Always look forward to coming, being here with you, Mt. Carmel church. I feel like God has given me words for you and I mean literally words for you because I feel like I had three messages on my heart. I think all could have been applicable. And my biggest problem was figuring out which one for this morning. So I want to start and I’ve figured out which way I’m going to go this morning and I’m going to have to rush over some things and not develop things as much as I’d like. But I want you to get the mainly the big picture, mainly the process. And when I talk about steps in a process, it’s not like mechanical steps, it’s just noting in the process, significant moments in that process that can be life learning points for us. And so there’ll be a six in this particular message. Years ago in Toronto, I, uh, spoke on this and the first time I ever preached on, I call it the making of a mighty warrior.
And in that meeting a Heidi Baker resentment was the second time that God really whacked her really bad, put her up on her top of her head and threw her down and everything. And my executive vice president was actually, there’s way back in the back. I’d never met him yet. God knocked him down and he was really touched. It was just a time of an outpouring. Then later I changed the title to the keys to becoming who God says you are. And uh, that’s, that’s, that’s, you know, more applicable to more people that don’t feel like they’re the going to be an app systolic leader. And then I finally, uh, one time I appreciate it and I called it how to walk out your prophetic destiny. Well, whatever one of those titles make sense to you, you, you take the one you want, write your own ending to this thing and make it more applicable to you.
But we’re going to be looking at judges chapter six story of Gideon Chapter six verse one through Chapter Eight, verse 23. And we want to start with the first step begins as most times it does in God’s call. And God’s call and promise really go together. His call contains his promise. What he calls you to do is a promise. You’ll be able to do it in the call is the promise. Now, the context of the call often is not the best times of life. Many people received the call of their life, not on a mountain top, or in a Mt. Carmel church, but in the valley of brokenness. Many people, it’s in the context of when things are going really bad than we are. They become desperate and god gets our attention. And uh, and sometimes God chooses people who are unlikely to be used as, as leaders, often in the Bible, he chooses the smaller, the weaker, the younger someone who has a bad lineage.
You know, people are always today in looking at the, uh, the some people who are always looking at what’s wrong in every ministry, they’re looking at the roots they’re seeing, is there anything in that person’s spiritual lineage of somebody that wasn’t good? You know, they ought to look at Luke and the lineage of Jesus and see that there’s three women of ill repute in that lineage and are purposely included in it to reveal the grace of God and how he can cover sin. So let’s get started. Um, first of all, there in the context of the cycles of judges is the people sin. They come under oppression, they cry out, God sends a deliverer, and Mt. Carmel church, we’re in that cycle where they are in a cycle of sin and their overcome their defeat intercession, language as oppression. They’d lost their freedom there. There’s great economic consequences to their sin.
Everything they have is being taken away from them by the Midianites. And that leads him to pray and to call out to God. And God responds. And in God’s response, he sends them a prophet and the Prophet explains what’s wrong. The prophet says, here’s your problem. And when we look at it, we see that the, he says to them, the Prophet said, this is what the Lord, the God of Israel says, I brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. I snatched you from the power of Egypt and from the hand of your oppressors. I drove them from before you and gave you their land. I said to you, I am the Lord your God. Do not worship the gods of the Amorites in whose land you live, but you have not listened to me. That’s the problem. They hadn’t listened to God.
He’s giving them. He’s reminding them, this is all I’ve done for you in the midst of your defeat. Remember the victories of the past in the midst of what you feel like you’re so weak and broken. Remember that I made you a mighty nation and I brought you in here and by my mighty hand I gave you a land that was not your land. I gave you cities that you didn’t build. I gave you vendors that you didn’t plant. I have been your source, but you have forgotten me and you have not obeyed me because the thing I told you is watch out and don’t y worship the gods of this land and you have not listened to me and this is what you’ve done. That’s really interesting to know that the problem is the reason why they’re, they’re having this problem is the synchronistic worship, but trying to worship God but also worshiping the gods of the land which was supposed to and their understanding make the land more fertile is a agrarian a society you have not listened me in.
