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Have you ever felt called by God but completely unqualified to answer? I have—and it’s why the story of Gideon in Judges 6 speaks so deeply to me.

In this episode of the Jaime Luce Podcast, I opened up about my own fears, doubts, and the excuses I’ve made when God asked me to step out. Whether it was starting this podcast or obeying His direction in my personal life, I’ve wrestled with the same questions you might be asking: Why me? Who am I to do this?

That’s exactly where we find Gideon—hiding in a winepress, afraid and uncertain. But God called him a “mighty man of valor” before Gideon had done a single brave thing. That hit me hard. God saw something in Gideon that he couldn’t yet see in himself. And He sees something in you too.

Overcoming Fear Requires Obedience

Fear can take many forms—hesitation, procrastination, self-doubt. I’ve experienced all of them. But one thing I’ve learned is that fear doesn’t disqualify you. It simply reveals the gap where trust in God must grow.

When I first felt the nudge to start this podcast, I didn’t feel ready. I didn’t feel equipped. But I remembered the words in Zechariah 4:6: “Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit,” says the Lord. That became my anchor.

Obedience is what activates the call. When we move—yes, even afraid—God moves with us. He doesn’t wait for us to be fearless. He waits for us to be willing.

God Qualifies the Called

If you feel like the “least” in your family or the most unlikely choice, then you’re in good company. That’s exactly how Gideon felt. But God isn’t looking for polished perfection—He’s looking for faith. The same Spirit that called Gideon, that empowered Moses, and that raised Christ from the dead is available to you and me today.

Luke 24:49 says we will be “clothed with power from on high.” That promise isn’t just for pastors or leaders—it’s for every believer walking out God’s purpose. And that includes you.

Your Winepress Isn’t Your Destiny

One of the biggest revelations I had while studying Gideon was that the winepress wasn’t his final destination—it was the place where God met him and redefined him.

Whatever your winepress is—fear, insecurity, past failure—it’s not where your story ends. It may be where you feel hidden or overlooked, but it’s also where God begins to speak identity and destiny over you.

Answering God’s Call Starts Now

You don’t have to wait until you “feel ready.” If God is calling you, He has already made a way. Say yes, even if your voice shakes. Say yes, even if you’re still afraid. Because your obedience is the doorway to transformation.

Where to dive in:

(0:00:09) – Facing Fear
(0:07:58) – Finding Hope in the Midst
(0:23:36) – Discovering Strength in Times of Fear
(0:33:23) – Embracing God’s Authority and Power
(0:49:20) – Clothed in God’s Spirit and Power

Key Scriptures:

• Judges 6
• Zechariah 4:6
• Romans 10:17
• Luke 24:49

Full Transcript

This transcript is auto-generated and not perfect. We hope it blesses you.

0:00:09 – Jaime Luce
Welcome to the Jaime Luce podcast. Thank you for taking time and tuning in today. It’s such a pleasure for me to know that there are those like you and I wanted to thank you. Thank you for taking the time, because we live in a crazy time. We’re just living in a crazy time. There’s so much going on Right now. As I sit down to record this, I live in California and there are riots happening down in LA and it’s just a crazy time. And to know that there are people like you, believers, who are honestly wanting to stand and live their lives according to the Word of God, who stand for truth, those who stand for righteousness, those who want to know what does God say and how am I supposed to say yes to you, and what does that look like for my life? And so I’m just so grateful that you’re here today. I want to encourage you, like I always do. I want you to take some notes. Today, I think I have something for you to really encourage you. I’m calling today no Excuses, and you know it’s not by might, it’s not by power, but it is by my spirit, says the Lord. Well, if that is true, if that is true, then we have no excuses. We have no excuses, and today we’re going to be spending time looking at someone that God chose to use after the children of Israel have come out of the desert. They are now in the promised land. There is no leader. Moses is dead, joshua was dead, and now we see that we’ve got judges who are coming up and having to. Usually, a judge was raised up because a deliverance needed to happen, and then God brought the deliverance through somebody he raised up, and then that person judged Israel during their lifetime until they died, and today we are looking at Gideon. I’m sure you have felt akin to Gideon at times.

I think we have all, at times, been afraid. I mean, at times been afraid. I mean, how many people have have you known that there’s just never any fear? I mean, there are people who don’t have fears to do, let’s say, adrenaline seeking. People love to do things that pump their adrenaline, but those same people who may not be afraid to jump off of a mountain, or jump out of a plane or, you know, ride a motorcycle or just things that are known to be those that are more risky things, how many of those people, though, are not afraid to sit down and have a hard conversation with somebody.

Sometimes fear doesn’t look the way we expect it to look. We tend to think everybody else isn’t afraid and just we ourselves alone are afraid, and I think that comes from simply our insecurities, things that we think disqualify us, things that maybe that we feel we’re lacking in, or that we put such oh gosh, we build high pedestals that we put people on, especially in the day of social media right now. We put people on pedestals and we think they make no mistakes, they have no problems, they have all these giftings and talents. Nothing is difficult for them, everything comes easy, things are just handed to them and we make a storyline, a narrative in our minds about other people, what they’re able to do, why they’re able to do it and why we aren’t it and why we aren’t, and simply the truth is that’s not. That is not at all accurate. That just isn’t the way that it is. We are all just people and everybody fears at some point or another in their life. You know there are many people who do crazy, risky things, not because they aren’t afraid, but because they’re choosing to face the fear that is standing in front of them. They’re actually doing it, trying to counter the fear. They feel that if they do those things, that fear will dissipate. There’s even some psychology about people who have phobias where they introduce those things that they are afraid of, little bits at a time until they become used to that and take a little more ground, a little more ground facing those fears. That’s a legitimate way to deal with fear. But at the same time, what do we do when we are truly afraid, hiding from whatever it is that’s out in front of us?

