======================================================================== THE RIGHT RESPONSE TO GOD S ENCOUNTER by Gbile Akanni ======================================================================== Summary: Gbile Akanni teaches that the right response to God's encounter is wholehearted obedience and personal consecration, which leads to divine repositioning and fulfillment of destiny. Duration: 1:09:03 Topics: "Obedience", "Divine Encounter", "Personal Consecration" Scripture References: Judges 6:32, Judges 6:36-40, Judges 7:1-7 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ DESCRIPTION ------------------------------------------------------------------------ In this powerful teaching, Gbile Akanni explores the story of Gideon to reveal how young believers should respond to God's divine encounter. He emphasizes the importance of personal consecration, obedience, and yielding fully to God's will. Gbile Akanni challenges listeners to embrace divine interruptions as repositioning moments that lead to destiny fulfillment. This sermon encourages believers to trust God’s plan and walk in obedience to experience His power and purpose in their lives. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CONTENT ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Living Seed Media brings to you God's Word, which is his comprehensive equipment for changing lives. May the Lord impact your heart as you encounter his Word. For further enquiry or counsel, contact Peace House, PO Box 971, Boko, Benue State, Nigeria. Telephone numbers 0703 03636 59, 0703 76811 98. Email address lsmediaatlivingseed.org or visit our website at www.livingseed.org. Let us sit back and listen as the servant of God brings forth the Word of Life. The response of Gideon unto God's encounter. But just as I said, if we were just telling the history of Gideon, it would have been that we are telling the story of somebody who died. But we are looking at the story of Gideon only to give us principles for our own response, our own response. And so tonight, I will be asking you again to come with me to Georges chapter 6. And this particular time, we are going to look at from verse 32 of Georges chapter 6. And then we'll read it as crossover onto chapter 7. For tonight, I just want again to look at the correct response unto God's encounter to your life as a young person. The right response unto God's visitation to you as a young person. How do you rise early in life in response to what God is saying to you so that you can gain space, you can gain time, you can engage your freshness, you can engage your exuberance, you can engage your passion, and you can engage even your emotional capacity to respond to what God is asking you to do. Shall we bow our head together as we commit this time to God again that he will speak to us and he will help us to respond appropriately to what God is saying. Holy Spirit, we thank you for the testimonies of your sons, of your daughters, as they have come to an experience of Christ quite early in life. And we are grateful to you that we can see your hand on the young people and they are saying we will watch the devil lose the battle. So Lord, we agree that in our lifetime and even in our youth, we will see the enemy tumble, we will see the kingdom of God advance, and we will see the purpose of God prosper by our hands. As we look into the word of life, please speak to us and reach out to each one of us in our various centers and various situations. We ask, Lord, that you engage us individually. Do something in our lives that will go on record that the Lord encountered me. Thank you, Lord, for you will do it and your great name shall be glorified. And as your word comes, let it come with simplicity, let it come with clarity. And above all, Lord, let it mix with faith in our heart that it may profit us, it may ginger us, and it may position us to where you are leading us. Thank you. In Jesus Christ's name, we have prayed. Amen. Please turn your Bibles with me to Georges, Chapter 6. Georges, Chapter 6. We are looking at the right response. What must you do now that you are young with the encounter, with the divine engagement, and the exposure that God has given to you? Now, you remember that while we began to look at Georges, you can see that what happened to Brother Gideon, he did not plan it, he did not go to the wine press as if to meet an angel. He went to the wine press to do his normal duty. He was involved in the ordinary things of life. And I thank God that our brothers who are testifying of the grace of God in their lives today, they have brought one matter out, one life principle, one undivided life. The same life of Christ in the laboratory, the same life of Christ in the theater, the same life of Christ in the classroom, the same life of Christ in the banking hall, Christ's life everywhere is not different from the life on the pulpit, or the life in the church priority, or the life just out there in the industry. That's the kind of men, that's the kind of women God is asking us to raise now. Men who carry Christ's life to go and bear upon the situation where men are. Men will be encountering Christ, they will be touching the aroma of Christ's life, you know, in our lives as we touch them everywhere we go. And so you will see that the move of God that we are talking about now, even though by the grace of God it might be occasional from the sanctuary, that stream may be flowing from the sanctuary, but surely it's not going to be limited, it's not going to be caged inside the church hall, it's flowing out. The revival we're expecting, even though it is going to be a move of God, but it's not going to be labelled as if it's just religion. It's going to be life, it's going to be touching men, it's going to affect your marriages, it's going to affect your career, it's going to touch every aspect of life, it's going to deal with politics in our generation. And I'm trusting God that as we go on, you will see how to respond. But first and foremost, I want you to know that what happened to Brother Gideon was like a divine interruption. And I don't want