"Behold I dreamed a dream; and, lo, a cake of barley bread tumbled into the camp of Midian, and came to the tent, and struck it so that it fell, and turned it upside down, so that the tent lay flat."
Judges 7:13b
BLANCHE REYNOLDS
KINGDOM VOICE MINISTRIES
END-TIME MINISTRY
TO THE BODY OF CHRIST
INTRODUCTION
This book is about God's dealing with fear. So often we don't identify our root problem immediately because of the extenuating circumstances that we are involved in.
Gideon had a need. The people were starving and there was no food available for the people to eat. That was the immediate problem, but the underlying root was his fear of Midian. God's mercy, in allowing him to work through his problem, shows us the kindness and love of our Heavenly Father.
Gideon's name meant he was a "destroyer, a deliverer." His name represented his character and nature, but he was not walking in its authority. Fear was keeping him bound. It is good to consider here, since we know that man likely does more because of fear than because of love or any other emotion. God had to expose fear and let Gideon walk through each stage of it.
The Strong's Concordance describes two kinds of fear: Fear: Prime root: To be apprehensive of evil. To be afraid. To feel anxiety on account of some expected evil. To be timid: wanting courage. Awful; state of being afraid. Terror.
The other kind of fear is described as awe (I.E.) to stand in awe. To revere. This kind of fear demands obedience and discipline on the believers part. When your Godly reverence becomes more precious to you than the power of fear, when you make the decision to serve God first -- then in His mercy you deal with your emotions. Proverbs 15:16 says, "Better is little with the fear of the Lord than great treasure and trouble there with." The Hebrew word for fear here is yarah. It means to reverence, to trust. Exodus 14:31 says, "When the people saw the great works of God they trembled and believed."
The other word for fear in Hebrew is pacbad. It means tremble, to be in trepidation. Isaiah 12:2 says. "While fear can make a man tremble, trust in the Lord will save a man from fear." If God inspires terror that will lead one to trust and reverence Him. Then such terror becomes a blessing. Disobedience had caused Israel's problem. Obedience set them free. I pray this message will be a tool to each reader in identifying and dealing with our emotions.
Blanche Reynolds
Kingdom Voice Ministries
THE BARLEY LOAF IN THE CAMP
The church is in a maturing process. We are maturing and overcoming obstacles as we learn to live in the Spirit as the joint heirs of Jesus Christ. We are learning things that build strength in us that are going to propel and protect us in this end-time hour.
God's written Word was given to encourage us. It allows us to see our need and causes us to understand the humanness of mankind. Through His Word, we realize that when we are depending on God, He gives us authority and dominion over the things that would control us in the natural.
In the book of Judges, the 7th chapter, we remember the story of Gideon. Gideon means "the destroyer." When God called Gideon, the Israelites had been given over to the hand of Midian. Because of their rebellion, God turned them over to strife. Midian means "strife." God had allowed them to be controlled by the Midianites for seven years.
Every time the Israelites planted their grain, the Midianites turned their cattle loose in the fields. Nothing was allowed to mature. Food, the sustenance of life, became very meager to them. They had even lost their homes. It says it was as though the cattle and the herds of the Midianites were without number. They came down upon them and took over their houses and lands and forced the children of Israel to live in the hills and caves.
When we disobey God's Word and think we can do everything ourselves and leave God out of our lives, we are going to reap what we sow. With this understanding, we see the situation was very grievous. Everyone of us have had a few years of Midian strife in our life. In our own ignorance, we have tried to function and overcome problems, to no avail. However, when we met Jesus Christ, things changed.
We heard a Word that we could hold on to that was life in the midst of all the death, yet we seemed to be occupied and controlled in this death. However, in the power of Jesus' life, we began to see the Glory and the very presence of God in our life. He had a way prepared, a clear road, a highway to Holiness. When the conditions of God are met and His Divine Order is in our life, the blessings of God are without number. Just as much as strife had abounded, in Christ Jesus, the blessings of God abound. The church is in a stage of growing and maturing as we learn to depend upon the Word of Almighty God. God's Word requires obedience on our part.
Here was Gideon, his name meaning "destroyer." He was a deliverer of Israel. Where was he when God was calling him? He was under the wine press shucking out a little corn, trying to deliver and feed the people. Gideon was doing what he knew to do. There was an ability within him, and an urgency to try to help his brethren. However, Gideon was so bound up by the fear and strife that surrounded him in the natural, all he was able to do was to try to feed the hungry with the little bit of corn he could gather. You may say, "Well that's good," but there's a lot more than just living under the wine press shucking out corn.
There's a place in God of trust, faith, and dependence on Truth. God has spoken a word to everyone and it's life in the midst of us. It's like eating a sacrifice and having the taste of the lamb in your mouth. You know what it is to be sustained in the power of Truth.