Their lack of listening to them is part of the problem now who in the, uh, the, the, the angel of the Lord came and sat down under the Oak Oprah and that belonged to Josh and, and, and Gideon isn’t it there and he’s hiding in the wine press. You know the story. Many of you may not know the story, most of you will. But anyway, the point we wanted to get to was getting an them got a question and he says in verse 13, Mt. Carmel church, if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? And where are all his wonders that our fathers told us about? So they’re living in a context of the miracles have ended. They are living in a context. The supernatural aspect of the presence of God is not with them, but it had been with them when the presence of God and the miracles and the healings are not present and they were in the past.
It’s not that God that’s moved. It’s we have moved. It’s not a problem on God’s part. It’s a problem on our part and in this day of hyper grace and with no emphasis on confession of sin, and it is, uh, abusive heresy of hyper grace that says it. You should even if you confess in it means you don’t really have faith in Jesus. Forgive Savior, the Bible from one end, one cover to the other cover is a bible that calls us to repentance. It’s a Bible that calls us to forsake those things that stand between us and God. It’s the Bible that Donnelly talks about justification but talks about sanctification. It’s not only about imputed Rodgers, it’s in part of righteousness. It’s a god that wants us to live in victory, not defeat. And when we forget that we will make shipwreck of our faith. And some of the very people who have been teaching this message are no longer working, walking with God today.
And one of my, my son and I was a friend to one of ’em and, and uh, that young man who, who’s been teaching per of this this hyper grace message, he’s not even walking with the Lord anymore. And many of the ones who have been teaching it, they’ve gone on to universalism and just saying, hey, doesn’t matter. Everybody’s going to heaven and nobody’s going to hell. That’s where it’s ended for many people. There’s a lot, there’s a lot of oppression and weakness and defeat. That’s our fault because we have departed from the faith and have created a new gnostic gospel that has forgotten the part about repentance and confession of sin. So one of the things that’s interesting in this call there the angel of the Lord, then many people believed the angel. The Lord is always a reference to the pre, a theophany of the pre incarnate son of God.
That was Jesus himself as the angel, the Lord. Many people believe that. Many scholars believe that has been before his incarnation. It’s still the second son of the trinity or son of God of the Trinity, and this has came to him and the angel appear to get in and he said, the Lord is with you. Mighty warrior. This is call the Lord is with you mighty warrior. Now is it because he’s had all these wonderful experiences with God? Absolutely not. I don’t think he had any. This is first one. Is it because he’s walking in holiness? No, it’s not. Is it because, Mt. Carmel church, everybody in that the elders have been looms. That’s the next leader. We’re going to raise up. No, it’s not. It’s because God sovereignly chose to pick him with all of his faults and saw in him what he didn’t see in himself.
We need to have the eyes of God because anybody can see what’s wrong with somebody. But it takes the prophet eyes to see what’s potential in them and what God can do through them and God’s heart and knowledge of what he would want to do. So don’t think you’re prompted because you can put this is going, this, this bad things going mods, God, God’s going to get you for that. Think of the prophetic. When you really see something that how you see the potential of what God, you see the heart, you see past the hurt. You see the ability that’s there. But the call is the Lord is with you. And he calls him a mighty warrior and he must say to you who you are looking at the wrong person. And then in verse 14 the Lord turned to him and said, because he’s complained, you know, Gideon, him, uh, he just can’t believe this is really happening.
And, and the Lord says to and turn to him and said, verse 14, go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand. Here it comes again. Am I not with you? Am I not sending you? Here is the call. The promise is in the call. The promise is this is what God said he wants to do. When we forget our destiny, our call, our Mt. Carmel church, our mandate from heaven as an individual or as a church or movement. When we forget that we forget where our power and our assurance is rooted in and we’ll start looking away from him and to ourselves, we can become insecure. We can see all this. I don’t see how this is possible. If it was possible to do in the natural, it wouldn’t take anything if it was possible to do in the natural. Some of the calls and visions and dreams and, and, and destinies that God may have on you as an individual or upon this local congregation, do not limit what God can do through you, who in New York consecrated.
