Gideon in the Last Days

The Bible offers up quite a few examples of people who faced some of the same challenges that we will soon face, as these Last Days accelerate. Men and women throughout the Bible were tested in their resolve to believe God and obey Him. And, the Bible records these successes – in enough detail to draw strength from their example.

One of those examples is Gideon (pronounced in Hebrew: GEED-ohn). He was a nobody, with faith in God. That made him a ‘somebody’ in God’s eyes, an enough of a ‘somebody’ to be used by God to demonstrate the power of God.

My hope is that we will take these examples to heart, as we gaze into a terrifying future.

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Gideon in the Last Days

I was getting my teeth drilled on Thursday, and it also happened to be the day that my reading plan had reached the story of Gideon. I’m not a real fan of having my teeth drilled, so maybe it was good to have that story to think about, when my dentist sat me down in the chair and started grinding away.

I briefly wondered if I could clear out his waiting room, if I screamed with enough hysteria, but I decided to forego the experiment. This dentist is a pretty good guy, even if he can barely put two words of English together in an intelligible way.

The Faith Of Gideon

But, this Gideon guy… Now, THERE was a man of faith!

People focus on his ‘dew on the fleece’ request of God, but very few actually understand why he did that.

Why did Gideon ask God to make the fleece wet and the ground dry, followed by the reverse?

Because he wanted to make sure that he was actually talking to God, and not to a demon. Very few, these days, seem to understand that demons can talk to us, can try to push us this way, or that. If you receive what appears to be a prophetic dream… and it doesn’t come to pass …you weren’t hearing from God.

I don’t want to go further into a discussion of dreams and visions, except to point out that Gideon was careful to make sure that he was hearing from God. His goal was faithfulness, and he knew that he could trust ANYTHING that God told him to do.

In Gideon’s mind, if God said it, that settled it.

Is that your mindset?

Is this how you think?

Gideon faced certain defeat at the hands of Israel’s enemies. In earthly terms, he had no help and no hope, yet God told him to fight, anyway. In these Last Days, you also will face moments when you have no help and no hope, aside from God.

Will you respond like Gideon?

The Command Of Jesus

Luke 21 records only part of the Olivet Discourse. To get all of it, read Matthew 24 and Mark 13. When you put all three of those together, a picture of absolute horror is revealed. Anything that causes “Men’s hearts failing them for fear” is NOT something that you want to go through. Yet, Jesus ends this terrifying discourse with the key for getting through it:

Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.

 – Luke 21:36

Jesus didn’t give tips on food storage, water filtration and choice of fire arms. He didn’t talk about choosing great retreat locations and techniques for evading capture. He didn’t even discuss the physical fitness that you would need to survive this cataclysm.

No, Jesus mentioned only two things:

Watch

Pray for worthiness

That word ‘watch’ means to be sleepless, wakeful. It means that you shouldn’t be sleeping, in terms of what He was describing in Matthew 24, Mark 13 and Luke 21. It means to look for the events that were coming upon the world, to compare them to the Bible and then to respond accordingly.

Are current events a match with these words of Jesus?

Well, as of June 7th, 1967, they are. Jesus spoke of Jerusalem no longer being under the control of the Gentiles, and that happened just a few weeks shy of 50 years ago. In fact, as we approach the 50th anniversary of that moment, I consider 50 years to be a VERY significant period of time. This should make you VERY watchful, in the days ahead.

The Command To Pray For Worthiness

But, are you praying for worthiness?

This was NOT a suggestion by our Lord and Savior. This was a direct command. He commanded us to pray that we would be worthy to escape what He described.

Are you doing that?

I know that I don’t do it enough, so this is as much a reminder to myself as to you. When I look at my own foolishness, I confess to wondering if I am as worthy as I should be. I will certainly be praying for worthiness.

However, I also know that we all have our place in the coming battle. It will be a soul-deep struggle that will shake all of us to our foundations. Those who stand upon the foundation of Jesus Christ, will stand. Those who do not, will not.

Having The Faith Of Gideon

Furthermore, those who have the faith of Gideon, will have the opportunity to prove the victory of God, over darkness. Over the past 2000 years, countless brothers and sisters in Christ, have paid for this opportunity, with their lives. And, they willingly died, because the cause of Christ was far greater and more precious than their own lives.

THAT is the kind of faith that Gideon had.

When the time comes, for making faithful decisions, my hope is that you will have the same kind of faith as Gideon. But, Gideon’s faith didn’t just spring up out of nowhere. It wasn’t just a thing of the moment. Such faith never is.

We don’t know all details that went into making Gideon a man of faith, but we’ve all seen many, many other details in other men of faith. And, those details were all about tiny decisions made early. Investing in God, instead of the world. Choosing truth and honesty, over personal gain. Sacrificing comfort, for godliness.

Are you doing that?

The faith of Gideon was a long road. Daniel, Moses, Samuel, Jeremiah and all the rest… they walked very long roads of faith. They started out with faithful decisions every day. You might even make the claim that they PRAYED ALWAYS to be worthy.

Do you pray always?

With all the distractions that this world throws at us, it’s a hard thing to do. (And, one starting point, might be those distractions.) But, I hope that you redouble your efforts, because I hope to see you in future battles. I want all of us to have the faith of Gideon.

Note About The New Newsletter System

As I mentioned in a previous mailing, The Shock Letter has a new subscription system. I’m always a bit apprehensive when making such changes, but everything  – or, almost everything – seems to be going well.

For those of you who were subscribed previously, you are still subscribed. You do not need to make a new subscription. Those of you who do not know what I am talking about, go to here:

http://theshockletter.com/

That’s the new home for The Shock Letter, and it lives on a different server than the one Omega Shock lives on. If you have trouble getting The Shock Letter, let me know. I’ll do my best to iron things out.

As always, my email is still: john -at- omegashock -dot- com. That hasn’t changed. You can still reach me there with any questions.

Once all the issues with this new server have been ironed out, I will move on to resurrecting Israel Outlook. Bandits took that site down, and I’m a bit peeved over that. May God requite them for this evil deed. The good thing is that very little was probably lost.

We’ll see.

Most of what was on israeloutlook.com is still in my head, so I can spit it out again, if needed. I just find such thuggish evil to be personally annoying. But, morons will be morons…

And, after THAT is done…

…I get to play with video.

(sigh)

I think that I’d rather have my teeth drilled.

 

I truly hope that you’ll be ready for this

A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself: but the simple pass on, and are punished.Proverbs 22:3

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If you find a flaw in my reasoning, have a question, or wish to add your own viewpoint, leave a comment on the website. Your input is truly welcome.

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