So God began to speak to Gideon in the 7th chapter of Judges. Despite what he was surrounded by and all the pressures of the situation, Gideon wanted to obey the Lord in all that he could do. Remember how he put the fleeces out? We've all done that in our time of growing, yet God didn't fire us for our lack of faith or mistrust. God just kept working and talking to us until growth came forth in our life. We have seen the ground wet and the fleece dry and vice versa in our prayer time of seeking God in situations. We've called upon Him and wanted our life ordered of Him. In the limited amount of knowledge that we have had, we've done what we knew to do, just like Gideon.
How often have we answered God's call through the eyes of self-pity? Like Gideon who said, "O Lord, how can I deliver Israel? Behold my clan is the poorest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my Father's house." (Judges 6:15) Manasseh means "forgetting all the toil in my father's house." This was a character and nature of the Manasseh tribe. They were known by what their name implied, as having that nature of personality.
God spoke to Gideon and said, "Go to your father's house and pull down the Asherah," that god of Baal that was worshiped there through sacrifices. Baal and the character of the idol was varied by the different nations that worshiped him. He was primarily worshiped as the sun god. The word signifies also lord or commander. Baal represented all the mixture in the nations to which Israel had come into bondage. In the very house of Gideon's father, such a thing existed.
God told Gideon to take his father's seven year old bull, seven being the number of completeness, and sacrifice him there. He was told to pull down the Asherah, that altar of Baal, and take wood and lay the sacrifice in order upon it. So the angel of the Lord spoke to him and what did Gideon do? He ran home, killed a sacrifice, boiled it and went back and laid it before the angel. God knew this man was going to do what he religiously knew to do. Isn't that what you would have done if you had a visitation from God?
However, God was speaking more than this. This man was going to have to step out into faith and stop letting fear minister to him. When the enemy is approaching you and all you've known is frustration, fear, hunger, and lack, that is what is going to be ministering there. These things become like a strong wall or a high tower. The circumstances of life are going to come in and surround like a flood when the enemy seeks to defeat you, and the enemy knows that. God is ready for you to graduate into a higher realm of faith, into a greater understanding of who you really are in Christ Jesus.
The Lord is working with each of us and He knows the situations in our lives. He knows the weaknesses of our bloodline, the things visited to us from the curses of our ancestors who have walked in rebellion. God knows the iniquity we have been shaped in and He also knows the perfect blood of His Son Jesus. He knows the perfect blood that was sacrificed and sprinkled on the covenant of heaven to make a way for us to be set free from the bondage of death our ancestors visited upon us. So God is working with each one of us as we allow Him.
Gideon was commanded to carry out the Word of God. God is calling a people to carry out His Word. Not just to know His Word, but to become it, too. We are acting upon Truth and in Truth we are being established. Because of Truth, we are reigning in life.
Gideon pulled down the altar of Baal at night. The fear in him was still so strong that he couldn't do it in the daylight where everyone could run at him and yell for him to quit. In the morning when the men of the city saw what had taken place, they began to accuse him. However, his father, Joash, stood up for him and the situation began to turn around. Joash means "God-given." Out of what is God-given, Gideon, "the destroyer" comes forth. Joash called Gideon Jerubbaal, which means "he contended with Baal."
The Midianites, the Amalekites and the people of the east came together and crossed over the Jordan and camped in the valley of Jezreel, which means "the seed of God." That is just what that old sly fox, the devil, wants to do. He wants to camp in the midst of your land and cause all kinds of havoc. He wants to disturb your peace. He wants to cause you to be fearful, full of anxiety and stress. Things that would cause you to be in a shadow so you couldn't see the true light of Jesus.
But, Glory to God, the Lord clothed Gideon. The Holy Ghost came upon him and covered him. The Spirit of the Lord is our covering too! It says in Judges 6:34 that "the Lord clothed Gideon with Himself and took possession of him. "When you start obeying the Word of God, then the Spirit of the Lord is going to cover you. He is going to clothe you with Himself. When you start recognizing the power of God and the Truth of who you are in Christ Jesus and expecting God to minister to your every need, then He has fully taken possession of you.
What happened after the Lord took possession of Gideon? Gideon blew a trumpet. He sounded the alarm and alerted the people with a call to war, a call to obedience. The trumpet is symbolic of the Word of Truth. When you get in that place where God can bring obedience and discipline in you, the seed of God, and the Spirit of the Lord clothes you, there's going to be a trumpet sound. It's the most normal, natural thing you can do. The love of God and the flowing of Truth brings forth the Word of life, because you are in Him and He is in you. Despite all the fear that had been so powerful in him, Gideon began to move in the anointing, because the Lord had called and prepared him.
In the 7th chapter of Judges, we have Gideon, "the destroyer," being called Jerubbaal. Jerubbaal means "like a lord." Baal means "lord." So Gideon is called "The Lord Destroyer." "And all the people who were with him arose early and encamped beside the spring of Harod." Harod means "fear." This was a spring that was boiling up, but notice they weren't in the midst of the water. They had camped beside it. There was a time when fear possessed, yet now when God spoke, He begins to camp beside it. "And the camp of Midian, which means "strife," was north of them, by the hill of Moreh, in the valley." Moreh means "a teacher." When fear and strife abound, God has a teacher ready to bring you forth. God doesn't set you up to fail. You're ready to graduate. When the crisis comes to you, its time to pass the test. In the midst of all of this, the test had begun.