any of you to make a mistake about that. That when God wants to step into your life as a young person, it always comes as if it's an interruption. It always comes as if it's a diversion from the kind of thing you wanted to do. That's how it appears. But you see, every divine interruption that comes to your life was actually a divine repositioning. To the onlooker that does not understand it, they think, oh, your life is being scattered. But when you look further, and in the course of time, if you allow God, you soon discover that what happened to your life was to really bring you to a realisation of your destiny. It's to bring you to what heaven wants you to become in life. It's to realise why you were actually born. And I perceive that the Lord is going to reposition several of you. He's going to redirect your path in life. He's going to redefine you. And by the grace of God, you are going to rise a new man. I told you that Gideon went into the place of the winepress, beating the ordinary wheat, trying to get something for his father, mother, and perhaps his general family to be able to eat for that day. And God encountered him. And from that point, you can see what he became. And that's what I want to be dealing with tonight. When you respond properly to God's encounter, it changes your life. It changes the definition of your life. It changes your direction. It repositions you. Now, after that night, when he responded to God, when he went and burnt down the idols in his own life, in his own father's compound, he was taking a risk, so to say. He was doing what nobody has ever attempted. He was taking a step that people dreaded. How dare you to go into the family shrine and destroy what our fathers have been worshipping? How dare you go to break down the altar of Baal and destroy the groove? How do you take all the wood thereof and to only make fire, to make a burnt offering unto the Lord? Who are you to do that kind of thing? But you see, when God steps into your life and he gives you an instruction of obedience, I would just say to you, just obey. Obedience is God's key unto the greatness that you are looking for. And that hymn writer says, there's no other way to be happy in Jesus but to do what? Just to trust and to obey him. So will you now quickly look at George's chapter 6 as I ask you to now turn. In verse 32, let's start from verse 32, hoping that you have read the entire chapter since we started in the morning. Therefore, on that day, he called him Jerubba, saying, let Baal plead against him because he has thrown down his altar. Then all the Midianites and the Amalekites and the children of the east were gathered together and went over and preached in the valley of Jezreel. But the spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon and he blew a trumpet and Abieza was gathered after him. And he sent messengers throughout all Manasseh who also was gathered after him. And he sent messengers unto Asher, unto Zebulun, and unto Naphtali, and they came up to meet them. And Gideon said unto God, if thou wilt save Israel by my hand, as thou hast said, behold, I will put a fleece of wool in the floor. And if the dew be on the fleece only, and it be dry upon all the earth beside, then shall I know that thou wilt save Israel by my hand, as thou hast said. And it was so, for he rose up early on the morrow and thrust the fleece together and wrung the dew out of the fleece, a bowl full of water. And Gideon said unto God, let not your anger be hard against me, and I will speak this once. Let me prove I prayed thee, but this once with the fleece. Let it now be dry only upon the fleece, and upon all the ground let there be dew. And God did so that night, for it was dry upon the fleece only, and there was dew on all the ground. Then, chapter 7, verse 1, Jerubbah, who is Gideon, and all the people that were with him rose up early and pitched beside the well of Harod, so that the hosts of the Midianites were on the north side of them by the hill of Moreh in the valley. Verse 2, And the Lord said unto Gideon, The people that are with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hands. Let Israel vaunt themselves against me, saying, My own hand has saved me. Now therefore go to proclaim in the ears of the people, saying, Whosoever is fearful and afraid, let him return, and depart early from Mangliad. And there returned of the people twenty-two thousand, and there remained ten thousand. And the Lord said unto Gideon, The people are yet too many. Bring them down unto the water, and I will try them for you there. And it shall be that of whom I say unto you, These shall go with you, the same shall go with you. And of whomsoever I say unto you, These shall not go with you, the same shall not go. So he brought down the people and the water unto the water. And the Lord said unto Gideon, Everyone that lappeth of the water with his tongue as a dog lappeth, him shall thou set by himself. Likewise, everyone that bows down upon his knees to drink, and the number of them that lapped, putting their hand to their mouth, were three hundred men. But all the rest of the people bowed down upon their knees to drink water. And the Lord said unto Gideon, By the three hundred men that lapped will I save you, and deliver the Midianites into your hand, and let all the other people go, every man unto his place. Let's stop there. But saving is where we are stopping, and hoping that we'll be able to handle what is the matter, what's the manner of response. How do we respond to what God is saying to us? What manner of men, what manner of women ought we to be in what God is about saying to you? Now, I will take it gradually. Within the time space we have, I'm hoping that God will help us to lay this foundation again. Even today, I'm still laying foundation. It is from tomorrow that we'll begin to deal with how to go in this might that God is beginning to release to us. What is God's strategy for this end time? And why is God raising an army of men and women that he wants to use at a time like this? Now, let's go back very quickly. The first point I wanted to deal with