For us to be the Lord’s overcomers, we need to humble ourselves, see the all-inclusive Christ, consecrate ourselves to the Lord, and remove any idols by cooperating with God to have Christ as our everything.
In God’s selection of Gideon and the three hundred men with him to defeat the Midianites we see the selection of the overcomers; we want to be the overcomers of today, those selected by the Lord to be part of His overcoming army. Amen!
Gideon was called by God, and he was filled with the Spirit both inwardly and outwardly to defeat the enemy.
He listened to God’s word carefully, obeyed the Word of God, acted on God’s word, tore down the idols, and consecrated himself to God, being willing to sacrifice his relationship with his family and with society for the sake of following God.
As a result of this, Gideon received a reward – the economical Spirit came upon him, and he became powerful in the Lord’s eyes and in man’s eyes.
With only three hundred men, he defeated two princes and two kings, who had people like a locust swarm in number, and camels without number.
Because Gideon was one who lived in union with God, he fulfilled God’s word and carried out His economy on earth, so God was with him and blessed him in every respect.
Can you imagine, Gideon and his three hundred men defeated an army that is more than one hundred thousand men? Humanly this is not possible, but because God was with them and they were one with God, God fought for them and gave them the victory.
What happened was that one hundred twenty thousand of the enemies were killed in battle, and the rest fled. May we be like Gideon, those who have a relationship with the Lord, conversing with Him, and being qualified to be selected as an overcomer.
May we learn to breathe out our sorrow, our sin, our sickness, and everything that is in us, so that we may breathe Him in.
We breathe out what is in us, pouring out into His bosom all our life of self and sin, and we breathe in His fulness.
We need to be sincere with the Lord, opening to Him concerning what is in our heart, and even asking Him to make us His overcomers for in ourselves we cannot be overcomers.
The Lord told us in John 8:29 that we should come to Him with all our toils and labours, and He will give us rest. He gives us rest, peace, and satisfaction, and He sends us.
As He sends us, we do not go alone, for He is with us – the One who sends us is with us and even in us, and He gives us the victory, even He is our victory.
We need the Lord’s word, His presence, and the revelation of what is on His heart, and we need to remain one with Him to fulfill what is in His heart.
May we be those who answer God’s call today for overcomers so that He would have a way to do what is in His heart, defeat the enemy, and bring in the kingdom and the Lord’s return! May we see how to be an overcomer and become one of the Lord’s overcomers today.
Seeing the Selection of the Overcomers in God’s Selection of Gideon and the Three Hundred Men
The Angel of Jehovah appeared to Gideon, and we believe that we as believers in Christ had the Lord appear to us at least one time.
Actually, we as believers are like Paul – we testify of the things in which we have seen the Lord, for the Lord makes us His witnesses (Acts 26).
He is appearing to us, He is showing us more of Himself, and He makes us His witnesses for us to testify for Him.
We want to be the Gideons of today, those who have the Lord’s appearing and calling, and who are selected to be His overcomers.
The Lord appeared to Gideon and told him that He selected him, and He will be with him; he will strike the Midianites as one men – him and the three hundred men with him.
In other words, three hundred and one men – together with God Himself – will strike and defeat vastly more numerous enemies who were oppressing them.
These three hundred men were all in one accord, and God was taking the lead; the real Hero is not Gideon but God, He is the HERO, and He gives them the battle and the victory.
Gideon sounded out the call for the army to come, and thirty-two thousand men came.
However, God told Gideon that there are too many so those who are afraid and who just got married or bought a house, let them go back to their house.
What kind of army is this, in which the captain tells them that if they are afraid to go home? Well, most of them went back, and only ten thousand were left.
We may have thought that even ten thousand is not enough against more than a hundred thousand enemies, but God thought that even this number was too high.
So God told Gideon to take them to the water, and everyone who laps from the water with his tongue as a dog laps, bringing water to their mouth, these would remain, while the rest is sent home.