Gideon was going to be what his name was --the Destroyer. You think your name is an accident? Oh, no, you've got a name that is precious and wonderful. I believe that every person's name is God given. It's not just a good idea in your mother's or father's mind. I believe it was a work of the Holy Ghost and everyone of us are going to be what our name means.
This name, "the destroyer," was being brought into the fullness of it's intention. God was doing a work so man would be known by the character and nature of the name he carried. You know the Name you got at Calvary don't you? It was Jesus. It is a new Name and at that Name "every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess." Every demon in hell has to obey that Name. According to Isaiah 54:5, you're like Mrs. Lord of Hosts! You stand in the power, dominion, and strength because that Name belongs to you. It's your birthright. It's a union. It's the Bride company.
You are one in Christ Jesus and His Name becomes your name. We have to be what our name implies. That's the character, the nature, and what we're known by. We've got to be what we say we are. You can't be a witness for Jesus on Sunday and Wednesday and the devil's witness the rest of the week. Your character and nature, what you are known by, is the Name of Jesus.
If you are a Christian, you have the Name of Jesus. It is yours by birthright as an inheritor of the kingdom. In that Name, every principality and power that comes against you must be removed. In the authority of that Name, you have the anointing and dominion to pull down everything that sets itself against Truth. The Lord is teaching us to come into the authority of our Namesake. It's called deliverance. This man Gideon, the destroyer, was a deliverer and a judge in Israel. He was judging between that which is right and that which was wrong.
The Lord said to Gideon in Judges 7:2, "The people who are with you are too many for Me to give the Midianites into their hand, lest Israel boast about themselves against Me, saying, My own hand has delivered me." Many times the Lord gets us down to that zero factor in our crisis so we know that it's only the Word of Almighty God and the power of His covenant that has brought us forth. God is not going to let you boast and stand in the pride of your own ego and arrogance of who you think you are. This man, who had been controlled by fear and all the strife in his environment, was now being taught a way of life. No matter where he was he could stand because God was his source. That is what the Lord is doing with us. He's giving us wisdom, knowledge, and understanding of our source, the Truth, the Life, the Way. His Name is Jesus.
God said they might think they had delivered themselves. He said in verse 3, "So now proclaim in the ears of the men, saying, Whoever is fearful and trembling, let him turn back and depart from Mount Gilead." Gilead is "like a rocky place." If a person is standing on a rocky place, he is standing uneven. He may stand there balanced and hold his weight up, but he's not on a clear, firm foundation. God said, "let him turn back and depart from Mount Gilead," this rocky place where they all had not learned to stand yet. It says that 10,000 remained. Ten is the number of responsibility, like the Ten Commandments.
Continuing in verse 4, "And the Lord said to Gideon, The men are still too many; bring them down to the water (symbolic of the anointing), and I will test them for you there; and he of whom I say to you, This man shall go with you, shall go with you; and he of whom I say to you, This man shall not go with you; shall not go. So he brought the men down to the water." He brought them right to the anointing. The Lord brings us to that place to see who we are in Him.
Continuing in verse 5, "And the Lord said to Gideon, Every one who laps up the water with his tongue as a dog laps it, you shall set by himself." This is showing us that there is a measurement of the anointing. The anointing of God is not going to be adulterated. It is not going to be full of greed, selfishness, or an animal impulse, not looking with discernment, but gobbling all it can. God is the source of life and love, which must flow.
The anointing separates the opinions of man. The instincts we are bound in are exposed because the anointing brings us to the fullness and fulfillment of life, the vision and example of God.
Continuing in verse 6, "And the number of those who lapped, putting their hand to their mouth, were 300 men." Those that bowed down on their knees to drink, not looking around for the enemy to approach, but getting all they could get at their convenience were set aside. This is speaking of being satisfied and not committed to being in God's army where we are to be an alert witness. We are not to be just selfishly satisfying ourselves. Just as the Lord was separating these men, that is what the anointing will do.
The 300 chosen men put their hand to their mouth. The hand is symbolic of the fivefold ministry of the prophets, apostles, teachers, evangelists, and pastors. This fivefold ministry is what God chooses to flow His anointing through to bring His body to maturity. They were set in the church, the ecclesia, the called out ones. Through each of these, the water was lifted up by the hand, symbolic of the containment of the anointing. As the hand held the water to sustain life and to quench thirst, the anointing of the Father is the way of God in our life. We are going to have understanding and the anointing will flow, when we are obedient and disciplined to His Word. The anointing is in the midst of us as a way of containment by the Lord Jesus Christ. This is God's plan, but when we get out of God's plan, we are going to malfunction. When man seeks to build his own kingdom with his own legalities, and puts his opinions on the people, he causes them to be further bruised in the legalism of his doctrines instead of being free in the liberty of the Holy Ghost, the discipline of Truth. When you seek to obey the Lord your God and you come into His presence, the ministry of the anointing, our inheritance will bring true deliverance. The Word of God delivers you. In our mouth, deliverance comes through Jesus' Name.
