Every Fortress Has a Weakness

Every Soldier a Vulnerability

 

 

 

As in every war fought since the beginning of time, one side always had a particular weakness that would eventually bring that army down and into submission to its opponent.  Germany’s vulnerability was its strongest leader, Adolf Hitler. Self-serving ambition and hate were his weaknesses, and eventually it brought the whole country down. Who did he hate the most?  Of course it was GOD’s chosen people.  That was his vulnerability and what eventually caused GOD to destroy his army with the help of the Allied Forces.  What seemed like a mighty army ready to take over the world, and for a time, some believed he would, really was what brought him down. Right after that war we faced another enemy, equally formidable, and that was Communism.  Russia the mighty Red Army had a weakness, communism. Communism hated GOD, not just GOD’s chosen people.  Eventually, it starved its people, literally and spiritually.  Communism cannot stop God, and now the church is thriving in Russia.  Both Communism and selfish ambition thrive on absolute power over people, and we all know that absolute power corrupts absolutely.   Currently, it seems that the Emergent church with its very popular and rock star pastors seem to be taking a hit, and we are watching mega churches fall like dominoes. Those CEO pastors have absolute power in their congregation of starry-eyed fans, and just as in war, absolute power spirituality relying on the power of man absolutely corrupts the true work of GOD. 

I’ve been studying the book of Judges with my favorite teacher, Tom Bradford from Torah Class .com .  One of the things I love most about his teaching is that everything he teaches in the Bible he gives a detailed historical and cultural context to every event.  It’s more like taking a history class than it is studying the Bible.  I happen to be in chapters 6 and 7, the infamous Gideon chapters.  I’m amazed at how much I’m like Gideon.   I keep telling GOD, “But I’m weak, my faith is weak, I’m all alone.”   Gideon was all alone when GOD appeared to him and gave him an assignment. GOD told Gideon that He has already handed Midianites  over to him, note the past tense of a future event.  GOD patiently and graciously re-affirmed Gideon as a valiant warrior and confirmed His own power to do this through him a method I’ve used quite often.  When we are unsure as to whether a leading is from GOD or ourselves, GOD actually invites us to confirm it.   Isaiah 7 ¹⁰ Again the Lord spoke to Ahaz, ¹¹ “Ask the Lord your God for a sign, whether in the deepest depths or in the highest heights.”   

Too many people fault Gideon for “testing” the LORD, but he wasn’t doubting GOD’s ability, he was doubting his own ability to discern what GOD was telling him or that he was speaking to YHVH GOD at all. After GOD reassured and reaffirmed Gideon as his chosen instrument, GOD had to go about getting Gideon’s army ready, and instead of increasing it, GOD decreased it.  What he had them fight with was even more absurd, pitchers and trumpets.  I can so relate to Gideon, because I have an assignment, and my opposition is as fierce as 135,000 Midianites.  I just can’t see how I’m going to ever accomplish it, but then I know Who GOD is and What only He can do.  So, he then reaffirms me that my faith isn’t weak, because I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that GOD can do it.  GOD shows me that my faith wasn’t weak, but my fortress around my faith definitely has a weakness and a vulnerability.  We all have one specific weakness or vulnerability that keeps us from succeeding or staying on track and in constant communication with YHVH GOD.  In fact, many times, this weakness has drawn me far away from GOD, and I know the source of the voice of this weakness, yet I’m powerless to defeat it.  I cannot. 

Absolute faith moves mountains we are taught, but it’s not the actual faith, it is in Whom we have the faith. We can have the strongest faith, the absolute kind that moves mountains, yet that mountain still will not move. Why is that? Simply put, that darn mountain doesn’t move when we want it to move.  It moves when GOD has ordained it to move. TIME is my weakness and the devil’s minions know just my vulnerable spot and where to target.  Because what GOD seemed to have told me He was going to do, hasn’t happened in 14, years or the other thing in 12, years, and another in 8 ½  years.  This is something the devil’s minions taunt me with daily,  and where I constantly fall out with GOD, and when I run away from my assignment. The minion assigned to defeat me hits me right where I’m the weakest. He taunts me with,

“If He hasn’t by now, He’s probably not going to, because not everyone gets restoration.  Look at all the sad endings in the Bible, in the world.  You just think you heard from GOD, but it really wasn’t him. You are nothing and a nobody and you are going to die defeated.  Your God isn’t going to use you.  No one even gives you the time of day. They dismiss you. They think you are crazy. You are a freak, you are weak, you are just a woman, a foolish woman all alone rejected by everyone you loved so dearly.”  

As a matter of fact, that is the way I feel right now. So, if I’m so weak, how can I keep posting these blogs? Simple, I obey what I’m commanded to do. While laying out in the sun in my pool, I was asking GOD about my weakness and vulnerability, and He showed me, again, that it was time.  I hate that word.  Then the clouds appeared to block hope I had in tanning today, and this hit me. “Remember that post you wrote seven years ago about every soldier’s weakness and vulnerability, well, it’s time it got an overhaul and put back out there.”   I looked up in the sky and saw nothing but clouds, and I knew that the Holy Spirit told me to go back inside and do that which GOD has given me a gift to do, write so people can relate.  One of my favorite people in the world taught me, “Feelings have no intellect and faith has only truth.” We can never trust our feelings, but we can always trust our faith.

A generous person will prosper; whoever refreshes others will be refreshed. Proverbs 11:25.

I am fueled when I am able to light someone else on fire, even if today, I’m smoldering ash. No one has to tell me I’ve lit them on fire, because the Holy Spirit comes and refreshes me, because I’ve been obedient.  My word to you today is, when you are weak, that is when you are strong. When you choose to obey the leading of the Holy Spirit, follow your calling even if you think you can’t, you will be rewarded. There is that wonderful verse, GOD’s grace is sufficient, and His power is made perfect in our weaknesses.  That’s what that verse means.  When we are weak, GOD is strong for us.  I’ve seen this thousands of times, there’s that word again, the one I hate almost as much as the word winter.   

So, it’s time to pull out a mirror and look into your soul. What is your weakness and vulnerability?  Is it pride, embarrassment, shame?  Do you think you’ve gone too far, done too many bad things for too long?  Is the devil’s minions using that vulnerability to keep you from answer the call or running back to GOD?  Believe me, they are expert communicators and relentless.  That voice trying to defeat you is not from the Holy Spirit, but from the devil’s minions to stop you or at least try.  That voice will never stop just like time will never stop as long as I’m still breathing here on earth, but GOD’s power is made perfect in our weaknesses, and the Holy Spirit will eventually override that voice.  The devil yells, while the Holy Spirit whispers.  The only way to hear from GOD is to shut out those negative self-defeating thoughts and listen with your heart to the Holy Spirit.  Anyone who truly loves GOD with all their heart, mind, and strength eventually always hear the Holy Spirit’s encouragement, and then GOD succeeds and accomplishes that which He ordained to do though you since before time began!  Oh, I hate that word.