WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:09.040 Good day, everyone. It is day 16 in this journey of ours, and it is called Freedom from the 2 00:00:09.040 --> 00:00:11.240 Fear of Man. 3 00:00:11.240 --> 00:00:16.920 Restful one, I call your spirit to attention in the name of Jesus of Nazareth. 4 00:00:16.920 --> 00:00:19.040 Listen to the word of God for you. 5 00:00:19.040 --> 00:00:25.760 But the Lord said to him, Peace, do not be afraid, you are not going to die. 6 00:00:25.760 --> 00:00:33.840 So Gideon built an altar to the Lord there and called it, The Lord is Peace, Judges 6.23-24. 7 00:00:33.840 --> 00:00:39.820 I bless you, restful one, with freedom from the fear of man and from an unhealthy fear 8 00:00:39.820 --> 00:00:40.960 of God. 9 00:00:40.960 --> 00:00:46.280 I bless you with being like Gideon, seeing and experiencing the presence of God in the 10 00:00:46.280 --> 00:00:48.520 middle of a crisis situation. 11 00:00:48.520 --> 00:00:53.360 I bless you with having current experiences of God's presence, provision, and intervention. 12 00:00:53.360 --> 00:00:58.360 I bless you with not having to go back to prior generations to share glory stories of 13 00:00:58.360 --> 00:00:59.760 God's intervention. 14 00:00:59.760 --> 00:01:02.640 I bless you with your own stories. 15 00:01:02.640 --> 00:01:08.880 I bless you with an experiential knowledge of God's presence, his provision, his answer 16 00:01:08.880 --> 00:01:14.760 to your prayers, his solving your problems, his intervention in your life, so that although 17 00:01:14.760 --> 00:01:20.960 the enemy may be in the land and things are not going well, there is a rock-solid knowledge 18 00:01:20.960 --> 00:01:30.240 that your Father God is present, contemporary, and current in your culture, life, and circumstances. 19 00:01:30.240 --> 00:01:35.320 I bless you with going to the Word of God and seeing specific promises your Father has 20 00:01:35.320 --> 00:01:41.960 made to you, being able to stand on those promises and savoring the joy, the security, 21 00:01:41.960 --> 00:01:47.720 and the excitement that comes when your Father answers your prayers based on his specific 22 00:01:47.720 --> 00:01:48.720 promises. 23 00:01:49.200 --> 00:01:55.760 Gideon saw himself as a survivor in a hostile environment, but God saw him as a mighty warrior, 24 00:01:55.760 --> 00:02:02.840 one who would free the entire nation from the Midianite invasion. 25 00:02:02.840 --> 00:02:07.440 When Gideon accepted that identity, he began to experience peace. 26 00:02:07.440 --> 00:02:13.240 I bless you, restful one, with the profound truth of knowing who you are. 27 00:02:13.240 --> 00:02:19.280 I bless you with having peace based on your identity and your Father's provision, protection, 28 00:02:19.280 --> 00:02:20.520 and purposes. 29 00:02:20.520 --> 00:02:27.240 I bless you with embracing your identity and realizing that when God calls you to battle, 30 00:02:27.240 --> 00:02:33.560 he will be there with you and for you, and your victory will lie in his hand, not in 31 00:02:33.560 --> 00:02:36.920 your expertise or resources. 32 00:02:36.920 --> 00:02:42.120 I bless you with knowing who you are called to be in the eyes of God. 33 00:02:42.120 --> 00:02:47.680 I bless you with experiencing beyond a shadow of a doubt God's pleasure in you and who you 34 00:02:47.680 --> 00:02:51.680 are and how he sees you now and tomorrow. 35 00:02:51.680 --> 00:02:57.600 I bless you with the peace that comes in knowing who you are and that you are doing what your 36 00:02:57.600 --> 00:03:01.840 Father wants you to do and that he is pleased with you. 37 00:03:01.840 --> 00:03:07.380 I bless you with the blessing of savoring, soaking in, and rejoicing in the protection 38 00:03:07.380 --> 00:03:12.700 of doing the right thing at the right time, at the right place, in the right way, because 39 00:03:12.700 --> 00:03:17.340 you know your identity in your Father's house. 