There were 300 men who lapped the water by putting their hand to their mouth. That is a hundred fold three times. Could it be speaking of the Trinity? The 100 fold is symbolic of total completeness and perfection.
Continuing in verse 7, "And the Lord said to Gideon, "By the 300 men who lapped I will deliver you." When we do things God's way with a disciplined life of seeking and crying out to Him, we are delivered. He said, "I'll give the Midianites into your hand." The Midianites were from the families of the Philistines. There were five lords of the Philistines, each having their own city.
The first lord was Ashdad which means "a ravager." The next lord was Asklelon which means "weighing or keeping score." This is what Midian operated in. Everybody weighing vengeance, keeping score. It's the idea of "I'm going to have all that belongs to me and I want it right now." The next lord of the city of this land of the Philistines was Ekron, which means "to tread down or to be your going down." That is exactly what all these things are set to do against the Body.
The next lord and city was Gath, which means "a wine press." The wine press puts pressure on the grapes. It causes you to lose your identity. The next king that the enemy brings in with all his strife is Avim, which means "to get ahead of God." These were the lords that controlled the cities of Midian with all its strife and the Philistines were the avengers. This is what God had given Israel over to.
As the enemy had five lords, God has His fivefold ministry for you and me to come into the fullness of Truth. Through the Word of God, as the five fold ministry is evidenced in the Body, the people in their obedience to God will be delivered from all the powers of the enemy.
Just like the Midianite company was destroyed, the Lord God will also put the five Philistine lords under our feet. We are not going to be bound by the ravager when we are in obedience to the Lord. The enemy is not going to cause you to be so greedy and selfish that you're weighing and keeping score. When you do, that you are not giving out and flowing in the anointing, but you are selfish and exalted in yourself.
God is not going to allow you to be pressured in all the tangible senses of tension, stress, anxiety, and depression who's end result is insanity or total loss of mind. These things must be understood. The five fold ministry of the Lord is not going to allow you to get ahead of God. Some people get a little bit of knowledge and they don't have the understanding. They go out and do damage. If they had waited on God and understood the unction of the Holy Spirit, and let God get the Body ready for the ministry, then He would flow through them.
So many times people run ahead of God because they think they have the answers, yet they are not praying and seeking God. When the fivefold ministry is settled in the Body, they are going to let you walk in the Spirit, move in that anointing, and bring forth a many membered Body. This will be a Body that is delivered and set free because God's Word does all that He sent it to do. Praise the Lord, God has His 300, His 100 fold three times. Just as the anointing was there for Gideon, so this is an example for us.
God told Gideon, "I will deliver you and give the Midianites into your hand." When you no longer operate in fear, but operate in Truth, you have the Word of God which sets you free. There couldn't be any mixture in that hour when God began to move. That is what is happening now. The fivefold ministry in the Body is exposing the mixture which is being removed in the Name of Jesus.
Continuing in verse 8, "so the people took provisions in their hand, (symbolic of service), and their trumpets; (symbolic of a certain sound), and he sent all the rest of Israel every man to his home." The fivefold ministry brings a clear Word, the sound of an alarm, alerting the Body. "Three hundred men stayed and the host of Midian was below him in the valley." We need to look at this by the Spirit. Your enemy has not changed. He is still there blowing his hot breath through your windows and doors every time he can. He was there when Gideon was making preparations for their deliverance. Everyone of us is in the midst of the crisis and the circumstances of life. Midian is still in battle array on the valley floor. The things of the enemy are still trying to pound and bombard your life.
It is only when you turn your eyes on Jesus and start reaching towards Him that you are able to stand. God is not going to take you out of the circumstances. He's going to refine you in them. You are not going to be lost. You are not going to stand there or run in fear or camp by the fear. You are going to stand in the Glory of Truth and you are going to see your enemies put under our feet. That includes all five of the Philistine lords, too. They will disappear because the Word of God in your life brings deliverance. We are not defeated. We are winners in this end time hour and all the hosts of hell are below us. God has given us understanding in His Word that we will overcome all the powers of death. This death realm is the last enemy to go and it is time to put it under your feet and move out in God.
The Lord told Gideon in verse 9, "Arise, go down against their camp, for I have given it into your hand." That sounds great, but here they were with such a small number in comparison with their enemy. Do we have that unction, that anointing, and that understanding that all our enemies are going to be defeated no matter what the circumstances appear to be? Sometimes we get all excited in a few things, but God means for us to be excited about it all.
God says to Gideon in verse 10, "But if you fear to go down, go with Purah your servant down to the camp." That is God in His mercy. He knows when you are afraid. He is not going to put you where the enemy can run his steamroller over you. He is going to put you where you are going to use the authority given you and cast him out in the Name of Jesus.
God told Gideon to go with Purah, his servant. Purah means "like a branch or bough." God was giving Gideon something he could lean on, like Jesus. Jesus is the true vine and the Father is the vine dresser. We are the branches in Him. We are in Him and He is in us. We can lean on Him in every circumstance. Jesus is all that we need. He is our source of strength and life unto us. He laid down His life for us so we might receive eternal life.