is that even though God may draw more people, even though God may build a team for what he wants to do, I want to first say to you, God's priority is first and foremost you. If God will prevail with you as a person, if God will have his way in your life, we cannot predict how far what God wants to do with your life will go. If the Spirit of God will help you to yield your heart to God as an individual first, we cannot predict how God is going to handle what he wants to do with your life. Now, God came and confronted Gideon, a young man, the least of his father's house. His father was the least of the family of Manasseh. Manasseh was not a big thing. Manasseh was not the Judah, was not the big tribes. Manasseh was one of the smallest. And yet, God has found a young man in that place that he wants to use. God has found a man in that place that he wants to operate with if he will give his life to the Lord. And so the first thing we saw was that this man took his life in his hand to obey God. And because of that step of obedience, God was ready to back him up. That's the first thing I saw. When God had challenged him, he had asked his questions, he had said, Lord, why is all this with us? And God said, thou mighty man of valor, go in this your might. And even as at the time we said, what was the might? What was important about his life? He had never fought a battle before. Nobody has ever seen him do anything of this nature before. Why would God call him a mighty man of valor? And I said, when God looks at a young man, he looks at his future. He looks at what God is capable of making him if he should yield his life. All that God is speaking concerning you is not about your own energy. It's about what God will do if you just allow him. If you just give your life to him and say, now Lord, here am I. Deal with me as thou seest meet. My life is in your hand now, Lord. Make out of it whatsoever you desire to make out of my life. There are many young people that can't reach the height that God intends them to reach because that initial surrender they did not make. They kept bargaining with God. They kept insisting on their own ambition. They kept saying, yes, I give God my life, but the rope is in their hands. They keep pulling it back. They keep saying, oh God, even though I want to serve you, but not to this extent. Even though I want to obey you, but not in this one. When a man is still sharing his life with God that way, I want to tell you very frankly, you can't go far. Your life will just be done and you'll be a mediocre. If Jesus has come to knock on your life tonight and say, son, give me your heart, the right thing to do is to give it to him. And watch what he will do with your life. Watch the extent to which he can go with you. Watch the extent to which he can lead you into what he wants you to accomplish. And that's what I'm saying in the life of Gideon. There was nobody to support him. He was afraid that even his father would not support him. He had nobody around him to have supported him. But when he took a step and he broke down and threw away the idols and broke the altars and caused them to be burnt down and erased a different altar unto the Lord. And he took bullocks from his father's pen and slaughtered it as a burnt offering to the Lord. All of this he did it only in obedience to God who said, now that you want me to use you, first and foremost, go and purge your life. Go purge your own house. I cannot use you to discipline disobedience when there is disobedience in your own life. I can't carry you to the battle gate to fight against the enemy of the kingdom when you yourself, internally, you are the enemy of Christ. I cannot carry you to go and discipline the devil when there is indiscipline in your own life. That is the first principle we are talking about. How many of you will want God to use you when there are unsettled issues of disobedience? There are unsettled issues of secret sin, unconfessed sin. And you are saying, Lord, use me. On what ground will God carry you out to be fighting a battle against the enemy? And you know the only trouble between God and the devil is sin. The only challenge between God and mankind is sin and disobedience. He cannot use the disobedient to punish the disobedient. It will not be correct. God will not use a sinner at heart to go and be dealing with other sinners. It will be hypocrisy. God cannot go to battle with you when you yourself, you are not in alignment with his will for your life. That's the first thing I saw. And if there's going to be any response to this encounter, it must be a response of personal consecration. A response of complete obedience to God, whatsoever it is that God has pointed out. Whatever it is that is not congruent in your life. I want you to know that God has a great plan. He has something to do with you. He wants to walk with you. He wants to walk through you. He wants to do wonders by your hand. Just imagine that in chapter 6, everybody was crying. Everybody was crying because of the oppression of the Midianites. And in between chapter 6 and chapter 7, where we are going to read of the great victories and the deliverance of the people, was God looking for a man to use. God was looking for a Gideon. Just as you are listening to me, God is looking for someone in Namibia. God is looking for someone in Swaziland. God is looking for someone in Ghana. God is looking for someone in America and say, can I get someone? Someone would say, oh, but the matter is too large. The country is too big. The decadence is too much. The contradiction is too much. That's not the issue. It has ever never been the issue. The magnitude of the challenge is never the issue with God. The greatest issue with God is to find a man. It's to find a woman. It's to find someone who will offer to God the due of their youth. Who will say, oh God, now that I'm young, and now that I'm strong, and now that I am able, now that I'm able to do what you are calling me to do, if you will send me, here am I, Lord. Here is my life. And then every matter, God now want to set a purge. To purge you of everything. The