You know, I personally to be transparent when I first started the podcast goodness, I think we started almost four years ago in the process of all of this and I really I did it because I felt the Lord was asking me to do it and the way that he confirmed it to me. You know, gideon had his fleeces and we’re probably going to talk about him for a couple of weeks, but it was for me. This Lord. I need to know that this is you and not just some crazy idea that I’ve got running in my head, or maybe I didn’t realize that somebody kind of planted the idea in my head and the fears of this is something I’ve never done. These are things I don’t know anything about. I’m not a techie person, I don’t know about cameras and microphones and recording and computer tech stuff, and it just all seemed so overwhelming and so huge. It was very frightening.

And my fear was not only if I’m going to go do all this, what if I fail? What if this isn’t what it’s supposed to be? What if I do it wrong? And so, in essence, I’m holding this protective place over a failure of something that I’ve never attempted. So I really don’t even know what it looks like to fail for one. And what am I protecting? I mean, when I had to really think about what, what am I truly afraid of? And my, my spirit? You know, the scripture tells us that the spirit is willing, the flesh is weak my spirit wanted to say, yes, lord, of course I will do that. My flesh was saying Jaime, you don’t even know how, you don’t know what it takes, you don’t have connections, you don’t know anything about this industry.

And so, when the Lord asked me to do this and when I began the dialogue with him about it, what was funny was that all of a sudden, I had different people saying to me well, Jaime, have you ever thought about doing a podcast? I had that happen to me multiple times. And then I was speaking to my brother. He was actually one of the ones who said well, Jaime, have you ever thought about doing a podcast? And I said, jeremy, once he said it to me, I thought you know, okay, lord, I know, this is you. This is just, this is happening too much. This is not a coincidence, this is you and you are confirming it to me. You want me to do this. And I simply told my brother I don’t know how to do this. I don’t know what to do anything about podcasts. And he kind of laughed and he said Jaime, I used to do a radio show and I’m connected with somebody who does podcasting. This is what they do. I know how to do this. I could totally help you. I can help you with connections, I can. I. We’ve got a studio down here you can come use. And.

And so the bowl, the bowl, the ball got rolling really quickly. I made a phone call based off of what he said and literally within I think it was a day or two I had had a meeting and we had booked the first podcast, got it recorded and everything was happening. It was just, the ball was just rolling. It was actually happening and that completely took me by surprise. The Lord had called me to do something. I had no idea how to do it. I had no frame of reference to base it off of.

I had, you know, unless you’re somebody who you’re maybe a media person or a techie person and all of these kind of things are connected in a way and so there’s understanding, you might have information, you have connections, you have some know-how, some comfortable, you feel comfortable dealing with these kind of things. All of it was outside of my comfort zone, all of it. I had never sat in front of a camera and had to record looking at a camera and talk about fear. When you are doing things you’ve never done before and you have no frame of reference to do them, it’s frightening. It’s frightening and I want to encourage you today, as we read the story of Gideon, I promise you you will find yourself in here. I don’t know what you’re afraid of today. I don’t know what you’re dealing with. That scares you. You know, for Gideon this was a scary thing, in fact. Let’s just dive in and see what he was dealing with Because, truthfully, we have all been here. If you’re not here right now. You’ve been here, you know what this feels like, you know the emotions that go with it, you know the thought process, you know the insecurities that come forth. So we’re looking in Judges, and this is chapter six, and in fact I’m going to read to you instead of let me go ahead and read you a little portion before where I was going to dive in. Let’s look just to see what was going on for Gideon, for the children of Israel, at this time.

We’ll start at verse 1. It says the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord gave them into the hand of Midian seven years. And the hand of Midian overpowered Israel and because of Midian, the people of Israel made for themselves the dens that are in the mountains and the caves and the strongholds. Okay, just that right there lets you know how frightened these people were. Now they had made decisions, and so many times we allow the mistakes that we’ve made, errors that we’re actually responsible for. We hold that guilt. Instead of coming to the Lord and repenting of that, we hold that guilt and then we live with the consequences and live in the circumstance that was created because of it, and that’s what’s happening. They’re now living in it. There’s nothing, nothing’s changing. They’re now just living in the consequences of bad decisions.

And it says in verse three for whenever the Israelites planted crops we’re talking survival folks. They’re talking survival folks. They’re planting crops so they can live. This is their livelihood. The Midianites and the Amalekites and the people of the east would come up against them. They would encamp against them and devour the produce of the land as far as Gaza and and devour the produce of the land as far as Gaza and leave no sustenance in Israel and no sheep or ox or donkey. They literally took everything to leave them destitute. These people are afraid of this enemy. They feel like when they have to deal with this enemy, they lose everything. The fear of losing everything. They lose their food. They have no way to nourish themselves, to strengthen themselves, to keep themselves, even their animals, not just their crops.