Continuing in verse 11, "And you shall hear what they say, and afterward your hands shall be strengthened to go down against the camp. Then he went down with Purah his servant to the outposts of the camp of the armed men." This is a picture of some of us after we come to the Lord. We see the battle ahead and we are learning to walk in the Word. We understand that Jesus Christ is the author and finisher of our faith, but God wants us not only to understand the Word, but to become the Word. In our limited understanding we have had to abide by our circumstances until we could get in there and drive our enemy out.
God never failed us in those times. He never walked away and said, "What's the use? He always forgave us and picked us up. He always cared for us and kept us. He has always allowed us that second chance. His mercy endures forever. Sometimes when you can't abide, all you can do is cry out for God's mercy. It is in this crying out to God that things begin to fall in place and you can begin to depend on the Lord. There may still be times when we have to have the servant go with us because God is still doing a work in our hearts.
God spoke the Word, and they had to walk in it. These men were going to have to get close to the enemy to hear what they were saying. Even though the Lord allowed them to go down in the covering of the night at the change of the watch, it was going to take an unction of faith on their part to trust God enough. Right there where the next step would be in their enemies' face, yet Gideon had to be obedient to the Lord. God is not raising a bunch of hundred pound weaklings. When the devil comes and kicks sand in your face, you are going to get up and rise up against him and command him to go. The perfecting in the midst of our crisis and trial is building our strength. In the culture of our land, when a man is wealthy and has a high position in the community, we think he is great and wonderful. We put a lot of stock in him and what he says, but God doesn't do that.
When God is shaping and building a man so that he will be strong and great, He's putting him through the crisis. When I see somebody that has got problems going on in their life, I get excited because I know God is picking Him out a man. I know that God is shaping, molding, and making him ready so that he will stand the crisis of time. That man will not be wounded or fall by the wayside when the enemy comes.
We are on a countdown. This age is about to end. God is about to usher in His millennium. We are an overlapping generation. We are standing in dominion and authority. The Word of God is being revealed and we are a people who are being sealed in God. That old beast nature is trying to control and take the mind with the New Age concept. Many things are coming at our minds through the power of divination. We, as children of God, must begin to recognize and turn away from things that might look so right but only contaminate, bewitch and beguile.
The Lord is saying, "I'm calling My Body to put on my Mind. I'm calling them to look with My eyes at their situation." If you come through the crisis and don't know how to depend on God and you haven't won a few battles, Beloved, you are going to fall down in the midst of the crisis. You are not going to hear or know what God is saying to you.
It is time. The trumpet sound, the call to war by God who is a man of war, is going forth. There is a champion arising and he is, a many-membered Body. Jesus Christ is the head of that Body and we are going to be like Him. We are going to stand in His image and we are not going to faint, be weary, or fall down. Our body is not a corrupted body. Our body is alive and it is endued with power and the Glory of God is filling this earth.
Verse 12 of Judges 7 tells about the Amalekites which are symbolic of the flesh, and the Midianites which stands for strife in the flesh. This flesh dwelled in the valley. It says, "And the Midianites and the Amalekites and all the sons of the East lay along the valley like locusts for multitude; and their camels were without number, as the sand on the seashore for multitude." When you are about to cross over out of that death realm into a greater knowledge of life, and your eyes are opened to what your enemy is doing, it is going to look just like that. You cannot turn and look back, you must move on in God. When you keep your eyes on Jesus, your enemies will fall before you.
Continuing in verse 13, "When Gideon arrived, behold, a man was telling a dream to his comrade; and he said, Behold, I dreamed a dream; and, lo, a cake of barley bread tumbled into the camp of Midian, and came to the tent, and struck it so that it fell, and turned it upside down, so that the tent lay flat. And his comrade replied, "This is nothing else but the sword of Gideon son of Joash (God gives) a man of Israel. Into his hand God has given Midian and all the host."
The Lord is saying in these verses that when we look at our situation and our enemy is coming towards us, it looks as if there is no way out. Beloved, outside of God, there is no way out. Only God's hand can move in our situation and only if we keep our eyes on Jesus. It is then that the Lord our God makes a way where there seems to be no way.
When we come to a situation and our heart is broken, our hands seem to be feeble, we can't give forth, and we can't get any relief from what is going on, God has an understanding of Truth that He is trying to teach us. God knows how to get our attention, Beloved.
Here was Gideon, a man who had been full of fear. He had to overcome that fear and trust God. He trusted God with the fleece being damp and then dry. God knew the fear in this man. Pulling down the Asherah in his father's house and sacrificing his seven year old bull at night because he was not brave enough to do it out in the open of daylight. God knew all the limitations in Gideon, but God in His mercy still called him forth to become His Deliverer, the destroyer of His enemies in that hour.
When God chose this plan, He saw to it that Gideon heard this dream of the Midianite. In his dream was the barley cake. Barley usually ripens before the wheat when it is planted. It is called a first-fruit crop, which is what we are to dedicate and give to the Lord.
