words to it that it doesn’t say, hiding in the wine press because he’s a coward. Hiding in the wine press because he’s scared. Hiding in the wine press because he’s afraid to get killed or arrested or thrown in jail. But it doesn’t say that. All we know is he’s not wanting to be seen hiding. Okay, so when the angel appears to him, the angel of the Lord appears to him and says, calls him, mighty warrior. The Lord is with you, mighty warrior. And his response is, how can that be?

0:03:15 – (Steve Gray): We’re in this terrible mess. The Midianites are stealing our food. They’re running our country. And there were so many of them, Cathy. The Bible says they had so many camels, you couldn’t even count them. Just so many. This is a big army who’s controlling Israel and the future of Israel. And he says, how can. Why are you calling me a mighty warrior? You know, and we’d agree. We’d say, yeah, cause he’s hiding. But I think there’s something else going here because I think the angel. Well, we’ll just say God knows something about Gideon that maybe Gideon doesn’t know about Gideon.

0:03:50 – (Steve Gray): Could that count? Could that be true today? That that’s the starting point, is we have to figure out there’s things about us God knows that can move us forward. And we can serve and do and be, but we’re not seeing it in ourselves. And we live in a culture right now, Kathy, that is sort of identity searching on many levels. And the best way is just go to God. I’ve told people so many times, Kathy, that you don’t know who you want to be.

0:04:19 – (Steve Gray): I’ve had people say I could never be a preacher. Don’t be so sure. If the spirit of the Lord would come upon you, if an angel would appear, do you think you could do it? But if the spirit of God would do it, you might find it’s actually there. So God knows there’s something there?

0:04:34 – (Kathy Gray): Yes.

0:04:35 – (Steve Gray): Right. You’re a mighty warrior and I want you to deliver Israel. He just didn’t see it in himself. What was God seeing that made us kind of prove that he had something in himself that he didn’t have? He was hiding in the wine press. Oh, wait, wait, wait. Maybe he wasn’t hiding because he’s a coward.

0:04:55 – (Kathy Gray): Right.

0:04:55 – (Steve Gray): Maybe he’s hiding because he’s clever. Yes, he’s smart. He’s going to get food. He’s going to go. He’s doing the. All the Throwing the chaff and all that that they do, you know, winnowing and all that. But he’s hiding because he’s clever. And he’s going to beat the Midianite system of famine by doing what he’s doing. And God sees that go. This is a smart guy. This is a guy that is taking an ordinary thing. He’s not thinking about himself at all. But down deep inside, there’s something clever about this guy that’s going to get the job done one way or another.

0:05:35 – (Steve Gray): So I wrote that in the book. It’s not the only way. Maybe he was afraid. I think all. Well, probably all of them were afraid. You would be. Yeah, I mean, that would be natural to be a little nervous about this Midianite group with all these camels. But I think that he didn’t see something that God saw.

0:05:52 – (Kathy Gray): Yes.

0:05:53 – (Steve Gray): And I don’t think it was God going to say, well, all you need to do is be brave, or I’m going to do a miracle on you and you’re now and you’re going to be a mighty warrior. In other words, Gideon did not have to change to become what God and do what God wanted him to do. And I think the winepress is just that idea of maybe he was just clever, smart.

0:06:17 – (Kathy Gray): That’s so good. So good. Well, God said to him, you know, I want you now, Gideon, to go in the strength that you have. And, like, if I was in his position, I don’t know, I would be saying, go with the strength that I have. What. What do you mean, God? How am I supposed to do that?

0:06:37 – (Steve Gray): Yeah. And actually tacked on and save Israel. Save Israel. Wow.

0:06:44 – (Kathy Gray): Oh, my. Yeah.

0:06:45 – (Steve Gray): And so there’s something in him that can do it. So we’re going to look at that real quickly. And in the book, you’ll get those things. Cause obviously from the surface, he doesn’t look like he’s qualified to be the deliverer of Israel. He does not see himself as qualified being a deliverer, but he’s going to be the deliverer. And what he did was very courageous. Now God is going to test his courage and get this. This is so exciting. In this book and this story, God is going to test his courage.

0:07:17 – (Steve Gray): Right. He’s going to need it. I mean, better. He wants to see who Gideon is. We’ll get into it. So when we said, you’re going to save Israel from the Midianites, I would automatically think, okay, God’s going to test my courage against the Midianites. And really, it never goes there. Cause get this. Hang onto your seats. Buckle up. God tested his courage against his family, against his father. You see, his father was an idol maker, and he built idols. And there was Asherah pole and Baal, I think. Yeah, worshiping BAAL and the Asherah pole and all that stuff.