It says the minute that they would plant crops, these enemies would come up and devour and take everything that they worked so hard for. They would encamp against them and devour the produce of the land. I mean, go to verse five, for they would come up with their livestock and their tents. They would come like locusts. In number, both they and their camels could not be counted. So they laid waste the land as they came in. So they not only stole the crops and took their animals, took every bit of their provision, but they would destroy the land. They would leave the land desolate. It wasn’t a matter of caring for the land. You can plant crops and you can reap those crops, and then you till the soil and you replant new crops. You let the land rest when it’s time to rest. You take care of the land so that it continues to produce for you. But these enemies came in and made the land desolate Everywhere where they lived, I mean you can feel like your home.

Do you feel like there’s desolation in your home? Is there desolation? Are things laid waste where you work? Is there trouble so much around you that you feel that not only have you lost, but what’s left is unusable, feeling like you have nothing left.

Folks, this is a really difficult. It’s a difficult mental hurdle to get over, because you’re physically paying for it, you’re mentally thinking about it, emotionally, you’re involved. You are responsible if you have families to take care of your families. There’s a lot going on here and you have to remember, whether they were, whether they understood it or not, they had done evil in the sight of the Lord which brought this on them. That evil in the sight of the Lord means that brought this on them. That evil in the sight of the Lord means that they turned away from God and were serving other gods. So they had a deficit even in their spirits. There was nothing alive in them, there was no hope in them as a people group, and Israel was brought very low because of Midian and the people of Israel cried out for help to the Lord.

And this is where we usually I mean this is the there’s a cause effect right so many times, if you have knowledge of the Lord, that we will go through trials and it’s and maybe not on purpose. Maybe we don’t realize we started serving other things. We don’t realize we turned away from the Lord. We don’t realize that we went after other things and put those things in a position above God. So we didn’t realize the slow death that was happening in our spirits. We didn’t realize that the enemy was coming and taking away and robbing from us and taking our substance, taking things away that would bring life to us, because they were being slowly siphoned off in the process. It wasn’t like there was just open rebellion.

One day I’m serving God, the next day I walk away and I’m just choosing that to not. That’s not usually the way it happens. It’s usually a slow process. Backsliding means that you are slowly sliding backward, you’re losing your footing, things are not going the way they used to go. You’re not taking ground, you’re losing ground. That’s not normally. You know the blast of a bomb going off and you’re shot back. It’s not normally. One event and then done.

This is usually a process of things, a systematic approach that the enemy uses to take us and turn us away from the blessing of God, from serving him the way that we should, and getting us distracted serving other things. It can happen not because you’re rebellious, but because you’re distracted. You can just be distracted. You can have things come up in your life and what does the scripture tell us? In Jesus, when he was explaining the parable of the seed and the sower, some seed fell on. I believe it was the thorny ground and it was the cares of life choked out. It choked out the seed. We can get distracted by things that are kind of choking us out that all of a sudden there’s an issue over here and you have to deal with that issue and it was a surprise to you and it takes your time and it takes your resources and you don’t realize you’re not making sure that you are going before the Lord asking him for his strategies and his plans. Instead, you’re focused on that problem and you think in your own strength you can do it.

I mean, the children of Israel, in their own strength, continued to try to sow and do what they could with the land. They continued to try to plant new crops and just hide in the hills and maybe not be seen by the enemy. But yet that plan never works. That’s just not a strategy of victory. That is not a God strategy. To hide is not a God strategy. To continue to have to deal and be in constant combat with an enemy that’s not the way that God wants your life to be led. We have victory in Jesus. We know that. So to be constantly under the oppression of an enemy is never the place that God wants you to be. Okay. So let’s continue to read.

When the people of Israel cried out to the Lord on account of the Midianites, the Lord sent a prophet to the people of Israel. Now listen to this. And this is what he said to them. Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel I led you up from Egypt and brought you out of the house of slavery. So he’s reminding them who he is, what he did for them, where he brought them from. And I delivered you from the hand of the Egyptians and from the hand of all who oppressed you. So he’s saying I have always been the one who has brought deliverance for you. I have always been the one to take care of you. I’ve never wanted you oppressed. Whenever you were overtaken by someone or a group, you were enslaved to something, I was the one who wanted to free you from all oppression. It was always me and drove them out before you and gave you their land. He’s saying I am the one who has helped you with every previous enemy that you have ever dealt with and conquered. Every victory you’ve had has been because of me. He’s reminding them of that.

But look at verse 10. And I said to you I am the Lord, your God. You shall not fear the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. So he’s giving them a command. He said I told you, don’t fear these enemies, but you have not obeyed my voice. Now, if you remember, when they first came into Canaan, the first generation didn’t make it into the land of Canaan because they greatly feared the enemy. And that fear of the enemy caused them to go back and stay in the wilderness for 40 years and wander, just waste time, until they died out. And that’s just sad, but it’s the truth and this whole scenario.

