It's Only a Small Penny

It's Only a Small Penny

Have you ever been walking and stepped over a penny because you felt it wasn't worth picking it up? After all it was only a penny and is not valued at much?? But 100 pennies make up one dollar and now we are talking about something we can use.  We often view little things to be - - of not much worth, but that is not how God looks at small things.
God is looking today for willing and obedient believers who will go forth in His name.

We come today to pray over our City, our State and our Nation, and we are only a small group in our eyes, but when God looks at us he sees us as powerful weapons as our prayers and declarations rise to heaven touching the angels and sending them out to execute answers according to God's will.

Today we will look at some little things in the Bible, some so silly we wonder why they are even mentioned.

The disciples of Jesus did not consider the small boys lunch of a few biscuits and some tiny fish as a solution.  Especially when the task before them was to feed a multitude. Yet Jesus was able to bless even the small brown bag lunch and stretch it to feed the crowd. God specializes in things thought impossible, and He will make a way where there seems not to be one.

Today we see before us a huge problem of great magnitude, and we wonder if our sling shot with a few small stones are enough to get the job done. Many are without Jesus and their future is shaking, but God is able to take our voices and magnify them over the atmosphere and speak to troubled hearts and minds to make corrections and consider serving our Lord.

We see organized crime at it's worst as protesters tear down historic monuments and destroy homes, business and even murder the innocent. Where is the end of this madness? Let me tell you that the end is arriving, and today we will declare a stop order against the insane actions of the misinformed.

The Judge on his throne is waiting for our voices to request that turmoil be gone - and order to come. God is listening for your voice to be added to ours and make declarations against the spiritual forces that are driving these temporarily insane people.  Voices to confirm that the spirit of destruction will be put to naught and that peace shall reign instead of havoc.

It is recorded in the book of Judges chapters 6 and 7 about Gideon a timid man, who God called to lead an army to battle.  When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said, “The Lord is with you, mighty man of valor .” And Gideon said, "I beg your pardon!!"  Gideon did not realize it was an angel, because the angel was in the form of a man and Gideon assumed he was a prophet.

 The Lord  said, “Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand; Because I am sending you”  “Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.”

 The Lord answered, “I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites, leaving none alive.”

 Gideon replied, “If now I have found favor in your eyes,  Please do not go away until I come back and bring my offering and set it before you.” And the Lord said, “I will wait until you return.”

Gideon went inside, prepared a young goat and some bread. Putting the meat in a basket and its broth in a pot, he brought them out and offered them to the angel under the oak.

The angel of God said to him, “Take the meat and the unleavened bread, place them on this rock, and pour out the broth.” And Gideon did so.  Then the angel of the Lord touched the meat and the unleavened bread with the tip of the staff that was in his hand. Fire flared from the rock, consuming the meat and the bread. And the angel of the Lord disappeared. Then Gideon realized that it was the angel of the Lord, he exclaimed, “Oh no what has just happened? I am doomed, because I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face!”

But the Lord said to him, “Peace! Do not be afraid. You are not going to die.”

 That same night the Lord said to him, “Take the bull from your father’s herd, the one seven years old. Tear down your father’s altar to Baal and cut down the Asherah pole beside it.  Then build a proper kind of altar to the Lord your God on the top of this height. Using the wood of the Asherah pole that you cut down, offer the bull as a burnt offering.”   So Gideon took ten of his servants and did as the Lord told him.
But because he was afraid of his family and the townspeople, he did this at night instead of the daytime.

 In the morning when the people of the town got up, there was Baal’s altar, demolished, with the Asherah pole beside it cut down and the second bull sacrificed on the newly built altar!   They asked each other, “Who did this?” When they carefully investigated, they were told, “Gideon son of Joash did it.” The people of the town demanded of Joash, “Bring out your son. He must die, because he has broken down Baal’s altar and cut down the Asherah pole beside it.”

But Joash replied to the hostile crowd around him, “Are you going to plead Baal’s cause? Are you trying to save him? Whoever fights for Baal shall be put to death by morning! If Baal really is a god, he can defend himself when someone breaks down his altar.”  So because Gideon broke down Baal’s altar, they gave him the name Jerub-Babal  that day.

Gideon was still uncertain, and asked God for a sign as he laid out a fleece and asked for dew to be on the fleece, but not on the ground, and it was so. Then he changed it to the other way around and still was not convinced he could do what God was asking.

Perhaps you feel you are insignificant and that God can't use you and may not answer your prayers, but understand that it those with an attitude that allows God to be God and that it is NOT you but God working through you, those are the ones who will do exploits for the Lord.

God called the children of Israel together to go against the Midianites and a huge army rallied around Gideon. God said they are too many, so all who are afraid, or are just married, can leave, and the Bible says that twenty two thousand left and ten thousand remained. God said there is still too many, so he told Gideon to take them to the water and tell them to drink and I will thin them out and tell you which ones to let go. So Gideon obeyed, and God said, those who bend over and drink face down are not alert and they must leave, but the ones who cup their hands and drink while being aware of what is happening, are to stay.

God gave explicit instructions on what to do as the Midianites gathered hoping to win the war.

Three hundred men were left  Dividing the three hundred men into three companies, he placed trumpets and empty jars in the hands of all of them, with torches inside.

 “Watch me,” he told them. “Follow my lead. When I get to the edge of the camp, do exactly as I do.  When I and all who are with me blow our trumpets, then from all around the camp blow yours and shout, ‘The sword of the Lord and of Gideon.’”

Gideon and the hundred men with him reached the edge of their camp at the beginning of the middle watch, just after they had changed the guard. The three companies blew the trumpets and smashed the jars in their hands. Grasping the torches in their left hands and holding in their right hands the trumpets they blew, they shouted, “ When the three hundred trumpets sounded,  and the men shouted, the Lord caused the Midianites throughout the camp to turn on each other with their swords.  And the enemy army fled and there was a great victory.

Today we understand that of ourselves we are nothing. But our words are powerful and mighty. It is God who will give each of us the words he wants declared with our voice. The mighty are actually those who consider themselves small and depend on God to accomplish his will. We will pray and request, and declare that God's will be done as we allow the Holy Spirit to give our words power, to enter into the very strongholds of the enemy and demolish the intentions of the wicked. Our words will pull down the walls that many are hiding behind, and decisions will be made to establish wise and beneficial choices even today.

So we say with confidence,  Hebrews 13:6 “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me?”