And when you are hearing him and obeying him and believing him. So there is this wonderful promise from God that has been given and get in, um, says in verse 17, right after he had had this, uh, this word and then he says again, the Lord answered, I will be with you and you will, it is a might strike down all the Midianites together. Now that’s another time, like a short pretentious, a second time. Plus he’s called him and he called him. He said that to him. Mt. Carmel church, he said, well, I’m the least. I’m a runt and I’m from the smallest drive. I mean, you’ve got the wrong guy. This, we don’t have the resources. I have no military experience at all. I’m hiding in a, uh, a wine press. I don’t even know how to use a sword. Probably. I want our God. It can’t be me.
And God just says, Hey, I will be with you and you will, you will strike down all the Midianite together. That’s God’s promise. Now then in Latta that Gideon basically says, give me a sign that you know, just kind of like, am I, am I going to schizophrenia? Am I becoming, am I having any bipolar delusional moment here? Is this my imagination? Is this God? Is this what is going on? Is basically he’s confused. And so Gideon, if, if now I have found favor in your eyes, give me a sign. A lot of people say we shouldn’t ask for science anymore. I think God understands human beings are human beings and sometimes some of us need signs and I don’t think it’s lack of faith to ask for a sign. I actually think is, we look to this, that we can say that often God will build faith by giving signs.
If you can have the eyes to see what he’s doing and the ears to hear what he’s saying. And to recognize that is not a coincident. That is a provident. I don’t even know if that’s a real word or not. I think it might be, but a coincident and comes from coincidence when we also have a word called providence coincidence. It’s an accident. It just happened. Providence. God, is it in the details of what’s happening? So in the, in the coincidence, well sometimes we have providence and there are signs, Mt. Carmel church, I know that in my life that there were these signs that I asked for when I was at the, uh, midnight at the first General Baptist Church in Maclean’s bureau, midnight in October’s right before I was called to preach a few days before, um, asking one of the, I asked for three different signs, but one of them was, uh, Lord show me.
So I had been reading exodus and reading about the burning Bush, been reading about that and I went as midnight winds blowing and went to look out the window and all, I went through the wind and looked and there’s this tree on fire and I, it’s been raining, it’s midnight and wind’s blowing and its tree’s on fire. And I’m like, go set my people free. That’s actually what I’m thinking. And I, I opened the doors. That what I mean Kinda like you gotta be kidding. And I start walking toward and I see, well, uh, right in parallel, two blocks over somebody burning trash and that trees in this block, trash cans in that block. It’s exactly lined up. And I said, coincident, somebody is burning trash on a windy night right after it just rained. That’s when you know you’re looking at it in the natural.
But it didn’t take long that I really realized no, that wasn’t coincidence. That was provident. That was providence. When I asked the Lord for another sign, am I really called the preach? I need to know. Mt. Carmel church, my friend had been hurt in an accident. I’ve been in my accident and then he got totaled his own car and he wouldn’t even go to church. And I said, Lord, if I’m really called to preach, I want you to save him. I can’t even get him to come to the building. I want you to save him. And the next day he totaled his car, came to church. That night was the first one to hit the alter. And Hi, the enemy inside the flesh says coincident, but in the heart begins to bubble up. No providence God is in. He knows what we need and dependent upon the difficulty are you going to be facing sometimes he ups the, once you see in the last one for me, back in 1970 was the youth leader had a heart attack and was partially paralyzed. He couldn’t hardly move his right hand. I said, God went home that night and said, God, if I’m really called to preach healing, let him play the piano tomorrow night without pain.