God is saying I commanded you not to fear these enemies. And there’s a command that God gives us and he tells us don’t fear, do not fear. You’ve probably heard this before a million times if you’ve been in church for any length of time or been serving the Lord and listened to ministers for any length of time. But there are 365 references that say not to fear. It either says do not fear, fear not. Say not to fear. It either says do not fear, fear not. But it’s God telling us not to be afraid 365 times. So we say that there’s one for every day. We are not to fear, we’re not supposed to be in fear, to live in fear. Yet we all have fears. That’s why the command has to come, one for every day. We have to be reminded constantly you’re not supposed to fear this. Do not be afraid, but you have not obeyed my voice. So what does that tell me? It tells us that because they chose not to do what God told them, they allowed themselves instead of standing up and knowing it’s God who delivers.

That was the first part of the prophetic message. It was always me, I was always your deliverer. If you would stay with me, keep your focus on me and don’t fear your enemy, you won’t have to deal with this kind of oppression anymore. I don’t. That’s not my will for you. I don’t want you in oppression. I’m the one who brings deliverance from this. Do not fear these oppressive people.

Okay, so let’s continue on Verse 11. Now the angel of the Lord came and sat under the terebinth of Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, while his son, gideon, was beating out wheat in the winepress to hide it from the Midianites. And this reference many call this a theophany, where they believe that it was Jesus, because the next down below it says that he’s the Lord. So there’s a reference to this angel being the Lord, and so we see this picture of the angel of the Lord possibly being Jesus. Come to give this command, which would make sense, not to fear, right. But this is Gideon. He’s living and he’s got some wheat, that he was able to grow, some wheat, and he knows what’s going to happen the minute the Midianites find out that he has this wheat, they’re going to come steal it from him and what little food, what little substance they have, will be gone. So instead of taking the wheat where you’re supposed to, which is at the threshing floor, and to beat out the wheat that would be obvious that you have wheat where you’re supposed to, which is at the threshing floor and to beat out the wheat, that would be obvious that you have wheat if you’re in the threshing floor. But Gideon is afraid. He’s afraid what he has is going to be taken. He doesn’t want to lose what little he has left and so he takes it to the winepress. Well, it’s not time for grapes yet, so he’s hiding down there in the wine press and he’s beating out the wheat in the wine press. So he’s not where he’s supposed to be. He’s not getting to do what he should be doing and he’s doing what he is doing in fear. He’s completely hiding and in fear.

Verse 12, and the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him the Lord is with you, o mighty man of valor. And Gideon said to him Please, sir, if the Lord is with us, why then has all of this happened to us? And where are all his wonderful deeds that our fathers recounted to us saying Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt? But now the Lord has forsaken us and given us into the hand of Midian. And the Lord turned to him and said Go in this might of yours and save Israel from the hand of Midian. Do not I send you. And he said to him Please, sir, how can I save Israel? Behold, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh and I am the least in my father’s house, and I am the least in my father’s house. And the Lord said to him but I will be with you and you shall strike the Midianites as one man. Okay, there’s a lot there and I’ll probably be on this for a couple weeks, but I want to start right here.

When the angel appears to Gideon, he says to him go in this might of yours, this might of yours.

He’s telling the person who’s hiding fearful that he has might.

Go in this might of yours.

Well, where was this might of yours for Gideon, and the only evidence we seem to see is actually contrary. It actually seems to lead to whatever disqualifies somebody. It seems like God is saying something that is completely opposite of what we see, and I think that that happens so much in our life. Like the example I was talking about with the podcast, god was asking me to do something in which I felt I had no understanding, something that I had no ability to do, even though I study the word, even though I had taught classes and spoke at conferences and I had done and been a part of those things. This was taking me into a realm that I completely had no understanding, no connections and no background in Nothing that would qualify me to do it. And here he is, he’s hiding in the wine press.

So I kind of thought about this for a minute. And when the Lord’s calling something out in us, it could be for two reasons there could be things inside of you that you don’t know are there, but they are there, or God could be calling those things that are not as though they are. He might be speaking them into you, so to speak. So here we see Gideon, he’s hiding in this winepress and yet, the smart thing. We see that Gideon is a wise person. He’s a thoughtful person. He’s literally outsmarting, for the moment, the Midianites. He’s outsmarting them. He’s able to come up with a strategy to deal with the problem, to sustain himself. That’s pretty smart. There’s this hidden underneath, an element that is not a disqualifier. But let me just say this to you I was questioning God about the situation of this plight, but these very questions show that Gideon was a thoughtful man and I guarantee you you have probably sat and thought through every question yourself about the situation you’re in.

The problem is we tend to think of the questions that kind of cement us into the problem, kind of cement us into the problem, like we look for things to solidify what we believe about that situation, things that will confirm to our spirits that, yeah, we’re right to be afraid and we’re right to think that. You know, god is against us. He’s not for us to believe things contrary to what we actually know about God and to believe things that are contrary to what we believe God has spoken over our lives or called us to. Okay, go on this little journey with me. Okay, go on this little journey with me.

We see that what Gideon thought of himself was that God is not for us. He said if the Lord is for us, then why has all of this happened to us? And the more I thought about that, the more I was encouraged about Gideon. Because the more I was encouraged about Gideon? Because Gideon had obviously been taught about the Lord. So, even though there was, as a whole, the nation of Israel had turned their back on God and they were dealing with the consequences of that, gideon, in his life, had been taught enough about God that he’s literally mentioning where’s this God at. If this is the God who delivered us the way he did and took care of us the way he did, then why is this happening?