40 00:03:17.340 --> 00:03:24.580 I bless you, I bless your spirit, with peace, in the name of Jesus of Nazareth, who designed 41 00:03:24.580 --> 00:03:25.580 your identity." 42 00:03:25.580 --> 00:03:32.980 Well, Lord, this is a wonderful passage, I think, for us. 43 00:03:32.980 --> 00:03:33.980 Wonderful. 44 00:03:33.980 --> 00:03:38.500 I think the timing is perfect. 45 00:03:38.500 --> 00:03:44.340 Fear of man is such an interesting topic and one that I don't care who we are, we struggle 46 00:03:44.340 --> 00:03:47.660 with to some extent. 47 00:03:47.660 --> 00:03:53.140 We're not all necessarily called, as Gideon may have been, in such an extreme fashion 48 00:03:53.140 --> 00:03:58.160 to save an entire nation, to be appointed a judge, you know, called from that place 49 00:03:58.160 --> 00:04:02.300 to be judge over all of Israel. 50 00:04:02.620 --> 00:04:09.580 However, we are all called to the same wake-up call, that in some form or fashion that we're 51 00:04:09.580 --> 00:04:20.620 called to liberate a nation, even if it's just ourselves or our families, in a sense, 52 00:04:20.620 --> 00:04:30.940 or even the future generations, we'll call it that, from who we, as a generational line 53 00:04:30.940 --> 00:04:37.220 or maybe even as the church, have become known. 54 00:04:37.220 --> 00:04:41.100 Part of Gideon's problem was his own self-image. 55 00:04:41.100 --> 00:04:46.340 Part of that was his own stinking thinking, and part of it was what he inherited. 56 00:04:46.340 --> 00:04:51.020 He's of the smallest tribe, of the smallest family, and he's hiding. 57 00:04:51.020 --> 00:04:57.260 Well, in some respects, there are aspects of each person that is in hiding. 58 00:04:57.260 --> 00:04:59.900 There's a part of our identity that is obscured. 59 00:05:00.000 --> 00:05:06.420 almost intentionally from you, but there's an aspect of our identity that is being 60 00:05:06.420 --> 00:05:13.240 obscured to keep us. Those passages, those teachings we hear about the 61 00:05:13.240 --> 00:05:21.840 terror struck into the hearts of our enemies that, oh no, he's starting or 62 00:05:21.840 --> 00:05:28.440 she's starting to come in to realize who they are and there's a terror. 63 00:05:30.000 --> 00:05:35.960 It's one of the reasons I so, I mean, call me a heretic, loved the Matrix was 64 00:05:35.960 --> 00:05:42.040 because Neo just so resonated with me because there's an aspect of what's 65 00:05:42.040 --> 00:05:47.120 happening and they said he's starting to believe. 66 00:05:48.000 --> 00:05:53.280 That the more grounded he became in what is really the real thing, the less 67 00:05:53.280 --> 00:05:58.680 hold this world, that world, had on him as the Matrix and as he started to believe 68 00:05:58.680 --> 00:06:07.720 and come into a piece of who he was, things started to go bonkers. That's a 69 00:06:07.720 --> 00:06:12.840 very spiritual term, bonkers, in the sense that that these laws, this world, 70 00:06:12.840 --> 00:06:18.960 gravity, time, things didn't have a hold on him. He didn't. It's like when that 71 00:06:18.960 --> 00:06:24.280 fighting scene when he was training with Morpheus and and there were canon, he 72 00:06:24.280 --> 00:06:28.400 was out of breath and he was tired and he's like, why are you breathing heavy? 