Coming out of Self-Doubt
and into the Revelation of your Real self… Pt.2
JUDGES 6:3-12 (Read this same scripture from last week)
3 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; (Three powers gathering themselves against Israel from the time of the sowing of the seed to the harvest time, showing us a prophecy of this day of when three powers (Political power, Religious power, and Demon power) would all be gathered against the bride at this harvest time))
4 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. (Look at the Economic pressure that built up during that time – this same history is repeating itself in this day)
5 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. (Like a population explosion taking over and destroying the world, – notice that all this is taking place between the seed sowing time and the threshing of the wheat time)
6 And Israel was greatly impoverished because of the Midianites; and the children of Israel cried unto the LORD.
7 ¶ And it came to pass, when the children of Israel cried unto the LORD because of the Midianites,
8 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; (God is showing us the process of how that He first sends a prophet, and He has repeated this by sending a prophet in our day also, but then after he sends a prophet, then there follows another ministry of the LORD HIMSELF in order to take His people out of self-doubt and into a confidence of who they really are in Christ)
9 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;
10 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.
11 ¶ 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 (Seed sowing had long been over – this was now harvest time of what was planted was now being harvested), to hide it from the Midianites.
12 And the angel of the LORD appeared unto him, and said unto him, The LORD is with thee, thou mighty man of valour.
So God is showing us in this story a mystery of the harvest time that would come in this day and of how (as we see here with Gideon) that His appearing to us in this day is also for the purpose to bring us out of our self-doubt condition and into the Revelation of your Real self – from a condition of reasoning by your surrounding circumstances, and into a condition of faith by the appearing of an angel.
Coming out of Self-Doubt
and into the Revelation of your Real self… Pt.2
We began this little series last week - and the journey that we are on should always be heading toward the destination of divine love – from Phileo love to Agape love.
*Genesis begins with a story of divine love with Adam laying his life down for Eve just as the second Adam (Christ) laid his life down for his bride also, and Genesis ends with divine love with Joseph forgiving his brothers.
** Jesus’s life ended in divine love – “father forgive them”
**Steven’s life ended in divine love – “lay not this sin to their charge”
**And so we want our lives to end in divine love also.
*Paul said that we could do great miracles of faith, and know all the mysteries of the world, but without divine love it means nothing – so we want to make sure that the direction that we are heading to is always toward divine love.
Recap a little from last week…we will try to go fast…
*So picking back up on our story of Gideon - we know that it was a great time of economic squeeze that Gideon finds himself in - the supermarket shelves were empty, there had been a population explosion in the area, and the oppression of these three powers that had gathered had brought in such a pressure on the age that it had caused Gideon to come into this state of mind of where his mind had become affected and he lack confidence and he had become overwhelmed in the face of these three powers that had gathered against the people of God at that time.
***Gideon had heard the prophet’s message for that hour, he had all the 1100 tapes on his bookshelf, he had all the messages on his laptop, and so it wasn’t that he wasn’t a believer the prophet that God had sent, but in this story we see that it would take a further stage of the angel of the Lord Himself to appear to Gideon in order to bring him out of his condition of self-doubt and into the revelation of what God had called him to be for that hour.
*Last week we looked at how redemption has two parts - coming out of, and then going in to.
*Joseph came out of the prison house, but then he had to go in to Pharaoh's house. We have been called out of Laodicea by a prophet’s message, but then we must go into the bride age.
GENESIS 41:14
14 Then Pharaoh sent and called Joseph, and they brought him hastily out of the dungeon: and he shaved himself, and changed his raiment, and came in unto Pharaoh. (Notice - a coming out of the dungeon and a going into the palace – the two greatest extremes, like coming out of the extreme darkness of Laodicea, and going into the greatest of all light of the bride age - from extreme darkness into extreme light)
*Rahab came out of the harlot’s house by the hearing of the message of that hour, but then she had to go on into a marriage covenant and into Salmon’s house.
