The Gideon Strategy
During Gideon’s
time, the Israelites were greatly oppressed by their enemies because after they
had sowed, the Midianites would come up
together with the Amalekites and people from the East and they would encamp
against them. They would destroy the produce of the earth and leave neither
sustenance nor sheep nor ox nor donkeys for Israel. (Judges 6:3-4)
As a result, the
Israelites were greatly impoverished and they cried out to God. He heard their
cries and delivered them by using Gideon.
If you are living
under similar oppressive circumstances and you would like to be free, emulate
the following Gideon Deliverance Strategy:
Offer the Lord a Sacrifice
The first thing that
Gideon did was to give God an offering.
When God sent His
Angel to him, Gideon said to the Angel, Do
not depart from here until I bring you my offering. (Judges 6:18)
Therefore, take an
offering to the Lord by giving a donation to your local church or any other
Christian ministry that He leads you to.
As you do so,
understand that it should be a sacrificial offering. This is because Gideon Prepared a young goat and unleavened bread
from an ephah of flour. (Judges 6:19)
This was a
sacrificial offering because those things that he offered to the Lord were not
easy to come by. This was due to the fact that the Midianites, the Amalekites
and people from the East Would destroy
the produce of the earth and leave neither sustenance nor sheep nor ox nor
donkeys for Israel. (Judges 6:3-4)
In fact things were
so bad that the Angel from the Lord actually found Gideon threshing wheat in a
winepress so that he could hide it from the Midianites. (Judges 6:11)
Therefore we can see
that bringing an offering of a whole goat and bread made from around 40 pounds
(20 kg) of flour was not a small thing.
So, prepare a
sacrificial offering and bring it to God.
***
Build an Altar for God
The second thing
that Gideon did was to build an altar for God.
He built an altar in
the place where he had offered a sacrifice to the Lord and called it Jehovah
Shalom or The Lord is Peace. (Judges 6:24)
Therefore build an
altar and dedicate it to Jehovah Shalom in the place where you need His
intervention so that you can get your deliverance.
To set up a family
altar in your home, dedicate an entire room in your home or a corner of a room
to God. Clean the space and fill it with items that you will use to pray,
praise and worship God like your Bible, Christian devotionals, journals, photos
of people you are praying for, Christian music DVDs and a DVD player.
***
Destroy Idols
After building an
altar for God, the Lord appeared to him that night and told him to Tear down the altar of Baal that your
father has and cut down the wooden image beside it. (Judges 6:25)
Gideon obeyed and
did as per God’s instructions. But, because He feared his father’s household and the men of his city too much to do
it during the day, (Judges 6:27) he got 10 men and did it at night.
Therefore understand
that you have to destroy all altars to false gods and idols that have been
erected in the place where you need deliverance because they may be
contributing to your bondage.
In addition, remove
all items that pertain to other gods from your home and destroy them
physically.
If you do not have
the physical authority to destroy them physically, cut them down spiritually by
using The weapons of our warfare which
are not physical but are mighty in God for pulling down strongholds. (2
Corinthians 10:4)
These weapons of our
warfare are truth, righteousness, the Gospel of peace, faith, salvation and the
Word of God which is the Sword of the Spirit. (Ephesians 6:14-18)
Therefore, use these
weapons of our warfare by doing the following:
1. Speaking the
truth at all times
2. Doing the right
thing in the sight of God
3. Reading your
Bible every day
4. Believing God and
His Word
5. Getting saved if
you are not saved or if you have backslidden. To do this, say with your mouth
that “Jesus is Lord” and believe in your heart that when He died for our sins,
God raised Him from the dead and you will be saved. (Romans 10:9)
6. Speaking the Bible
verses over your situation
7. Praying all the
time
***
Offer Another Sacrifice
After destroying
Baal’s altar, God told Gideon to Build
an altar to the Lord your God in the proper arrangement and take your father’s
young bull, the second bull of seven years old and offer a burnt sacrifice with
the wood of the image you shall have cut down. (Judges 6:25-26)
Therefore, after
destroying the altars to the false gods, you have to replace them by building
an altar to the Lord God Almighty.
After doing that you
can then give Him another sacrifice which can be The Sacrifice of praise which is the fruit of your lips. (Hebrews
13:15)
As you sing praises
to God, understand that your situation may initially worsen because when the
devil sees and senses that you are serious in getting your deliverance, he also
gets serious in his efforts to keep you in bondage.
We can see that
Gideon’s situation worsened after he destroyed Baal’s altar because All the Midianites and the Amalekites and
the people of the East gathered together and crossed over and camped in the
Valley of Jezreel. (Judges 6:33)
If you notice the
enemy regrouping, do not be afraid because when the enemies of the Israelites
gathered together against them, the Bible tells us that The Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon. (Judges 6:34)
Therefore
confidently continue singing your praise songs to God regardless of the enemy’s
activities because When the enemy shall
come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against
him. (Isaiah 59:19)
***
Position Yourself
The next step that
Gideon took was to position himself and his army.
The Bible tells us
that Jerubbaal, that is Gideon, and all
the people who were with him rose early in the morning and encamped beside the
Harod well so that the camp of the Midianites was to their north in the valley.
