The Devil’s Worst Nightmare
Pastor Jamie Wright * August 3, 2003* Maranatha Fellowship Church
Judges 7:13-15 (KJV)
Gideon went down to the enemy’s camp and the enemy was having a nightmare about Gideon.
It is time for the church to understand we have been positioned to charge the gates of hell and shake them off of their hinges.
The church is supposed to be the devil’s purgatory. He is going to hell, the word of God tells us that, and our job is to torment him unitl he gets there.
We have had enough DEMONstrations. What we need is a manifestation of God’s fire and power in our lifes to change our churches and our cities.
It’s got to be more than hype. It’s got to be more than just talk. Something that energizes and emotionalizes and we get all excited and when we get in the real battles of life we are defeated.
We have to understand who we are and what God has called us to do.
God told Gideon to assemble an army. He found Gideon hiding in a cave.
The angel of the Lord was commissioned to call Gideon
A MIGHTY MAN OF VALOR.
Gideon didn’t think he was a mighty man of valor. He didn’t look like a mighty man of valor and he wasn’t acting like a mighty man of valor. But the angel called Him a mighty man of valor. You are who God says you are.
You are not labeled by your problem. You are who God says you are.
(I am the head not the tail…)
IN other words GOD SEES SOMETHING IN YOU THAT YOU DON’T SEE IN YOURSELF
Hell will always challenge you over what heaven has called you.
A voice spoke from heaven and said in Matthew 4, “This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.”
Hell showed up with in seconds and challenged what heaven had called Jesus.
So anytime Satan is attacking you or your dream or your calling, he is attacking what God has seen in you as a final product, from God’s perspective.
If God is putting something in your spirit about your future, be persistent about it. It will be like He says it will be.
The HARDEST PROBLEM GOD HAS IS GETTING US TO BELIEVE THAT WE WILL BE SOMETHING SIGNIFICANT FOR HIS NAME SAKE. We are who he says we are, we can do what he says we can do, we can go where he says we can go.
Gideon you are a mighty man of Valor. So he arose and did what God told him to do------ASSEMBLED AN ARMY
32,000 showed up. God told him tell all who are afraid to GO HOME
“FEAR IS A DARK ROOM WHERE PEOPLE DEVELOP THEIR NEGATIVES.”
Fear will paralyze you from doing impossibilities for God.
Send the fearful home God said.
Sometimes it takes more FAITH to stay than it does to leave.
THE GREATEST ABILITY IN THE WORLD IS STICK ABILITY
I believe sometimes people walk away from great ministries, great miracles great breakthroughs simply because they are willing to stick it out.
22,000 went home only 10, 000 left
The next test God said to take them down to the river---give them a drink
Whoever cups their hands to drink---I will use them.
Why would he use them? Two things about the cupped hands they were clean hands and they were empty hands. Moses, throw down your rod.
They had to lay aside their carnal weapons in order to cup their hands.
What God is saying in this hour is
I AM MORE INTO CHARACTER THAN I AM INTO TALENT
Are you in it for the entertainment or the empowerment?
It’s not your natural ability or carnal weapons that will win the battles. Lean on God’s power. On God’s wisdom, on God’s strength.
You may feel like you have empty hands but if you have empty hands and clean hands God is going to use you in a mighty way.
Gideon still needed to be prompted. So God told him to take a friend and sneak down to the enemy’s camp and listen to what the enemy is saying about him. It was midnight and a Midianite was having a dream (vs. 13-15). Another Midinate was interpreting the dream.
Barley cake is what the poor people ate. God is saying I will take your poverty and turn it into power. I will take your weakness and make it great strength.
The bread represents the word of God. If you get a word from God that’s all you need.
While Gideon was thinking he was nobody inside, he is hearing his enemy say I secret that the barley cake is Gideon and his army and they are going to wipe us out.
The Lord wants me to tell you that the wrong crowd has been worrying all along.
THE WORST NIGHTMARE TO THE DEVIL IS THAT YOU WILL DISCOVER WHO YOU ARE IN CHRIST.
HELL’S WORST NIGHTMARE IS THAT YOU WILL WAKE UP AND BELIEVE THAT
I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me
Greater is he who is in me
No weapon formed against me shall prosper
I am more than a conqueror
I am not bound I am free
There is a place in God where you can get and it is a place of walking in power and victory.
