When I was a Dairy Farmer and up before dawn, I can testify to the fact that the darkest hour is just before dawn. But then the light breaks through and the darkness is quickly dispelled.
In the same way in the midst of impossible odds God breaks into our lives and our situations to declare himself as God!
Gideon in Judges 6 is a great example for us in the Old Testament of one who went from the winepress of circumstances and into worship that leads to deliverance.
As a background to our story we find Israel in dire straights because of the Midianites and Amalek. Everything Israel did was destroyed or stolen by the enemy.
Israel was terrorised in their own lands by their cousins Midian & Amalek, both descended from Abraham, but given over to the worship of strange gods. Having the look of Semites but living away from the truth of the God of Abraham.
The God of Abraham did deliver Israel. This story and our message today will encourage us to move from the winepress and into victory!
In your circumstance you may be ploughing, and planting but never seeming to move into the harvest. Because the Midianites who represent a false religious order are always plundering the goods!
The crop is progressing well then suddenly the Middianites come onto the scene and say! You can’t do that! And destroy the crop. Sometimes you even wonder are these midianites part of God’s plan? The simple answer is NO
These people may resemble what you think a son of Abraham looks like,
Their language sounds like the real thing. (Gideon could understand them Jug 6:10-11)
But they are not the Chosen of God, and we need to realign ourselves again with the God of Abraham.
Religious spirits seek to take our attention away from the Living God. They cause us to hide away in fear thinking that we don’t have the goods to be the true sons of God.
With Gideon God has demonstrated the way to gain full advantage of the harvest. A way of worship and trust that totally exalts the Lord of the harvest!
1) We don’t need to qualify
The first thing we need to get out of our head is the need to qualify to enter into the harvest. The Lords desire was expressed through a man who was hiding in a winepress, He was hardly a Benny Hinn in expression of his walk with God, but he was called, and that is all that mattered!
Jud 6:15 “But Lord,” Gideon replied, “how can I rescue Israel? My clan is the weakest in the whole tribe of Manasseh, and I am the least in my entire family!” 16 The LORD said to him, “I will be with you. And you will destroy the Midianites as if you were fighting against one man.”
William Seymore was an African American preacher who became filled with the Holy Spirit in 1905. He got kicked out of his Church and found an old run down grain store to meet in, in a Los Angeles street called Azusa. He had a lot standing against him. His race, His lack of education, He only had one eye and lots more, but God gave him a harvest! That harvest is still rolling!
2) It’s Ok to Ask questions!
Gideon asked lots of questions and God answered them all.
Often we are told your constant questions are just a lack of faith! But the Lord doesn’t mind us asking questions, especially when the answers give the Lord the opportunity to show his glory!
Jud 6:13 “Sir,” Gideon replied, “if the LORD is with us, why has all this happened to us? And where are all the miracles our ancestors told us about? Didn’t they say, ‘The LORD brought us up out of Egypt’? But now the LORD has abandoned us and handed us over to the Midianites.”14
Jud 6:36 Then Gideon said to God, “If you are truly going to use me to rescue Israel as you promised, 37 prove it to me in this way. I will put some wool on the threshing floor tonight. If the fleece is wet with dew in the morning but the ground is dry, then I will know that you are going to help me rescue Israel as you promised.” 38 And it happened just that way. When Gideon got up the next morning, he squeezed the fleece and wrung out a whole bowlful of water.
39 Then Gideon said to God, “Please don’t be angry with me, but let me make one more request. This time let the fleece remain dry while the ground around it is wet with dew.” 40 So that night God did as Gideon asked. The fleece was dry in the morning, but the ground was covered with dew.
One of my heroes of the faith, the Apostle Thomas was a man who asked lots of questions as well! It was one of these questions that gave rise to the messianic statement “My Lord & my God” imagine if he never questioned, thousands of religious people would still be arguing over whither Jesus was truly Messiah. This statement put it beyond doubt!
In order to reach our harvest, it’s ok to ask questions along the way. God will show forth his glory if we ask!
When we ask God will answer! The biggest problem we have is that we don’t ask!
Desperate people pray desperate prayers
Jud 6V6 Israel cried out to God Israel was reduced to starvation by the Midianites. Then the Israelites cried out to the LORD for help.
