Rediscovering Identity

0:00:00 – (Steve Gray): Hey, what’s going on in the world of the Spirit? Turn into More Faith, More Life. To find out, God is up to choosing the new Gideons and the new army of 300. I’ll tell you all about it on the next More Faith, More Life.

0:00:13 – (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.

0:00:38 – (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.

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0:01:25 – (Steve Gray): Hello everybody, and welcome again to a More Faith More Life podcast. And got Kathy with me today. I’m Steve Gray. I’ve got my wife Kathy with me. We’re having a blast talking about the new book Mighty Like Gideon because there’s so many elements in it. Sometimes we laugh because we didn’t think of something that’s in there. And I was so happy to be able to write that. I’ve written other books. It’s with chosen books and of course it’s in bookstores and they get. But if you go to. If they go to https://stevegrayministries.com

0:01:53 – (Steve Gray): and go there, they can get this book just like every place else. But I think it’s like we’re selling this workbook. I think it’s $1 more and you get this workbook. It’s an excellent workbook and you get it basically free. But a dollar study guide. That’s what I should have said. So that’s why you want to go to stevegrainministries.com and get it so that you can get what other people can’t get. And so we’re having so much Fun because there’s so much adventure. There’s so many strange things in it of how Gideon, you know, they defeated the army with torches and trumpets. They didn’t do it with swords, you know, and they didn’t.

0:02:33 – (Kathy Gray): So unique.

0:02:34 – (Steve Gray): Yeah. The Midianites, they killed each other and we just basically, by that time you just had to watch what a battle.

0:02:40 – (Kathy Gray): What a victory, you know.

0:02:42 – (Steve Gray): So anyway, it’s. I hope they get the book. There’s so many jewels in it.

0:02:45 – (Kathy Gray): Mighty Like Gideon: Revived and Battle-Ready at Your River of Testing. I love the whole thing about it.

0:02:54 – (Steve Gray): The outlets and bookstores and online. But you can’t get this study guide any place. And it’s a good one.

0:03:00 – (Kathy Gray): Except where do you. Where can you get it again?

0:03:02 – (Steve Gray): https://stevegrayministries.com So anyway, there’s so much about the book. I don’t know what you liked about it or what particularly struck you. I know you helped me edit it.

0:03:13 – (Kathy Gray): And JD King, it was an honor for me to get to do that. Steve to help with a little bit of that editing and a little bit of input remembering great things that you’d said and taught over the years. But you know, about Gideon, you know, with the 300 men and this remnant of people and what in the world, how did God do that? Why did he. Why did he do that and bring the whole army down to just 300 guys?

0:03:42 – (Kathy Gray): I’m not quite sure. Maybe not everybody understands.

0:03:45 – (Steve Gray): Well, the story of Gideon in the book Mighty Like Gideon, we’re going to start where God starts, where the. Well, a prophet appears and then an angel appears and then the angel discusses and so does Gideon, who he is, what he is, calls him a mighty warrior. Gideon sees himself as weak and the least. So we go through all that and everybody, if anybody’s going to do anything, they’re going to have to go through that too.

0:04:08 – (Steve Gray): Who are you and what can you do?

0:04:10 – (Kathy Gray): Right?

0:04:11 – (Steve Gray): And as we said in the other times, Gideon had to receive God saying, I want you to do what you can already do. He doesn’t ask him to do anything that was beyond him. And really it wasn’t that hard. It was just God calls him a mighty warrior because he’s going to war. He’s going to have to warrior in his own mind.

0:04:32 – (Kathy Gray): Wow.

0:04:32 – (Steve Gray): And heart because the first thing he has to do is go face his father and false religion that his father was teaching in Israel.

0:04:40 – (Kathy Gray): Right?

0:04:40 – (Steve Gray): And he had to face that. Well, that’s not a battle with a sword. Mighty warrior. That is you Got to be a mighty warrior and face the religious practices that are non-scriptural, out of control, self-centered humanism. Maybe a little psychology. A little psychology, which is good. I, I, I tell you know, and politics. Okay, but I, I was mentioning yesterday as a pastor said listen, the bad, the bad thing that’s happening in churches is it’s okay to talk politics because people, some, some people think a, some people think you shouldn’t.

