THE MEEKNESS DREAM!--"Of a Meek & Quiet Spirit." (1Pet.3:4)      DO1250   25/6/75

         1. IT SEEMED LIKE WE WERE LINED UP AT A STARTING LINE WAITING FOR A RACE or the start of a rally. I was getting very very very impatient because the people who were supposed to be in my car were not there & we couldn't start the race without them! So I drove clear out in the country up this country road to the house where the Family was supposed to be, but they weren't there. And then I drove back to this Colony dining hall & I went in there searching for them & I was looking everywhere & I was just absolutely getting frantic because I couldn't find them!
         2. Then I got this Scripture about a meek & a quiet spirit! The words that came to me were: "A meek & a quiet spirit God will not despise!" There was this very sweet, meek & quiet brother who seemed to be walking around tending tables, very self-effacing, just waiting on tables quietly, humbly, meekly. So I went to him & took hold of him by the shoulder as though I was rather desperate to find that verse, & I said, "Brother, where is that verse about the meek & quiet spirit that God will not despise?" And he looked thoughtful for a moment & he said, "I think you'll find it in Gideon 2 or 3."
         3. Then, lo & behold, when I got out to the car in the parking lot, there was the Family all waiting for me! But apparently I was very impatient to get started in the race, because I drove off up that same country road where I had been looking for them before, toward the house in which they seemed to be living.
         4. Suddenly when I got almost to the house I remembered that wasn't the way I was supposed to go, so I began to back up furiously down the road, hastily & impatiently! I was so disgusted with myself for having taken the wrong road, the old habitual road toward home. So I was flying backward in reverse, desperately praying I wouldn't hit a tree, hastily & impatiently trying to get where I was supposed to go & apparently forgetting all about the Scriptural answer I had just received admonishing me to be of a meek & quiet spirit--when suddenly I woke up!
         5. THE FIRST SCRIPTURE ON MEEKNESS IN MY LITTLE CRUDEN'S CONCORDANCE IS NUMBERS 12:3: "Now the man Moses was very meek above all the men which were upon the face of the Earth!" Wow! That's not exactly the way we usually remember Moses! True, Moses was normally the meekest of all men, but God had to show that even Moses, in the few times that he really got mad, only got all shook up in vain & made some serious mistakes himself by getting so angry.--Once he killed someone, another time he broke all Ten Commandments with one fell stroke, & last he angrily struck the rock at the waters of Meribah. (Ex.2:12; 32:19; Num.20.)
         6. Not that the rod of chastisement is wrong, but it is the SPIRIT in which it is wielded that counts! For God Himself chastises us with His own rod, but He does it in love & in patience & always comforts us afterwards & tries to encourage us to keep on despite our mistakes. So it is very important that you & I have the right spirit & conduct ourselves as God would have us before our children, whether they be natural or spiritual children. But it seems that when we can't get your attention any other way, that's about the only way it seems we're able to attract your attention & get you to listen!
         7. So we do have to scold & lecture & bawl you out sometimes for your mistakes. We do have to chastise you sometimes for your stupid errors & disobediences, but it's the way we do it that counts.--Not too hard, not too harsh, not too heavy, not to the point of total discouragement & despair so that your child gives up & quits trying, or that your spiritual babe just quits & backslides & goes home because he just can't live up to your standards.
         8. We must be sure that it's in the right spirit with the meekness & the quietness of a tender & gentle & loving & contrite heart in all humility.--To be sure that we're in the right spirit as we correct those around us for their mistakes & their errors & their sins, even as God does us & as we would want others to do unto us for ours: Loving & forgiving one another for Christ's sake, even as He hath forgiven us for our sins. As Jesus taught us to pray, forgive us for our iniquities as we forgive others for theirs. (Eph.4:32; Mt.6:12,14,15.)
         9. YOU'LL FIND THE STORY OF GIDEON IN JUDGES 6, 7 & 8. It was a sad time in Israel's history, they were already in the Land of Promise by this time, & they were trying to survive there under the onslaughts of their enemies. And apparently, because they were getting desperate & crying out to the Lord for help, God in His mercy sent a helper.--The simple son of a simple farmer.
         10. God tells him to, "Go in this thy might, & thou shalt save Israel from the hand of the Midianites: have not I sent thee?" And what does he do? He gives God a big argument & finally insists that God give him some kind of signs. He requests sign after sign before he's finally convinced that God is really with him. And the final sign, you remember, is Gideon's fleece, from which we get our expression about "throw out a fleece" & see if God honours it. So in Gideon 1, Judges Chapter 6, he certainly didn't show too much meekness & quietness, did he?
         11. In the next Chapter came the biggest test of dear Gideon's meekness & quietness & his faith in God, when he had an army of 32,000 & God said that was too many! And, let me tell you, He cut them down! Of 32,000 he started with, he only wound up with 300 left! Well, that was sure a test of dear young Gideon's meekness & quietness, wasn't it? He sure had to trust the Lord then, because the armies of the Midianites were thousands & thousands & thousands! Well, by this time dear Gideon's faith seemed to be increasing & he begins to believe the Lord a little quicker & act a little quicker too!
         12. So when God tells him to do the next crazy thing, he didn't even question it! He went right ahead & sent his 300 men into battle with nothing but a trumpet & a pitcher & a lamp in each hand. They made one hell of a lot of racket with all those trumpets blowing & all those pitchers breaking & all of a sudden all those bright lights flashing in the middle of the night! The poor Midianites thought the whole World had attacked them & they got so excited in the dark they were killing each other with their swords & they ran like mad & deserted the camp & the whole host cried & fled!
         13. Then in Gideon 3 (Judges 8) our dearly beloved little hero & his 300 men took off after this gigantic host which had started off being 135,000 Midianites!--Just think, 300 men with nothing but trumpets, pitchers & lights scared the livin' daylights out of 135,000 men & actually slaughtered 120,000 of them!
         14. WHEN GIDEON GOT TO WHERE HE JUST MEEKLY BELIEVED GOD & WENT QUIETLY ABOUT HIS BUSINESS OF OBEYING GOD, God didn't despise his despicable little 300 & his ridiculous little efforts, but He really blessed him with a mighty walloping victory over a tremendous enemy! God loves a meek & a quiet spirit! He'll bless that, & He'll bless you for it!
         15. It's GOD that wins the battle! It's obedience that wins the battle. It's humble faith that wins the battle. It's meekness & quietness, meekness of humility, believing in God & the quietness of faithful obedience to the Lord which wins the battle--regardless of how few you have & how weak you seem to be & how little you've got! It's God that honours your faith & your meekness & your quietness & your obedience to win the battle.--And that's what happened!
         16. So I can see how God was certainly trying this morning to teach me a lesson through that dream, because I was afrettin' & aworryin' & astewin' & afumin' & afussin'! And when I cried out to the Lord for an answer, when I really got desperate He said that "a meek & a quiet spirit the Lord would not despise." In other words, don't worry, don't get all excited & all uptight, but just be calm & meek & humble & quiet & believing & obedient & everything will turn out all right!
         17. So God bless you & may God help you to have a meek & a quiet spirit which the Lord will not despise, as He did for even somebody who was as full of faults & made as many mistakes & at first was as unwilling & unbelieving & disobedient as Gideon. If there was hopes for a guy like Gideon, if God could be that merciful & that good to a man in spite of all that, that when he finally got to believing & obeying Him, God finally mightily blessed him, certainly God can bless you! He can still forgive you for your past errors & mistakes & He'll still mightily use you in mighty battles & victories & great things to come, amen?--If you'll just be meek & quiet so God won't despise your own efforts, praise God?--BE MEEK!