What To Do When God Sees More In You Than You See In Yourself

• God can (and often does) call you as HE sees you and not as you see yourself.
• God is more patient than you can ever imagine and is not frustrated by you asking for clarity.
• Once you are sure God is speaking, you MUST act upon it!

How do you usually discern what God is calling you to? What have you done about it so far?

Call it insight, judgement or understanding - discernment is something we MUST walk in as believers. God absolutely calls us and uses us for His plans and purposes and He may well pluck us from one place and put us into another, but we must be sure this is GOD'S doing, before doing anything else.

Discernment was not something which Gideon took lightly. Some might say he was doubtful, but others would say he was simply ensuring beyond all reasonable doubt that it was, in fact, God who was calling him. Whichever way you look at it, God allowed Gideon to continue to ask for confirmation. Perhaps He saw his consideration as careful as opposed to overly cautious.

We begin following Gideon's journey in the book of Judges, chapter six. God first speaks to Gideon in verse twelve:

And the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, The Lord is with you, O mighty man of valour.

Judges 6:12

God carries on with this affirming rhetoric for a while and continues to identify Gideon as if he were a man used to fighting battles and conquering enemies. This is not true of Gideon's current status and therefore, at this point, he reminds God that he is nothing special. As if the Lord needed reminding...

God will often call us to something bigger than our current capabilities can stretch to. Our Heavenly Father sees our potential and not only our present. Gideon, just like us, is way too caught up in his present to recognise an ounce of anything 'mighty' about him, and so he calls God on it. He tells God of his weakness and low standing in society. This, of course, doesn't throw God off whatsoever. (We know, from 2 Corinthians 12:9, that our weakness is actually where God's power is made perfect - so Gideon was kind of throwing God a bone here!)

Unconvinced, Gideon proceeds to discern whether or not this is truly God speaking through a number of bizarre tests. You can read about them in the passages I've listed for dessert. What strikes me most here is that God lets Gideon go through this discerning process. This, to me, just speaks of God's love, grace, and understanding. He recognises that we are human, we are frail and we are vulnerable. God knows that He could have saved the Israelites from the seven year oppression of the Midianites in a flash, but that for Gideon, this was a tall order.

God will ask you to do big things. So big, sometimes, that you might even doubt that it is in fact God who is doing the asking. But what if it is? We learn from Gideon's life that God not only lets you ask, but that He might just give you the confirmation you're asking for too! So, what happens when God asks you to do something and you're definitely sure it's Him? You DO IT. Gideon was cautious and took a while, but when he was sure, he acted on it. As you might read later, Gideon went on to defeat his opposition and God used him to save his people. It's a wonderful story of God's faithfulness partnered with a man who used discernment to move from cautious and unsure to obedient and victorious. What can you learn from Gideon's life today?

Tuck into the scriptures below to finish today's meal.

Gideon wasn't lacking faith.

He wasn't lazy.

He wasn't broken.

He was standing in a winepress wondering how on earth someone like him could possibly be the person God was talking about.

Perhaps that's where you find yourself too.

You know there's more in you than what you're currently experiencing.

You know God hasn't forgotten you.

You know you're not finished.

But somewhere between the responsibilities, the disappointments, the changes, the questions and the sheer weight of life, you've lost sight of what comes next.

If that's you, I'd love to invite you into Catalyst.

Catalyst is for the woman who knows she isn't where she used to be, but isn't quite sure who she's becoming either.

The woman who feels the nudge for something more but can't yet put it into words.

The woman who is tired of circling the same questions and ready to move forward with confidence, peace and a renewed sense of purpose.

Because sometimes what changes everything isn't another course, another book or another strategy.

Sometimes it's finally having the space to hear what God has been saying all along.