And it’s okay to ask those questions. The questions tell me that you’re actually open and have been taught something. You understand that God is God and that at one point he was for you and you know about the things that he did. So there’s some foundation there, there’s some good stuff there, but he’s questioning it. He’s questioning, he’s letting his circumstance determine what he believes about God instead of flipping that script and saying what I know about God should determine what I think and how I act and respond to my circumstance. Do you see the difference. If I allow the circumstance to tell me about God, then I have made my circumstance more powerful than God. It becomes my God. I bow to it, I go hiding in that circumstance. But if I flip it as I should and I take what I know about God and I let that information interpret for me the situation that I’m in, that’ll tell me how I’m supposed to respond. That’ll tell me how I’m supposed to respond. That’ll tell me the kind of thoughts I should think. That’ll tell me what kind of actions. That’ll put in me, motivations that might be missing. And so we need to be careful to truly.

I mean this was good that he did this, this dialogue that he had with the angel. In fact, after this dialogue is when the angel says go in this. Might you have, he’s saying, gideon, you have in you a knowledge that is necessary for what I’m calling you to. I’ve already given that to you. Let’s awaken that, let’s wake that up. And I wrote a note in my own Bible here that, right at verse 13, when Gideon said to him please, sir, if the Lord is with us, why then? Why then has all this happened to us? And he goes on, that exact question tells me he must not have heard what this prophet said. We just read in verse 10 that God sent a prophet to them to talk to them so they’d understand. And literally he says this is who I am. I’m this God, but you’re in this circumstance because you didn’t obey me. You’re in this circumstance because you didn’t obey me, you didn’t obey me. So there has to be, right now, facing Gideon, there’s a decision point. There’s a do I obey him telling me to go? Do I say yes to the Lord or do I say no? Do I say I can’t, I’m unable?

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I want to reiterate the scripture again to you, zechariah 4.6. It is not by might and it is not by power, but it is by my spirit, says the Lord. So the Lord is saying to us in every situation where fear has gripped us, where we’re hiding, thinking we have no way to defeat this enemy, you do have a knowledge of who God is, and let’s look and see. Where have I gotten it wrong? Where have I disobeyed? Even if my disobedience was simply in fearing something God doesn’t want me to fear? You may not have walked away from the Lord, you may not have committed some great sin, but you’ve allowed fear to come in and let fear decide for you. That’s disobedience.

God said don’t be afraid of your enemies. Don’t be afraid of them. I’m the one who drives them out before you. Don’t fear, it’s not in what you naturally bring to the table. Your deliverance is in God’s might and his power. It’s in your obedience to say yes to him, knowing it’s he who goes before you and defeats your enemy. That’s what God had just told us back in verse nine. And I delivered you. I brought you out of slavery verse eight. I delivered you in verse nine and drove out your enemy. I gave you their land.

We have to understand this is God saying. It’s my power, not yours. You simply have to do what I tell you to do. Follow me wherever I’m going. Let me give you the strategies. Let me tell you how to do this. You just need to bring me your yes. Don’t let fear stop you. Just bring me your yes, because it’s not in what is my ability For Gideon?

He said my family is the least of all the families and I’m the least of my family. I’m the least of the least. Why would you be talking to me, lord? And we disqualify ourselves. We come up with all our own reasons why we can’t, and yet God is saying I am choosing you. It is you. You do have the power to defeat this because I’m God, not because you’re so great, not because you’re the best of the best. It doesn’t matter that you’re the least of the least, it doesn’t matter if you’re the best or the best, I’m what matters. God is what matters. His power, his authority, that’s what matters. It’s his might. It is not by might, natural might, it is not by power, it is by his spirit. He’s the one with all power. It’s his spirit, not our own.

I thought of the parallel here. There’s such a great parallel because this goes back to God talking. He’s literally talking about what he did through Moses to bring them to the place that they are inhabiting the land God had promised them. And I was thinking about the shared experiences of Moses and Gideon. Moses was to lead the people, and now Gideon is being called to lead this people, to judge this people, to help them, not to lead them out of their land, but to help them to remain in the land that was promised to them. And it is not what you naturally bring to the table. It wasn’t because God didn’t call Gideon, because he had some unknown trait that he’s going to expose and tell us about. The same way, it wasn’t because of anything that Moses had that he brought to the table. Now.

Moses was raised in Pharaoh’s house. He understood protocols of Egypt, yet he had done things that he wasn’t supposed to do. He murdered an Egyptian, had to run for his life and he spent 40 years Before he ever spent a total of 80 years in the desert. He had already spent 40 himself on the backside of the desert running from Pharaoh, living a life in a place he wasn’t called to. So he was leading these people, but he also was having to face the thing he feared. He feared Pharaoh. He feared the consequences of an old decision, bad choices in his past. He had fears of things that were in his past.

And yet God called Moses. And what did Moses say? When God calls him and says I want to take you, moses, and I want you to go talk to Pharaoh and deliver my people, we had the same kind of response. Gideon did Wait, what Me Me? I can’t do it. I’m not good at speech. I’m not a talker. I’ve not done this before. I can’t do this. This is hard for me. I don’t. I’m afraid. He was so afraid and argued with God so many times that the scripture tells us that God actually got very angry with Moses.