I went by to check on him. Next day he barely move his hand, so I’m in the church. You sitting back there? I said, let me see you move your hand. It’s hard stiff. It’s from like partial stroke. Is that all right? It wasn’t God just coincident. I’m standing there looking at all the people come into the Jesus movement and watching as they’re coming in. Oh here’s a bunch of people come. They have been on drugs, had been and are getting straight when they just sit in the back row and all of a sudden I hear the piano and he had a style of play and I turn around and there he is setting on a piano. He’s playing and I said, he’s playing one hand and it just is too good for that and it plays full of people sitting in the floor. There’s no seats at all except right in front of me.
There’s a seat left. He gets up and sits right in front of me. I Becky Monta Shoulder. He turns around and said, let me see you move your hand here. I said, I’ve got a question. Does it hurt? No, I have another question. Why did you play the piano tonight? He said, I was sitting back there and all of a sudden this strong impression came. If you go try to play the piano, I’ll heal you in a moment. My hands hit the keys. I was here. Alright, that provident. That’s not a coincidence. That is a provident and I needed it. And I stood up and I just, I stood up right then and after he said that, and, and, and, and the pastor, brother bill looked at me instead of Guy Randy. I said, yes, I just want it announce God’s calling me to preach. And there’s a big old railroad rock, a worker named Bob, uh, Brockett his brother armory.
We know g-man brain. You really know that you’ve been called to preach for a long time. These last few weeks. Every time you testify you preach, we just been waiting on you to announce it. So there’s the confirmation also that comes in. I know what it’s like when, when God comes and helps us in our weakness and when we don’t feel like that we’re able to do something, not only in initial but calling, but an others now. Huh? Step one. I gotta go. Alright. Step two, we’ll go faster. Consecration and purity in the call if we’re going to get to the other side. As a matter of fact, that night before I first met John Wimber, the first time I had a dream, you call it a dream. I call it a spiritual dream. I think it’s one of the only one or a two or three I’ve had my whole life.
And it literally was, I walked up in a place like this and over the fence up here and I’m standing down there and there’s a gatekeeper and on the wall is written a, not a 10 commandment, but a commandment, something God wants me to do. And when I look at it and I say, yes, that gatekeeper opens the gate. And I came up and when I came up to this level, now I could see what I couldn’t see down here there’s another wall, there’s another commandment, and the gatekeeper’s moved up. And if I say yes to what he’s saying, now that gate opens and I get to come on up to the Mt. Carmel church. And I that dream. I went through four or five stages in that and when it ended, it had gone to see women for the first time that morning and just felt like the Lord says, if you will obey me, that gate will open and you can come into greater things.
It was, it wasn’t like heaven and hell stuff. This was like opportunity to be used in my kingdom was dependent upon consecration. Will you do what I’m asking you to do? Will you say yes and and so we see this in, in this story. So first of all, consecration starts in you and starts in your family. Gideon was an idol worshiping syncretistic young man whose family had an Ashworth Polk Anabel alter to these gods of the Amorites was in their backyard. Maybe they might even been pretty high up in it because the idols are in their yard. These are big ones and the Lord goes after that first thing. He goes down and I’m going to go after the idols in your life. I’m going to go after the idols that you’ve been raised in. You’ve been trained in and your father has, uh, put that into you and you’ve seen it in your family.
It is in you, it is in your family, and it is in this nation right now. And that’s where I’m going after first. I cannot use you until we get this dealt with. I cannot use you as the leader until you’re willing to care that down in your life. Now he was, he obeyed. It says he obeyed, but he also said he obeyed in fear and wisdom. So he did it at night because he’s afraid. They knew. He knew that the people might rise up and try to kill him, which is exactly what happened. They rose up and they want to kill him. This is a capital offense because he’s burned or torn down the Ashworth poles and then use the wood to kill one of the Bulls and make an altar, right? Kind of an altar to God. And he’s torn down these idols. They want to kill him. His Dad had the wisdom say, listen, if there really are gods behind those idle, let them deal with Gideon. We don’t have to kind of say by the wisdom his father in that situation, but he obeyed. Now here’s what we normally think when we obey, it gets better.