73 00:06:28.400 --> 00:06:35.920 You know that we're just in a simulation. This isn't real. Lord, I pray that we all 74 00:06:35.920 --> 00:06:44.640 have that watershed moment today, some form, even if it's just small and that 75 00:06:44.640 --> 00:06:49.640 Lord, I also, I don't know who this is for, I pray that there be a certain level of 76 00:06:49.640 --> 00:06:55.720 grace extended to those of us that really struggle in this place. And the 77 00:06:55.720 --> 00:07:02.240 enemy always wanted to go back to the place to say, did he really say? 78 00:07:04.160 --> 00:07:10.080 Well, Gideon had a full-blown, you know, angel standing in front of him. It's been 79 00:07:10.080 --> 00:07:15.440 questioned by people many times in Scripture as to whether or not this is 80 00:07:15.440 --> 00:07:20.240 really real. And you had Gabriel and they say, I am Gabriel. I'll stand in 81 00:07:20.240 --> 00:07:29.440 the presence of God. And even with all of that, Gideon had his fleeces. But it 82 00:07:29.440 --> 00:07:36.440 didn't deter him. It didn't disqualify him for who he was called to be. 83 00:07:36.840 --> 00:07:41.160 There's a man that I know that has a great teaching and it's called 84 00:07:41.200 --> 00:07:48.760 Gideon's Angel. He believed that there were times and places, and I'm not 85 00:07:48.760 --> 00:07:53.680 quoting that this is the truth, it just resonated with me in what we're 86 00:07:53.680 --> 00:08:00.280 talking about here, that there is a place where Gideon's Angel would appear. And 87 00:08:00.280 --> 00:08:06.120 that in that place, whether it was just a picture for what's the anointing in the 88 00:08:06.120 --> 00:08:12.240 room, there was these aspects of, just like Gideon, there is times, anointings, 89 00:08:12.240 --> 00:08:18.120 where God is wanting for heaven's identity to overwrite our current 90 00:08:18.120 --> 00:08:22.440 identity and to confront, you know, the lie, the stinking thinking, our 91 00:08:22.440 --> 00:08:27.000 circumstances, or whatever the case may be, that for each and every person we are 92 00:08:27.000 --> 00:08:31.000 in some form or fashion a Gideon. 93 00:08:31.560 --> 00:08:38.640 Well, Lord, whether it's an anointing, whether there's an actual angel like 94 00:08:38.640 --> 00:08:46.440 that appeared to Gideon, right this very second, Lord, by faith I speak forth, Lord, 95 00:08:46.440 --> 00:08:53.240 in alignment right now for each person under the sound, the timbre, the 96 00:08:53.240 --> 00:08:59.000 vibrations of my voice, to have a confrontation, to have a place of 97 00:08:59.000 --> 00:09:04.480 reckoning where heaven's identity, that they are crying, they are desperately 98 00:09:04.480 --> 00:09:09.080 trying to get the attention, just like all of creation is groaning for the 99 00:09:09.080 --> 00:09:14.240 manifestation of the sons of God, that Lord, that there be some aspect of that 100 00:09:14.360 --> 00:09:25.960 reckoning, that settling, to take place right now. Challenging thoughts, promises, 101 00:09:25.960 --> 00:09:34.320 a reframing of our history to show that the collective pointed direction, the 102 00:09:34.320 --> 00:09:43.760 collective escalation and preparation toward something that is greater than we 103 00:09:43.760 --> 00:09:50.080 could imagine. Lord, I say this for myself, I say this for each person here, I 104 00:09:50.080 --> 00:09:54.760 say this for Ashley, that God, that you would not, not only not give up on us, but 105 00:09:54.760 --> 00:10:02.240 you would not let us settle, that Lord, that not one, that there's a 106 00:10:00.000 --> 00:10:08.720 passage of Samuel where it said that not one of his words fell to the ground, that 107 00:10:08.720 --> 00:10:14.120 Lord that there's some aspect in the finishing of our race in our life, no 108 00:10:14.120 --> 00:10:18.320 matter how many or how few there is, or how many we've lived or how few we've 109 00:10:18.320 --> 00:10:25.480 lived, I know everybody on this call is very young, that there be an aspect 110 00:10:25.480 --> 00:10:30.480 of 111 00:10:32.160 --> 00:10:40.400 that there be nothing left on the table, that if if life were a plate of food 