Not all battles are fought the same way. And not every battle has the same impact. Some are skirmishes while other battles call for mass troops and heavy weaponry.
But for those private wars that every saint battles, the outcome matters. It matters because our victory or defeat has a profound effect in our relationships. God can speak a wonderful, reassuring message of hope and encouragement. A word to remind us the battle is already won in Christ.
Or He can let the enemy tell you himself.
God tells Gideon to go down to the edge of the enemy's camp to listen to what the enemy is saying about him.
It says, "Gideon arrived just as a man was telling a friend his dream. "I had a dream," he was saying. "A round loaf of barley bread came tumbling into the Midianite camp. It struck the tent with such force that the tent overturned and collapsed." His friend responded, "This can be nothing other than the sword of Gideon son of Joash, the Israelite. God has given the Midianites and the whole camp into his hands." (Judges 7:13-14, NIV).
I want to suggest, beloved, these tents represent the habitation of the ungodly and the wicked. David says, "Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere; I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked" (Psalms 84:10). We read in Judges 7:12 that the vast army settled like locusts in the valley. Whenever the wicked encroach, they cross a boundary line and try to set up camp like squatters on your property.
But the man goes on to describe in his dream of a barely loaf rolling down the hill so violently it smashes the tent and causes it to collapse!
I want to suggest the bread is the Lord, the Bread of Life, which rolls over our strongholds, those dwelling places where the enemy has tried to set up camp and settle in our hearts and mind. Often these tents can be mindsets, attitudes and lifestyles that are worldly, unholy and a nesting place for the enemy.
How does God do this breaking and smashing of wicked habitations? I believe He does this by the power of His voice. Psalms 29:4-5 says, "The voice of the LORD is powerful; the voice of the LORD is majestic. The voice of the LORD breaks the cedars; the LORD breaks in pieces the cedars of Lebanon" (NIV).
When we allow God's word speak into our circumstances, you can be sure the enemy must flee at the sound of His voice!
The Lord thundered from heaven,
and the Most High uttered his voice.
And he sent out arrows and scattered them;
lightning, and routed them.
Then the channels of the sea were seen;
the foundations of the world were laid bare,
at the rebuke of the Lord,
at the blast of the breath of his nostrils.
“He sent from on high, he took me;
he drew me out of many waters.
He rescued me from my strong enemy,
from those who hated me,
for they were too mighty for me.
They confronted me in the day of my calamity,
but the Lord was my support.
He brought me out into a broad place;
he rescued me, because he delighted in me.
II Samuel 22:14-20
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