0:07:58 – (Steve Gray): And there was an altar to Baal, altar to Asherah pole. And God said, here’s what I want you to do. I want to test your bravery. You’re going to go and tear down your father’s altar and build me a proper altar. So the challenge to his courage had nothing to do with the Midianites. It had to do with his relationship to his family and following what God said on this level. Because that proper altar is an empowering altar, too.

0:08:28 – (Steve Gray): You can’t have a false God altar around and say, let’s go beat the Midi Midianites. Build me a proper altar. Now, what would have happened if he didn’t do it? And he hesitated. In fact, he went at night, he got a couple, got some fellows with him, and he said, let’s go at night and tear down that altar. So he’s being cautious. And guess what? After he tore it down, they wanted to kill him. He said, whoever tore this down, kill him. And isn’t it amazing?

0:08:56 – (Steve Gray): His father built it. The son torn it down. But the dad comes to his rescue and says, listen, if Gideon, if. If Bail’s a God, then let the gods take care of themselves. If. If the. If that altar needs to be rebuilt, then let. Let. Let the gods build it. Let BAAL build his own offer altar. We don’t have to come in. And the people, okay, they agreed. And so his father actually saved his life. But he had to have that first courage.

0:09:26 – (Steve Gray): Now, I’m just going to put it on you. As I twisted that away from the Midianites, to the father and the family, what does that speak to you about? Things that might be holding us back from being all that we could be in religion, in our relationship with God.

0:09:41 – (Kathy Gray): And I think a lot of them are family things, aren’t they? You know, and the feeling of obligation. When I reach out and minister to people, lots of times there’s like an attitude or a spirit hanging over them that they inherited spiritual inheritance of something wrong or bad or harmful, destructive, you know, ruining their life. And I’ll say to them, you can love and care for your family. But you are not obligated. You’re not obligated to receive that part if you want to stand up and love them and everything, but you’re not obligated to what is wrong about them or, or what is holding you back. You’re not obligated to that.

0:10:23 – (Steve Gray): And so that’s a problem. Many, many people come, they’ve come to our church and we’re an enthusiastic church. We have great worship. But it’s not just great worship. It’s great people worshiping. I mean, it’s the enthusiasm is there. And sometimes we’ll have guests or visitors come and they’ll say, well, you know what? This isn’t how I was raised. This isn’t like the church I grew up in. And I think and I said, okay. And so, so what are you saying to me? Like you should, you should come here and be like you were growing up in your dad’s church or mom’s church or whatever.

0:10:56 – (Steve Gray): Or would you like to look at your life and okay, you’re in debt, you’re divorced, you’re lonely, right? You feel, you don’t have, you feel bad about yourself. You have no self-esteem, if there is such a thing. You have none of that. You feel bad. All these symptoms of a wrecked life that’s not going well for you job or whatever. And then you’re going to kind of excuse yourself and say, well, you know, I’m not really up for doing anything different.

0:11:21 – (Steve Gray): But look what that church you grew up in seemed to not get you into life. So maybe we need to go in the strength. And there’s the key that people miss. A lot of people, Kathy, want to advance, want to be a deliverer, want to be a helper, want to get their family safe, want to get their kids on fire for whatever it is. And God says, go in the strength that you have. And that’s one of the things I teach strongly to new believers and long term believers who have sort of drifted into the, just the malaise of religion. Religion, same old, same old, you know, and they’ve been doing it for however many years.

0:11:57 – (Steve Gray): Say how people ask me this too, Kelly, how do you get such people alive for God? How do you turn their, I mean, even the children in your church are worshiping and, and you know, they’re not coloring and doing things, they’re worshiping. They’re even up front worshiping, hands raised. How do you do that? You know, it’s no secret. It’s the same formula that God used with Gideon. He Said, go in your.

0:12:24 – (Kathy Gray): Strength.

0:12:25 – (Steve Gray): Strength. Go in the strength. Strength that you already have.

0:12:30 – (Kathy Gray): Yes.

0:12:30 – (Steve Gray): Now there’s the key.

0:12:32 – (Kathy Gray): Yeah.

0:12:32 – (Steve Gray): Because now I have this guest or this visitor coming to our church, and we’re live, we’re going at it, and there they stand. And you know what I say? You want to turn this thing around. You want to turn and get God operating in your life. You want to do it. Start with the strength that you already have. Start with the strength that you already have. You have something you can do. A lot of times, you know, people, I can tell, they’re in church and the music going. And sometimes they come down the front and worship because they just want to be nearer to God. And other times, maybe they feel bad about something, you know, and people will come and they’ll say, Kathy, Steve, I’ve made so many mistakes. I’m such failure. I’m not a good wife. I’m not a good husband. I’m in debt. Whatever, whatever.