112 00:10:40.400 --> 00:10:45.640 that we would all be a part of the Clean Your Plate Club. 113 00:10:45.640 --> 00:10:57.200 Lord, I'm going to take a little bit of a step in the leading here. Lord, I call 114 00:10:57.200 --> 00:11:05.680 right now upon heaven, I call upon your angels, Lord, and for everyone under the 115 00:11:05.680 --> 00:11:10.360 sound of my voice that feels to give permission to you, in a sense, you don't 116 00:11:10.360 --> 00:11:14.680 need our permission, but in a way of saying, Lord, I yield, I open, just like 117 00:11:14.680 --> 00:11:25.280 when we were saved, to hear what the Spirit is saying for who we are, that 118 00:11:25.280 --> 00:11:30.480 the same angel that came to visit Gideon, we don't need that same angel, but Lord, 119 00:11:30.480 --> 00:11:34.880 that there be something right now, by faith, that we can grab, that your heart, 120 00:11:34.880 --> 00:11:41.640 your desire, you brought every single person into this time, not by their just 121 00:11:41.640 --> 00:11:46.480 own chance meeting, but by your direction and opportunity to hear these 122 00:11:46.480 --> 00:11:52.920 things, including on this day, this reading, and that in this moment is 123 00:11:52.920 --> 00:11:59.520 anointed for this to happen, and that Lord, I pray for the grace to believe 124 00:11:59.520 --> 00:12:10.200 that it's true, and Lord, for myself, I yield and say, Lord, your angels, all of 125 00:12:10.200 --> 00:12:16.440 the mysteries of heaven, doesn't matter how this comes to be, Lord, I want my 126 00:12:16.440 --> 00:12:24.160 Gideon moment. I open up that all of heaven, that you, Lord, Father, Son, Holy 127 00:12:24.160 --> 00:12:28.600 Spirit, your seven Spirits of God, all the angels, anything, Lord, that is at your 128 00:12:28.600 --> 00:12:35.040 disposal, all of heaven's resources, Lord. Lord, I bind every force of the enemy, 129 00:12:35.040 --> 00:12:39.680 Lord, I bind up even our own stinking thinking, our own vain imaginations, Lord, 130 00:12:39.680 --> 00:12:48.480 that you would speak, and that Lord, that we believe that it's true, and that we 131 00:12:48.480 --> 00:12:55.360 can rest in knowing, Lord, that you want it more than we do, and that Lord, that 132 00:12:55.360 --> 00:13:02.600 there be a real, like a dying away, a falling away, a shedding of a dead skin, 133 00:13:02.640 --> 00:13:11.640 some aspect, if not all of it, of the fear of man, fall away, and that Lord, for some 134 00:13:11.640 --> 00:13:20.080 of us that have lived more years, or some of us that have just made more mistakes 135 00:13:20.080 --> 00:13:27.720 than most, I think everybody feels that way, that Lord, we not live under that 136 00:13:27.760 --> 00:13:37.600 auspice of, well, that's just the way it's gonna be, or I'm on plan C, D, Q, Z, you 137 00:13:37.600 --> 00:13:43.600 know, plan 226, of you, because we've blown it, that it's not, that Lord, that 138 00:13:43.600 --> 00:13:51.960 Gideon was not a child. Moses was 80 when he started. 139 00:13:52.160 --> 00:13:56.800 That Lord, there's some aspect today for each person that you're trying 140 00:13:56.800 --> 00:14:02.440 desperately to get attention in all of creation, to respond to the 141 00:14:02.440 --> 00:14:07.880 manifestations. Lord, I pray today, Lord, that right now, in this time, that there 142 00:14:07.880 --> 00:14:16.440 be place of silence, and that in so many ways today, songs, birds, animals, the 143 00:14:16.440 --> 00:14:24.000 clouds, whatever, in as many ways as you can be creative, as a creator God, to get 144 00:14:24.000 --> 00:14:32.600 through to us who we are, and that Lord, by the grace of God, that we shift, and the 145 00:14:32.600 --> 00:14:39.400 chasm be so far and wide that we cannot go back. We bless you and we love you. In Jesus' name.