How many know what a flail is? Some of you don’t know. Well I was born in the country and we’ve had a flail more than once on the farm. You have a long strong pole, usually a hickory. It’s very strong. It’s about but not quite as long as that door. There is a little hole in it and on one end a sort of a club comes out, and that’s made of hickory too—round like that. And that has a hole here and then you have a leather thong. You have this flailing thing tied on to this long handle with a leather thong, you see, like that. And that leather can give; it doesn’t wear out as a rope would or a string. How many know a leather thing will last and last and last? Now how many see the liberty there is by having that loose? It isn’t tied fast to this. It is loose so it’s workable on that little buckle of leather, the leather thong. You put your wheat down on the floor and then you raise your pole up and how many see this thing is flopping around on it and you learn to do what? Beat like that and this cudgel thing beats the grain and all the grain flies out. Plung, plung, plung. You don’t go plunk, plunk, plunk! That won’t do it. That’s like churning. Churn, churn—you couldn’t churn that way, you get too agitated. You have to have a rhythm in it. When two do it there is a regular rhythm in it. I’ve seen Dad and Dave, our workman, do it more than once. They would stand quite a piece apart, Dave standing here and Dad would stand there each with a flail. Ker-plung, ker-plung, one answering the other and these flails would bound back and forth on the grain until, oh my, the grain would dance out of those husks and it would not break them at all, they just danced out. Then they picked it up and let the wind blow through it. How many see you had the lovely, lovely grain?

So we usually had a regular thrashing day when a man would come to thrash. But there was always a good heap of this for the chickens. Father would always say that we’ll have to flail out for the chickens. Of course I’ve flailed too and you take a heap of it and there’s a regular rhythm to it. This part is so loose, you see, on that leather thong and you can swing the handle up this way and how many can see that old flail come plop? It takes a good strong piece of hickory. You don’t want to get near the thing, you’d get your head knocked right off, you know, put your eye out. So young ones always kept away. Swing, swing away. Now that’s what Gideon was doing. How many see he was working? He was earning it by the sweat of his face, because sometimes it got pretty warm and he would sweat. So here get that idea. What is he handling? A flail!

By the Sweat of Your Brow

Now the first picture we have of Gideon at all is where he is handling a flail and the flail becomes the symbol. It’s the suggestion of the earning of his food by the sweat of his face. He’s gone back now to exactly what God prophesied, He said that is what you will have to do. He is now earning his life, the livelihood, by the flailing, in order to get his bread. Well this is what people in the world are doing today to get what belongs to them. They have an awful time getting what legitimately belongs to them. And it’s true in the life of the Christian. It isn’t too pleasing to God for us to take the burden of our living. Now as consecrated Christians, consecrated spirits—get your location right—Christians who are dedicated to God, seeking to do His will, how many of you know the burden of our wherewithal should be lifted, because He is taking us back again to His original purpose. Man was made for the glory of God and God will give him his wherewithal. That will automatically come because you are in a divine arrangement, obedient to a law of spiritual adjustment in the thing that God wanted. If Christians would come back to do exactly what Jesus was telling those disciples, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God.” you would lay the flail down.

He says you’ll lair it down. You still earn but I mean the burden of It—the burden of your livelihood will be taken care of because you have found another law. What Is it? Obedience to God—living and moving in His plan and in His purpose.

“Why,” He says, “all these things will be added to you. I have made provision for that. You don’t have to have your accent on the flail! NO!” He says, “Seek first your restoration, your coming back to what I want. You come back to My original purpose and if you dare to do that it will work for you just as it did for-Adam!”

Absolutely! I’ve tried it for fifty years and I haven’t found it to fall down on me yet. I’ve found that. I know that just as well as I know I have hands. It’s a restoration to God’s original design and purpose for man. He is making a new man and we are going to partake of so many of the elements that God had in His plan for Adam. We’ll partake of it.

He says,

“First, seek that adjustment in Me and all these things shall be added to you as with Adam. Seek to do My will Adam, and I will take care of your wherewithal. I have it all planned for you. That need not be your burden!'

