Faith and Imagination 2

[Speaker 1] Church and fellowships cannot be more spiritual than the individuals and families that constitute them. God greatly desires a godly home for all. These are words of restoration and instruction in righteousness from Family Tent Ministry. May you be blessed as you listen. [Speaker 2] Satanic manipulation. Satanic manipulation. Plausible argument, good reasoning, intelligent and clever. That's why when people say that Satan is a dull man, he's a foolish man, I just laugh. You don't even know what the Bible says about the devil. Satan is crafty. Bible says he is the most crafty. He is crafty. And so when the man now took it and put it in his mouth, he said, "Ah, okay, no problem." He now took it. He now moves to the second ritual. I just shook my head. I said, "So you didn't drink blood, oh. At all, you didn't drink blood. What have you done? You only saw blood." So let's go on our guide about satanic imagination that come in form of good reasoning, plausible argument, intelligent way of looking at things, but very, very far from what God says. The truth of God remains the truth of God and we should avoid things that challenge that truth. So we saw in this place that the woman saw. There can be satanic interruption to our imagination. So we move on. I needed to add that for us today. Then I want us to look at the book of Judges. Judges, let’s go to the popular Gideon story, chapter 7. Gideon story run through chapter 7 and chapter 8, but we just want to pick something in chapter 7. I want you to see this issue of God and our imagination. God, if God want to help your life, God must affect your imagination. He must affect your imagination. Now, look at it from verse 1. It said, "Then Jerubbaal, that is Gideon, and all the people that were with him..." Oh, sorry. I was taking it from chapter 7. It’s 6, 7, 8. My concern is chapter 6 first before I take something in chapter 7. Let's first take it in chapter 6. Are you there? It says, "Then the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord. So the Lord delivered them into the hand of Midian for seven years. Hand of Midian for seven years. And the hand of Midian prevailed against Israel. Because of the Midianites, the children of Israel made for themselves the dens, the caves, and strongholds which are in the mountains. So it was, whenever Israel had sown, Midianites would come up, also Amalekites and the people of the East would come up against them. Then they would encamp against them and destroy the produce of the earth as far as Gaza and leave no sustenance for Israel, neither sheep nor ox nor donkey. For they would come up with their livestock and their tents, coming as numerous as locusts. Both they and their camels were without number and they would enter the land to destroy it." Not too different from what we are facing today with Fulani herdsmen with their camels and their cows and whatever to destroy the land. Now, it says, "So Israel was greatly impoverished because of the Midianites, and the children of Israel cried out to the Lord. And it came to pass, when the children of Israel cried out to the Lord because of the Midianites, that the Lord sent a prophet to the children of Israel, who said to them, 'Thus says the Lord God of Israel: I brought you up from Egypt and brought you out of the house of bondage, and I delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians and out of the hand of all who oppressed you, and drove them out before you and gave you the land.'" So also, please let me skip that. Let's go to 11 please. "Now you have gotten the background of what Israel was experiencing and their situation. Now look at what God did. Now the Angel of the Lord came and sat under the terebinth tree which was in Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, while his son Gideon threshed wheat in the winepress in order to hide it from the Midianites." So you know why he's hiding it now. Everybody was afraid, trying to hide from their oppressors. "And the Angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, 'The Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor.' Gideon said to him, 'O my lord, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all His miracles which our fathers told us about? Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt? But now the Lord has forsaken us and delivered us into the hand of the Midianites.' Then the Lord turned to him and said, 'Go in this might of yours, and you shall save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Have I not sent you?'" I want you to note something. I want you to see how God began to relate to this man in a bid to change his imagination. In the first place, how was Gideon seeing himself? Someone that cannot withstand the Midianites. So he was trying to bring out things to hide it. When God was to address him, what did God first say? "Oh, mighty man of valor." But do you see that his thinking about himself and what God called him did not correspond? He said, "Ah, no. God ke, God is not with us. I am not mighty. Those things cannot happen." Then again, what did the Lord tell him? He said he should go in this might. Now, let's look at something. Verse 15. "So he said to him, 'O Lord, how can I save Israel? Indeed my clan is the weakest in Manasseh.'" What is the imagination of Gideon? "Taba fe mu idile si idile, idile wa ko si ni number." He quickly went to his clan. He did not even go to himself. He first went to his clan, that "My clan, Manasseh, we are the weakest." Now look at his own imagination. Look at the nation that God is bringing. "And I am the least in my father's house." What is he saying again? "God, maybe you don't know my records. Let me tell you my records." It's like you don't even know my father's house. You know the way we talk sometimes and God will just