But because he was determined that this was the plan and Moses was the man, he said fine, I’ll let Aaron go with you and he can speak for you, but you’re doing this. I’ll let Aaron go with you and he can speak for you, but you’re doing this, you’re doing this. And so this is kind of the. This is a funny thing For Moses. He needed Aaron. For Gideon, he needed to have a couple confirmations in a fleece. He also had a buddy. Right, he’s going with an army and he had his, his guy, his servant with him. So in that there’s a, there are some similarities, but what I like is that in God, showing who he was, that he’s called them, that, yes, it’s me, I’m on your side, I’m not against you, I’m for you, I have a plan for you.

Moses says okay, god, even if all that’s true, even if you have this for me and even if you’re going with me, I hear you, I believe you, but what about the people? What about the people? What do I say to them? They’re not going to believe me that you sent me, that God sent me. What should I say? How should I?

And so Moses wants to know how do I respond when people say what authority do you have to be doing what you’re doing? What authority do you have to do what you’re doing? And I want to ask that same question to you. When you go to stand against your enemy, do you realize you have authority that backs you up to do what you’re supposed to do? You have authority that backs you up to do what you’re supposed to do. That authority God says. You say that the I am has sent you, the I am, the totality of all that God is Complete, the completeness of God, the fullness of God, of everything you could possibly need, everything that there is, everything that’s available. I am, I am sent you. And the children of Israel understood who that was. They understood that. They knew who the I am was and they received it. Because of that, we need to do the same.

And when Moses was hiding on the backside of the desert for 40 years, running from Pharaoh, what did God tell Moses to say? Every time Didn’t matter if he was talking to his family members. He had to first talk to Aaron. Then he had to talk to, I’m sure, the rest of his family. He had to talk to the heads, the heads of all of Israel. Then he had to talk to the fullness of Israel. He had to talk to Pharaoh. I’m sure he had to walk his way through the courts to make his way to Pharaoh, no matter who he came against. He walked in an authority that God spoke to him against. He walked in an authority that God spoke to him.

And we have to take this knowledge and we have to digest this in our own spirits and say if God is calling me, if God be for me, who can be against me? That’s your authority, that’s your ability. You aren’t going to make it happen, you’re just obedient. God’s going to make it happen. You’re not going to make it happen, god’s going to make it happen. Okay, god’s command is always going to be a step of faith. You’re always going to have to step out in faith. And what does that mean? That means that you are ignoring fear and taking a step anyway. It wouldn’t mean faith If you don’t think you need anything, if you come out at thinking you have everything you need, you’re fully equipped, you know exactly what to do. There is no faith necessary and without faith it is impossible to please God. He will always call you to do something.

Folks, if you need deliverance, whether you need it let’s say you need it in your physical body. What if you are dealing with a health issue? You need deliverance in your body. The what? If you are dealing with a health issue, you need deliverance in your body. The enemy is your body itself. Things are happening in your body that is an enemy to you.

You have authority by the scripture and the word of God that tells you that he bore your sickness and disease, that he took his stripes on his back for our healing. He is our healer. He sent his word that it would heal Folks. We have his word. We have an enemy that will raise up and say what authority do you have? You don’t have a doctor’s degree. You don’t know how to treat this. There aren’t doctors who will be able to help you. You’re just stuck with this. You’re going to be, you’re stuck with this forever. There’s no answer. You don’t know who to talk to. You don’t know how to find the answer.

You’ll hear all the lies of the enemy the entire time, trying to strip you of the authority that God sends the prophet to say I’m the one who delivers, I’m the one who sets free, I’m the one who does it. It’s not in any power you have. It’s not in any connection you have. He knows how to make the connections. He knows how to put you in contact with somebody you don’t know right now. That’s up to God to do. The thing you can’t do. It’s your yes and your obedience to whatever it is. If he’s wanting you to speak to your body, then, in obedience, you speak to your body. Do what God commands you to do, and it’s a step of faith.

We have fear. What if it doesn’t work? What if I say that and it doesn’t work? What if I quote scriptures and it doesn’t work? What if I pray and it doesn’t work? Say that and it doesn’t work? What if I quote scriptures and it doesn’t work? What if I pray and it doesn’t work? We can stay in that place of fear or we can say yes and go. There’s a go. That’s necessary. Faith has feet. We walk by faith and not by sight. You walk, we walk it out. It’s, it’s a, it’s a constant um, a constant process. Every day, like I talked about a fear for every day, to say no, to fear every day, we have to walk that out, we have to, we have to make that happen.

What if you have a child that’s away from the Lord? What if you’re dealing with some, um, some dysfunction in the home and relational breakdown in the home, whether that be with children or with spouses or family members, and there’s dissension and there’s division and there’s trouble. What if, financially, things are falling apart? What if, spiritually, you are empty? You have come to the end of yourself. You’ve been searching and searching and you don’t know what to do. The answer will always be confronting that fear.

I encourage you right now to sit down. You may not even realize what you’re really afraid of. Let’s label it. Let’s say what we’re afraid of. Let’s think about that. Think through the process. Okay, I might be afraid of this, but why am I afraid of that? Let’s take it down further. And if I’m afraid of that, why am I afraid of that? What’s below that? Let’s find the lowest common denominator of what we’re truly afraid of. Are we afraid of death? Are we afraid of embarrassment? Are we afraid of embarrassment? Are we afraid of loneliness and abandonment? Are we afraid of never finding love, feeling lost? Are we afraid of never achieving, being a failure, being thought of as less than Having insecure feelings in our heart? What are you afraid of? Let’s find out what we’re afraid of so that we can stand against that and say the I am is with me.

