REQUIREMENTS TO MANIFEST GOD'S POWER

Judg 6:1-12 And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD: and the LORD delivered them into the hand of Midian seven years. And the hand of Midian prevailed against Israel: and because of the Midianites the children of Israel made them the dens which are in the mountains, and caves, and strong holds. And so it was, when Israel had sown, that the Midianites came up, and the Amalekites, and the children of the east, even they came up against them; And they encamped against them, and destroyed the increase of the earth, till thou come unto Gaza, and left no sustenance for Israel, neither sheep, nor ox, nor ass. For they came up with their cattle and their tents, and they came as grasshoppers for multitude; for both they and their camels were without number: and they entered into the land to destroy it. And Israel was greatly impoverished because of the Midianites; and the children of Israel cried unto the LORD. And it came to pass, when the children of Israel cried unto the LORD because of the Midianites, That the LORD sent a prophet unto the children of Israel, which said unto them, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, I brought you up from Egypt, and brought you forth out of the house of bondage; And I delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians, and out of the hand of all that oppressed you, and drave them out from before you, and gave you their land; And I said unto you, I am the LORD your God; fear not the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but ye have not obeyed my voice. And there came an angel of the LORD, and sat under an oak which was in Ophrah, that pertained unto Joash the Abiezrite: and his son Gideon threshed wheat by the winepress, to hide it from the Midianites. And the angel of the LORD appeared unto him, and said unto him, The LORD is with thee, thou mighty man of valour.

In himself, Gideon was not a strong man of faith.

• The angel called him a mighty man of valour, but he was extremely doubtful.
• The fact was that God would make him a mighty man of valour.
• Let us observe How God brought Gideon through the school of mighty believers.

DOUBT OF GIDEON:

Judg 6:13 And Gideon said unto him, Oh my Lord, if the LORD be with us, why then is all this befallen us? and where be all his miracles which our fathers told us of, saying, Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt? but now the LORD hath forsaken us, and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites. And the LORD looked upon him, and said, Go in this thy might, and thou shalt save Israel from the hand of the Midianites: have not I sent thee? And he said unto him, Oh my Lord, wherewith shall I save Israel? behold, my family is poor in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house. And the LORD said unto him, Surely I will be with thee, and thou shalt smite the Midianites as one man. And he said unto him, If now I have found grace in thy sight, then shew me a sign that thou talkest with me.

FIRST REQUIREMENT TO MANIFEST GOD'S POWER.
~Know that God can use you.

• You will learn that God is God.
• Everything about this story of Gideon is showing that God is God.
• There is no God but the One God.
• Over and over again God is proving in this story that He alone is the only One that can be looked to among all the so-called gods.

• God raised up Gideon.
• God raised up the weakest boy of a poor family.
• Perfect vessel for God to use.

• Last week we discussed how Satan went after the WOMAN, the MOTHER OF ALL LIVING, in his attempts to stop man from getting God's LIFE into himself and then multiplying, because the woman was the means of the multiplying.
• God needs a vessel, and Satan knows that.
• But give God one vessel, and "LOOK OUT SATAN!"
• Though vastly greater in number than Israel, the Midianites were no match against a few people who worked with God.
• Give God one vessel and nothing can stand against that person God uses.

SECOND REQUIREMENT TO MANIFEST GOD'S POWER.
~Know that God is Holy and cannot use sinful vessels

• Gideon ran to get a gift of food for the Angel of God to prove that the Angel was really there, could eat the food and that it was not all a dream.
• Gideon took meat and cakes and prepared them for the Angel to eat.
• The Angel told him to take the meat out of the broth and the cakes out of the basket, and put the food on the rock.
• And the angel extended a rod to the food and the food burst into flames and vanished.
• THE ANGEL of the LORD not only proved he was real, but that he did not need food as people need food.
• THIS WAS AN ANGEL OF THE LORD.
• Often an ANGEL OF THE LORD was God in a form He used so that the people could see and talk to Him.
• GOD NEEDS NOT FOOD, BUT IS TO BE SERVED WITH SACRIFICE.
• He not only showed Gideon that He was real, but that indeed He was God.
• Sacrifice tells us that God cannot stand sin.
• Gideon had to sacrifice for his sins before Gode could use him.

THIRD REQUIREMENT TO MANIFEST GOD'S POWER.
~Remove false misgivings about God

Judg 6:22 And when Gideon perceived that he [was] an angel of the LORD, Gideon said, Alas, O Lord GOD! for because I have seen an angel of the LORD face to face. And the LORD said unto him, Peace [be] unto thee; fear not: thou shalt not die.