Notice this barley was in a loaf of bread. This barley had been refined on the threshing floor. It had been winnowed and separated from the chaff. This barley had been taken to the place where it was pounded to make flour. All this is speaking in shadows and types of the humanity of Jesus Christ. He is the perfect example. He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. He laid down His life and became our sin, our Deliverer. Jesus went to Calvary and gave His life so you and I might have eternal life. (Isaiah 53:2-10)
We must get to the place in Jesus where the Lord our God is in the midst of us and we are in Him so we allow the consecration, the sacrifice, the plan of God to take place in our life. Like bread prepared God's way - -blended, refined, baked -- a progressive work in us. God is making bread. Jesus is the Bread of Life.
What did the loaf of bread do? It tumbled right into the camp of Midian into the midst of all that strife. The enemy was standing in battle array and here comes that loaf of bread rolling on to the tent. God wants you to know that you in Him and Him in you is going to strike everything the enemy is established in so that it will fall.
God is going to let you see in the midst of your troubles. He is going to let you see everything your enemy is established in, the fortifications, the strongholds and the place where the enemy lays down to sleep. God's going to let you know the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end and everything that is in between. When God sets out to deliver a man, He calls him according to His purpose, He grafts him and makes him ready to walk in total victory. God has His way of letting us understand that all things are done in Him.
The barley loaf struck the tent where the enemy was established, his covering where he thought he was secure. The Lord is going to see that your enemy falls before you. It turned the tent upside down so everything that was hidden would have to be revealed. The Lord will reveal things to you when you come to Him and allow the refining of the Holy Spirit, the gifted nature. Seeking God allows the gifts to operate in your life. God then begins the task of showing us that His arm is not short, His eyes are not dim, and His hand is Mighty upon us.
In the 14th verse of Judges 7, the comrade replied, "This is nothing else but the sword of Gideon." The sword is symbolic of the Word. Since Gideon means destroyer, we have the sword of the destroyer. Gideon was the son of Joash, which means "God given." Your enemy knows God has given him into your hand and he knows when you find that out, he's got to go. God gave Midian into Gideon's hand.
Continuing in verse 15 "When Gideon heard the telling of the dream and its interpretation, he worshiped." When you recognize that God is in control, thanksgiving will fall upon you. Worship comes when we surrender to the knowledge that God is on our side. He is our source and He is working all things together for our good to those that love Him and are called according to His purpose. God leaves nothing out. When He begins to move in our life, it excites us to worship. The joy of the Lord is our strength. He is moving us into a place where we will overcome every obstacle of the death realm.
When Gideon heard the interpretation of the dream, he worshiped the Lord. When this happened, it says in verse 15 that Gideon returned to the camp of Israel. Once worship and new understanding come in together, you are going to "arise" as Gideon said, "For the Lord has given into your hand the host of Midian." The knowledge of who you are in Christ Jesus brings this surge of confidence and lack of fear.
Continuing in verse 16, "And he divided the 300 men into three companies, and he put into the hands (the fivefold ministry) of all them trumpets." The certain sound of the trumpet sends the alarm and message to the people. Everyone who heard it would know what God was about to say or do. When the children of Israel came out of the wilderness and heard the sound of the trumpet, they knew if it was a call to war, a call to assemble at the door of meeting, or time to pull up the stakes and move on to another place. The sound of the trumpet became the call to obey.
Gideon was moving under the unction of the Holy Spirit when he put the trumpet into their hands (the fivefold ministry) of the 300 men, that hundred-fold, three times. They also were given empty pitchers, ready to be filled. The Lord is saying,"I'm ready to fill you up in a knowledge and an understanding of me." Inside the pitchers were torches. That empty pitcher was now filled with light. That is what the Lord is doing with us. Once we begin to move in the unction, authority, and dominion of the Holy Spirit and realize God has been garrisoned before us, suddenly we begin to say, "Wow, Lord! You have given our enemy over into our hand. We win, the victory is ours."
The message has been written on our hearts. The Word of the Lord is in our mouth. Our eyes see, our ears hear, our mouth is speaking, and we are moving forward in the things of God. Victory belongs to every believer. Like things that never change, the sand of the sea shore, the enemy without number, his camels like locusts everywhere, the situation remains the same. When your heart and mind are lifted up in Christ Jesus, and you are seeking God and allowing the Holy Ghost to reveal to you things about yourself so He can make you ready for the things to come, then the Lord your God in the midst of you is YOUR DELIVERER. Deliverance comes and everything that is in the midst of you that needs to be made perfect and complete is exposed so you can deal with yourself in Jesus' Name.
Gideon says in the 17th verse, "Look at me." God's blessings are going to flow when we get the Divine Order right. Discipline or obedience lets God's blessings flow. When you choose to obey the Word of God in the midst of your crisis, His blessings will overflow and overtake you, and the victory will come.