He is commanding me to go forth. I don’t have to remain in this cave, in this wine press, in this hole in the mountain, afraid getting by, smart enough to get by but not thriving, not living, not walking by faith, not defeating my enemies. There’s a challenge. Yes, this is the challenge. The challenge was Gideon go in this might that you have. The challenge to Moses was go to Pharaoh. Go and face the one that you’ve been running from for 40 years. Go, face him. Face the thing that you are afraid of, face the consequences of that. But I’m going with you. I’m the one sending you. The power that you need is in me. I’m sending you.

Gideon’s first response, like Moses, was who, me what? Gideon thinks that he’s the least and Moses thinks he can’t speak. What do you think when God says to you I’m choosing you, I’m calling you out to do this thing for me, what do you say? What is your response? What is your heart saying? What is your gut reaction? What is the knee-jerk response To both men? God said I’m the one sending you. It isn’t your ability that matters. God will speak into you what you don’t currently see.

There are two things that are happening here. Number one he is calling forth faith. Number one he is calling forth faith and he is equipping you by his spirit. Romans 10, 17 says faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. So God is preaching a message to you through his word in your hearing, so that your faith can come forth. Faith cometh by hearing. Here this angel is appearing to him, to Gideon, and he says I’m sending you. God appeared to Moses in the burning bush. I am and I’m sending you. That’s you hearing the voice of the Lord in your spirit? Yeah, you, you think me. No, not me. Yeah, you, yes you, yes you. No matter how much you question it, no matter how many questions pop up in your mind that want to distract and take away and diminish you, he’s saying yeah, you, I’m talking to you. I’m calling you to not be afraid. I’m calling you to step forward. I’m calling you to do the thing to conquer this fear. I’m telling you it’s time for you to get deliverance from whatever this thing is. Faith cometh by hearing, and they’re hearing it. You’re hearing it today.

The second thing that’s happening, and I’m going to read you that scripture jump to Gideon. In the next episode we’ll talk more about this, but I want you to jump over to Gideon, putting out the fleeces and getting confirmation from the Lord, and I want us to read verse. Actually, let’s jump up, let’s go back, let’s do verse 33. Verse 33. Now all the Midianites and the Amalekites and the people of the east came together and they crossed the Jordan and encamped in the valley of Jezreel Verse 34,. But the spirit of the Lord clothed Gideon and he sounded the trumpet and the Abiezrites were called out to follow him. Let’s just take that little portion. I want to hone in right there. But the spirit of the Lord clothed Gideon.

So when Gideon said yes to God, when he obeyed, he had to tear down some old idols. He had to do some stuff to deal with some stuff from the past and correct some things that the prophet had made mention of and why they were in the trouble they were in. God gave him some first instructions before he ever dealt with and we’ll talk about this more another time but before he dealt with going in to take out the enemy, he first had him deal with some stuff, deal with some stuff that had to do with setting things in order, getting things right. After he gets those things right, they can see, here comes the enemy again. They’re surrounding us again. We’re going to be hit again. Not again, god, it’s coming again the same thing. I’m dealing with this all over again. Here it comes, it’s happening again. And when that happens? Because Gideon had already ordered everything right, he had done what God told him, he had given God his yes.

And it says that the Lord, the spirit of the Lord, clothed Gideon. That word clothed means came upon like putting on a coat, putting on a garment. He was literally clothed with it. He put it on, he with it, he put it on, he wore it, he wore it. It wasn’t something that it’s not like just wrapping something around you. It’s like something you actually walk around and you wear. You wear this. Okay, now we see for Moses. Wear this. Okay, now we see for Moses.

God spoke to him, his word to Moses, and that word was Moses, go, and I’m going to be with you and we’re going, I’m going to. This is what’s going to happen. He gave him the instructions. He told him Pharaoh’s not going to listen to you. He prepared him. He let him know this is going to be a process, moses. And when Moses said yes him, he let him know this is going to be a process, moses. And when Moses said yes, he was saying yes to the process. He was saying yes to some difficulties that were still ahead of him. Because, for Moses, he was going to hear no Ten times. He was going to hear no. He was going to have to go up against this enemy multiple times. And so there was a what had to take place in Moses’s heart? Faith. So God was speaking into Moses. Faith. You’ve heard me. I’m telling you to go. You’re going to have to do it by faith. Both men are having to do it by faith.

But number two let’s look at Exodus 31, 3, which says and I have filled him, meaning God has filled Moses and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with wisdom, with understanding, with knowledge and with all kinds of skills Wow, things that Moses didn’t even know he had available to him. He wasn’t even doing what he was called to be doing. For 40 years he’s taking care of sheep as a shepherd. He didn’t know God was instilling in him how to care for a group and shepherd a million people. But God had been putting these things in him. And it says let’s read it from the beginning Exodus 31, verse 3, and I have filled him with the Spirit of God.

We have a common denominator the Spirit of God is getting involved. It’s God. It is not by might, not by power, but by his Spirit. This same work of the Holy Spirit is available to everyone. This same work of the Holy Spirit is available to everyone. This is not to the elite, this is not to your pastor only, this is not to those that we read in Scripture and them only.