0:05:12 – (Steve Gray): Okay. But that’s not the whole point. You can talk about politics or not talk about politics where the, where the problem is. We’re not talking about the Spirit, we’re not talking spiritual.

0:05:21 – (Kathy Gray): Right.

0:05:22 – (Steve Gray): We’re just duplicating what politicians are saying. We need to go out and we need to vote. We need to and make sure America stays like we want it to stay. But that doesn’t change the hearts of people.

0:05:33 – (Kathy Gray): Right.

0:05:33 – (Steve Gray): And until the heart changes, nothing will change other than legislation. Laws can make things safer and better. Yes, but only because a law is holding a law breaker. What we want to do is we want to change the heart of the law breaker. And that can only be done by the Spirit of God.

0:05:50 – (Kathy Gray): Yes, only by the. Not by might and not by power of your own, but by my Spirit, says the Lord. And that applies to everything, just individually and also to our churches and to mankind if we can help them get revived in that area. Not by our might, not by our power or our self-efforts or our great thinking, but it is by the power of God. The Spirit of God who executes that power of God.

0:06:19 – (Steve Gray): Yeah. And we have to remember that because otherwise we’re not going to be able to get anything done. And so God was going to do it by the Spirit of the Lord. I think religion has gone another way where it is a lot of human might and a lot of human power happening in churches and religion. Very businesslike, business models, all that kind of stuff. Not spiritual model. And it’s not necessarily a sin model, it’s just not a spiritual model.

0:06:48 – (Steve Gray): It’s like Abraham having the son by

0:06:53 – (Kathy Gray): Hagar.

0:06:53 – (Steve Gray): Hagar. Thank you, Hagar. We would probably not advise that, but it was not a wise thing because God said no, he’s not the Son because he was not born by the Spirit, he was born by the ordinary way. So we got thousands and thousands of good churches not born by the Spirit, but they’re born by the executive. Ordinary business. Be kind to people, be nice, offer everything you can and people will come and they’ll enjoy your church.

0:07:23 – (Steve Gray): Which I get that. But as we look at not my power and like that. Then we need to realize that God wants to move by his power. But we, as we’ve talked before, we have to be that cooperative thing. And I think one thing that’s happened in religion, as I was saying before, that has made it. Not only is it’s not spiritual. It may be political, it may be moral, but not necessarily spiritual. Is also the scripture that says the kingdom of God is not meat nor drink.

0:07:56 – (Steve Gray): Now that just means it’s not doing outward religious things, but righteousness, peace. And some say joy in the Holy Spirit, some say joy in the Holy Ghost, some just say joy. But what is it? It’s rightness, righteousness, peace, shalom. And that means wholeness and your whole life, as you already know everything in your life. Righteous, peace and joy. Righteousness, peace and joy. Well, but what’s religion do to you? As soon as you’re trying to go search for God, the all of a sudden it’s teaching you. And you’re so worried about all the outward stuff you’re not supposed to do anymore, or the inward stuff you’re. You’re supposed to do anymore. And it’s not meat or drink, it’s not food, it’s not outward, it’s getting that you need to start walking by the spirit.

0:08:40 – (Kathy Gray): Yes.

0:08:40 – (Steve Gray): So anyway, let’s get back to the 300 before we run out of time.

0:08:43 – (Kathy Gray): Okay. Yeah.

0:08:44 – (Steve Gray): So the 300 really is the pinnacle of the story. Cause it starts out with God raising up Gideon, who sees himself weak, hiding in the winepress, takes him through, he has to destroy his father’s altar. And then he’s have to get an army, right? So he calls them. And how many came?

0:09:05 – (Kathy Gray): Like, I don’t remember, like 30,000.

0:09:07 – (Steve Gray): Yeah, 30 to 30.

0:09:08 – (Kathy Gray): 2,000 or something. A big amount.

0:09:11 – (Steve Gray): And of course God says that’s too many. So why would that be too many? It’s not enough.

0:09:17 – (Kathy Gray): Yeah, in my thinking, it’s not enough.

0:09:20 – (Steve Gray): You know, if they didn’t have God’s power, even with 30,000 or however in the Manhattan, they’re still not going to kill the Midianites, who, Who have more than you can count. It says they have more camels than you could count.

0:09:29 – (Kathy Gray): Oh, boy.