children of Israel could not go to dislodge Jericho until they were circumcised again. If you are listening to me, and the Holy Spirit is drawing your attention, I want to ask you to be able to be enlisted into what God wants to do. Will you, first and foremost, open your life to God, and ask him to deal with every issue of contradiction. Anything that is standing between you and God, will you let it go tonight? Will you say to Jesus, I will no longer bargain with you. I will yield my heart to you. I will yield my heart to you. And I will pursue you with all my heart. All the opportunity of discipleship that God will create for us as we started our Bible study today. Lord, I want you to help me to get to know you so I can be released. So that this might you are saying I can go with can be released while I'm still young. So, now as soon as this brother did that, can I ask you to note two more things that he did? He did the irreversible. He did the irreversible. By the time the people were waking up in the morning, the bar, the altar of bar, has been broken. It is irreversible. The wood they used to carve out bar had been burnt. The arrangement they made had been scattered and a new altar was raised. He did the irreversible. How many of you will take an irreversible decision today? That when you break the bridge, between you and sea, you will not reconstruct it. When you say bye bye to that thing that had become an idol in your life, you are not going to go back to reconstruct with it. It's finished. He did the irreversible. And I can imagine that he took his life by his hand. So when all the people in the village gathered, say, why did you do this? Who did this? And they say, it is Gideon that did this one thing. And that day, the Lord stood up to vindicate him. Nobody could touch him because the discussion was that, look, let's, this boy that struggled with bar and killed bar and destroyed his altar, let bar plead against him. And they were all standing there. And of course, bar, a dumb idol. What could he do? All the principalities and powers that bar was mobilizing, they have been scattered. A man has stood up now to shine the light. Darkness cannot comprehend it. So from that day, you will notice that chapter 7, all of you that are reading your Bible, you will notice that chapter 7, verse 1, how did they introduce it? They say, then Jerubal, in my own Bible version of the New King James, I mean the Old King James, in my own Bible, they decided to put Jerubal in capital. They said, then Jerubal, who is Gideon, his name had been changed. Everybody now know him as he going up and they not just say Gideon, Gideon, they say Jerubal. That's the man that conquered bar. That's the conqueror of bar. That's the husband and the master of bar. Let bar plead against him, let us see. And as he's moving up and down, his life became a demonstration of the defeat of Satan in the very eyes of the people. May God make your life an aroma of his victory. That wherever you are going, men will be saying, look, these are the boys that have turned the world upside down. These are the people that they have caused things to change. They are taking over. They are not allowing us to operate again. Demons will start crying left and right when they see UN's fault. Your campus will go on fire. They say, since they came back from that student congress or from that youth congress, they have done something different. They are no more the same again. I know it. I knew that when I took a step like this several years back, and I did one thing, and the Lord decided to bless it, and I broke the things in the family. The news went everywhere. They said there's one boy, he has stood against his father's idols. He has declared this. He has done this. He has done this. The news was everywhere. And whenever people saw me, I said, this is the boy. They would ask and say, are you the one? Are you the one? Why are you so daring? I say, it's Jesus. Jesus. It's Jesus we are going to serve from here. I want to inform you, brother. Will you do the irreversible this night? Will you take a decision and say, Lord, and you see usually, when we are to take such a decision, I will tell you what I said. I said, if I perish, I perish. If I die, let me die. You see, but all the people that have ever come to that position and say, if I perish, I perish. If I die, let me die. The truth of the matter is that they didn't die. Death began to fear them. Devil began to run away. Because now they are rising with a might, which is strange. A might that comes only from heaven. Don't be a coward. I said, do not agree to be a coward. A coward, they say, dies a thousand times before the real death comes. God cannot do anything with a coward. Take a stand in the cause of tonight and say, Lord, I will do the irreversible. I will take a step beyond which I will not return back. That was what Gideon did. And from that day, something changed in his life. But I'm interested in one thing more. Please listen to what I'm interested in. In verse 33, we are told that then all the Midianites and the Amalekites and the Children of the East were gathered together and they went over and they pitched in the Valley of Jezreel. While they gathered, I wondered who went and mobilized them. I see there was an announcement in hell. There is a man who has stood up now for the defense of the Children of Israel. Let's quickly go and intimidate him. Let's quickly go and quench him. Somebody has stood up now. Our chief principality in the Amish bar has been dislodged. I want to charge you. When you take a decision today, something will happen in hell. Satan will know that something is happening. And they will try, they will try to see whether they can mobilize. But that will be the beginning of their downfall in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. But now, what are the two issues that I now wanted to look at? God has dealt with Gideon. God has evacuated something from the life of Gideon. Gideon has become a man who was ready to live only for God and if possible, to die defending his cause. And I saw a Gideon in