I was preaching of Heidi Baker last week in Birmingham, Alabama, and another several of us. Um, and Mt. Carmel church, as she was talking, I gave her this prophetic word. Do you want the nation to Mozambique? She’s weeping. She’s most powerful expressions ever had in her life. Seven days a night. It had to be carried in, carried out, and do you want the nation Mozambique? She’s crying. Yes. And she was ready to quit. She’s still exhausted and tired. And I said to her, God, to give you is going to give you the nation and Mozambique. You’re going to see the blind. See the deaf, hear the lame walk in the dead, be raised. And that’s when the fire and the power hit her so powerfully. What posts? Most people don’t know that they’ve heard that story. What they haven’t heard is the next 18 months, it was the opposite. That happened for 18 months. First of all, she lost $1 million of money that had been promised to them for the orphanage work they were going to do and all she had to do to keep that million is quit talking about what God did to her in Toronto. That’s all that this church and this passion, we don’t like Toronto.
He didn’t like me either, but if you’ll stop talking about what happened there, you’ll get to keep your million. We can’t stop talking about what God has done and what he did. So they lost a million dollars. They lost her. They lost the, the buildings they had built. The government came in and confiscated them. Her health, she loses it. She gets him as her husband’s and gets a cerebral malaria. Her daughter crystal gets malaria three times and she’s praying for every blind person she meets. Every deaf person she meets. Nobody’s getting raised from the dead. Very few people are even getting healed, but none of these miracles are taking place for 18 months. It’s the opposite. It got worse, but she persevered by faith in the prophetic word that was backed up by God’s power. It was the sign she needed. It was the sign that gave her the kind of faith that all hell could not rob her of.
Because I asked her, could you have sustained your faith in the midst of everything that was going wrong? She said, if it hadn’t been for the power that backed up the word, I don’t. I couldn’t have beep. And God knows when we need a sign. God knows when we need to deal with stuff in our life. So as you’re getting ready to step into an even greater glory and power and Growth and significance, as we get closer Mt. Carmel church, I believe that God will begin to say, I want to deal with this. I want to deal with this in your life. I want you to be able to hear better. I want you to be able to see better. I want you to be able to sense my presence better and God’s able to do it. So next slide. What? After the call and the promise and the next step, which was the consecration, moving toward purity came a crisis.
The crisis then also led to this time of prayer. So inverted verse 33 when we were looking at chapter six now 33 through 40 is this what I call crisis and prayer, a place in verse 33 this is right after he’s obeyed. Then it says, I like this in the NIV. It starts out with the word. Now he’s just obeyed. He’s cut down the Asherah Pole. He’s made the already, he’s killed his dad’s bull. He’s done exactly what God said. Now God bless me, but it says instead, now all the Midianites, the Amalekites and other eastern peoples joined forces and crossed over the Jordan and Campton, the valid gs real, it gets worse. Now I doesn’t have many nights and he’s got four nations coming against him. The oppression is going to be worse. The numbers of people, it’s worse. It’s worse than it was before. The devo doesn’t lay down.
When you go to battle, when you begin to take on the enemy and go come against his camp, there is a counter punch, but greater is he that’s in us than he. That’s in the world. The victory is Ayers. We are not to be the beaten down. Boom, but we win by our faith. And there is this issue that God knew before I use you, before you go in against all this about to come to you, I got to do a little house cleaning and a little backyard cleaning in your situation. So I like this. Now all this problems coming, but this is what’s so great. Many of us want that. Then before the now, many of us say, fill me, Holy Spirit, fill me. God Fill me God, but we haven’t cleaned up the backyard.
We haven’t obeyed. It’s interesting to note when the filling came, verse 34 starts with 33. Now all these people start coming. W then the spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon. When did the spirit of the Lord came upon him to be able to do this? When the enemies come in against him, the Lord comes in with it and it becomes in like the flood. The Lord raises up the standard and so he blows and examines the people together. And as they are, uh, coming together, Mt. Carmel church, we have this, the basic result is obedience resulted in the greater problem, more enemies warfare, but it also brought then the spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon. And then in this passage there is an unusual strategy of God. Now I don’t have time to go into the, the sign of the fleece dry and the fleece wet.
