<TITLE>08. Par 52-60</TITLE>L-52 And here comes a prophet out for that hour and gave them the Word of the Lord. Remember, He never give them some man-made theology. He said, "I am the Lord that brought you out of Egypt, show My mighty hand, showed My power." I'd imagine Gideon was setting right there listening at him. "I am the God that did these things. And I've done all this for you, and yet you've not obeyed My commandments. In all this, you have not done it."

L-53 Now, I want you to notice another thing that might encourage you. Immediately after that prophet's message, the Lord appeared on the scene. Amen. As soon as he gave his message, the Lord appeared under a tree. The Lord came after the message of the prophet, setting under a tree. The prophet gave... The people fell away, got off in their isms. God sent His prophet. Soon as the prophet got through with his message, the Lord followed the prophet's message for deliverance.
Oh, we are living in a grand time. Immediately when the prophet went off the scene, what happened? The Lord came on the scene. As soon as John went off the scene, the Lord came on the scene. Very strange how God works, but He does it, works in mysterious way.

L-55 We read the Scripture here, where Gideon, scared, out by the winepress, thrashing out enough wheat, before the Philistines or the Midianites found him. Him and his daddy, out there getting a little grub for their winter's food, thrashing it out secretly, so they couldn't find them. 'Cause they just come in like grasshoppers and took all they had.

L-56 That's the way the devil does. We get a little church started, everything going fine. (How many preachers don't know this to be the truth?) Just about the time everything's going along fine, some old impostor will come right amongst that group and tear it to pieces (That's right.), snatch the church right from a man, if he can do it. See, that's the devil. Come in like grasshoppers and take out what's been given. Now, when...

L-57 Gideon certainly was a Scriptural man. When the Angel of the Lord said to him... And if you notice, it wasn't the Angel of the Lord here. It said, "And the Lord," capital L-O-R-D. It was not an Angel. It was God. It was a--a theophany in a man, in the form of God, like appeared to Abraham back in the wilderness, and looked like a man. So therefore, being a Messenger, He was the Angel of the Lord.
And He appeared to him. And He said, "Thou mighty man of valor," said He's going to take him, and deliver Israel by him.

L-60 And Gideon asked that question. What a Scriptural man that was. That's the kind of man that God comes to, somebody who knows. Gideon said, "If God is with us, if You are the Messenger, then where is the miracles that the prophet told us about?" He knowed everywhere God went, His miracles followed Him. He knowed that wherever God would be, miracles would be there.
And how can you expect God today to work in amongst people who doesn't even believe in miracles? How can it be?
And He called him a mighty man of valor. Said, "Now, by this, you're going to deliver Israel."
Now, that looked like a man setting there, and it was a Man. And he looked at Him, and he said, "Nay, my Lord, if God is with us, then why is all this trouble upon us? And where is the miracles that we're told about? Where is the things that God used to do?"


<A HREF="P9">Next Page</A>