Gideon's Army, Discernment Ministries and the Coming of Jesus Christ
When Gideon's time came to be the designated rescuer and judge of Israel an angel of the Lord came and sat under and oak in Ophrah by the winepress where Gideon and his father threshed their wheat.
It should be noted that Gideon's father had an altar to Baal. Gideon's family were Baal worshippers, idolaters. Read the account of the destruction of Baal's altar and the grove by Gideon in Judges 6:25-32.
When Gideon assembled his army to fight against the Midianites he started with 32,000 men. God purged Gideon's army two times before He was satisfied with the number.
The reason for the purging was that God wanted the people to acknowledge that it was the hand of God that saved them and not their own strength. The first purge was directed towards all who were fearful. Twenty-two thousand men returned home out of fear. The second purging took place at the waters edge. Those that got down on their knees to drink were sent home. All that remained were those that lapped water out of their hands like dogs. Gideon was left with a total of three hundred men.
The three hundred men were broken into three companies of one hundred. Each man was equipped with a trumpet, an empty pitcher and a lamp that was placed in the pitcher. At the signal the men blew their trumpets and smashed their pitchers and confusion broke out in the camp of the Midianites and they begin to fight and kill one another and the remainder fled before Gideon. The men of Israel gathered together out of the tribes of Naphtali, Asher, Manasseh and Ephraim and pursued and defeated the rest of the Midianites.
In the end Gideon asked for all the gold earrings of the Midianites and from that he made and ephod which he place in his city, Ophrah. True to form all Israel worshipped Gideon's ephod and it became a snare to Gideon's house.
Why am I telling the story of Gideon and what has it to do with discernment ministries and the coming of Christ?
I am a sheeple and I follow a number of discernment ministries to help me wade through the morass of false teachers and false doctrines that plague the body of Christ leading many into idolatry and covenanting with followers of Baalberith. I have an earlier blog on Baalberith and it is interesting to note that after Gideon's death, Baalberith is the "god" the children of Israel made their "god."
Recently, if you have followed any of the chatter in the discernment ministries, you will be aware of the uproar over Jonathan Cahn's book "The Harbinger." I think you can see that confusion in my own blog.
The war that seems to be erupting between the various discernment ministries over this book elicits a bigger question -- "What is really going on here?" I was praying and seeking God for an answer to this question and the story of Gideon came to mind.
Is the body of Christ being purged once again? Are we being taken through stages like Gideon's army so that we can't say it was by our own strength that we are saved? Just like the time of the Judges, the church has been in hang time. Hanging on for dear life since the death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ to heaven and His second advent back to earth.
I Corinthians 14:8 For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle?Right now as a Christian that is how I feel. What is this uncertain sound in the discernment ministries? Why is it so difficult for them to come to a consensus concerning a fictional poorly written book?
Yes, I read the book and yes I ordered it because it was recommended by several of the ministries that I tune into regularly. And yes I believe that if God wants to use the same pattern He used to judge ancient Israel to judge modern America, He can do that.
So, I have to step back here and look at the big picture. I know this that when I saw the endorsers of Jonathan Cahn's book I was highly disappointed and suspcious. My own experience with John Paul Jackson's and Sid Roth's ministries opened me up to demonic spirits. If the discernment ministries had mentioned the endorsers, I would not have ordered "The Harbinger."
What does the Bible have to say about strife?
James 3:16 For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work.I can conclude then that there is an evil work going on behind the scenes. The body of Christ is under attack from the powers, principalities and rulers of darkness (see Ephesians 6:12). There seems to have been a surge forward in this attack. Couple the infighting in the discernment ministries with the recent Glen Beck rally, which gathered more respected biblical leaders into the ecumenical movement, and I can safely say "LOOK UP OUR REDEMPTION DRAWETH NIGH!"
We will not be saved by our own strength. We will not be saved by the ministers we follow. We will not be saved by the ministries we follow.
We will only be saved by the Blood of Jesus Christ.
II Timothy 3:1-7;13 This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. 2 For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 3 Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, 4 Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; 5 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away 6 For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts, 7 Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. 13 But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.We are here in the "last days." We are here in the "perilous times." Stay in the Word of God and continue to believe in Jesus Christ and Him Crucified for your sins. Cling to the Cross of Christ and trust that His return is imminent for the Bride of Christ.
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