Gideon - Session 2

I am a little late in posting my Session 2 summary...these are mostly just tidbits from the video session that I took down... 

• We are all dealing with our own "Midianites." 
• An interesting fact is that the Midianites tie their lineage to Abraham...for many, the last place we would expect trouble from is family..
• Judges 6 is very specific about when the Midianites came, during the harvest...just when the Israelites were recovering from and getting their heads above water (sound familiar?)
• We meet Gideon, commissioned by God to be a deliverer, in a weak and timid state.  He was in a winepress threshing his wheat...not out in the open...in hopes of being unnoticed/
• When we meet Gideon, he does not appear courageous at all.  He is from the least family, from the least tribe...yet, this man who is "least" receives a visit from an Angel of God.
• Gideon's weakened state, his present crisis, was not enough to place him out of the reach of God
• "You cannot outrun the hounds of Heaven"
• God will meet you where you are
• Winepress-used for making...WINE...was damp, not conducive to threshing wheat, yet Gideon did it anyway.
• Gideon was strategically placed in the right place for God by his circumstances...where his heart was broken by his circumstances
• your circumstances place you exactly where you need to be
• "Scripture sets upon our hearts until God allows our heart to break and the Scripture falls into it"
• Everything in your life is either
• God caused, or
• God allowed
• The Angel of the Lord was present before Gideon noticed him...how many times do we fail to notice the presence of the Lord?
• Gideon was faithfully doing his task even though it was inconvenient...he chose to stay consistent, faithful
• Are you doing the mundane faithfully?  Are you faithful even when it is hard?
• Be faithful in the small things and God will entrust you with bigger things
• Whatever your "winepress" is, it is not wasted on God
• The Angel of the Lord refers to Gideon (who is hiding in the winepress) as a valiant warrior.  God saw Gideon's possibility not his current behavior.
• Always look outward and upward...not inward
• The Angel came
• It is possible to be in the presence of the Lord and not know it (omnipresence)
• The Angel appeared
• Gideon's spiritual eyes were opened (manifest presence)
• The Lord looked at him
• His eyes on you