look at us and laugh. You think that God don't know his father's house? Of course, God knows his father's house. God knows everything, all of his story. But many times when God is trying to bring us out of our situation, why will we be arguing? We'll be arguing our situation. Say, "Ah, God, you know it's not possible. You know that in Nigeria, if anybody tried to be honest, he won't get the contract because if he does not give this person envelope..." It's like, "God, you don't understand." We say, "In Nigeria," and you begin to bring up all the arguments against what God will be telling you. I'm trying to make you see that many times, what makes God not to be able to use us is the imagination that we have built about our life. So when God also wants to use us, the first thing God wants to deal with is to destroy that imagination and create a new one. So you can understand why Gideon... So the whole factor why Gideon was hiding, what are the imaginations in his heart? Number one, God has forsaken us. Number two, "Me, this kind of person? I should be very careful. You know my clan is the weakest in Israel. Even me, I am the least in my father's house. I'm going to look for food. Let me go and hide this food somewhere because if they come out now, even my father's house cannot fight for me, they cannot defend me." Are you getting that? Then he said, verse 17, "Then he said to him, 'If now I have found favor in Your sight, then show me a sign that it is You who talk with me. Do not depart from here, I pray, until I come to You and bring an offering.'" All that went. Gideon brought the offering. He did the offering and then all that went. The Angel of the Lord... but where I want to take you to again is Gideon and the Lord. I'm just trying to make you see how God affected the imagination of Gideon. Now go to Judges chapter 7, verse 36. Verse 36. It says, "So Gideon said to God, 'If You will save Israel by my hand as You have said, look, I shall put a fleece of wool on the threshing floor.'" Now, what are you noticing about Gideon? The imagination that he has is still in place. What God is telling him about himself, that "You are a mighty man, you can deliver Israel," where is that? He's not fully persuaded. He's taking it small-small. But there's still this imagination somewhere that "Ah, I am my father's clan. My clan is the least, it is the weakest in Israel. Even me, I am the youngest in my father's house." So he was saying, "God..." He now put a test. "Look, I put this fleece of wool on the threshing floor. If there is dew on the fleece only, and it is dry on all the ground, then I shall know that You will save Israel by my hand as You have said." And it was so. When he rose up early the next morning and squeezed the fleece together, he wrung the dew out of the fleece, a bowl full of water. Then Gideon said to the Lord, "Do not be angry with me." He's still holding his imagination that he cannot save Israel. "Do not be angry with me, but let me speak just once more. Let me test, I pray, just once more with the fleece. Let it now be dry only on the fleece, but let all the ground... let there be dew." And God did so that night. It was dry on the fleece only, but there was dew on all the ground. What am I trying to show you? That there is an imagination. God need this man to fight a war and deliver Israel. You can see how God was taking time to do what. Is it that God cannot deliver Israel? God can deliver Israel. God can give them victory. But the vessel for the victory must not have a wrong imagination. And God began to deal with that imagination. God want him to see that "You are able." But he could not see that he was able. So God begin to change the way he's thinking. God began to deal with the nation. There is a nation in his mind. That nation is a wrong nation. "I'm a weak man. I cannot. God is not with us. God has forsaken us." What is keeping Gideon in bondage was his imagination. That is why I tell people: your bondage is in your mind. Your bondage is where? It's in your mind. And do you know that I had this experience one time? Our turkeys. One day I decided to open the door of their cage. I think I wanted to do something that day. Okay, I wanted them to come out because I wanted to do something inside the cage. So I opened the door of the cage. Do you know the funny thing? Now let's take this for example to be the door. At this point of this iron gradient, as the turkey move towards the door and their head out... you know every time they want to bring out their head in that place, the neck will stop their head. So when they brought out their head and their head went out, they ran back! Do you understand me? They ran back into the cage. They stood there again. They looked at it, they looked at the door, they looked at it, they looked at the place. They ran back! They have become so used to bondage that they could not taste freedom. Freedom became strange. I'm talking about the mind. Your faith and your imagination. When God want to change your faith, when God want to build your faith, when God want to increase your faith, what God deals with is your imagination. Your mind. The nation. God begin to crush that nation. He begin to break that nation. He begin to cast down that nation to build another nation. So that you discover that when we say, when we are talking about faith, unbelief, fear, doubt, what are we talking about? We are talking about different types of imagination. Different types of imagination. Different types of imagination. So I'm showing you here, as far as Heaven is concerned, who was Gideon? A mighty man of valor. As far as Heaven is concerned again, we don't need to increase the might of Gideon. With that might in Gideon, he can deliver Israel. Are you following me? He can deliver Israel. But there is a problem. Where was the problem? The