Those who put down all their gear and put their face down in the water to drink freely went home; only three hundred remained.
The ones who lapped the water, these were vigilant, looking to see when is the enemy attacking; they were ready for battle, on guard.
This is the kind of men that the Lord desires to gain, those who are on guard against the enemy.
The selection of the overcomers is seen in the selection of the three hundred men with Gideon, the overcoming ones through whom the Lord gave the victory to His people.
Gideon was a humble person, for he himself admitted that he is the least in his house and his house is the least in his tribe; he obeyed God’s word and acted on it.
When God selected the three hundred, Gideon was one with God to release the rest of the people to go home, while he and the three hundred went forward at the Lord’s command.
May we see the selection of the overcomers with God’s selection of Gideon and his three hundred men, and may we give ourselves to the Lord to be His overcomers today.
Lord Jesus, we give ourselves to You to be Your overcomers today. Save us from being duped and stupefied by the trend and flow of this age; may we be vigilant and on guard today. May we be those selected by You to be part of Your overcoming army, those who are one with You for Your purpose. Save us, Lord, from loving ourselves and loving the things around us more than we love Your interest. Save us from not being on guard in spiritual warfare. May we be open to You, one with You, always ready to fight the enemy under Your command, so that You may give us the victory and the enemy would be defeated. We love You, dear Lord Jesus, and we aspire to be Your overcomers!
Humbling ourselves, seeing the All-inclusive Christ, Consecrating ourselves, and dealing with any Idols to be the Lord’s Overcomers
The account of Gideon shows us how to be an overcomer. First of all, Gideon’s answer to the Lord in which he admitted that his clan is the poorest in Manasseh, and he is the least in his father’s house, showed that he was humble before God.
He realized that he is nothing, even the least in comparison to others, so he is not qualified.
We must know the self, realizing ourselves to be the least (Judges 6:15; Eph. 3:8; Matt. 20:27-28; Gal. 6:3).
Paul said that to him, the least of all the saints was this grace given to speak the gospel to the Gentiles.
And in Gal. 6:3 he tells us that, if we think that we are something when we are nothing, we deceive ourselves.
In ourselves we are nothing; we are not qualified, we are the least among all, and we are powerless in the things that relate to God.
May we be rescued from any ambition to be someone in the church life.
Ambition is in each one of us, but in the Lord’s light we see the self, we know the self, and we realize that we are nothing, even the least among all.
May we realize that we are zero and Christ is everything. When we see that we are nothing, we will realize that Christ is everything.
We must see the heavenly vision of Christ as the centrality and universality of God’s eternal economy (Judg. 6:12; Acts 26:16-22; Col. 1:17b, 18b; 1 Tim. 1:3-4; Phil. 3:8, 10).
Just as the Lord appeared to Saul of Tarsus, who later became Paul, so we need Christ to appear to us; we need Him to appear to us not only once for all but again and again.
We need to see a vision of the all-inclusiveness of Christ.
Christ is the centrality of God’s economy – He is the center, the focus, the preeminent One, and He is also the universality of God’s economy – He is everything to God in His economy.
He is the holding center of all things in the universe, and He is the hub of God’s economy; He is also the universality of God’s economy.
The church as the Body of Christ is the expansion of Christ, the enlargement of Christ, as the corporate expression of Christ.
When we see such a Christ and realize that we are nothing, we will just offer ourselves up to Him as a living sacrifice (Rom. 12:1-2).
We must offer up ourselves to God as a living sacrifice according to His good, well-pleasing, and perfect will to have the reality and living of the Body of Christ (Rom. 12:1-5; cf. Judg. 6:21-24). Amen!
We must be those who hear and answer the Lord’s call in Rev. 2-3 for the overcomers (Rev. 2:7, 11, 17, 26-28; 3:5, 12, 20-21).
This is what Gideon did – he heard the Lord’s call, he answered His call, and he gave himself to the Lord to be His overcomer in that age.
