During the Viet Nam war the phrase “The Eye of the Tiger” was coined, referring to the fierce gaze of a once wounded soldier who recovers to fight again. They were different and stronger somehow. Perhaps you have been wounded in the battle. 

Although we have been delivered from the kingdom of darkness, the devil still tries to intimidate us and bring his darkness around our heart and mind. The reason Paul says that we wrestle against our enemies (Ephesians 6) and not box , is that in wrestling, you never lose physical contact with the adversary. And it is the only one that strengthens you as you fight. Have you seen the All-Black rugby team do this in training?  While you are holding on wrestling, you are getting stronger.  When Satan attacks you, he is unwittingly developing your fierceness and strength in God.  Satan may think he has your measure now, but he doesn’t reckon on who you are going to be in the future. 

 Perhaps the greatest threat to Christianity is not attacks from the enemy but a time of ease - when everything is quiet and there is no need for weapons or strength. The Philistines closed all the blacksmith shops in Israel to weaken them and stop them making weapons. A blacksmith shop may seem a dark place; there may be the sound of hammers hitting and striking; it may even look like hell. But Someone is stoking the flames and forming weapons in the fires of adversity. If you take away the “blacksmith” trial experiences, from the church, there will be no weapons.  If we have never been attacked, we cannot gain the “eye of a tiger.”  We develop “the eye” when we go and grow through his attacks. 

Friend, the enemy has tried to intimidate you. Wrestle through the heat of the battle and you will soon find that you have a new strength and weapons that can now intimidate him.

Jesus never came to earth to prove He was greater than the devil – He’s always been that! He came here to defeat him as a human being on our behalf.  The devil was a strong man who could only keep his goods until a stronger one came upon him. That stronger one is Jesus and His Church!  The enemy is still our foe and in the presence of the enemy, Jesus provides victory.

King David said “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil;” (Psalm 23:5) There are some things God only puts on the table for us in the presence of our enemies. In other words, most of the times we receive something fresh from God are in the midst of a battle.  In an environment where we need nothing, we receive little. The Christian life is a life of being in need. We should get used to it! We need Jesus every day to live as a Christian. We can’t heal the sick or forgive constantly without Jesus; we can’t cast out devils or defeat our enemies each day, except through Him.

Jesus said to one of the churches in Revelation, “…you say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’ – and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked. (Revelation 3:17) They had everything they wanted but nothing they truly needed. If we know our true need, God will be our garment, our life, and the anointing we need to see clearly. Sometimes our greatest challenge is to know what we truly need. Like this ancient church group, sometimes we need an enemy to fight!

To increase in our experience of His authority there has to be an increase in the challenges we face. God works on the basis that His provision for us is not just sufficient but is more than sufficient for our need and the things we face. If our enemies are a two on the scale, then His grace can be a four. If our troubles are a five, then the strength and more than sufficient anointing that He gives us, will be a seven plus!

Friend, like young David, you can run to the battle because He planned for you to win!

 Job sat angry and disheveled in his misery. He was sick and tired of being sick and misunderstood.  His friends had brought no gift or comfort, only accusations.  Job ponders his life and his personal weakness and questions, “Who can bring something clean out of that which is unclean? Job 14:4.

Job never knew about Christmas but he did ask questions to which God gave answers, at the birth of Jesus.

Matthew wrote the genealogies in his gospel to establish for the Jewish readers, the fact that Jesus was the Messiah. The list stretching right back to Adam is unusual and a little disturbing.  Every one of the first four women has a shady reputation.  Tamar got pregnant by pretending to be a prostitute. Rahab was a prostitute living the town of Jericho.  Ruth was an unclean Moabite and Bathsheba committed adultery with David.

Now if we had these people in our family tree we wouldn’t shout it from the rooftops and we probably wouldn’t put it in a book if we knew it would be the best seller of all time. But it does answer that question that Job asked some 1200 years before  "Who can bring something clean out of that which is unclean?"

At the birth of Christ, God shows that He can bring something clean out the unclean.  For out of these sinful men and women, God can and did bring forth a sinless child at Christmas time.  Jesus Christ was born sinless (clean) out of an ordinary human girl Mary (the unclean). God did the same thing again when he authored the Bible through men of old. God's Word, the Bible is a perfect Word yet delivered through imperfect vessels.