0:13:14 – (Steve Gray): And I don’t know what to do. I said, what do you mean, you don’t know what to do? You’re talking about doing what you don’t know how to do. You’re saying, I don’t know what to do with my finances because I don’t know what to do. Well, how do you turn that around? Right? God told Gideon. God, do something with what you already are, who you already are, with the strength you already have.

0:13:36 – (Kathy Gray): Yes.

0:13:37 – (Steve Gray): Okay, so convicting all you have to do to turn your life around. Stop making excuses for yourself in the failures where you didn’t know how to do, you didn’t know what to do. Do what you can do. Go in the strength you have and save your family or save yourself. You know, go to Jesus with it. So. So I tell, okay, let’s just, off the top of our head, let’s say, here’s this new person coming to our church. Their life is a wreck.

0:14:05 – (Steve Gray): They’ve grown up in church, but it didn’t really affect them like that. And they’re in debt, they’re in trouble, they got divorced, they’re unhappy, lonely, all those kinds of things. Oh, I don’t know what to do. You do, too. Do what you already can do. Yes, but they come into churches. I don’t know what to do. And then they stand there like a statue and just stare up at the ceiling or something. And I’m up there worshiping, and singers are worried, and I’m preaching my heart out.

0:14:31 – (Steve Gray): Well, what can you do? All right, you know what? You could raise your hands you don’t have a broken arm. I don’t know what to do. Go in the strength you have. How about raising your hands? Because God likes that, right? Yes. Lift up your hands in the sanctuary and bless the Lord is the scripture. Could you lift up your hands? Yes, you can. Can you read? Read your Bible, Go home, read your Bible. I just don’t know what can you do?

0:14:59 – (Steve Gray): Can you read? Read your Bible.

0:15:01 – (Kathy Gray): Read your Bible, right? Yeah.

0:15:03 – (Steve Gray): So, okay, so you can read. Do you have a voice? Sing at home. Okay. Sing in the car. But you just went into church. Stop. Get out of the mumbling church. Cause you know the church where they sing and they sing hymns and they just kind of mumble along. Yeah, our folks sing loud. You know why?

0:15:22 – (Kathy Gray): It’s wonderful.

0:15:22 – (Steve Gray): And people don’t understand. Like, they’re actually singing around me and they seem so energetic. But yeah, don’t. You don’t understand what they’re doing. That doesn’t mean they had a perfect week. That doesn’t mean everything. They did everything right. Doesn’t mean everything went right. But they’re taking what they can already do with the strength they already have and doing something. So, Gideon, go in the strength you already have.

0:15:45 – (Kathy Gray): Hey.

0:15:45 – (Steve Gray): Oh, I don’t know. Can you tear down an altar? You might not be a great builder, but I can tear up stuff. I’m good at tearing up stuff and trying to put it back together. Go as he said, Go tear down your father’s altar and build a proper altar. You can do that. You can do that. You can go tear down that religion that has got you so bound. Like in our idea, we think church and religion and reverence and honor is all quiet.

0:16:18 – (Steve Gray): It’s all puny. When you start adding strength to what you can already do, you’ll find your life will start taking off with God. Maybe you’ll still be in debt for a while, but God will start guiding you out of that through the strength. So do what you can do. You can love, you can be kind, you can be more understanding. You can lift your hands in church, you can read your Bible, you can pray and you can sing.

0:16:46 – (Steve Gray): And that’s all I can think of right now.

0:16:47 – (Kathy Gray): Yes, you can. You know, and as you do it, you just get stronger. And I think that’s. I’m sorry to interject this, but I’ll tell you what, that’s one of the things that really riles me up spiritually is when people, they use no strength. They don’t even try to pull from themselves, you know? And then they’re just like blobs. And you know, I want to say, you got strength in you, you know, not of. Use some strength and act like a person, you know, come on, start doing that and you’re going to become a more likable person and a more successful person in God instead of not making effort. And you’ve taught me for years, you’ve have to. You make effort, right?

0:17:33 – (Kathy Gray): You use your body and you use your mouth and you go in that strength.