The biggest problem we have in the Church is that People don’t ask. The thing about being in a desperate situation is that we finally cry out to God.
The Church is currently starved of God’s glory by the local Midianites. Its becoming desperate! New Zealand is falling in a downward spiral of self righteous banter and irrelevant programs and still we remain unsaved!
We are desperate for some action from God, because frankly the Midianite way hasn’t worked.
Desperate prayer brings a word from God
V7 God sent His word via the prophet. 7 When they cried out to the LORD because of Midian, 8 the LORD sent a prophet to the Israelites. He said, “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: I brought you up out of slavery in Egypt 9 and rescued you from the Egyptians and from all who oppressed you. I drove out your enemies and gave you their land. 10 I told you, ‘I am the LORD your God. You must not worship the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you now live.’ But you have not listened to me.”
When the word comes we need to stop winging and start proclaiming.
Many have been praying for revival for years, constantly crying out to God.
When God sends his word they ignore him! So we remain in bondage to the Midianites
Recently our “Revival Prayer meetings” in Papatoetoe have gone from crying out for a move, to listening to what God is or has said and then we proclaim it with joy! And guess what? God turns up.
When Kathie Walters was here in Auckland she coined a Phrase “Snuggle, don’t struggle” Its time to push in close to the Lord to get His word, not running around hoping that in much doing God will somehow notice us and give us a word.
We have noticed here in Papatoetoe as we draw close to him, He draws close to us! I think I read that somewhere!
He has given us specific words, which have led to amazing answered prayers! Hardly once have we asked for a specific petition, but he has seen the need when we begin to proclaim the word he speaks to us. New Jobs, financial provision, healings, deliverance and releases of Joy are just some of the Answer released, The Midianites are becoming a defeated foe!
The Lord sends His Angel Jud6V11 11 Then the angel of the LORD came and sat beneath the oak tree at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash of the clan of Abiezer. Gideon son of Joash had been threshing wheat at the bottom of a winepress to hide the grain from the Midianites. 12 The angel of the LORD appeared to him and said, “Mighty hero, the LORD is with you!”
Have you ever noticed that when a move of God arrives so do the Angels of God!
Angels and Angelic help are spread all through the Bible from Genesis to revelation.
Dare I say it! There has been an amazing increase in the ministry of Angels in our midst.
Once the people of God have cried out, suddenly there is a heap of Angels waiting to take you into the harvest!
Why is this, such a surprise? Just take a long look at the book of Acts. We receive a bit of flack from the Midianites around us because of Angelic intervention. But the harvest is ready and we are going to eat of its fruit!
Gideon builds an altar of worship! V 22-24 22
When Gideon realized that it was the angel of the LORD, he cried out, “Sovereign LORD, I have seen the angel of the LORD face to face!”23 “It is all right,” the LORD replied. “Do not be afraid. You will not die.” 24 And Gideon built an altar to the LORD there and named it “The LORD Is Peace.”*
The thing about Answered prayer is that people are starting to see the Lord face to face in the Answers and guess what! Worship comes easy. Our people here in Papatoetoe are building Altars in their hearts. Old songs, new songs, acts of sacrifice and love are flowing from the Altar. And flowing from that our people are spontaneously going out into the streets, rest homes, highways and byways full of the joy of the Lord. Not striving, but in the excitement of a revived heart!
Because worship releases faith & enlarges our Spirit.
Gideon went from a man hiding in the winepress, to temple buster, because he worshiped! He was still very much afraid because the move of God was all new to him. But he could now go out and do some stuff in the name of the Lord!
Soon Gideon got more direction from the Lord and the Lord revealed some strategy to him.
Then Gideon began thanking the Lord!
Judges 7:15 When Gideon heard the dream and its interpretation, he thanked God. Then he returned to the Israelite camp and shouted, “Get up! For the LORD has given you victory over the Midianites!”
It’s in the Thanking that the victory comes! They had not yet even come against the Midianites, but already from a thankful heart they proclaimed the victory.
Where is the victory won? In a heart of thankfulness before God! Many moves of God are stifled because men forget where the victory comes from
The rest is history as they say and the name of the Lord was glorified!
Judges 8 : 28 That is the story of how Israel subdued Midian, which never recovered. Throughout the rest of Gideon’s lifetime—about forty years—the land was at peace.
