6. God's Encouragement – Paul M. Williams

Judges 7:9-15 If God is going to get the glory from your life, it is going to require that we trust Him!!!  There's no escaping this reality!!  When the call of God comes to service, it never comes in a neatly packaged parcel with a cute sticky label on the front.  We want all the I's dotted and the T's crossed.  We want it safe and predictable, secure and tested, but that's not how it works.  God called Gideon to a work above his natural ability and out of his human capabilities.  At every single step along the way, he was a man pressed out of measure and therefore completely reliant upon God.  In the two previous signs given to Gideon as a means of encouragement, they came about at the request of Gideon!!  Gideon was the instigator!  However, in the passage before us, without so much as a request on the part of  Gideon, God takes the initiative to offer him a third sign as further proof on top of the further proof he had already given him — GIDEON, I'M WITH YOU FOR GOOD!!!