• The first thing you need to understand in order to begin letting God use you is that God is not the God of nit-picking anger you think He is.
• God encouraged Gideon and gave him a revelation that gave him PEACE.
• Gideon was so appreciative that he built an altar and called it JEHOVAHSHALOM - "JEHOVAH IS PEACE."
• He knew God in a new way.
• Many know God as a God of anger and cold, ciy dealings with man.
• We need to correct that false notion and know Him as He really is, and build an altar based upon that true and proper understanding.

FOURTH REQUIREMENT TO MANIFEST GOD'S POWER.
~Clean Your Life up.

So God told convinced Gideon to fight against the Midianites.

• A miracle occurred.
• God told him to chop down the altar of Baal and destroy the grove trees that were arranged in honour to Baal around that altar.
• This was his father's land and his father was a worshipper of Baal.
• Gideon had to remove the false doctrine from his home if God was going to use him.

• Get rid of the false altar and then throw it down and make a new altar and worship the true God.
• Clean up your act and live like it.

• Many unsaved family members see believers doing wrong things and they are not going to live for God when they see God's people living wrong.
• Clean up your act and make a stand, letting all know about it!

• God took Joash's heart and changed him, too.
• (If you live right, you might affect your family and get them saved, too!)
• Gideon's father said, "Gideon, my son, did it."
• They told him to get Gideon and bring him out that he might die.
• Joash laughed and said, "Cannot Baal take care of himself and handle his own problems if he is a god? Did they have to save Baal because Baal could not deal with Gideon himself?"
• Joash called the name of his son, JERUBAAL, in mockery of the false god, because the name JERUBAAL means "Let Baal plead".
• God was raising up Gideon as a challenge to all other gods to stand up and prove they are gods.
• Joash began standing against Baal.

FIFTH REQUIREMENT TO MANIFEST GOD'S POWER.
~Begin to make steps to attack the enemy in your life.

• But God's Spirit was on Gideon and a boldness came on him to blow a trumpet and gather people in God's name.

Judg 6:33 Then all the Midianites and the Amalekites and the children of the east were gathered together, and went over, and pitched in the valley of Jezreel. But the Spirit of the LORD came upon Gideon, and he blew a trumpet; and Abiezer was gathered after him.

SIXTH REQUIREMENT TO MANIFEST GOD'S POWER.
~Take Steps of Faith

• "I will put a little fleece of wool on the ground tonight. If the fleece itself is full of dew and the ground all around it remains dry in the morning, then I will know you will use me to win."

• Had God really chosen to take a MINORITY and treat them miraculously different from all the multitudes around them?
• GOD DID IT!
• The fleece was soaked with dew while all the ground was dry.
• He asked God a second time to make the fleece remain dry while all the ground became wet with dew.
• Impossible in the natural.
• And it happened!
• (It is interesting that that little nation was first to know God, while all the world became dry.)
• (And then after Jesus came, all the world was blessed with the dew of Heaven while Israel remained dry.)
• Again and again, Gideon was shown that when we step out in faith, God will move!
• Nothing happened until Gideon began taking steps of faith.
• Gideon formerly took some cakes and meat, and then the Angel of God performed a miracle.
• Gideon took a little fleece, and God performed a miracle.
• God will work, BUT YOU MUST STEP OUT FIRST!

SEVENTH REQUIREMENT TO MANIFEST GOD'S POWER.
~Remove Fear and Doubt

• When Gideon called the people to fight, too many showed up.
• Notice what God said:
• Notice that God said Israel would win, but He wanted to make sure everyone knew that it was God and not themselves.

Judg 7:2-3 And the LORD said unto Gideon, The people that [are] with thee [are] too many for me to give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel vaunt themselves against me, saying, Mine own hand hath saved me. Now therefore go to, proclaim in the ears of the people, saying, Whosoever [is] fearful and afraid, let him return and depart early from mount Gilead. And there returned of the people twenty and two thousand; and there remained ten thousand.

• God would not give victory is flesh would think it did it itself without God.
• If you win with 32,000 people they will think they did it themselves.
• You are going to win, but I want everyone to know that I ALONE DID IT.
• I do not want anyone to say "I did it without God."
• He wanted everyone to know that he is not a false god like BAAL, who needs people to do all his work.
• He is not one who sits back and cannot do the thing Himself.
• He is going to show that HE IS GOD.
• All he needs is ONE VESSEL.
• ONE VESSEL WILL DEFEAT ARMIES.

• This shows that He will not use people who DOUBT.
• He will stop the miracle if DOUBT is there.
• They cannot see beyond the physical, who would say, if they did win, "God did not do it. It was due to natural reasons we won."
• He will not use the fearful person.
• He will put them aside and use other vessels.
• REQUIREMENTS TO MANIFEST GOD'S POWER.