0:09:30 – (Steve Gray): And so, you know, it’s like tithing, you know, let’s say your tithe would be $50. 10% is $50. And you going to get $50 every week or $50 every two weeks. Here’s the deal. A lot of people, I can’t afford to tithe, but you know what? $50 ain’t going to save you. But it might just trigger by obedience the power and presence of God to bless you. If 50 bucks will save you, or whatever your tithe is would save you.

0:10:01 – (Steve Gray): It doesn’t. Those people are still struggling financially. So why not go ahead and do God’s way and see if you can get God to release his favor on you? Okay, so when we see this now, this army that he wants to put together in the 300, we sometimes think that’s the pinnacle, and we look at the numbers. But I like to look at it differently, because why did God, of course, say 30,000 is too many? Because he said he doesn’t want them to boast and say, we did it.

0:10:33 – (Steve Gray): But I’m saying they couldn’t have done it anyway. But maybe God would jump in at the end, you know, and say, hey, I can’t let you be destroyed. Then he’d win it. And then they’d say, look what we did. So that’s a big thing to God in this particular one. They don’t want him to be forgotten, and they want him to know that he caused the victory. So he absolutely establishes it. And he narrows it down then to sends 9,700 more home, first to 30,907.

0:11:03 – (Steve Gray): Now Gideon’s left with 300. Well, we already know you can’t defeat with 300 anymore than you could with 30,000. It’s just the army’s too big, so it has to be a God thing. So God calls Gideon a mighty warrior, but we don’t get any idea that he has any experience as a warrior.

0:11:21 – (Kathy Gray): Right?

0:11:22 – (Steve Gray): A general, a sword, a spirit. We get none of that. And what God did was God took what Gideon could do already. And that’s how he’s going to defeat him. He’s not going to say, go to gladiator school, right?

0:11:36 – (Kathy Gray): Yeah.

0:11:37 – (Steve Gray): And so God is going to have Gideon shout. They’re all going to shout. They’re going to break the jars. 300 jars. Cause there’s 300 men, 300 torches, and 300 trumpets. And this is all going to go on at the same time. And they may have split them up into two groups even to make him stereo one on each side of their camp. And. And they do that now. But that gets. That doesn’t help us get back to the 300. Because God said 300.

0:12:06 – (Steve Gray): But if God said, I can’t, I don’t. I want to defeat them. And with 300. So you can’t take credit. You would have to pick some men that would not be looking to take credit.

0:12:17 – (Kathy Gray): Right.

0:12:18 – (Steve Gray): That’s one so he want. Okay, so maybe he could only get down to 300, who weren’t going to say, wow, we did it. Yeah, that’s part of it. But I think the main thing. God chose 300. What? Okay, there’s some speculation. Just wonderful speculation, though. Okay. What if God’s number wasn’t as important? We like that number. Like there’s 32 or 30,000. And then there was 9,700 sent home. Now there’s only 300 left. And God is going to defeat them with 300.

0:12:49 – (Steve Gray): Okay, so it’s like we’re thinking. And I know it’s okay to think like this, but we’re thinking God decided two weeks ago, I’m going to get 300 guys, and we’re going to defeat the Midianites. So I just need to find 300, because I’m going to do it with 300. Maybe, maybe. But when. When God tells Gideon, choose the men that lap water, not like Everybody else does, 9,700, but lap water like a dog did.

0:13:18 – (Steve Gray): Okay, okay. God knows everything. But is he picking the 300 or are the 300 picking themselves?

0:13:26 – (Kathy Gray): Yeah, I think they’re picking themselves.

0:13:28 – (Steve Gray): Yeah.

0:13:28 – (Kathy Gray): Don’t you?

0:13:29 – (Steve Gray): So God. Okay, God knows everything. I don’t want to get in a stupid argument about that, but did God say absolutely 300 or he’s in. Let’s see what we get. Because God chose them, not because they drank. He chose them because the way they drank. And how did they pick the way to drink? Is it that nine. It’s so much fun to talk about. Cause it’s ridiculous what we’re saying. But is it 9,700 learned to drink one way at their hometown or whatever.

