{"id":59691,"date":"2019-02-12T04:36:12","date_gmt":"2019-02-12T10:36:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/prayingpint.com\/?p=59691"},"modified":"2019-02-09T13:36:30","modified_gmt":"2019-02-09T19:36:30","slug":"85-is-my-hand-shortened-that-it-cannot-redeem-or-have-i-no-power-to-deliver","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/2019\/02\/12\/85-is-my-hand-shortened-that-it-cannot-redeem-or-have-i-no-power-to-deliver\/","title":{"rendered":"85. Is my hand shortened, that it cannot redeem? Or have I no power to deliver?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Judges 6:36\u00a0 <\/span>Gideon said to God, \u201cIf you will save Israel by my hand as you have promised\u2014 look, I will place a wool fleece on the threshing floor. If there is dew only on the fleece and all the ground is dry, then I will know that you will save Israel by my hand, as you said.\u201d And that is what happened. Gideon rose early the next day; he squeezed the fleece and wrung out the dew\u2014a bowlful of water.<\/p>\n

Then Gideon said to God, \u201cDo not be angry with me. Let me make just one more request. Allow me one more test with the fleece, but this time make the fleece dry and let the ground be covered with dew.\u201d That night God did so. Only the fleece was dry; all the ground was covered with dew.<\/p>\n

Hosea 6:3-4<\/b><\/span><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/b>\u00a0\u00a0Let us know; let us press on to know the LORD; his going out is sure as the dawn; he will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains that water the earth.\u201d<\/p>\n

Isaiah 43:19-20<\/b><\/span><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/b>\u00a0\u00a0Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.<\/p>\n

Isaiah 50:2<\/b><\/span><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0<\/b>\u00a0\u00a0Why, when I came, was there no man; why, when I called, was there no one to answer? Is my hand shortened, that it cannot redeem? Or have I no power to deliver?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I read this article in Share Faith Magazine and thought it had a very interesting view on Gideon\u2019s fleece.<\/p>\n

Gideon did not put out the fleece to figure out God\u2019s will.<\/b>\u00a0He already\u00a0knew\u00a0<\/i>God\u2019s will. That was plain within the first thirty seconds of his meeting with the angel.\u00a0He put out the fleece even though\u00a0he already knew what he was supposed to do.<\/p>\n

Gideon put out the fleece because he was faithless and unbelieving.<\/b>\u00a0Gideon had already seen miracles. Why did he need a wet fleece and dry ground? He laid out the fleece because He did not trust God to fulfill His promises. He knew God\u2019s will but refused to go and do it.<\/p>\n

Do you sometimes try to lay out the fleece before God?<\/p>\n

Think about what you\u2019re doing. Whether it\u2019s figuring out if you should take the job offer, move to another area of the country, have children, buy the car, take the vacation, or start the new ministry, you don\u2019t need fleece. You simply need faith.<\/p>\n

God still performs miracles. God still shows His power. God still provides direction, but He doesn\u2019t need your fleece to do it. When you think that maybe you should lay out the fleece, instead surrender in faith. God does not reveal His will by having us devise little tricks and tests to see what He will do. He is gracious and kind, but He doesn\u2019t do stunts on demand. He guides in His own ways, on His own terms, in His own timing. That\u2019s what sovereignty is. That\u2019s why we can submit to God\u2019s gracious and loving sovereignty.<\/p>\n

Discerning God\u2019s will isn\u2019t voodoo or divination. We don\u2019t need fleece, or any other techniques to figure it out. It is a matter of simple obedience and submitting to His leading, step-by-step. God is big enough to carry through without fleece, tests, or other tricks. Your \u201cfleece\u201d may simply be confusing you or getting in the way.<\/p>\n

Instead of laying out the fleece or trying other techniques to figure out God\u2019s will, merely trust and obey.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Judges 6:36\u00a0 Gideon said to God, \u201cIf you will save Israel by my hand as you have promised\u2014 look, I will place a wool fleece on the threshing floor. If there is dew only on the fleece and all the ground is dry, then I will know that you will save Israel by my hand, … Continue reading “85. Is my hand shortened, that it cannot redeem? Or have I no power to deliver?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1360,8536,7598,9214,9218,2243,7597,6124,1134,4936,9215,9219,4744,9216,2465,3501,934,9217,980,770,701],"class_list":["post-59691","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-prayers","tag-deliver","tag-desert","tag-dew","tag-do-not-be-angry-with-me","tag-do-you-not-perceive-it","tag-earth","tag-fleece","tag-formed-the-earth","tag-gideon","tag-israel","tag-let-us-know","tag-no-one-to-answer","tag-no-power","tag-press-on","tag-promised","tag-redeem","tag-request","tag-sure-as-the-dawn","tag-test","tag-when-i-called","tag-wilderness"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59691","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59691"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59691\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59692,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59691\/revisions\/59692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}