Folks, we have come, we just had Pentecost Sunday and we have been given the gift of the Holy Spirit. We have the ability to be clothed in the Spirit and the power of God, to go forth to face whatever fear that is standing in our way and to defeat our enemies, to gain freedom from whatever is oppressing us. Whether you need to fight a battle or gain deliverance for yourself, for your family, for a nation, we should be interceding. Folks. The answer is always the same. I want us, as we’re closing, to go to Luke 24, 49. And I’m reading this out of first, I’m going to give you the New Living Translation, then I’m going to give you the NIV.

In the New Living Translation it says and now and this is Jesus speaking. Send the Holy Spirit, just as my father promised, but stay here in the city until the Holy Spirit comes and fills you with power from heaven. Okay, that’s an instruction. We need this. This is our clothing, this is our armor, so to speak, to go into the battle that we need to face. We need the Spirit of God.

We need to pray and say I’m going to wait right here. I’m not going to go into this on my own, with my own ideas and my own ways, the things I’ve been doing. I’m not going to keep hiding and doing what I used to do. I’m not going to keep repeating the same mistakes. I’m going to do this, but I’m going to do this because I’m going to do it in the power of the Holy Spirit who is sending me, and I’m going to wait for his power. I’m going to let him minister to me. You have to get in his presence. You need to sit with him. Let him know, ask the questions. Gideon did Ask all the questions. Moses did Ask him. He’s not afraid of your questions, but let him remind you who he is. Let him remind you what authority you have to be able to do the thing that you think you can’t do. Yes, you can, yes, you can Go in this might that you have.

Let me read that same verse to you out of the NIV, until it’s, and I will now send the Holy Spirit, just as my father has promised. What I like about the way the NIV said it. It says this until this is the wait part, wait until you have the Holy Spirit, until you have been clothed with power from on high. Same word used with Gideon until you have been clothed with power. Same word used with Gideon until you have been clothed with power.

The first, the NLT, kind of referenced the way it was said with Moses. The NIV kind of says it the way that it was said with Gideon we need the Holy Spirit. You can do this. You can get victory from this enemy. Don’t despise the enemy. Don’t despise that you’re having to do this. Don’t despise that God is calling you.

Why do I say that? Because what does the promise of the scripture say in Psalms? That he sets a table before me in the presence of mine enemies. That tells me that I need this enemy, because that’s where my blessing lies. I’m getting ready to be blessed because I’m going to face this enemy, having this enemy right before me. This is my blessing coming. I’m getting ready to get free. I’m getting ready to have a victory. I’m getting ready to be set free from this thing that has held me bound, this fear that I have been locked up in. I’m going to go in the faith that I have. I’m going to walk by faith and not by sight, because it is not by might and it is not by power, but by my spirit, says the Lord.

Gideon’s might that he had was the fact that he was clothed with the spirit of God. The might wasn’t his own. This might that he had was a yes, and God provided his Holy Spirit to give him what he needed. And I know that’s what each one of us needs to face, whatever it is that we’re facing. So let’s digest this, let’s think about this, let’s name what that fear is. Let’s get prepared to do the battle that God has called us to in the authority that he is giving you. He is the I am, and he will give you his spirit to do it with. He’ll give you the strategies. By his spirit, he’ll give you the might to do it. He’ll prepare the way before you to make that way plain. He’ll bring down that mountain. He’ll make that crooked path straight. He’ll make that rough place plain by the power of his Holy Spirit.

Let me pray for you, father. We just thank you for your word for speaking faith into us. You are the I am. We do hold you above our circumstance. We know who you are and your ability. We refuse to allow our circumstance to define who you are and what you’re able to do and how you’re able to deliver us. But we instead, father, see you. You are almighty God, all-powerful, omnipresent, omnipotent, omniscient, all-powerful in everything. There’s no place that you are not. The psalmist said that there is no place I can go that you are not there. Father, we thank you for your power, we thank you for what you’re doing. We thank you for your word of faith today that you are speaking life into people’s spirits. You are taking fear and destroying fear. We’re going to step out of the boat, just like Peter did in faith, and do what you’ve called us to do and gain the victory that we are needing to see for ourselves, our families, our churches, our communities, our states, our nation. God, we lay them at your feet and we say yes to you. Help us to get things in order that we are able to march forward in your power, and it is in Jesus’ name we pray. Amen, amen. Thanks so much for spending time with me. I really do love having this time with you. I appreciate you so much, taking time to just grow and become who God has called you to be. There’s so much more ahead for you if we will just give him our yes and if this has been a blessing to you.

If you know anybody who needs to hear this encouragement, just send this to them. Send it, share it with them. Send it in a text message. You know an email. I’d love to hear from you if you’d like to send in any prayer requests or you have any praise reports. You can do that by contacting me through email at mail at Jaime. You can go to my website. All the information’s there, anything that I have, any old material that’s there, you can go. Feel free to visit that anytime. If you want to get a hold of my book, you Don’t Need Money, you Just Need God. You can either get that on Amazon or get that also by my website that’s Jaime. J-a-i-m-e-l-u-c-e. If this was a blessing to you, would you just give us a like or hit the like button. Share this again. If you’d like to subscribe and get notified when new things come out, just ring that bell and you’ll get an email letting you know when a new episode is available. It was my pleasure spending time with you today. We’ll see you next time. Bye-bye.