*Ruth came out of Chilion’s house and out of the land of Moab, but then she had to go on into Bethlehem and into Boaz’s house.
*God used Moses ministry to take a people out of Egypt, but then he used a Joshua ministry to bring the people into the new land.
*So a prophet’s message in this day took us out of denomination, but then it requires the continuation of the ministry of the Holy Spirit to bring us into a union with Christ.
*Joshua’s ministry was a continuation of Moses ministry in Joshua – the same God that was with Moses was also with Joshua.
*The 5 fold ministry of this hour is a continuation of William Branham’s ministry in the 5 fold ministry – the same God that was with William Branham is also with the 5 fold ministry.
***So we see that when God sets a pattern of how he works with His people to take them out and bring them in, then He never changes that pattern because he can’t improve on the way he does things.
SPIRITUAL.FOOD.IN.DUE.SEASON_ JEFF.IN V-8 N-7 SUNDAY_ 65-0718E
121 But thanks be to God, we got hidden Food, spiritual Food, that we're living on the goodness and mercy of the revelation of Jesus Christ in these last days, vindicating Himself among His people. Amen! They went in. Elijah went in before the drought set in. Thank God for being in before the judgment sets in. Now is a time of coming out and going in, getting out of those organizations and getting into Christ, a coming-out and going-in time for all true believers.
THE.RAPTURE_ YUMA.AZ V-5 N-14 SATURDAY_ 65-1204
155 We're right there, ready now. The only thing, the Church coming out, has got to lay before the Son, to ripen. (Remember that the grain cannot go into the garner until it is ripe, and it is the strength of the sun that ripens the grain, and this is so for us as believers of this message. And so to lay in the presence of the sun is for you to expose yourself to an ever growing strength of the revelation of the SON light of the message of this hour – and so that requires the revelation of the word to get brighter and brighter and clearer and clearer – you cannot remain at the same level of understanding that you had 20 years ago)
The great combine will come by, after while. The wheat will be burned, the stalks, but the grain will be gathered into Its garner.
**We know that when the wheat was in the field, Ruth was in the field. And when the wheat was at the threshing floor, Ruth was at the threshing floor, and when the wheat was in Boaz’s garner, Ruth was in Boaz’s house – so the stages of the wheat is showing us the same mystery of the stages of Ruth’s life.
**And so we know that Joseph was also wheat that had to go through stages before he could be gathered into Pharaoh’s house.
God had to ripen his character before he was fit to rule and reign. He had to get the shuck thrashed off of his life in the prison house before he could go to Pharos house.
*Joseph’s life kept getting lower and lower until he was even lower than the lowest of the prisoners, because he had become a servant to the prisoners, but when he was at his lowest point, then that is when he was exalted to the very highest because the way up is first down, if you refuse to go down, then you can never go up.
*Jonah had to go down into a whales belly and down into the bottom of the sea before he could come up and into the promise of what God had called him to be.
PSALM 106:7
7 Our fathers understood not thy wonders in Egypt; they remembered not the multitude of thy mercies; but provoked him at the sea, even at the Red sea.
We often provoke God in our lives because we misunderstand His ways of dealing with us in the circumstances of our lives.
**God’s great wisdom and leadership for us seems so contrary to the comfort of life that we all seek and that we mostly interpret as the blessings of God in our life.
*God’s desire is to absolutely bless you, but you have to realize the process of God that is required in your life to bring you into that blessing.
*You have to first come out of your old life and belief, then you have to labour in the field like Ruth, then you have to lay in the strength of the sun to ripen, then you have to be beaten and threshed to remove the shuck, and then you are ready for the garner and for the great blessings of God.
*So we must not misunderstand God’s ways of dealing with us along the journey of our lives or we will become discouraged when the rough times come.