0:14:00 – (Steve Gray): I think 9,700 of them drank. Like everybody pretty much drinks. Then God said, watch how they drink. And the ones that lap like dogs choose them. Well, where do you go to lap like dog school? Why 300 would lap like dog at 9007, which sounds like the common drink way to drink. Because that’s the way they would drink.

0:14:22 – (Kathy Gray): Why?

0:14:23 – (Steve Gray): Okay, yeah, but they do that. What if God was not looking for mighty warriors with swords? He was looking for mighty warriors like Gideon, who he was mighty because he was do what he was told or do. Gideon would follow what the angel said. He’d follow what God said. He’d do what God told him to do. And so God needed. And Gideon needed 200, 250, 300. I’d take 400. I just need. If I put myself in God’s shoes or Gideon’s shoes.

0:14:55 – (Steve Gray): We just need people that will follow an example. The Bible says imitate people’s faith. What if they all go down to drink and God’s looking like, I have to get some guys that are willing to break jars. Where am I going to get guys that maybe they’ll throw a spear? How am I going to talk 300? Where am I going to get 100 guys? Hey, run out there in the middle of everybody, there’s the big army, huge cutthroats that will kill you.

0:15:26 – (Steve Gray): And I want you to blow a trumpet and shout and just draw attention to yourself. Just draw attention to yourself. Make a big noise, shout real loud, break jars, blow trumpets, wave to the Midianites. They’re sure going to know you’re there. You’d have to find an unusual person that would say, I trust God. And they said, for the sword of the Lord. And for Gideon, they said both. And they trusted their leader.

0:15:52 – (Steve Gray): And so when they did this, so they say, see how they drink? And Gideon’s going, okay. And so Gideon bends down and he drinks and laps like a dog. 9,700 did how they usually do it, how they were taught by their parents or something. And 300 say, look at the way Gideon drinks. We want to be a part of this thing. We need to follow the leader. And God found 300 that would do what Gideon did. Does it have anything to do with drinking? Does it have anything to do with lapping like a dog or whatever, or cupping your hand, whatever? No, nothing it has to do with.

0:16:34 – (Steve Gray): Will we be able to find 300 that will do what Gideon says to do or what God says to do through Gideon? And that’s a tall order. We forget. We say, yeah, 300. That’s all it takes. Yeah, it takes 300 that are willing to do it God’s way and stand there. You obviously are going to alert yourself to the presence of an army that has more camels than you’ve got people?

0:16:58 – (Kathy Gray): Yes.

0:16:58 – (Steve Gray): Okay. They’re going to know you’re there, right? What, do they turn on us? Well, we need 300 Gideons, is what we need. And it starts with Gideon, the leader. And all he needed was 300 to do it all together at the same time. You know, in the book, we have a chapter about the power of unity and the power of all. And they all did it at the same time. If they, if, if 150 of them, the other side, two groups, 150 of them had a said, this is ridiculous. I’m going to get a spear and a sword. I’m going to go get A shield or something, you know, or I’m going to dig a hole or I’m going to desert or whatever. I’m going to run away.

0:17:35 – (Steve Gray): He needed 300 that would do what Gideon did. That’s it.

0:17:40 – (Kathy Gray): 300 who would choose to follow the leader and not be their own thinker.

0:17:48 – (Steve Gray): God was with him. God was with the rest of them, too. But he wasn’t near as with the 9,700 as he was with the 300. Was he with both groups? Yeah, but the 300 were chosen. They were invited, and they chose to follow. As the scripture says, many are called or many are invited. But after that, the conflict sets in. You know the Bible about the seed thrown on the hard ground, the seed on the rocky ground, like that.

0:18:21 – (Steve Gray): All four got seed, but three of them, it was robbed. It says the devil came and stole. Instantly, the devil came and stole what was so in their hearts. Or the cares of this world come and steal the word away from them. So, you know, could be there could have maybe been 301.

0:18:35 – (Kathy Gray): Yeah.

0:18:36 – (Steve Gray): But one of that 9,700 did it his own way. He probably was being pulled by the Holy Spirit.

0:18:43 – (Kathy Gray): Do it that week.

0:18:44 – (Steve Gray): We can do this with 301 guys. 301 guys… it doesn’t matter. We just need guys or gals that will do together what God needs to have done and stop bickering and fighting over things and just follow and be happy.

0:18:59 – (Kathy Gray): Yes, be happy.

