Gideon looked closely at his men as they laid down their gear by the river.  He was looking for those who cupped their hands to drink. Having laid down their natural way of fighting and washed their hands in the river, they had empty and clean hands.  God enlists people by their character and their thirst at His River.

Now down to 300 men, God told Gideon to go to the enemy’s camp and listen to what they were saying.  While eavesdropping on Midian’s camp, he heard one soldier telling another of his recent nightmare. In the dream, a barley cake hit their tent and wiped out 30000 men. The Midianites knew that this represented Gideon and God’s army. Gideon was encouraged and told his men “Arise, for the LORD has delivered the camp of Midian into your hand." Judges 7:15  

The enemy knew God’s people were coming and they were worried!   We listen too much to what the enemy is saying to us instead of hearing what they are saying to each other. If we knew what they were saying about the Church, we would fear less and move forward more. The devil knows an outpouring of the Spirit is rolling in.  He knows fully who the Church is, so he seeks to keep us from knowing who we are. We can only live the life of the person we think we are.  If he can keep us from realizing the strength that even 300 have in corporate prayer, he thinks he’ll be ok.

A man in our Church wore a tee shirt which said, “I am the devil’s worst nightmare” and that certainly should be true.  (Let’s not put that tee shirt on while we’re still arguing with our family, not praying or thinking daily about Jesus and His Word) but that is what we are meant to be. 

Friend, we are living on a battleship, not the love boat.  We have a victory won by Jesus that must be enforced by faith-filled prayer and enjoyed by action - personally and corporately as the church in our city. Then if we listened in on the enemy’s camp, we'd hear that they are worried. Let’s increase their nightmare.