**So when we see Gideon threshing wheat, we know that Gideon himself is also being threshed.
*While Gideon is beating the wheat behind the winepress, Gideon himself is also going through a beating time of his own behind the same wine press, and so because of the opening of the seven seals in this hour, we know the mystery of this stage that he is at when this angel appears to him in order to bring him out of his self-doubt and into a realisation of who he really is.
*It is at a time when he is at his lowest point and where victory looks totally impossible, but that is the time when this angel comes on the scene, and the Angel knows who Gideon is, but Gideon doesn’t know who Gideon is, Gideon thinks of himself as a coward, but this is a false concept he has of himself, because he is in fact a might man of valour.
*Many people think that Joseph was only in one prison house, but he was actually in two prison houses. His outer body was in a physical prison house, and his inner mind was in another prison house of self-doubt of what God had revealed to him from the beginning. God showed him his end from the beginning but hid the middle part of the trials of his life from him. And so even though Joseph knew his end, the external conditions of his life look so different to what God had promised him – but the prison house was necessary for God to be able to deal with Joseph on an internal level, because the real prison house was the prison house in his mind that he first had to be delivered from.
* We can only imagine all the mind battles that he would have fought in his mind of how his brothers had been so wicked to him, and how that he was lied on by an evil woman, and his reputation had been turn into shredded rags.
*And so this is also how life sometimes deals with us, and so our bodies might not be lock up in a prison house of bricks and mortar, but we can none the less be going through a prison house experience within our minds of pasts events of disappointments and mistreatments that lay within us in the subconscious realm, and we find ourselves chained by some hurts of the past that keep us bound up in a prison house within our mind – and so this is where the greatest battle that is ever fort rages.
***And this was the state that Gideon found himself in at harvest time at the gathering of these three powers, and so the appearing of the Angel of the Lord came to bring him out of his inner turmoil and doubt and into the victory of what he was truly called to be.
JUDGES 6:11-16
11 ¶ 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. (This is showing us a mystery of this day of what would come after God had sent a prophet to his people, of how that the bride in this day would look to be like in a defeated condition at a time of when these three powers have gathered themselves against us between the sowing time and the reaping time)
12 And the angel of the LORD appeared unto him, and said unto him, The LORD is with thee, thou mighty man of valour. (Gideon is like “this is news to me – he must have got the wrong person, surely he can’t be speaking about me”). Brother Branham tells us in the message “If God be with us, then where are all the Miracles” 1961, that it was not an Angel but it was the LORD Himself in the form of a man – a mighty Angel had descended from Heaven to Gideon, and that Angel was Christ Himself, and the purpose of his appearing was to bring Gideon into a confidence of who he really was.)
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.
14 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?
(God often picks the weakest person he can find to do His great work for him – so don’t look at your weakness as a bad thing)
15 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 (Look at the self-doubt that Gideon had of himself).
16 And the LORD said unto him, Surely I will be with thee, and thou shalt smite the Midianites as one man.
*So the first prison house that the angel of the Lord had to deliver Gideon from was the prison house that was in Gideon’s own mind – and so that was the greatest battle that Gideon had to fight first.
**As believers of the message of the hour, we have all experienced our doubts of what the angel of the Lord has told us of who we are in this day. And we know that this is largely because of the troubled times and the economic squeeze, and all the contrary conditions that surround us that to our own reasoning seem so contrary to the blessings and the promise of God for this hour concerning the victory of the bride.
***And so we see how the Angel of the Lord begins to deal with this problem of Gideon self-doubt in order to take him out of that prison house in his mind of what his reasoning was declaring to him and into a confidence of a faith of who he really was for that hour.
*The end time bride has come out of denominations by the calling of the voice of Malachi 4’s message, but then she must come into the knowledge of what her position is, and what her rights and privileges are as a married wife to Christ.
***So as believers of the message, we as individuals have to all come into a personal revelation of who we really are in this day – and that we have already entered into a marriage covenant with Christ that make us joint heirs of everything that Adam lost – and that the title deed is now back in our possession by the opening of the seven seals, but now we have to actually eat that book so that that title deed can actually become man’s possession again.