obedience to God standing before God. The Bible said, the spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon and he blew a trumpet and Abiza was gathered after him. You know, I was just touched that when you evacuate your life of rubbish, when you take away idols from your heart, when you remove the act of disobedience from your heart, you are only making a room and a space for the Holy Spirit to fill you. Several people claim that they have been filled with the Holy Spirit when honestly, they are actually occupied with other things in their heart. I'm wondering, where will the Holy Spirit fill when you are already occupied? When your heart is already filled with rubbish? Every time there's an evacuation of the old life, every time there's an evacuation of the wrong thing, every time there's an evacuation of all objects of disobedience and idols, there is a space for the Holy Spirit to come. Some of you are looking very weak. Some of you are looking very, very vague. I want to suggest to you, can we check if things that are occupied your life, if they are not the things that will not allow the Holy Ghost to find a space in your life. This brother was filled with the Holy Spirit and that was the power behind his activity. I will be dealing with that when I come to the issues of the army that God is calling. But all I'm doing tonight is that preparation. So, by the time he blew a trumpet, he was able to gather 32,000 I'm moving now to chapter 7. He was able to gather 32,000 people. But you see, 32,000 looks big. Only when you now compare it the number of the multitude of Midianites that are coming. Let me remind you, the Midianites, all the Midianites and the Amalekites and the children of the East were gathered together and they went over and pitched in the valley of Jezreel. That's to tell you how much multitude was mobilized. So when we are talking about 32,000 here, I don't know how to describe it, I don't know how to compare the number because all Midianites, all Amalekites and all the children of the East in their numbers, they were gathered. In fact, if we read on, later on in chapter 7, they said they were like grasshopper for multitude. Their chariots and their horses and their horsemen, they were like grasshopper for multitude. If you were to go quickly to chapter 7 and verse 12, you will see now. It said, and the Midianites and the Amalekites and all the children of the East lay along in the valley like grasshoppers for multitude. And their camels were without number as the sand by the seaside for multitude. So when you see what we are talking about, numberless horse, what would 32,000 do? But you see, as far as God is concerned, God is not concerned about numbers. God is concerned with correct men. God does not win his battle with host of multitude. He only needs correct lives through whom he can operate. And that's what will bring the result that God is looking for. And that's where I wish I'm going to be tying our discussion tonight so that in praying, you can pray with me. When 32,000 were gathered and they were going to face the multitude, this numberless people, can you imagine how surprising it was when the Lord said unto Gideon in chapter 7 verse 2, the people that are with you are too many for me to give the mediaeval knights into their hands. They are too many. And what was the reason that God was looking at here? He said, because Israel may vaunt themselves against me, saying, my hand has saved me. Now, even though there's so much in our generation that need urgent intervention, but God is not going to move until he gets the correct men. And what is the first thing I see God dealing with now? God is dealing with men who will not touch his glory. Men who will not share in his glory. Men who will not come back boasting, vaunting themselves against the Lord, saying, my hand has saved me. Can I ask you, God wanted to use several of you. And some of you are young men that are listening to me. God began to do something in your life until something arose in your heart. Arrogance, pride, the feeling that you are so important and as that rose in your heart, God had no alternative than to put you aside. You have entered into the class of Lucifer, Satan. As soon as iniquity was found in Satan, and what is his iniquity? The pride, pride. He said, I will lift up myself. God wants to use young people, but something has to happen to your life. God has to evacuate from you the spirit of pride and arrogance. I've told you that that spirit of pride and arrogance also manifests itself in insubordination and disobedience. Every time God is looking for a man to use, you wonder why useful men, useful men are very scarce, is because of this. And the process that God was going to use to deal with this was very elaborate. And tonight, I just introduce it because it is tomorrow, I will begin now to talk about the army, the army, God's army for the end time, and the might with which they are going to operate for God. And if God is setting you apart to be part of that army, you are going to pray tonight, you are going to say, Oh God, whatever it is that can disqualify me from being used of you, whatever it is that can put me aside, whatever it is that will make me to be pulled aside when I ought to be standing out there to see the glory of God, Lord, take it away from my life. Take it away from me tonight. I don't want to go and sleep tonight with it. Now, God said to Gideon, 32,000 that you have gathered, they are too many for me, I can't use them. Because I know what they will do. They have not yet done it, but God saw their future already. God said, these ones, they will brag themselves. They will vaunt themselves. They will share my glory. They will claim that it is their hand that did it. I cannot go with them. How many people are God, I mean, God cannot use because he sees the tendency of their heart. He sees that if he should allow them to touch something, something divine, they will quickly grab it and use it to decorate themselves. How many of you are listening to me today? God gave you a good voice to sing, but as soon as you started