TOPIC: The Test of Faith (3)
FIRE SCRIPTURE
Judges 7:1-8
1 Then Jerubbaal (that is, Gideon) and all the people who were with him rose early and encamped beside the well of Harod, so that the camp of the Midianites was on the north side of them by the hill of Moreh in the valley.
2 And the Lord said to Gideon, “The people who are with you are too many for Me to give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel claim glory for itself against Me, saying, ‘My own hand has saved me.’
3 Now therefore, proclaim in the hearing of the people, saying, ‘Whoever is fearful and afraid, let him turn and depart at once from Mount Gilead.’ ” And twenty-two thousand of the people returned, and ten thousand remained.
4 But the Lord said to Gideon, “The people are still too many; bring them down to the water, and I will test them for you there. Then it will be, that of whom I say to you, ‘This one shall go with you,’ the same shall go with you; and of whomever I say to you, ‘This one shall not go with you,’ the same shall not go.”
5 So he brought the people down to the water. And the Lord said to Gideon, “Everyone who laps from the water with his tongue, as a dog laps, you shall set apart by himself; likewise everyone who gets down on his knees to drink.”
6 And the number of those who lapped, putting their hand to their mouth, was three hundred men; but all the rest of the people got down on their knees to drink water.
7 Then the Lord said to Gideon, “By the three hundred men who lapped I will save you, and deliver the Midianites into your hand. Let all the other people go, every man to his [a]place.”
8 So the people took provisions and their trumpets in their hands. And he sent away all the rest of Israel, every man to his tent, and retained those three hundred men. Now the camp of Midian was below him in the valley.
MEMORY VERSE
Judges 7:7 – And the LORD said unto Gideon, By three hundred men that lapped will l save you, and deliver the Midianites into thine hand: and let all the other people go every man unto his place.
MFM Daily Devotional 18 August 2021 Wednesday OUTLINE
It is important for every believer to grow his faith daily. This is because no one knows when and how God will test his faith. However, God does not test our faith so as to punish us. The Bible says that the test of faith works out patience in believers. It is also through such a test that our faith develops greatly and we become intimate with God. Let us examine other instances in which God tested the faith of some people in the Bible.
According to our fire scripture and memory verse for today, God tested the faith of Gideon. Though his army was going to confront the combined forces of the Midianites and the Amalekites, numerous and formidable, God decided to reduce Gideon’s soldier to three hundred men. By human calculation, they had no chance against over a hundred thousand soldiers in their opponent’s camp.
When God subjected Gideon’s soldiers to a test, he cooperated with God who reduced the army from twenty two thousand to three hundred men. With this number, God went with Gideon and they slew the Midianites, Amalekites and the children of the east. Similarly, God tested the faith of the widow of Zarephath by making Elijah demand for the last morsel of bread meant for her and her child (1 Kings 17:13). The woman passed the test of faith and she enjoyed miraculous food supply throughout the famine.
It was also a test of faith for Elijah when God told him to go to Zarephath and that he had instructed a widow there to take care of him. Elijah obeyed and God supplied his needs as He earlier did at the Brook of Cherith. The idea of depending on a poor widow would have sounded ridiculous to some other people.
Finally, Elisha instructed the wife of the son of the prophet, who was being troubled by creditors on account of the debt her late husband left behind, to go and borrow as many pots as she could and pour the oil she had at home into it (2 Kings 4:3). It was a test of the widow’s faith. She had not heard of a miracle like that before, but she believed and was blessed.
Beloved, my prayer is that you will always be sensitive in the spirit and pass whenever your faith is tested, in Jesus’ name.
MOTIVATIONAL QUOTE
Struggles test the strength of our faith.
PROPHETIC WORD
I decree that the test of your faith shall produce patience and miracles for you, in the name of Jesus.
HYMN – My hope is built on nothing less
1. My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness;
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly lean on Jesus’ name.
But wholly lean on Jesus’ name.
Chorus
On Christ, the solid rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand,
All other ground is sinking sand.
2. When darkness seems to veil His face
I rest on His unchanging grace;
In ev’ry high and stormy gale
My anchor holds within the veil.
My anchor holds within the veil.
3. His oath, His convenant, and blood,
Support me in the ‘whelming flood;
When all around my soul gives way
He then is all my hope and stay.
He then is all my hope and stay.
4. When He shall come with trumpet sound,
Oh, may I then in Him be found;
Dressed in His righteousness alone,
Faultless to stand before the throne.
Faultless to stand before the throne.
MFM Daily Devotional 18 August 2021 PRAYER POINTS
MORNING
1. My Father, let the test of my faith birth patience and maturity in me, in the name of Jesus.
2. Holy Spirit, help me to be sensitive in the spirit, in the name of Jesus.
3. I will not fail God, in the name of Jesus.
EVENING
4. Angelic and human helpers, locate me now, in the name of Jesus.
5. I will not be stranded because the Lord is my Shepherd, in the name of Jesus.
6. O heaven over my life, open by fire, in the name of Jesus.
7. O God that backed and helped Gideon, arise and help me, in the name of Jesus.
BIBLE IN ONE YEAR
Jeremiah 46-48
MFM Daily Devotional 18 August 2021. The Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries (MFM) is a Pentecostal denomination founded in Yaba, Lagos, Lagos State, Nigeria in 1989, now with churches in several countries. It was founded by Daniel Kolawole Olukoya