Now Gideon here is the picture of the one who has not yet discovered that, and fear is upon him. He was afraid of the Midianites. He was afraid of losing. What is fear? A disorganizing thing. Love never does that. The love that is surrendered, how many know it dissipates the fear? It will dissipate it . . . Here we find Gideon using this flail to thrash out what belongs to him.

Well, I was thinking, God doesn’t like this idea of laboring and the sweat and all of that in his concern. I read in the Scriptures today and thought, well that hooks on to where we are today. It’s in Ezekiel.

Let me read you something. This is where they are having the temple, and God is bringing this priesthood back into line for the priests to serve and minister to Him. The priests now are coming back into God’s thought, into God’s plan and now they are in God’s order.

Ezekiel 44:17, 18: “Now it shall come to pass that when they enter at the gates of the inner court they shall be clothed with linen garments and no wool shall come upon them while they minister in the gates of the inner court and within."

Now you will find out why.

“They shall have linen turbans (the head gear) upon their heads and shall have linen breeches upon their loins. They shall not gird themselves with anything that causeth sweat."

I never heard of such a thing! How many of you see it? It hooks in, ties right in with it. They shall not wear in their service in the things of God anything that will what? Cause sweat. It is not by the sweat of your face. Isn’t that a strange thing? But the Lord brought it to me. I said, “Lord, I see something in there.” He doesn’t want anything wrought out in anything of the natural, you see. How many know there is an awful lot of sweating going on—an awful lot of sweating, but that is not pleasing to Him. He says,

“I don’t want anything that causes the friction of sweat.”

People are proud now. They say, “I sweat that thing through for the Lord.” I want to say, “What a horrible thing! He said not to: How many get that?

He says, “Don’t allow that.'

You see that wool, that animal thing, it’s taboo. Do you get it—the wool—the animal thing? “No,” He says, “the friction; not sweat; not a thing that would cause sweat.”

Linen. How many see the linen is of the flax? It’s from an entirely different realm from that of the wool; an entirely different realm. You follow this idea of linen and the wool and it’s just a wonderful thing. It is so full of truth. It just goes like this when you read it—you say,

“Oh, I see that sweat from the Garden of Eden, forbidden sweat, sweat.”

Well it comes popping up all along the line and He doesn’t want it even in our religious movings. He said He wanted nothing that would produce it. I can see more and more, God is not in just a terrific lot of this business that is passing as religious service—the energy—it’s the sweat of flesh and He isn’t in that. So, when I was reading, I said, “Lord, what next will You be getting at?” But it’s all in there.

Now it says,

“And there came an angel of the Lord, and the angel found him threshing wheat by the winepress to hid from the Midianites."

“And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him and said unto him . . . the Lord is after thee, you scoundrel, you scarecat!”

How many of you have heard in a lot of meetings where they do that and shame a poor person that is already scared to death? I often think of them. I’ve been in meetings where they thought they would arouse some faith in the people. The poor minister would get up there railing about their unbelief, and where is your faith? And of course they all knew they didn’t have any, and that is why they had come to the meeting to try to get in touch with God. And the minister would say,

“Where is your faith? Shame upon us, God’s people and such a lack of faith as today, brother! If we had faith we would have something doing!”

Of course the people all get feeling something like this the general result is they are very still! It scares everything out of them and there they sit, “Oh Lord” with this deep conviction on them? There wasn’t any conviction! They all had paralysis! Do you know people can’t tell conviction from paralysis? They were paralyzed! What little faith they had when they came in there had been blown all to pieces. There they sat paralyzed like that—“Oh Lord, Oh Lord”—and the minister saying, a great conviction is on them, a mighty message! They are still, under the power of that? W hen no, they were paralyzed under the power of it! What little faith they had he had blown it all out. Oh my, such a funny way they do, I don’t understand them.