Today the Lord is calling for His overcomers; this is a great day in the history of the church, for we have the opportunity to answer the Lord’s call today.
When has the Lord made a call like this to His people in such a kind of a way of a broadcast? He wants overcomers, those who are constituents of His bride to bring Him back.
We need to respond to Him and tell Him, Lord, make me an overcomer; make me part of Your overcoming bride to bring You back! Make me an overcomer for the Body, for the building up of Your corporate expression.
For us to be an overcomer, for us to participate in the selection of the overcomer and be qualified to be an overcomer, we must tear down the idols in our heart, in our life, and in our work for the Lord’s testimony (Judg. 6:25-28).
The Lord leads us into the enjoyment of Christ as life, light, and power.
On the other hand, God is faithful to allow us to have financial difficulties, emotional sufferings, physical sufferings, and the loss of natural goodness in order that we would take Christ as our satisfaction, be filled with Christ, and allow Him to have the first place in all things (Judg. 6:25-28; John 10:10; 8:12; 2 Tim. 2:1; Col. 1:17b, 18b; 1 John 5:21; Job 22:24-26; Matt. 10:35-39; 2 Cor. 12:7-9; Job 1:1, 22; 2:9-10; 3:1, 11; 2 Cor. 4:5; 1 Cor. 2:2).
We must tear down the idols in our heart, and the Lord is helping us to do this. He is faithful to lead us in the enjoyment of Christ as life, light, and power.
But there’s another side, which is that He is faithful to allow us to have financial difficulties, emotional sufferings, physical sufferings, and even the loss of our natural goodness, so that we may gain Christ and have Christ as everything.
The Lord uses our family, our spouse, the saints in the church life, and everything and everyone around us to expose our natural goodness so that we may gain Christ and realize He is the only good one.
We may think we are ok, but after we get married and have children, the Lord puts us in situations where we lose our natural goodness.
Only God is good. Job thought he was good, and he stood in his natural goodness, so the Lord did arrange things in such a way that he was exposed that there was no goodness in him.
The Lord will arrange things in our environment in such a way that we will repent in dust and ashes, admitting that in ourselves we are not qualified, we are not good, but the Lord is good, He is the only good, and He will do everything in us and through us.
Lord Jesus, we aspire to be Your overcomers. Shine on us and show us that we are not qualified in ourselves, for without You we are nothing and no one. Amen, Lord, we turn to You, for You are the only One that is good. You are the centrality and universality of God’s economy. Appear to us, Lord, and infuse us with Yourself to make us Your fullness, Your expression on earth. We just offer up ourselves to God as a living sacrifice according to Your good, well-pleasing, and perfect will! We want to respond to Your call for overcomers today: make us Your overcomers! Amen, Lord, we want to cooperate with You to enjoy the all-inclusive Christ and be willing to lose our natural goodness so that we may gain more of Christ! Amen, Lord, make us Your overcomers!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by bro. Ed Marks for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Watchman Nee, vol. 11, pp. 517-521, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-study of Joshua, Judges, and Ruth (2021 summer training), week 8, The Intrinsic Significance of Gideon as God’s Valiant Warrior.
Hymns on this topic:
– O Jesus Christ, grow Thou in me, / And all things else recede; / My heart be daily nearer Thee, / From sin be daily freed. / Each day let Thy supporting might / My weakness still embrace; / My darkness vanish in Thy light, / Thy life my death efface. (Hymns #395)
– Will you be an overcomer? / Christ is calling now! / Will you then be such a follower, / Though you know not how? / Will you be an overcomer? / Will you make this choice? / Christ is calling, Christ is calling, / Listen to His voice! (Hymns #849)
– Deepest springs of life dispensing, / Like the hart I thirst for Thee; / Desp’rate, may I drink Thy fullness, / ’Till Thy river flows through me. / Fill me now! Fill me now! / Fill me with Thy Spirit now! / Strip me wholly, empty thoroughly, / Fill me with Thy Spirit now! (Hymns #1360)
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