The great news of Christmas, is that through Jesus, God can now bring something fresh and clean and hopeful out of the lives of unclean and hopeless people. This is good news for the world. When no one else can, God can.  Politicians have legislated to make us a better society and we still devolve. Education taught us tolerance of deviant practices and now the result is a nation with  massive family dysfunctional. World governments are trying to keep us healthy and millions are getting sicker.

Who can bring a clean thing out and unclean thing?  Only God!  2 Corinthians 5.17 wonderfully declares that whoever belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new and a clean life has begun!

Friends, thank God that Jesus is God’s gift to the world. He is the savior from sin and when we receive Him, He becomes the New man, in us. He is the Clean man in us, who can walk with God again. When we turn back to God, we discover the answer to Jobs question, Who? - God. And the how? - Jesus.

 Moses got up each morning and looked at the tents of the people stretching out for miles into the distance. He was amazed that millions of people followed him through the desert.  It was exceptional. Moses was an exceptional leader. I mean who else has done that? Joseph was an exceptional prime minister. Not many prisoners become the ruler of their nation in a day.  Job had exceptional suffering and then was exceptionally blessed. David was an exceptional sinner and worshipper. 

All these and others like the apostle Paul were exceptional, but we lose sight of the fact that they were also unique too, just like you. There will never be another you and there will never be another Paul, and if we think that our life will follow some exceptional path, like Moses’ we may be disappointed.  Your wealth may not double after you have had a time of real hardship, just because Jobs did.  You probably won’t have an opportunity to become the prime minster just because Joseph did.

 I think God must be looking for some of His people to be “ordinary.”  To live ordinary supernatural lives as chemists, mothers and fridge repairers!  We have heard numbers of prophesies over young people “You are called to change your nation-to affect generations -to raise up Gods army-to be a great leader or minister, so take up the sword for you will proclaim the truth and preach the word to thousands”.

I've never heard a prophecy yet “You will not be noticed - you will be a servant in the background all your life, you’ll take up the towel and give your life away in service of others and never be heard by thousands. You may even have trouble in your life or your marriage, but I will use that to grow your character and you will share my love and my gospel with those I bring to you.”   Yes, God will have some exceptional leaders for a nation, but he also needs great leaders of tens and hundreds and great leaders humbly serving their families and friends.

Friend, you are unique, and God does have plans for you and your future. You are not called to be anyone that you’re not, but you are called to rise up to become everything He knows you can be.

Elijah rested his head on the cloak he had rolled up for a pillow. It was cool and quiet in the cave. Caves were often used as shelter, but the forefathers Abraham and Isaac had buried their dead there and David had hid in caves from pressures and distress. Elijah’s cave reminded him of his troubles, dead dreams, and failed expectations. While Elijah was thinking back over his life , he heard a voice he knew, could only be the Lords. “What are you doing here Elijah?"

Did God mean what was Elijah doing in the cave or what was Elijah doing in that state of mind? Was God was asking Elijah “Do you want commiseration in your pain or a new commission in your purpose? God was moving Elijah on because there is no future in the past and no future in the cave. God was encouraging Elijah, if you are ready for a new commission, come out of the cave, and forget the past for the past can affect the way you hear, what you can hear and even what you expect to hear.

Sadly, it seems that Elijah never really left his cave. We can leave our cave physically, yet remain there mentally or spiritually. Elijah may not have been in his cave, but the cave was still in him.

Friend, self-pity or past failures will rob you of your usefulness and your future. The past can imprint us more powerfully than our future. Come out of the cave with your hands up and get ready to hear from God. Our ability to be useful to God is limited to our boldness before the throne and before the world. Stand on the mountain before the Lord with your back to past pain, the dead things, the persecution and the failed expectations. It is time to break agreement with fear, low expectations and self rejection. If you can turn your back on all the things that are in your cave and stand before Him, you will hear His new commission!

 King Ahab and Jezebel were the worst. They made God angrier than anyone else before them. While they spent their time worshipping Baal, Elijah had been standing before the Lord to listen. The state sponsored religion of Baal worship had taken a dark grip over the people’s minds and their nation. It is amazing what people can’t see when everyone else is doing it. Elijah was sent by God to confront the king and prophesied there would be no more rain except by his word.

During the drought God provided for Elijah by feeding him with bread carried by ravens and by drinking from the brook Cherith.

Now ravens are not that reliable. The book of Proverbs says they won’t even feed their young, let alone give scarce food to a prophet, so we can imagine that Elijah hoped they would come before they ate the food themselves.  Perhaps he prayed a lot, but after three months of faithful delivery by the birds, he grew a little more relaxed and only prayed for a while before breakfast down by river.  After seven months Elijah was really confident, so he’d wander out of the shade, looking for the birds, right on tea and breakfast time.