Sons of Thunder

No, no, he (the angel of the Lord) didn’t come and say anything like that to Gideon at all. It’s amazing what he did say, isn’t it, to this man that’s scared and afraid? Well, I’m glad God can see when nobody else can. “The Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valor.” Who could put it any stronger than that? Such a looking, “mighty man of valor”, scared to death with a flail in his hand! “Mighty man of valor.” Well, that’s because God has faith. It’s like the Lord looking at Peter, isn’t it? Yes, I often think, He looks at a person, He looks right through them, then He looks past them over where they are coming out. Do you see three degrees of looking? He looks at them and says,

“I don’t think there is much use to you. I don’t see there’s anything possible in you. No, you don’t have the right disposition.”

No, He didn’t do that. He looks at them, He looks through them, and He looks past them. That’s the way He did with Peter. He did that with James and John. Wasn’t it, “Sons of Boanerges” He called them, “Sons of Thunder”? Well, that was something too, wasn’t it? That’s a terrible name, you know—power—that terrific “Sons of Thunder”! “I want you now, you come with Me.” Well now, let me help you with that. He called them the “Sons of Thunder”, not because they are going to gave them power and they went out and they thundered quite a while for Him having their services. He had given them thunder and this very one who was the “Son of Thunder” came back and told the Lord how he had thundered. Remember he did? Remember John did? He’s the “Son of Thunder”. So he’d gone out to demonstrate thunder. He went out and thundered in those villages to those people. Now he meant well. He meant well BUT he didn’t know who he was! So he goes down into the villages there and he thunders! He is a “Son of Thunder” ! Well, let me tell you something. It was John’s thundering! He thundered! And when he came back he said to the Lord,

“Lord, do You want me to thunder a little for You? Those people don’t even respect You. Want to pull down some fire and consume them? I got the thunder, Lord!”

Why the Lord says,

“Oh no, you haven’t any power! Well, you don’t love Me enough to do that?” No!”

He said,

“You don’t know who you are, dear. You don’t know what spirit you are in at all. You don’t know what your spirit is; you haven’t the slightest idea. Now I’m not condemning you because you don’t have love. You love Me enough to pull fire right out of heaven for Me and I’m not thanking you. You’ve got tremendous love for Me but your devotion is in a wrong pattern and I’m not rebuking or condemning you because you haven’t any power, I’m the very One Who gave this power of thunder—but there is something back of it. You don’t know your spirit.”

Well now, do you remember how God allowed that for a long time? Then when the Lord wanted to really do something with John He put him over on the Isle of Patmos and shut him up—that beautiful “thunder” who went in the villages and had big camp meetings and everything and won them, oh tremendous meetings the Lord said,

“You’ve thundered enough dear, it’s time to quit now.”

He shuts him right up and puts him on an island out there on the sea. Now what is the remedy today? Get chain-prayer and mass-prayer groups going for his deliverance, for this mighty instrument of God, whom the devil has conquered, and is now seeking to destroy him! How many know they don’t know the Lord from the devil! And so they all band together to pray that John shall be delivered from this Isle of Patmos. Now listen! All the king’s horses and all the king’s men will never get him home again. I’ve heard people pray about things. It wouldn’t be nice of me to do it, but I was right about it, and I would go over and touch them and say,

“Now don’t pray that any more. God isn’t interested in it.”

“Why Brother Follette!”

“No,” I say, “don’t Brother me so tenderly. God isn’t in that thing at all. He’s not within a million miles of it and here you are praying and fasting and pounding on the chair and claiming promises and trying to get a hold of God to make Him come down and perform.” I said, “He isn’t in this at all. Now let’s pray about something else.”

It would prove out to be right. Can you see how silly it would have been for them to all lay hold of God now to get him off the Isle of Patmos? How many see what a ridiculous thing it would be? God had pat him there! Well, if God has put him on the Isle of Patmos, how many know WHO is going to get him off? God will have to get him off—He’s put him on. Now God will have to get him off.

So God has delivered him of thunder—John has to be reduced until all the thunder is knocked right out of him and all cleared off of him. That was an awful operation to take the thunder out of that man. He thundered so wonderfully! Everybody just stood before him and wondered;

“We’ve never heard such thundering in our lives. No, he’s an instrument of God. Why he can thunder most terrifically!”