Gideon was telling them, "Look at me," because you have to keep your eyes on your Deliverer. You can neither look to the right nor to the left. Your problems are going to jump up in your face. Situations of "I can't" and "Oh, what will happen if I don't." All kinds of things begin to minister to the mind, but God has spoken that we, as His children, MUST KEEP OUR EYES ON HIM. Gideon said, "Look at me, then do likewise." The image and pattern for our life is Jesus Christ and He kept his eyes on the cross. He knew as they were entering the garden to take Him, that Calvary was the next step. He knew that all the ages waited for this final decree to take place. God could finish the work and end this age of the law and usher in the age of grace. Jesus was the 33 year old overlap that brought it into being. He settled the matter. He finished the work. He gave you and I an entrance into God's plan of perfection and completeness that we would never wear out, grow old, or stop living. He gave us immortality, eternal purpose, and the discipline to finish the work.
The way of God requires a change on our part. We cannot just look at the Bible, then lay it on the table and walk away. We have got to walk it out. We have got to become what the Word says.
Gideon told them, "When I come to the edge of their camp, do as I do." You are ready to graduate from your problem and crisis when the Lord births His Word within you and you do battle with your enemy. You are not going to stand there and just gaze at the situation any more. You are going to move on in. When you get to the edge of it, you are not going to waver, but you are going all the way in the Lord with the truth, grace, and mercy of Jesus. God's love is in the midst of you and He is preparing you for victory in everything that concerns you.
The carnal mind and this fleshly realm will try to pull you back to the powers of death, destruction, and the weaknesses that would render you a helpless person. God is grooming an army. He is calling it into being. He is making a people ready who will stand in this evil day when darkness abounds. The situations of life today are beyond our ability to understand with the natural mind. The Lord has given us "the power of an endless and an indestructible life." A mind in Him, a way of life, a victory that will cause us to live forever in Him. Just as Gideon told his men to do as he did, we must never stop doing or becoming the will of God.
Gideon says in verse 18, "When I blow the trumpet, I and all who are with me, then you blow the trumpets." That certain sound is going to come out of you. You are going to know the voice of the Lord. You are going to know the call of victory and the sound of war. You are not backing up because you know the Lord your God has given the enemy into your hand. God has done everything to bring you to that place of victory.
Gideon said, "You blow the trumpets also on every side of all the camp, and shout, For the Lord and for Gideon!" Leaving nothing out, no places for your enemy to slip through, no gaps in the breeches. The Lord your God has mended every bridge. The way to move on in Him was here at the foundation of the world. When you move on into the things of God, the victory, and the Glory of God is in the midst of you.
Continuing in verse 19, "So Gideon and the 100 men who were with him came to the outskirts of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch, when the guards had just been changed." They didn't wait until everybody was tired, but they went in the middle watch, after the changing of the guards who were well rested. It says when they were just ready to take their place to hold their stronghold, "They blew the trumpets and smashed the pitchers that were in their hands."
Can't you see it now? All of a sudden a burst of light and that certain sound that was a call to war. Glory to God, the Lord your God has given your enemy into your hand and you will never have to guess about it again. There in the midst of the battle, the victory and the vision of the plan of God is completed in you.
It says in verse 20, "The three companies blew the trumpets, and shattered the pitchers." We see a picture of obedience, discipline, no more slack, and nobody lagging behind. There is nobody thinking anything but to shout for the Lord and for Gideon. The enemy has come, but I'm following the leader. I'm following my Lord and my God. He has given me a way where there seemed to be no way. He has caused my steps to be made right, and given vision and purpose. He has given me a plan of redemption, the plan of justification. The plan is to cause His Body to become a part of Him so we might rule and reign with Him forever.
The men were "holding the torches in their left hands, and in their right hands their trumpets to blow leaving no chance to use swords." The Lord is your vindicator. He will cause your enemies to flee and run and annihilate themselves. When a man depends on God, God doesn't short change him. God gives him Truth, Glory and the vision to carry it out.
"And they cried, The sword for the Lord and Gideon! They stood every man in his place round about the camp, and all the [Midianite] army ran; they cried out and fled." When you are in that place in God where you know that you know that you know, then you begin to see God move mightily. You are no longer on the edge of the issue, you are in the midst of it.
The battle is raging and yet it says every man stood in his place. God's Word is calling for a discipline in you. You are not a renegade. You are not running ahead of God, nor are you lagging behind. You are not going to the left or to the right, but standing in that straight and narrow plan God has made for you. You are standing there because God has commanded you to stand, and in standing, the victory is yours.
Continuing in verse 22, "When [Gideon's men] blew the 300 trumpets, the Lord set every [Midianite's] sword against his comrade and against all the army; and the army fled as far as Bethshittah toward Zererah, as far as the border of Abelmeholah, by Tabbath." Bethshittah means "the house of trouble." That is the only place your enemy is going to run to. He is going right back into all that trouble he provoked. He is going right back into the pit he came from because your enemy is doomed to flee from you.
Bethshittah was facing towards Zererah which means "a place of cooling." Abelmeholah means "the meadow of the dance." When God begins to move, you are going to see your enemies cringing and running in a frenzy before you. In that house of trouble, that place of cooling, God sends your enemies into the outer darkness of the dry places. When he has no place in you, he must go back to where he came from.