About that time, he just noticed that the water level in the brook was dropping so he began to pray a bit more. As the brook continued to dry up over the days to just a trickle, he may have begun to seek God in earnest. We all do that don’t we? Perhaps Elijah got used to Gods provision and began to take it for granted. Maybe he was beginning to trust in the ravens reliability rather than Gods faithfulness.  Perhaps he needed circumstances that would position his heart in readiness for the word of the Lord? God’s new direction came.

In new situations we can’t rely on ourselves anymore; we are out of our depth and have no pat answers; we need the Holy Ghost. But great things can begin to happen. Changes in our life, develops the fear of the Lord.  We draw closer to God and are desperate for Him to turn up in our life.

Friend, is God using changes in your circumstance to get your attention and to position you to hear His voice afresh? Are your circumstances only dry and unsustainable because God is setting you up to encounter you, or take you to a new place of service, or a new level of supernatural supply? If your brook is drying up - look up and listen.

 Gideon kept his head down as he threshed his grain in the wine press. As he hid from from the Midianites, he secretly wondered why Israel was being crushed by her enemies.  He couldn't believe it when God appeared and told him that he was chosen to deliver Israel. Nor could he believe it when God called him a mighty man of valor.  Gideon was Mr. average. He had no political pull or stately position.

But through out Israel’s history, God seemed to choose people from less than notable families. Because of their weakness and ordinariness, we stand back and are amazed at how God changed history through them. God’s army has always been an army of “hollow” men and hollow women; empty people, whose very hollowness, invited the residence of Almighty God. It is easy to think that Gods great last day army, should be unaffected by the ailments of mortal men but God does not to require a people of titanium strength and chromium brilliance but people trusting God in spite of weakness. Sometimes all we can see is the human weakness in our own life and we think is, “What could God do with me?” The answer is everything He wants if we will be courageous and obedient.

Friend, it will always be a challenge to step up and do what God asks us individually or in a team. Maybe it's God's plan that we never feel self confident, so that we rely upon Him. We might think that in two years’ time we'll feel adequate, but it may never change.  We are never going to get the point where we don't need Gods help or His grace. It is not God’s plan to deliver us from human weakness, only from human sin. If you feel weak it is a God sign that you can be powerfully used today! My friend Stephen McCracken wrote today “God’s desire for people to be truly and eternally free in Christ has not changed! He has not changed His nature, His commission, His anointing, His provision, His power, His might, nor His partnership with His people! So, we say Yes Lord, to all that He has planned!” Come on Gideon.

In ancient times the king had absolute command over everything and everyone, in his kingdom. But he was also responsible for his subjects and was the “minister” of defence, health, education, social welfare and justice. When the King of Israel led them out of Egypt, He fed them, watered them, protected them and healed them. He was a good and responsible King, but the subjects complained and asked for a human king.

When King Jesus came, He too looked for subjects throughout Palestine but found few. Again, Israel loved the King’s provision, but they did not like His provisos. They wanted Jesus to be sovereign over their needs but not their will - to be King over their problems but not king over their hearts. It takes two to make kingdom. The king, and subjects who are in harmony with the will of the King. Jesus proclaimed “Good news - you can be part of my kingdom. Your part is to get your heart in line with the will of heaven”. God’s kingdom comes wherever His will is done.

This is why we pray “Let your kingdom come, your will be done”, and for the same reason Jesus said, “If anyone would be my disciple, let him take up his cross and follow me” As David McCracken says, “the cross is the instrument upon which our will dies. The cross is even the shape of an “I” crossed out”. A disciple is someone who has denied self-will and embraced the will of the king.

As divine King Jesus promised “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all the necessary earthly things shall be added to you” (Matt 6:33). And from Pentecost onwards His disciple subjects found that His kingly power and rule, brought them peace, blessing, victory and dominion over all the enemies of demons, depression and fear.

Friend, there are no cross-less followers of Jesus. But he is no fool who gives up his own short-sighted self-will, to accept the will of Someone who loves us more, whose plans are perfect for us and who has the ability to bring them to pass. Sure, as we follow Him, His path may pass through a garden or even a “cavalry”, but it will always lead us to His presence with exceeding great joy, for there is always joy for Him and for us, beyond the cross.