And by and by you know, the Lord takes the thunder out of him—they last just so long, just so long, and either the Lord takes them home, or a train runs over them or something. It’s really true. That’s true as you live. And here John sits. Isn’t it wonderful he is now exhausted. Now when he is exhausted, that is the time when the Lord can meet him. So the Lord says,

“I guess the thunder is ‘pert near’ gone. I guess it may be another month or two.”

It is like when you grow plants. By and by one day the Lord looked down and He says, “I think he is about ready.” So He goes down and He says,

“John.”

“Oh,” John thinks, “that sounds like the Lord. I heard Him years ago.”

“John, John.”

“Lord, I hardly dare to turn around, but I think, is it really the Lord?” John turned and behold it was the Lord! Now what is God doing? The Lord has him now ready to put HIS thunder in him and He gives him this tremendous Revelation. And in that Revelation do you see there’s an awful lot of thunder goes on, or didn’t you notice it? Every element that we have in nature is used in there: thunder, lightening,. hail, snow, rain—every element in its most intensified confusion! And all goes vibrating through this instrument. Do you get it or don’t you? How many of you can see a difference between John’s thunder and capacity for thunder? Ah, now you’ve got it. What was it the Lord was after in that man? He wanted his capacity for thunder, not his thunder. He wanted John’s capacity for it. So He says,

“After I have dealt with you properly, your capacity will still remain there, but it is all cleansed out, dried and ready. Now let ME pour all this thunder into you.”

And He just poured a revelation into him and that revelation has been thundering for two thousand years. And every time you read the Book of Revelation you feel the vibration and reverberation of the thunder of God in there; it’s powerful! Well, that all went through John. Why? He said,

“I wanted you in the beginning because you were a ‘Son of Thunder: I didn’t call you because I wanted your thunder, dear. I wanted your capacity for thunder.”

How many get the drift in there? Yes. Now that’s like this: “Mighty man of valor.” He can say that because the angel of the Lord could see that. Now another thing. The reaction of that stirs Gideon so that it brings him down to his place of humility and self-distrust until he says,

“Mighty man of valor! You don’t know WHO You are talking about! I’m least there is in the house!”

And he goes right down to the ground. It’s a good place for him, you see. Well sometimes that will do it. To come and say, “You miserable unbelieving thing,” he would have gone down the wrong way. Now he goes down under the impact of the revelation of what that angel should dare to say to him—He says, “Mighty man of valor.” Don’t you know the Lord says daring things about everyone of us? Did you ever read of some of them? What does He say about us? Don’t you know He says we are all saved and sanctified and justified and He says we are all glorified! And He says we are seated together with Him up in the heavens. Isn’t that what He says? Well, do we feel like it? No! We feel like, “I don’t know if I got saved right.” Oh yes, “Mighty man of valor!” How many of you dare to believe it? Well, if God says it, you got to believe it. God says it! Now our prayer is,

“Lord, work that out; You dare to say it, now work it out. You say it; now dare to work it out. Give me faith and the courage and the strength to embrace it. You said a ‘mighty man of valor,’ then let me be that ‘mighty man of valor’ that You said. In me dwelleth no good thing; but I know through You, You can prove it.”

Now look at his reaction, very normal, and there is something I like about him. Do you know what I like about Gideon and all that seems like weakness in him? His self-distrust.I’m so glad he was conscious of his limitation like Philip was. He was conscious of his limitation and he said,

“Oh is that so, ‘mighty man of valor; well Lord, I hardly would have believed it but where’s the gun? I’ll go to the war right off the bat!”

Well, he didn’t do that at all. I’m glad of his reaction because I think it shows some ground work of humility and self-distrust that God could work on. Do you get it? There is a place for self-distrust and he has it. “Thou mighty man of valor.”

Gideon-If

Verse thirteen: “And Gideon said unto Him, 0 my Lord, if the Lord be with us, why then is all this befallen us? And where are all his miracles which our fathers told us of, saying did not the Lord bring us out of Egypt? But now the Lord hath forsaken us, and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites . . ."

“Where is all that You promised? Do you see what an awful condition we are in? You’ve delivered us into the hands of the Midianites."*

Do you see what the first word is that he uses? “IF.” The first time I read this, I thought …this man’s name should have been Gideon If—Gideon If, because he if’d the Lord all along.