singing and people began to be blessed, it entered your head. You began to be arrogant. You began to call yourselves different kind of name and titles. And that is why your life and your song and your music is not of any consequence. It's not touching anybody. How many of you God want to use to do something eternal in your land, in your community? But pride of life, arrogance, insubordination. We have been talking of discipleship and I know one of the first trouble that you will struggle with in discipleship is because discipleship demands submission of your life, obedience. Discipleship will require that you will lay down your heart and say, Lord, make me, make me use any hand to form me onto what you want me to be. The spirit of independence is directly opposite onto discipleship. All of you that want to be independent in life, you don't want anybody to speak into your life. You don't want anybody to guide you. You want to be the master of yourself. You want to be a God to yourself. Such people, they are of little or no use in what God is about to do. There are many people shouting up and down. People have even formed their groups, they have formed their churches, they have formed their ministries because they cannot submit to anyone else. The reason why God is turning to these young people is because God is looking for replacement. The reason why the only ghost is speaking to you is because God is about to do a new thing and is needing a new cruise, is needing a new vessel. But these vessels, they are vessels that will be prepared by God. Number one, every arrogance, every pride, every struggle to make a name for yourself, everything about personal independence that is standing on its own with that strong will, that is not broken and is not submissive to God is a hindrance to what God will have done with your life. And this night, I know what I'm dealing with is the natural human nature. It's what the flesh with which you were born, it's what we are calling the stony heart. The stony heart, one of the critical thing about it is that it wants to be on its own. It wants to be independent. It wants to be a God to himself. It wants only to bargain and say, God, if you do this, then I can do this for you. But God, if you are going to become a vessel in his hand, he is going to deal with that tonight. And from tonight, as we go on with this study tomorrow, you will see how God prepares his vessels and what will be the instruments that will release your might as God is saying, go in this thy might. So God said to him, this 32,000 are too many. Let it not be said that God will be looking into your life, looking into your heart, and he will be saying, but I can't use this people. I can't use this one. I can't use this one. I can see inside of him the enemy of my work. Unless he will be brought down, unless he will be evacuated, unless he is willing to surrender, I can't go with this one. And so God said, bring them down, bring them down, I will sort them out for you. Now therefore go to proclaim in the ears of the people, say, whosoever is fearful and afraid, let him return and depart early from Mangliad. And there returned of the people 22,000 and there remained only 10,000. I'm imagining how Gideon will feel. Hey! 22,000 are going back because as you see them coming, their hearts are not with them. Their hearts are saying, if I go now, what will happen? If the battle should turn and I should die there, what will happen? They were afraid, they were fearful. God said, go now, announce to them. If any of you is fearful, if any of you is afraid, let him go back early. It was touching to me that God, even though God wants to do a great work in our time, he does not want to carry any man, any man, any woman that has not come to the place of surrender, that has not come to say, Lord, take my life. Everything that can be a hindrance between me and you, father this moment, take it away. Anything that will not allow me to be part of this end time army, I'm ready to surrender it. Particularly that aspect of insubordination, that aspect of disobedience, that aspect of personal independence that does not want to submit to God or submit to anyone else. That thing that makes you argue in your heart, that thing that makes you keep struggling, struggling, struggling in your heart. You have heard God speak to you several times, but something in you is so hard, the stony heart will not let you say, yes, Lord, I surrender, I surrender. There was that thing that God had been saying, let go, let go, don't do this again. But something in you has said, what if I do it? What will happen if I do it? And you keep making your next thief. Every time God speaks to you, you are busy, you are busy struggling, arguing your way out. 32,000 could not be carried. In fact, by the time God put his test, which I'll be dealing with tomorrow by God's grace, 31,700 of them were disqualified. Only 300 could be used. But those 300 that God approved, they are the 300 that the Holy Spirit used to bring that victory. So I'm going to stop at this, and I will read one verse or one passage, and then we shall go to God in prayer. Go with me to 2 Timothy. All of you, please. 2 Timothy 2. And as I read that, that will be the point at which we shall bow our heart to talk to God in prayer tonight. What was it? 2 Timothy 2. And I wanted to read from verse 19. Nevertheless, the foundation of God standeth sure having this seal. The Lord knows them that are is, and let everyone that names the name of Christ depart from iniquity. But in a great house, there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth, and some to honor and some to dishonor. If a man therefore purge himself, if a man therefore purge himself from this, it shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified, and meet for the master's use, and prepared unto every good work. Flee also youthful lusts, but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart. As I stop this talk for tonight, I want to remind you three things quickly, which will become the matter of prayer as we go. Say, nevertheless, the foundation