An angel shows up and identifies Gideon as a valiant warrior. Gideon was threshing his wheat harvest in a wine press, he was hiding from his enemies. He doesn't look like a valiant warrior. The angel declares to Gideon how he is known by God in heaven. Gideon's response was interesting. He said he was the youngest of his father's house, and his father's house was the least in Manasseh. That is all Gideon thought he was.
Gideon had a group identity.
How do we see ourselves? How are we known in heaven? Gideon's "group identity" had him harvesting his wheat crop in fear. But who Gideon was in God, a valiant warrior, brought him into a great victory over the enemies of the people of God. Your identity in God is extremely important. Because it is how you are known in heaven that will determine the fruit that your life produces for God.
Gideon was identified as a valiant warrior before he had ever engaged in battle. It is God's way to reveal to you or to declare to you who you are before you ever look like it. Gideon looked like a man in fear, heaven saw a valiant warrior. When God shows you who you are, it is an invitation to live into it, to step into it. Gideon had to rise up and step into who he was as a warrior, and it will be the same for us.
But here is something we need to be aware of. Do I have a group identity or do I have an individual identity. What has developed my understanding of who I am? If I have a group identity then the group controls who I am and what I'm allowed to do. If I have an individual identity established by God, then God can plug me into a group of other believers and who I am can add to that group something unique. Be very careful because religion always produces conformity to the group. The religious never identify who you are in God, they only identify you by how they see themselves.
You see your church does not decide who you are in God, only God does that. God will use those in your church to affirm who you are in God but they are never the deciding factor about who you are. In other words God does not consult with them to find out who they think you should be. He will only use them to affirm who you are in Him, and they must be in tune with the Holy Spirit to do that. This is where you need to be careful because this is where your potential can be aborted. How many feel like, that in their church, no one really understands them? And how many let themselves be talked out of what they thought God wanted them to do by those who did not understand?
I know that people in church are not trying to mislead or hurt anyone. But at the same time they just may not understand, and you are going to have to stay committed to what God has laid on your heart even if your church does not understand. If you don't you may spend your entire Christian life living beneath your privilege. It is only God's declaration of who you are that matters. I know that people in your life are well intended and they mean no harm, but that does not mean they are correct about you.
Gideon did have a group identity. He was of his father's house, and his father's house was in Manasseh, all that is true. But at the same time it is not his identity in God, it was his identity as it pertained to the group - Israel. He had a group identity and he had an individual identity in God.
Like Gideon, our success in our battles depends
upon our individual identity in God.
upon our individual identity in God.
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