“If it be so, do it this way. And if it really is this way, do it the other way. NOW if it is really . . . if, if, if. IF it is really so, do it that way.”

He does nothing but “if” the Lord all the way along. So I call him ‘Gideon If; for his nickname. “Gideon If” That’s the way I call him.

And the Lord looked upon him and said, “I will now explain it to you!?” How many of you know He ignored the whole thing? The Lord never answered him at all. He lets him pour that out.

“Now Lord if these things are so and if You are God and You say these mighty things that I’m a mighty man of valor, where . . . ? How come all those promises that You have given us, and You know Lord . . .”

How many know the Lord doesn’t listen to half of it at all? Never answered him! The Lord never even answered him! He just turned around and said,

“GO in this thy might—now forget it—GO in this thy might.”

So he had to go without being answered Did you ever have to go without knowing why? That’s good for us. “Go on!”

“Well, why?”

“There’s no ‘why’ about it dear, go on!”

“Well, Lord I’ll die!” “No you won’t, you’ll live!”

Here Gideon got the same thing.

“I’ll die, I’ve seen the Lord.I’ve talked to God, I’ll die!”

“No you won’t.Get up! You’re going down there and fight a battle for Us.”

Remember Gideon said the same thing? “I’ll die, I’ve seen the Lord.”

“Oh no, you’re beginning to live, brother.Just pick up, just pick up now.”

Verse fourteen: “And the Lord looked at him and said, go in this thy might and thou shalt save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Have not I sent thee?"

Here comes this old teaching again. How many see Gideon didn’t dare to venture in himself?

“Have not I sent thee?"

How many know the devil and hell are all let loose? What has Gideon for his answer? “The Lord has sent me, He said so.”

Do you get it? In the New Testament we have the same thing.

“This is My beloved Son in Whom I am well pleased."

Jesus wrapped that word about Him and He goes through a whole temptation. Now it says here:

“I have sent thee, mighty man of valor."

“Now go—not because you feel like it; not because you know how or why, but you take that word of security and you wrap that all about you and you can go. Now you go in this My Word. I have sent thee. Now let that suffice thee.”

“But it’s so hard. Oh so hard!”

Now look at poor Gideon after the angel had said that God is sending him. He doesn’t yet rise up and say,

“Thank the Lord, at last the sun is going to shine on me! Send me! I’ll get a place in life yet,” . . . spotlight on him!

Instead, we find him saying:

Verse fifteen: “And he said unto him, my Lord, where with shall I save Israel? Behold, my father is poor in Manasseh, and I am least in my father’s house."

That’s good distrust. I’m glad he said it, I really am. Because now when he is reduced to this place, the Lord will have some material to work on.

Verse sixteen: “And the Lord said unto him, surely I will be with thee, and thou shalt smite the Midianites as one man."

And Gideon said unto Him, “If”!

He’s got to “if” the Lord a little bit more; just a little you know.

Verses seventeen and eighteen: “And he said unto him, if now I have found grace in thy sight, then show me a sign that thou talkest with me. Depart not from here, I pray thee, until I come unto thee, and bring forth my present, and set it before thee. And he said, I will tarry until thou come again."

Isn’t He accommodating? I admire the patience of the Lord because He’s been patient with me. I look back and I say,

“Oh my Lord, how did you stand it? How did you take up with it?”

But you know He just stands there patient. Haven’t you ever done that? Look back and say,

“Lord, my God, how were You ever so patient? . . . such a mess! . . . such a condition! . . . such a thing!”

But He just stands, because that’s the way He is—patient. And He says,

“I’ll wait for you. Now go and get a little gift. Would you like to give a gift? Does it move you to such place that you would like to show your thanks and your interest in it? I’ll wait for you.Now go, go and get it.”

Oh dear, remember how we scratched around for gifts that we thought would please Him. Of course we all did. But He waited.

Verse nineteen: “And Gideon went in, and made ready a kid, and unleavened cakes of an ephah of flour. The flesh he put in a basket, and he put the broth in a pot, and brought it out unto him under the oak, and presented it."

