The Sword Of Deliverance Part 1

This is the first of a two-part teaching on what I call the "Sword of Deliverance," and our working scripture will be taken from Judges 7:16-23. This is the story of Gideon.

“And he divided the three hundred men into three companies and he put a trumpet in every man’s hand with empty pitchers and lamps within the pitchers. And he said unto them Look on me and do likewise and behold when I come to the outside of the camp, it shall be that as I do, so shall ye do. When I blow with a trumpet, I and all that are with me, then blow ye the trumpets also on every side of all the camp and say, The sword of the Lord and of Gideon. So, Gideon and the hundred men that were with him, came unto the outside of the camp in the beginning of the middle watch, and they had but newly set the watch and they blew the trumpets and brake the pitchers that were in their hands. And the three companies blow the trumpets and brake the pitchers and held the lamps in their left hands and the trumpets in their right hands to blow withal; and they cried, The sword of the Lord, and of Gideon. And they stood every man in his place round about the camp: and all the host ran and cried and fled. And the three hundred blew the trumpets and the Lord set every man’s sword against his fellow even throughout all the host: and the host fled to Bethshittah in Zererath and to the border of Abemeholah unto Tabboth. And the men of Israel gathered themselves together out of Naphtali and out of Asher and out of all Manasseh and pursued after the Midianites.”

The book of Judges is a fantastic book to read. You will notice that in this book, God was put at the last position while human beings put themselves at the first position and generally when things are organized that way, problems inevitably come. Because of this ungodly arrangement, problems started and the children of Israel were suffering. The suffering was so much that after they have planted and they were about to reap the harvest their enemies, the Midianites would come and spoil everything. It got so bad that they could not find them preparing food if they should they would be harassed. At a time, Gideon was somewhere, trying to prepare some level of food and he was hiding to do it for the fear of the enemy.

While he was busy doing this, the angel of God stood by and said, “The Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valour”. Gideon said, ‘Angel, come. Don’t deceive me. Which peace are you talking about? Don’t you see what I am doing here? I am hiding here because if they find me, I will be in trouble. Where are all the miracles our fathers recorded? The angel said, Okay, so you are wise. Go in this your might and deliver Israel. That was how Gideon took over the mantle of delivering his people from the oppression of the Midianites. Here, you see him in one of his favorite battles where the sword was used. They called out two swords: the sword of the Lord and that of Gideon and when the sword of the Lord came out, the enemies cried, ran, and started to fight themselves with their own sword. So shall it be for your enemies in the name of Jesus. The sword as a weapon of warfare has won so many battles. Through the sword of men, men have created and destroyed empires. The sword has also been used for aggressive warfare and also for protection. Let us begin a small bible study on the sword of the bible then you will understand what I am saying better. In the Garden of Eden, Adam and eve misbehaved. They disobeyed God and God drove them out of the garden.

So God did something in Gen. 3:24. “So He drove out the man and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword which turned every way to keep the way of the tree of life”.

Adam and Eve were driven out of the Garden. And an angel protected it with an interesting sword which the Bible called an interesting sword this particular, sword. The Bible says it is called a “flaming sword that turned every way”.

A brother was living in a very demonized house. When he moved into that house, there were two herbalists living there. The first thing he noticed was that the two herbalists were two quarreling over customers . One would be accusing the other for taking his customers. So they fought and eventually, the more powerful won, and the other ran out of the house, leaving the stronger one and the brother. So the herbalist switched his fighting gear to this brother by complaining about his right vigils and his mode of prayers. Because the brother refused to stop praying, war started. One night, this herbalist decided to change into something else and went into the brother’s room. When he got there, he saw the greatest film show of his life! Surrounding the brother was a sword of fire turning in every direction; every direction; and this herbalist was so amazed that he stood there and watched the brother till day break:. And here was our brother snoring away; not knowing there was somebody there wanting to destroy him. The herbalist had no choice than to bow to the brother’s source of superior power for he was forced to narrate to the brother what he saw in his room the previous night.