of God standeth sure. That is to say, God has a standard that stands sure and it doesn't change. It doesn't vary for any man. It doesn't matter how many people are preaching to you that it doesn't matter even if you are living in sin, you are going on, that grace has covered it. No. The grace of God that bringeth salvation as appeared unto all men and what does it do? It teaches us to say no to sin. Any grace that anybody preaches to you that does not deliver you from sin, that does not set you free from sin is a graceless grace and is a grave. If you follow it, you are going to enter into the grave. Your life is going to be destroyed. Because the grace of God is an enablement for you to live right. Say, shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid. So God knows those that belong to him and he said, there is a seal. And what is that seal? Let everyone that name the name of Christ depart from iniquity. My dear brother, my dear sister, you cannot go further. He said, let them return early from this point. All those who will not depart from iniquity, they cannot be included in the glorious call that God is bringing to us. All those who are clinging to idols, worthless idols, they forfeit the mercy, they forfeit the grace that could have been theirs. That was the confession of Jonah in the belly of the fish. I want to ask you tonight as you bow to God, He said, in a great house there are many vessels. Vessels unto honor and vessels unto dishonor. But you are the one who will decide whether you will be a vessel of honor, whether you will be a vessel for noble use. Say, if a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified, and meet for the master's use, and prepared unto every good work. When by God's grace we begin to come on this matter tomorrow, we will begin now to look at how did God get his 300? What are the things that God must take away for you to become a vessel so that you can go in this your might? But for tonight, something basic is here. Something that we cannot compromise is here. God is saying, the foundation of God stands sure. It has a seal. It has a seal. All those who name the name of Christ must depart from iniquity. If you claim to be a child of God and that you have seen Christ, and you have not been delivered from sin, you are a liar. Jesus said, If the Son shall set you free, you will be free indeed. He said, but if anybody is committing sin, whosoever is sinning is a slave of sin. And you know that slaves don't dwell in the house forever. You may be in the midst of the brothers, you may be in the fellowship, but you are a sinner. You are a slave of sin. And a slave of sin cannot stay in the house forever. Only the Son stays. And so as we go on to pray, even though there is a great need for a great army to serve God, God said to Gideon, this 32,000 is too much for me. It's too much because they are not sanctified. It's too much because there is iniquity in their heart. I can't use them. I can see pride rising in their heart in the coming days. I can't use them. Bring them down. And 31,700 were disqualified straight away. May you not be among the rejects tonight. May the Holy Spirit give you courage to say, Oh God, rather than become a reject in the army of the Lord, I will reject everything that is contrary to the will of God in my life. And so tonight Jesus Christ is standing again and is giving you a great opportunity. He said the reason why you were born, the reason why I gave you life, and the reason for living is what I'm offering you here. But one matter that will not allow you to enter into it is the matter of sin. And you are going to ask yourself tonight, since I've been committing sin, what has sin given you? What benefit has sin brought to your life? As a young man, you can look back now, and you see that sin has only destroyed you, has only reduced you, has only brought you lower than where you should be. And tonight the Holy Spirit is saying, Can you take a step? Gideon did something, and that's why we are talking about him today. All those who took a step to obey God, they became something in the hand of God. All those who heard the word of God and did not do anything about it, they fizzled out. They were flushed away. They became non-entities, even though they are still living. As far as God is concerned, they were dead, even though they are still walking up and down. This night, as I stop here to pray, there is a great opportunity to become one of those generals that God wants to use to dislodge his enemy. Look at the medianites. Look at how multitude they were. But it does not take anything more than 300 for God to finish all of them. And they were finished even without shooting a gun because when God finds a right vessel to use, God's work can progress. Will you be there? Will you be part of those that heaven is going to say, Yes, yes, come in. Yes, come in, your sins are forgiven. You have opened up your heart to the Savior. And you say, Yes, come in, I will walk with you. Are you going to be one of those who will stiff neck their necks this night and say whatever they are saying, I'm not going to do that. And then you are going to find yourself in a sudden destruction. You are going to find yourself with an unwanted pregnancy. You are going to find yourself with a life that is scattered. Or you are going to find yourself in a marriage that can never help you to release your mind. God has come to you early enough. All the stories you heard in the afternoon, all the stories of that sisters and the brothers and all of them that were sharing their lives, you will remember that they all kept saying, When Jesus came into my life, and when he drew me this way into discipleship, that's when things started to turn. What do you do with this message tonight? What will be your experience tonight? God just met Gideon in his father's farm. And that was the turning point of his life. He could have died a useless farmer. In fact, he could have died in the next raid of the Midianites. They would have killed him and there would be nothing about him. But when he took a decision to stand for God, God