(Judges 7:1)
Therefore even if
you are going to wage your warfare spiritually, you also have to position
yourself physically in order to receive your deliverance. This means that you
must take yourself to the place where you are best able to receive a solution
for your problems.
So, position
yourself by taking your products to the marketplace or your CV to a recruitment
agency if you want deliverance from debt.
Or, position
yourself by consulting a doctor if you want deliverance from disease or
consulting a Christian counselor if you want deliverance from divorce.
***
Eradicate Fear
After positioning
yourself you have to get rid of fear before you begin battling the enemy.
We can see that God
told Gideon to tell the Israelites who were following him, “Whoever is fearful and afraid, let him depart at once. And 22,000 men
returned home.” (Judges 7:2)
Therefore eradicate
fear before you begin fighting for your deliverance because the spirit of fear
is from the enemy that you are trying to fight for God has not given us a spirit of fear. He has given us a spirit of
power and of love and of a sound mind. (2 Timothy 1:7)
To defeat this spirit
of fear you have to have faith in God’s ability to help you because faith in
God is the antidote for fear. Therefore believe that the God who delivered
Gideon is also able to deliver you from your oppressive circumstances.
***
Fuel your Faith
God said to Gideon, If you are afraid to go down to fight,
first go down to the Midianite camp with your servant Purah and listen to what
the Midianites say because afterwards, your hands shall be strengthened to
fight. (Judges 7:9-11)
Gideon and Purah therefore
went to the Midianite camp and they found a man telling his dream to his
companion. In his dream, a loaf of barley bread had tumbled into the camp of
Midian and stuck a tent so that it fell, overturned and collapsed. (Judges 7:13)
His companion interpreted his dream by saying,
“That is nothing but the sword of Gideon who is the son of Joash, a man of
Israel! For God has delivered Midian into his hand.” (Judges 7:14)
These words
strengthened Gideon and he was able to set out to attack the Midianites.
Therefore,
strengthen your faith by listening to the preaching of Biblical stories of
God’s deliverance because Faith comes by
hearing and hearing the Word of God. (Romans 10:17)
***
Worship God
When Gideon heard
how the Midianites were dreaming and interpreting their dreams, He worshiped. (Judges 7:15)
Therefore create
time to worship God before you begin battling with the enemy for your
deliverance.
***
Attack at Night
Gideon and the group of men who were with him
arrived at the outpost of the Midianite camp at the beginning of the middle
watch. (Judges 7:19)
The middle watch is
from 10 pm to 2 am and this is a very effective time fight in the spiritual
realm because many Biblical battles were fought and won at night.
An example of such a
battle is from Paul and Silas when they were praying and singing praises to God
at midnight after they had been imprisoned. Their timing and strategy was so
effective that it caused a great earthquake which shook the prison’s
foundations, opened doors and loosed chains. (Acts 16:25-26)
Therefore regardless
of what situation has imprisoned you or closed your doors of opportunity or
bound you with chains of restrictions to hinder your progress, understand that
waging spiritual warfare at night can help you defeat those oppressive
circumstances.
***
Say Affirmations
When Gideon was
preparing his men to attack the Midianites he divided them into three groups
and gave each soldier a trumpet and a pitcher with a torch inside it. He then
commanded them to say, The sword of the
Lord and of Gideon (Judges 7:18) when they arrived at the Midianite camp.
Notice that Gideon’s
army did not carry any physical sword. This is because they were carrying
spiritual swords to fight the Midianite and Amorite armies and these were The sword of the Lord and of Gideon
(Judges 7:20) which they would deploy with their mouths.
The Sword of the
Lord is the Word of God since the Bible tells us that the Word of God is the
Sword of the Spirit. (Ephesians 6:17)
The sword of Gideon
was the sacrificial offering that he had given to the Lord. We know this from
the fact that the Midianite dream interpreter has interpreted the loaf of
barley bread that had been seen in a dream tumbling into the Midianite camp and
striking a tent until it overturned and collapsed to be Gideon’s sword. (Judges
7:13-14)
Therefore since you
have already created your “The sword of Gideon” by giving God a sacrificial
offering, you now have to choose the Scriptures that you will use as
affirmations since these will be your “The sword of the Lord”.
As you do so, choose
Scriptures that are relevant to your oppressive situation. For example you can
use:
1. I am free from oppression and free indeed
because the person who the Son of God sets free is free indeed. (Adapted John 8:36)
2. I am prospering in all things
and I am in good health just as my soul prospers. (Adapted 3 John 1:2)
3. By His stripes I am healed. (Adapted Isaiah 53:5)
4. I am very happily married because God
hates divorce. (Adapted
Malachi 2:16)
5. I shall not die. I shall live and declare
the works of God. (Psalm
118:17)
After picking your
Scriptural affirmations, deploy them by speaking them out while you hold up
your shield of faith with which you will be able to quench every fiery dart
that the enemy shoots at you as you fight.
Finally, we can see
the effectiveness of God-Gideon strategy because after Gideon’s army surrounded
the Midianites and uttered the words, “The sword of the Lord and of Gideon” and
blew their trumpets, the Lord set every
man’s sword against his companion throughout the whole Midianite camp and the
army fled. (Judges 7:22)
The Gideon Strategy is part of our Free Christian Ebooks Series
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