0:19:00 – (Steve Gray): Be happy to be part of anything. And so Gideon, I think he was a mighty warrior because he was willing to do maybe the ridiculous a little bit. But then he was a mighty warrior because he called other men together to do ridiculous with him, which seemed ridiculous, but it wasn’t. It was obedience. And they defeated the Midianites without a sword, without a spear. And they turned. The Midianites turned on themselves and killed each other. And it was, you know, and they had 40 years of peace.

0:19:30 – (Steve Gray): 40 years of peace out of those jars, trumpets. So, 300. 340 years of peace through. Get into obviously the leader doing it God’s way.

0:19:40 – (Kathy Gray): How do we apply it right now, today, real quickly? You know, there’s multitudes of people who sit in church in our nation, and they’re sitting there and sitting there and sitting there. Are you saying, do you think to win the next battle and bring in that renaissance of religion and everything, that maybe we’re. God’s going to bring it down till there’s the 300 who follow the way of Gideon?

0:20:09 – (Steve Gray): Of course, the leaders are not important. Exactly.

0:20:11 – (Kathy Gray): No, the number is not important.

0:20:13 – (Steve Gray): Whatever number. Yeah, I would just guess right now God’s choosing the 300. Well, he’s choosing the Gideons and the 300 now for what he wants to do. Will he get it done? I hope so. But. But if 300 decide, they’re all cowards. 9. 9,700 got afraid and went back. He’s going to allow you to be afraid.

0:20:33 – (Kathy Gray): Yeah.

0:20:34 – (Steve Gray): He’ll allow you to go back. He let the cowards go and the fearful left. And he allowed him to. Because God’s still going to get it done one way or another, but he won’t get it done through you. And so that’s one application. But the other is the application that we find we get ourselves to being chosen of that is to put ourselves in the position that we already know that we are going to cooperate with the will of God and that most people will not be chosen because they won’t do what they can do now.

0:21:04 – (Steve Gray): Gideon became a mighty warrior without changing a thing.

0:21:09 – (Kathy Gray): Hallelujah.

0:21:10 – (Steve Gray): He just had to do what God said to do now. And so other mighty warriors, as we know, they wait. They’re waiting. They won’t do what God has equipped them to already do. It’s not glamorous. It doesn’t get you attention. Nobody pats you on the back. I mean, how often do you get patted on the back for holding babies on a Sunday morning, you know? But you get a pat on the back from God. Cause if you can already do it and you’re great with kids and you have your own kids, why wouldn’t you want to use that instead? You’re frustrated because you think you should be downtown on a soapbox among drug addicts, you know, getting them all delivered from drugs.

0:21:45 – (Steve Gray): But you’re not satisfied to minister to your own kids. You’re not satisfied to minister to other people’s kids. And yet God gave you kids. You’re already qualified. If you want to get to that soapbox downtown or another, do what you can already do by faith, do what you can do right now. What can you do today or tomorrow or in your church? Do what you can do, and you’ll graduate to do things that you could never do.

0:22:11 – (Steve Gray): But all Gideon became the great mighty warrior. 40 years of peace because he did what he could already do. He could break a jar, apparently. He could mumble something through a trumpet, spit through it or something. He could break a jar. He could shout. He could wave a torch. Right?

0:22:27 – (Kathy Gray): Yes.

0:22:28 – (Steve Gray): And God defeated the army. So do what you can do now rather than wait and get frustrated because like I, you know, I’m not special. I don’t have this call. Yeah. Find out the Lord is with you when you do what you can already do with him. Good stuff.

0:22:43 – (Kathy Gray): Amen. Wonderful.

0:22:44 – (Steve Gray): Don’t forget to go to https://stevegrayministries.com  and get Mighty Like Gideon. Get it. But for one, I think it’s $1 more. Whatever. It’s more barely. You can get the workbook study guide Mighty Like Gideon. It’ll really help you along. It’s a great book. I’ve written books. J.D. King wrote this with me. But we think this is the finest with the most jewels stories and inspiration of anything we’ve ever written.

0:23:07 – (Steve Gray): So thanks for watching, tell your friends, subscribe, join us, follow us, do all that kind of stuff and we’re really trying to help you get more faith so you can have more life. Till next time. Bye.