• If it is going to be from God, it is going to be a miracle and nothing less.

EIGHTH REQUIREMENT TO MANIFEST GOD'S POWER.
~Be ready and eager to work.

• Some remained.
• The 10,000 who emained left could not look at the majority and be fearful, too.
• They were to remember that regardless of few in number, GOD WAS WITH THEM.
• So God told him to take them to the water and see who would lower themselves down like a dog and drink that way, or those who would lap from their hands.

• The Ones ready to move.
• Drinking from the hands showed readiness and quickness to move on.
• Those who relaxed like a dog lapping showed love of ease.
• God cannot use the PROUD person.
• He will not use the proud and fleshly comfortable person.
• Be as sophisticated as you like, and raise your hands just right, and never shout, for that is "brash", and God will pass you by and look for a humble person.
• Your pride in Church is a greater concern for how you appear to people than it is a concern for giving God glory.
• You'll see people act oddly to you, but it is their way of loving God.
• Let them do it.
• Their concern is the task at hand.
• Working for God!
• God sees the heart that they are not concerned over looking like religious manuals and text books demand that we look like as we praise God, aor doing it the way they think it best to do.
• No. We must be ready to do what God wants..
• Our hearts must be solely cast upon God.
• Their love for Him so fills their hearts that they do not stop to think whether they are pleasing you or not.

• If its from the willing heart, God loves it.

1. Fear
2. Pride and fleshly ease.

NINTH REQUIREMENT TO MANIFEST GOD'S POWER.
~Be one who praises God.

• He heard a man tell his fellow soldier that he had a dream of a little cake tumbling down the hill and laying flat a big old tent.
• The other said that is nothing else but the sword of Gideon, a man of Israel. God delivered us into his hands!

Judg 7:15 And it was [so], when Gideon heard the telling of the dream, and the interpretation thereof, that he worshipped, and returned into the host of Israel, and said, Arise; for the LORD hath delivered into your hand the host of Midian.

• You must praise God BEFORE THE BATTLE EVEN BEGINS.
• When God encourages you, PRAISE HIM wherever you are!

SUMMARY
~The flesh must break.

Judg 7:20 And the three companies blew 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.

• Gideon is the clay Jar.
• God is the fire inside the VESSEL OF CLAY.
• And those BROKEN of fear and pride, are those through whom GOD MANIFESTS.
• Breaking fear and worry and pride is essential to see God manifest His power through you.
• These are the requirements God demands.

Proof after proof after proof was given to Gideon to show that God does not sit around but is real and active if we will only make a step of faith.

• Miracles require an action from us.
• This action demands that under normal circumstances this could not bring about a result.
• They are actions we take that look so foolish in the natural that will only work if there really is a God.
• No natural process could leave fleece soaked with dew in a bone dry field at night.
• No natural process could burst forth flames from a stone at the touch of a stick of wood.
• No natural process could allow 300 men who smashed clay jars to shine forth torches to defeat an army that was described as a swarm of grasshoppers for their vast number.
• It was a miracle to the magnitude of a little barley muffin rolling down a hill and smashing a huge tent flat.
• IMPOSSIBLE, AND EVIDENCE THERE IS A GOD!
• God simply refuses to move in a way that might make people say it was not God at all.
• Go about your goal in a natural way, and provide no reason for people to say, "IT HAD TO BE GOD," and God will do nothing for you.
• He demands that the step of faith you take be one that is utterly impossible in itself to bring forth what you desire from God.
• There can be no room for anyone to assume it was not a miracle.
• Those who get discouraged thinking God will not move destroy their prayers they made originally to ask Him to move.
• Have faith in the miracle working God you serve!

Anything from God is a miracle.

• We live in a natural world.
• God is in a supernatural domain.
• It is everyday life to Him.
• He will only help us if it displays His glory.
• Go out on a limb!
• Make things around you be made impossible for things to occur naturally.
• Put God on the spot and trust Him.
• He loves it!
• He tells you to do it!
• Then step back and watch God move!

Anything that came from God's miracle was used powerfully.

• Jacob was born of a barren mother, and became ISRAEL.
• John the Baptist was born of a barren woman.
• Jesus was born of a VIRGIN.
• If God is going to be the Father of the thing, then it is going to have to be an outright miracle.
• If you want to be GOD'S CHILD, you need more than to say, "I signed the church book and I praise the way they do."
• You are going to have be born again in a supernatural manner.
• None of this, I THINK I HAVE THE SPIRIT.
• You will supernaturally speak with tongues.