Continuing in verse 23, "And the men of Israel were called together out of Naphtali," which means "wrestling unto victory." It had been a wrestling time and God had called those sons of Israel who had contended and sought the Lord. God had called them all out together. It says they pursued after Midian, the strife. The Word of God says, "we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers and rulers of high places." Glory to God, the Lord gives our enemies into our hands.
God also gave them Ashur which means "happiness." When you see your enemy begin to flee before you, there is going to be a smile on your face. God gave them all of Manasseh which means "forgetting all the toil of my Father's house." Once your enemy has gone out of your sight, you can lay aside the wounds and let your mind get healed. You can let your body line up with the Word and know the Lord our God is your deliverer. There are no scars or bruises left on your mind because of failures, sadness, hurts, and pains of former desolations. Instead there is sweet victory on your mind because you know Jesus and you are on His mind.
Jesus is the resurrection. He is the firstborn of the dead. (Rev. 1:5) Like the barley loaf rolled into the camp, Jesus Christ is the risen Lord. He brings the victory because He is the Word of Life. I John 3:2 says, "It does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when He doth appear, we shall be like Him." It says, "Now we are the sons of God." How do we become the sons of God? Romans 8:14 says, "all that are lead by the Spirit of God are the sons of God." Romans 8:2 says, "For the law of the Spirit of life [which is] in Christ Jesus [the law of our new being], (that is us born into the kingdom), has freed me from the law of sin and death." When you walk in that place in God, the spirit man takes on the image of Jesus and we are freed from the Law of sin and death.
Let us go back to Judges 7:24, "Gideon sent messengers throughout all the hill country of Ephraim." Ephraim means "doubly fruitful" or "the double portion." It was the culture of the Jewish people for the firstborn to receive a double portion. Jesus Christ was the firstborn of many, therefore He received the double portion. As we stand in our inheritance in Him, we too have that double portion. What is that double portion? The Name of Jesus and the office of the Holy Ghost in our life. We have got everything we need to be victorious and to overcome everything in our life. These double portion people are going to know our God reigns.
Gideon says in verse 24, "Come down against the Midianites, and take all the intervening fords as far as Beth-barah, and also the Jordan." Beth-barah means "the house of the fords" or "the house of the flowing water." God is saying, "Come into the anointing." Get into that place where the waters flow. Take your double portion as heirs of the Son. You have got the anointing in your mouth. As the heirs of salvation, He has given your enemy into your hands. Stand and know that the Lord your God has put the victory already in your hands.
The men with Gideon took all the area where the running water was, the anointing of the Holy Spirit. They also took the Jordan which means "the descender." Beloved, God's calling a people to descend into the anointing. He is calling the people to "Come on in." There is water to swim in. Some people get content standing in water that is ankle deep. Others get in the water up to their knees, but Glory to God, there is water to swim in.
There is an anointing prepared in this last day that is going to cause men to swim into the Glory of God. They will know the current of the anointing is taking them into the fullness of God's eternal plan. He has destined and made ready His Body so that in Him we might live forever.
The Lord is at work in the midst of His Body, the church. All the things that have come against the mind of man must be exposed. Divination is abounding and the earth is waxing worse, but the children of God are getting better. God is pouring out His Spirit on all those who will seek and make themselves available. Those who choose the discipline of the Holy Ghost and hear the Word of God in their hearts will be delivered.
Continuing in verse 25, "The men of Ephraim took two princes of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb; and they slew Oreb at the rock of Oreb, (the place where he was established) and Zeeb they slew at the wine press of Zeeb." Oreb means "a ravager, a scavenger, a raven." Your enemy wants you to think there is no way, but that there is just corruption and death. Zeeb means "a wolf." Wolves run in packs and overpower their enemy, then kill and eat them. That is what the devil wants to make you think he can do, too. There are many demons coming around with that wolf image knocking on the doors of the people. Trouble, calamity, woe and death abound.
The Lord God has given us a vision, an understanding, a pitcher that is to be emptied of the mixture of death and filled with the God of perfect light. John recorded that when Jesus Christ came, He was the Light coming into the world. This Light would illumine every person. Because Jesus lives in us, we have a light in us that will not go out. We have a light that will never fade, blink, or short out. There will never be a power shortage in Jesus. This Oreb and Zeeb nature of the ravager and the wolf, God dealt with.
It says in verse 25, "They slew Zeeb at the wine press," the one he owned. In the midst of where he tried to put pressure on everything and overpower it, he died. The Lord will see to it that your enemies do the same.
They "pursued Midian and they brought the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon beyond the Jordan". The Lord is going to let you see victory when you descend into the Jordan, the symbol of the anointing of the Holy Ghost. When you purpose to cross over and receive the discipline of the Glory of abiding in His promises, rest will come. Why? Because you know God will go before you once you make that decision to cross over the Jordan. Beloved, the Lord, your God, will cause you to know there is a resting place in Him, which is His plan for you.