I don’t want to talk about the paring down. The God’s strategy was odd. God’s strategy was, uh, he got, I forgot what it was over here, 120, a thousand swordsman that had fallen and 10,000 or 15,000 had left the Er and had ran. So you got at least 135,000 people coming against you. He got 135,000. That’s a huge army. And so when they first started out, the odds are four to one. The odds are four to one. Then God pares it down and he says that they’re afraid to tell him to go home with, you’re going up to four to one. Odds are somebody would be afraid and, and so they go home. He said, if you’re scared, go home. Now we’re down to 12 to one now if they drank water the wrong way out of the, you know, they looked like a dog or drink it out of their hands, that’s going to make another, another division. And, and, and then we’re, we’re down to 12 to one and then there’s even, he says, now you still have too many. And the parents it down to 300 now we’re down to 416 to one odds.
Yeah. This is where it gets real interesting.
Yeah.
Yeah. I’m not an I’m, I’m not just amazed at Gideon’s faith. I’m more amazed of the men who follow Gideon, who didn’t have the angel of the Lord show up, didn’t have the angel, the Lord show up. And by the way, it’s significant that he came to understand. He’s seen the Lord face to face in that offering. That was a meal with unleavened bread. I think if you have eyes to see, you can see the significance because in America the greatest revival, second greatest revival we ever had to the second great awakening was born out of communion service. There’s been, when Wesley was taking communion three o’clock in the morning, it’s when the holy spirit fail. There are these moments where God really wants meet us and, and with this presence and we need to be expectant of these times of visitation and, and, and, and so the issue is why would these guys follow him? I mean they get in is the one who has heard, I will deliver you. And that’s where it’s very important that your leader, pastor Chad, Mt. Carmel church, you’re leaders, no, we’ve heard God and they can declare it with faith.
It is the declaration of leaders who’ve been with God and who’ve heard God seen what God knows what God wants to do. That gives them an authority that encourages and empowers and causes faith in the followers around them to believe. And it’s really interesting you’re believing and following with less of the personal firsthand experience that the key leaders had. Now I want to say something, even though this is so supernatural, I wanted this very important. There’s a difference. There’s two types of calls in scripture. The Apostle Paul is blinded, knockdown, provident with an I s miracle, gets his eyes healed and gets filled. The spirit Jesus appears to him and gives and gets his revelation from Jesus about his Gospel because you read Chapter 12 Chapter 11 chapter 12 of Second Corinthians about all his sufferings and what he did and ultimately martyred them.
He had a huge call and a huge challenge, but when we think we all have to have that kind of call to know whether or not we’re going to work in the Sunday school or be an assure or serve the poor, the we’re, we’re, we’re, we’re not. We’re not, Mt. Carmel church. We’re going beyond what scripture has because scripture has, yes, I had that type thing. Chad others, we have these things that we know our God and we talk about them. It gives a strength of go through our whole life. But then you have the Timothys and the Titus and you have others. And their call wasn’t like that. Their call came from Paul when he said, I have need of you. And in Paul’s epistolic teams that he took all over Europe and Asia, uh, and uh, in Ephesus, uh, for example, he, they were fluid. It depended on who he needed at that assignment to go to this city, to who do I want to go to that city, who do I?
And He, uh, out of the authority God had given him, the Lord would show him, even as Jesus prayed all night in the selecting of his 12. There is a sense where a second kind of call is just that natural. I have need of you because, and this is where sometimes the people who volunteers are wonderful, but sometimes people are volunteering for something, are gonna have the best debt and the person you really need, they’re not, they won’t put themselves forward. They wait. And there’s a great thing about empowering. So those of you who are in leadership at this Mt. Carmel church look to the people that God is bringing and ask God to show you what are the gifts in them. Because there is something about being called through the leadership structure that God has already raised up to see what’s in people and call it out of them and they have faith that you’re able to hear God and, and it should confirm there’s other things that I could talk about that God will confirm it, but I don’t have time.