0:17:37 – (Steve Gray): Wait. Well, we have a problem with that, though. People get that and they think, oh, works. Where? Oh, I’m trying to. I’m trying to use works to get saved. And I look at him and say, hold on a minute. I thought you’re already saved. If you’re already saved, then how come you’re worried about works? Cause what you do is you get saved and then you go to work. We’ve been created in Christ for good, good works and to produce not just fruit, but much fruit. You’re not ever going to do that if you don’t somehow get to where you put some strength into. Exactly. Do what you can do.

0:18:11 – (Kathy Gray): Come on.

0:18:11 – (Steve Gray): Yeah. And so, so we want people to just start doing the things they can do. People tell, well, my kids are going crazy and my son’s nuts, you know, and he’s going crazy in the world, and I don’t know what to do. I do. Sit down and talk with them, right? Sit down and talk with your family and start telling them why we do what we do. If we honor God and we put God first, guess what? God. I’ll just pretend I’m talking to somebody’s son right now, like I’m the dad.

0:18:44 – (Steve Gray): Honor God with me, son. Honor with me. Would you go to church with me and put some strength in. Don’t just stand there with your ball cap pulled down over your eyes, right? Would you go to church with me? Let’s do what we can do. And the reason if we’ll honor God and put some string this. Guess what? God’s going to start blessing us and he’s going to get us out of financial trouble. Son, would you rather be in poverty or blessed by God?

0:19:09 – (Steve Gray): That old clunker car you got. Would you like to have a new car someday or would you like. You just want to drive one that the mufflers fallen off? See, why do we do it? When we honor God, it’s the right thing to do. He deserves it, right? But the blessing comes back and. And so we’ve got to get out of this. I don’t know what to do. Lifestyle. And of course, when we get to Gideon, then when he’s going to actually be the deliverer, you know, if God said, go in the strength you have and you’re going to. And save Israel, I’d get a picture. Wouldn’t you get a picture of armor and a sword or cannon or some. Some way a great warrior, you know, I’m going to become a gladiator now or something, say, and lead the army.

0:19:50 – (Steve Gray): And you know what? He already had the strength to do what he needed to do. What was he. What was he doing when God found him? He was in the wine press. And don’t. What do they call that? Did I Threshing.

0:20:03 – (Kathy Gray): Threshing?

0:20:03 – (Steve Gray): Yeah, threshing. You know what? How many times did he thresh? I bet he had some pretty strong arms from all that threshing. And when God. God calls him to defeat Israel, I mean, defeat the Midianites with an army. He has an army by then. We don’t have time to go into how he got his army. God told Gideon to go in the strength that he already had, right? And he’s going in that. Now you’re ready to hear something most amazing.

0:20:27 – (Steve Gray): When he got there, how did he defeat the Midianites? Well, it had to be the strength he already had. Cause he doesn’t say, now go join the gladiator school, or you’re going to have to go to school and learn how to throw a spear, right? Or, you know, anything like that that didn’t have the strength that he had. So he says, okay, now we’re going to defeat how to defeat him. He said, I want you to get jars.

0:20:50 – (Steve Gray): Give everybody 300 of them. 300 jars, torches, trumpets, and then here’s what you have to do. So when the time came, all they had to do was use the strength he had. Well, he’d been in the wine press, you know, doing all that stuff. So does he. Can he break a jar? Can he blow a trumpet? You don’t have to be a trumpet player. Just got to be able blow the thing, right? And can you wave a torch? And so God says, now do it. And they yelled, the sword of the Lord and for Gideon. And they.

0:21:18 – (Steve Gray): He. And they broke the jars, blew trumpets, waved the torches. And it frightened the Midianites so terrible terribly that they turned on each other and started running away, started, you know, exiting to stage left. And. And Israel ran after him, defeated the Midianites. And they did it by using the strength that he already had. So what about you? What do you have how much does it take to break a jar or blow a trumpet or wave a torch? That’s all you had to do. And he defeated the whole Midianites. What do you have that you’re not thinking of neglecting, like you think?

0:21:54 – (Steve Gray): Well, I can’t sing and I can’t dance. You know, I can’t preach. What can you do? Go in the strength you have? The problem of it is, is sometimes God asks us to do things that we can already do, that we have in our head. Well, that’s not ministry. That’s not exciting. Nobody will, you know, just start doing in your strength what you can already do. And God will lead you the rest of the way until you are mighty like Gideon.

0:22:21 – (Steve Gray): I hope you get the book. You can pre-order it. You can get it. By the time you watch this, it may be out everywhere, in all the bookstores. I hope you’ll do it. It’s a good book. It’s worth the time to read, to find out. Cause you’re going to see yourself in it. You’re going to see our nation. It’ll help you move forward and become the person that God wants you to be. Till next time. Bye.