Remember? How many of you can look back at times when we would do that—going to prepare something that we thought would please the Lord?:

“Now I will please the dear Lord.”

He says, “I am patient, go and get it.”

Oh dear, this is so real to me. I think it is all so wonderful and yet it is so real. It is just like this life is.

Verses twenty and twenty-one: “And the angel of God said unto him. Take the flesh and the unleavened cakes, and lay them upon this rock, and pour out the broth. And he did so. Then the angel of the Lord put forth the end of the staff that was in his hand, and touched the flesh and the unleavened cakes; and there rose up fire out of the rock, and consumed the flesh and the unleavened cakes. Then the angel of the Lord departed out of his sight."

He has been pleased to accept it. Now get Gideon’s reaction.

Verse twenty-two: “And when Gideon perceived that he was an angel of the Lord, Gideon said, Alas, 0 Lord God! For I have seen an angel of the Lord face to face."

VeTse twenty-three: “And the Lord said unto him, Peace be unto thee; fear not; thou shalt not die."

That’s an awful reaction, isn’t it? But He says,

“Now you don’t need to be disturbed. You’re not going to die. You have this great problem before you. I made this manifestation to let you know that what you are doing so far is in good order and I am pleased; I’m satisfied. I’ll give you a little token. See what I’ll do; I will accept it with this wonderful thing.”

There was this flash of light and fire and He says,

Verse twenty-four: “Then Gideon built an altar there unto the Lord, and called it Jehovah-shalom unto this day it is yet in Ophrah of the Abiezrites."

An Altar of Testimony

Now do you notice there is always an altar built? Many times an altar is built, an altar is placed—that is good. I like for us to every once in a while erect an altar on an occasion of God doing something with us and for us. It’s good to have that little—it’s like a little token place that you can refer to; you go back and say,

“Lord, there is the time You met me at this. There’s the time when my consecration was brought in. There’s the time when you filled me with Your Spirit and bore witness to so and so.”

Those are all little altars that we erect. And of course with the children of Israel they were literally little altars that they made of stone as a testimony, as a token. So now Gideon has made an altar as a testimony.

“And it came to pass the same night, that the Lord said unto him . . ."

I want you to see the whole scene changes now. If this were a dramatic setting, in a play, I would have this as the second act. There are three acts in the play. Your first act, you see, is Gideon in the home setting—the winepress—suggestive of the thing that is not functioning as it should to give him his refreshment. But here we find Gideon by the side of it and he is beating out. with a flail, his livelihood, because he can’t yet trust God! These are all pictures in our experience, in our life. So the first thing that we find him handling is a flail. But when he learns obedience, and begins to cooperate with God, in obedience, and moves under the impact of this: “Thou mighty man of valor”, you don’t find him handling a flail any more, and yet all of his food is taken care of. But you don’t find him having any time or interest in any flail at all. Now watch, this next episode will be your next act, your next scene in the play.

Verses twenty-five and twenty-six: “And it came to pass the same night, that the Lord said unto him, Take thy father’s young bullock, even the second bullock of seven years old, and throw down the altar of Baal that thy father hath, and cut down the images that are by it; And build an altar unto the Lord thy God upon the top of this rock, in the ordered place, and take the second bullock, and offer a burnt sacrifice with the wood of the images which thou shalt cut down."

Now that’s your provision, the wood of the images. We’ll come to that in a minute.

Verse twenty-seven: “Then Gideon took ten men of his servants, and did as the Lord had said unto him: and so it was, because he feared his father’s household, and the men of the city, that he could not do it by day, that he did it by night."

Now you might rather have obedience that is not too perfect than to have obedience. He was afraid to do such a terrific thing as that in daylight! It would arouse the attention and terrible confusion and prob ably start a war of some kind. So instead of doing that, he still is obedient, so it says,

“Because it was night and he feared.” He went in the night night and was obedient. Now do you notice the second thing he handles?

“Cut down the grove!”

What is it? What do you cut with—a flail, a hook? No. What do you cut down a tree with? “Ax.” O, that’s right, an ax!