made him outstanding. Will you take a stand tonight and give God the space to do what he had been wanting to do in your life? Will you please rise with me in prayer as we conclude this meeting? Will you please stand wherever you are? Wherever you are in all the centers, I want you to stand up now because we are going to pray together. Anywhere you are, even when you are alone just by your own system, this is the time to pray. Can you please turn your heart to God in prayer? I perceive God is going from nation to nation to nation, from country to country, from center to center, from place to place, recruiting men and women he wants to use. You can imagine God has walked to Rwanda. I can see many of our Rwandese. You are crying to God. You say, Lord, can you give us another reviver? And God says, yes, I'm about to give another reviver, but I must wait for it. And I need to charge those of you listening to me in that country. Will you offer your life this night? Will you say, oh God, oh God, for another visitation to this nation, take my life. There was a Gideon that offered and said, Lord, here am I. Would you like to go to God in prayer on behalf of your people and say, Lord, here am I. When Gideon took a stand on behalf of the people, even the people didn't understand what he was doing. Tonight, as you stand in prayer, open your mouth and say to God, Lord, I've heard your voice. And here am I, Lord. I want to do the irreversible. I want to take the irreversible decision tonight. I want to burn the bridges. I want to end everything that connects me with sin and with darkness. I want this light to be separated unto you. I want my light to be set apart for your glory. As Gideon took a step, and as several others took steps, and their lives became an answer unto the cry of their own generation. Lord, make my life an answer. Make my life an answer. As we are praying, call on God right now. And I want to give you opportunity to do it. And what is that opportunity tonight? Is that whether three people are standing by your side, or ten people are surrounding you, God is speaking to you as a man. God is speaking to you as a woman. God is speaking to you as an individual. Gideon responded to God as an individual. And the Holy Spirit is putting this across to you. Will you lift up yourself before God and say, Lord, here am I. Even if no one joins me, Lord, here am I. My life must count for you. My life must count for your God. And everything that could disqualify me, Lord, I want to lay it at your feet tonight. I want you to help me. Where are you? Where are you? In the midst of the crowd, where are you? Will you lift up and say, Lord, count me among those that you want to use, oh God, in my time. And my life, I want to lay at your feet particularly today. I want you to do a new thing with me. I want you to start with me. I want you to walk in my heart. God bless you. Now, can I now ask you to put action to your decision. As you lift up your right hand to God, please take your Bible or your bag, if you are a lady, and walk towards the altar tonight and say, Father, I cannot be alive and my life will be a waste. I cannot waste the strength of my youth doing useless things. This night, oh God, I want to lay my life in your hands. You know, we started this with a song in this afternoon, take my life and let it be. Take my life and let it be consecrated, Lord, unto you. Where are you? As you lift those hands before God, and as you say to God, take this life. As you use Gideon, you will use my life. As you change his story, you will change my story. And as you walk in his heart to deal with all the things that could have been a hindrance to him, I surrender my own heart to you. God bless you now. As I pray with you, I want all the hands that I lifted up and all those that can step out where they are, just walk towards the altar. And I want you to kneel down before God. Thank you. God bless you. As you step out, just kneel before him and say, Lord, tonight. Tonight, let's settle the matter. God bless you. God bless you. Wherever you are, please do it now. You can't say tomorrow. Tomorrow is not in our hand. Today is the day that God has ordained and he wanted to walk with you. God bless you, my friends. God bless you, my brothers. God bless you, my dear sisters. As you are walking out, do it. Do it. It might look like, sir, am I just going out there? You are going to meet the Lord. You are going to say to God, Lord, take this life now. And you see it the way you want. He said, let every man that named in the name of Christ depart from iniquity. To depart means to walk away from it, to walk away from sin, to walk away from everything that is wrong. Please, can you walk out? God bless you. Thank you. God bless you. Keep doing so. Quickly, quickly. We don't have time again. You've got to run now. You've got to run now to that altar and say, oh, God. Oh, God, the things that will make me useless in life, you must take it away from me today. The things that will not allow me to be of noble use, it must be taken out of my hands today. Step out quickly as I pray for you. There are yet several others that need to do so from one center to another, from one country to another, from one land to another, from one place to another. Or even in the privacy of your room where you are just listening to this word. You want to say, Lord, today, today, this 29th, it must mark a turning point in my life. Thank you. God bless you. Thank you. Thank you. God bless you, my friends. God bless you, my dear sister. God bless you. Just step out. Keep coming. Keep coming. And as you are kneeling before God, you are saying, Lord, I'm not too young for you to change my story. I'm not too young to use me even in my school. I'm not too young, oh, God, for you to use me to turn things around. Every iniquity must be taken out of my life tonight. ======================================================================== Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/gbile-akanni/the-right-response-to-god-s-encounter/ ========================================================================