WORKS.IS.FAITH.EXPRESSED_ SHREVEPORT.LA V-7 N-1 FRIDAY_ 65-1126
29 And someone pulled me away, and I looked, and it was a lady standing over here. The... when I was a little boy, I--I used to haul groceries from the grocery store to the peoples. And her name was Mrs. Fenton, she lives in Jeffersonville yet, a personal friend to the wife and I. (This was not a vision but a dream that brother Branham had that he relates here in this message)
30 And she said, "Brother Branham, deliver us from this." Said, "This is a house of hell." And said, "You've been misunderstood." And said, "These... And you--you misunderstood these people, too." Said, "These are fine people, but..." And I looked over there, and like a great big cellar, or--or big walls, down beneath a great big cave; and great iron bars, eight or ten inches thick. And people, out of their mind, twisted arms and legs, beating their head like that. And she was crying, saying, "Deliver the people, Brother Branham." Said--said, "Help us, we're in trouble." (That’s this Laodicean age that we are living in which is the most neurotic age of any age – only the truth of the message of this hour can deliver you from such an insane age) She herself, I know her, she belongs to the... I believe the Church of Christ, or the Christian church, called Church of the Brethren. So she...
31 I looked around, and I said, "I wished I could." And go on, looking around; and I... my little, bitty body and--and them great, big iron bars; and those poor people in there. And you couldn't get to them, them iron bars was setting close together. And I looked, and they were beating their head like they were out of their mind. (Notice - an age that would almost send you totally out of your mind)
32 And I seen some lights flickering around in there. And I looked up, and there stood the Lord Jesus with a--a--a lights of rainbow around Him. He was looking right straight to me, said, "Deliver those people." And He went away.
33 And I thought, "Well, how could I deliver them? I--I haven't got strength enough in my arms to break those bars."
34 So I said, "House of hell, give away to the Name of Jesus Christ."
35 And all the creaking and popping, and--and the rocks a-rolling, and--and bars a-falling; and people running, screaming, "Delivered!" and screaming at the top of their voice, and was all delivered.
36 And I was screaming then, "Brother Roy Borders, where are you? Where are you? God is delivering His people!
***And so we know that it is God that will deliver his people out of this insane age.
So God has placed this story of Gideon in the bible to show us that the same challenge that Gideon had to struggle with in his day is the same struggle that we are to struggle with in this day also ( because all scripture was written for this hour), and so God is showing us of how He dealt with Gideon’s self-doubt and lack of confidence that he had in himself, and how that he will also deal with you in this hour to bring you out of your self-doubt and into the overcoming victory of His promise for your life – that is what is going on in your life right now, it has been the angel of the Lord dealing with your life all along.
*Over the years, many of us have suffered with insecurities and a host of other mind battles along the journey of our lives – and all these types of struggles are common to all of us.
***But we know that the truth of this hour will bring a person into a relationship with Christ.
**Truth will unveil the Mighty God to you so that you can see His character and see His ways, and see His commitment to His people of this end time hour who have believed his prophet that he sent.
***This is where our confidence and security lays – it is in knowing the power of the one who has got your life in His full interest and control, and then that knowledge becomes the sword of the Lord and of Gideon – it is a marriage union between you and God in this day that brings you into the victory of this hour – the thoughts of this mighty angel had been transferred into Gideon’s mind so that the angel’s thoughts were now Gideon’s thoughts also.
**Gideon came out of his self-doubt and into union with the thoughts of God concerning himself.
**By and through the process of how the angel dealt with him, Gideon came to know himself as he was known by the angel, and once he knew who he really was, then he became invincible. (This same Angel is dealing with your life in the same way – and sometimes it rough, but that isn’t designed to destroy you, but to bring you into a victory that you have never known before.
To be continued - the Lord willng...