Shoot at rabbit. Ah, all right. Step number four, the creation of faith through prophecy now and the latter part of verse eight of Chapter 15 in the latter part of verse eight now the camp of Midian lay below him in the valley. During that night, the Lord said to Gideon, okay, we got communication going on and it’s during the night and the Lord says, get up. Go down against the camp because I am going to give it into your hands. I how many times has God had to repeat that initial thing? I’m going to do this, I’m gonna do this. I’m going to give it into your hands. I’m going to do the get in art. It’s going to be me. I’m going to use you, but I’m going to back you. It’s going. I’m going to do this in the call is a promise and he said, I’m going to give it into your hands. Now do you know
it doesn’t need any information because he’s omniscient, which means he knows everything. He knows our thoughts before we think them. So in that he says, God says, if you are afraid to attack, go down to the Camp With Your Servant Pura and listen to what they are saying and afterward you will be encouraged to attack the camp. And I had a weird word. So get in and pure, they go down close enough to the enemy’s camp. How big is that army? 135,000 what’s the likelihood that you get close enough to hear a conversation of two soldiers and out of 135,000 people? You hear what I’m saying? I had a dream last night. There’s Bay mark barley loaf came down and hit our camps in it and the and the other pagan, the other unbelieving pagan said it all that could be nothing and surely nothing. Then Gideon and it basically says he’s going to give him the, what would that do for your faith?
What I’m talking about in it is, is timing. The devil is not also in the details. That was, as you hear that saying, the devil’s in the details. God is in the details and my daughter and all the other day who was talking to my wife and I said, you know it says devils in details, but D’s Are the details. No, I was very detailed oriented person, Mt. Carmel church. God is in the details and the timing and so he created and what happens is this prophetic word, this prophetic dream, it’s like four I went to Toronto, I’m scared to death. God won’t use me. Want to go to Toronto and God has a guy call me at 10 o’clock the night before. Doesn’t know I’m even going to go and gave me this word. Do not be afraid. I will back you up. I want your eyes to be opened to see my resource for you in the heavenlies.
Even as Elijah prayed to God Mt. Carmel church, his eyes would be open and don’t become anxious because when you become anxious, you can’t hear me. He didn’t know I was going to Toronto the next day. It gave me faith. There were other words, times and seasons where they came that I needed times in the valley. You know, I don’t need a prophetic word to go forward when everything’s going great. I need the prophetic word to go forward when it seems like it’s not going great. I need the prophetic word to go forward when it’s really getting tough, but God is faithful. Now, there was this divine appointment. God works in these providence and the interpretation of the dream caused him to have great faith. Let’s go to the next one. Conflict and power. As a result of this, they have this great battle. It’s a weird strategy that you know they’re going to Yale, they’re going to break.
Their light’s going to hold up their torches. You know some of the general’s Muslim. Okay, wait, we do this. Surprise attack and he says, no, we’re not going to surprise him. Matter of fact, we’re going to shout and we’re going to, and by the way, one of the first things did is an act of worship. Right after he heard that he went back and worshiped. He just went back and worship and his prayer and worship. You find that through this. He said, if we’re going to hold up a torch, which going to make them a target and we’re going to shout, but what God did and was caused the army to go into confusion, they began to kill each other and they army was routed and there’s one of the greatest vape to this day, the Israeli army. All this is, this is the greatest story in their history. And they still are talking about the miracle of this battle. To this day, it’s still honored that God acted on their behalf. The first act in verse 15 of warfare’s worship, and the second act of warfare is declaring your faith of what God has told you. So he got up and he said, the Lord has given the Midianites into your hands. Now he can say it.
