Who Told You That?

Judges 6 NIV

Every one of us lives from an identity. The question is: who told us who we are? Too often, our view of ourselves is shaped by the voices around us rather than the truth of God. Over time, our experiences can become labels, and those labels can become prisons. But God sees us differently. When He meets Gideon hiding in fear, He speaks not to his weakness, but to who he is in God's eyes. Because true freedom begins when we stop defining ourselves by our wounds and start agreeing with what God says is true.

1. What false identity lives in your soul or what truth of God does your heart not really believe?

2. Share a time God let you have your own way and the results.

3. Skim Judges 6-8. Where can you see the progression of Gideon's belief in God's description of him as a mighty warrior?

4. Gideon accused God of abandonment. Read Judges 6:11-12 — If God had abandoned Gideon, how did He know where to find him? Read Psalm 139:7-16.

5. Take the identity in your mind and a Bible truth about your identity and follow the logic steps Pastor Ryan gave:

        • Can God lie?

        • Does God speak in wishful thinking?

        • Does God only speak the truth?

     a. Therefore ____________________________ (insert God’s words) must be true and _____________________ (internal           identity) is not true.

     b. How will you use this logic statement to reinforce a Biblical thought pattern?

6. Would you have been as patient with Gideon as God was?

     a. Read Hebrews 11:32-34, 39a & Hebrews 12:1-3 — What does this mean for you when you do not have instant faith/obedience? 

7. Read Judges 8:27— What is the warning here?

     a. Read Hosea 1:2, 9-10 — What was the cause of a lost identity in this case?

     b. Read Isaiah 8:13-17 — What preserved Isaiah’s identity in the midst of a lost people?