Now. He has so much confidence that he stands before his people and what he has heard, he now tells them what I’ve heard from heaven. I’m now have enough faith to believe it. I’m telling you, he’s given us the Midianites have been given into our hands and there’s a great power. And then the lastly is what I call crisis and passion, Mt. Carmel church. And it’s uh, Chapter Eight, verse 22 and 23. And then we’re going to pray. The Israelites said to get in rule over us. Now this is after they’ve won the battle. They pursued. And by the way, they’re the ones that started. They got the enemy in route. And what happens, the rest of Israel comes out and joins them and starts fighting Ben. Then they start complaining here. Here’s the crisis. This man Gideon who won this battle, he was defeated the enemy. His brothers are mad at him, his fellow tribes, one leaders of others.
Why didn’t you call us sooner and end? They’re putting him down and he’s, and he’s humble and he just said, you know, we’re nothing compared to you, so to speak. The crisis was how do you respond when after you have obeyed God done have done everything he said and God has given you the victory and you’re still being cut down not by the enemy, but by people in the family of God. That’s a crisis moment and how do you handle it? There’s two, two points of crisis here. One is the criticism of other believers. Sometimes it’s written with jealousy and there will be, cause you guys are an amazing church and I’m sure they’re not. Everybody’s as happy about how he’s lifted you up, even other believers and there’s going to be criticism. You don’t listen to them. But the second thing, second part of this crisis is when, well meaning people who didn’t come now from the people outside, it came from his own people. Be careful Mt. Carmel church that you don’t create a crisis by trying to, trying to form the leader, your pastor into what you want him to be. Even if it’s a great thing of honor. He needs to be who God’s told him to be. So here was the battle. One was the crisis criticism, but the other one was praise. The other was well-meaning intention out of love. They wanted to make him king.
Hey Mt. Carmel church. Hey Cam, the ruler, verse 23 In verse 22 the Israelites said to Gideon, rule over us, you, your son and your grandson because you have saved us out of the hand of Midian. But Gideon told them, I will not rule over you, nor will my son rule over you. The Lord will rule over you. That was the crisis and he won. He, he was not defeated by criticism and he was not defeated by well-intended praise and trying to ask him to step into something. God didn’t tell him to do that. As you are stepping into this real sense of God is making you an appestat like resource center, not just a good local church, but an app systolic resource center. There’s gonna be a lot of battles you’ll have. There’s going to be a lot of battlefields are going to be a lot of cities to take as getting a and and and and Josh was going in, but listen to the guy. Look to your own backyard first and into your family, into your life.
Consecration will be important. May the enemy when they tries to attack you said he has nothing in me. When you hear those words, remember that word is contains the promise. I can stand before you. Have you been 54 nations, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of different countries, different times. I mean, it was not likely that would ever happen, but as we have just tried to listen and obey God has done was exceedingly, abundantly above anything I could have asked or imagined. I believe that God has a great intention for southern Illinois. I believe actually it’s my opinion. 35 years ago we were standing at Kadish Barnea as Church of this area and we were invited into Atlanta promise and some could only see giants. Some could see the Lord will give us the victory. A generation has almost gone by and the original intent of God to bring revival to this, not just community region is still there and now may it be like this is the generation that is going to cross over and going to obey. It’s not going to be afraid is a significant time in your life. God has victories. He’s got prepared for you. Let’s pray. Father, in the name of Jesus, we just say, look at our hearts. We want to say yes. We want to say yes. We want to be people of faith. We want to know the difference between a provident and a coincidence. We want to, we want to know and be able to see you when we break bread together and we pray in the name of Jesus.
Mt. Carmel church, thanks so much for watching with us. We love our online family and we invite you to connect with us. We have a few different ways you can do that on our website@therhodes.church as well as on social media. You can text to give by texting the amount space roads to four, five, seven, seven, seven and we’d love to pray for any needs you might have. So send us a message and let us know how we can partner with you in bringing the light and love of Jesus to your worlds.