problem was in the imagination. And until God could alter his imagination, Gideon could not be useful in the hand of God. He could not be useful until God could change the way he thinks, until God could alter it. That tells you that the bondage of people, the deliverance of people, the freedom of people, the poverty of people, the riches of people, they are where? It's a matter of the mind. That is why somebody said, "Poverty is not the absence of money. It's the lack of vision." Real poverty is lack of vision. Once a man can see, he becomes something else. And let me tell you that real vision is not even the sight. It's not the physical sight. That is why you can see... they were talking about this medical doctor at this hospital in Abuja, many years back. A certified doctor, but he was a blind person. Now, blind as he is, blind as he was, he could become a medical doctor. And there are several seeing people that are roaming on the street. Which tells you that real blindness is not even this one. It's when the mind cannot see. It's when the mind cannot see. That's real blindness. Look at this song... I forgot her name now that sang this hymn that we sing many times, "Amazing Grace." Are you aware that she's a blind person? And there are several seeing people that could not even see the amazing grace of God. Their eyes are open, yet they could not see grace. Yet somebody was blind and he could come up and say, "Amazing grace, how sweet..." are you understanding me? I'm trying to make you see that real blindness is in the imagination. When you want a man to see and you want a man to move, what you must deal with is the mind. There's a strong connection between the imagination and our faith. What I'm just trying to make you see in this place is that look at a mighty man of valor. A mighty man of valor was doing what? He was hiding. Hiding from those that with just 300 men he's going to finish. He doesn't even need the whole army of Israel to finish them. He needed just 300 men to finish those people, and yet he was hiding from them. Hiding inside hole, hiding in this, hiding, hiding, hiding. And he was living like... and do you know that there are several people like that? Living under different bondage, under different things like that. "Heh, ha, heh, they said this, this is there, this one with this, this one with that, this one with this, this one with that, this one with this, this one with that." And they are all like that. Where's their bondage? Where's their bondage? In their mind. And God began to set sign. He began... you know he began to ask God for sign. And God granted all the signs for him. That is why I normally tell people something, that sign, sign... I'm not against sign. You know why I laugh? I remember reading one literature, I've forgotten the literature now, but it was written by this Cameroonian, Zaphon Ngwafor. That's a very popular name. He said a brother wanted to marry, was trusting God for marital partner. And so he decided to set a fleece before God, like Gideon used fleece, "Let me too go and set fleece to God." You know what he said? He said, "God, once I open my Bible, that thing that I read, that verse that opens to me and I read, let it be what You are telling me." So he opened the first one. And as he open, he saw, "And Judas went to hang himself." "Ah," he said, "No!" He closed it. He said, "Ah, this is not for me. This is not for me. Ah, lori iyawo, hang himself?" He said, "No, this is not for me. This is not for me." So he closed it and then he prayed again, "Father, in the name of Jesus," pray-pray-pray-pray, say, "God, this one will open." And then he opened the second one and he read where Jesus said, "Go and do likewise." "Ah!" What am I trying to bring out? Then he closed the Bible and put it down. He now became confused and frustrated. "So and Judas went to hang himself, I should go and do likewise. When am I figured about should I marry this sister or not?" He was trying to speak to young people that sign, and honestly it's the same thing, I'm trying to make you see it here. Sign is not for believers, it's for unbelievers. It was Gideon. It was because Gideon was still in the state of unbelief that God was granting sign. He never needed that sign if his imagination was correct. When Gideon was busy hiding, that Gideon that was fidgeting and was hiding with the corn and was doing like this, inside that Gideon is a Gideon. Inside that Gideon, that man that is fidgeting, the Gideon inside that Gideon, there is a mighty man. Inside that, he's the last born from the weakest clan, but inside that last born from the weakest clan, there is a mighty man that can save Israel. But he could not see it. Now what I want to show to you is that even despite all these signs, the faith of Gideon was still not very strong. That is one thing about unbelief. And that is why I tell people, if there's anything you must beg God to do for you, is what God did for the disciples in Luke 24. In the first instance, they were walking with Him, they did not recognize Him. At a point, He opened their eyes, they recognized Him. In the second instance, He took the Scripture. The Bible says, and then He opened their mind so that they can understand the Scripture. One thing that makes a man out of a man, that makes a Christian out of an unbeliever, that makes a saint out of a sinner, that produce holiness out of unholiness, is what? Is a open mind where you can behold wondrous things out of the Scripture. As long as you cannot see wondrous things in Scripture, you cannot live the Christian life. You must be able to see. Bible says Jesus opened their mind, Luke 24 from verse 44 to 45. He opened their mind so that they can understand Scripture. It is something you must daily beg God. It is something you must daily ask God. It is not, "God, give me signs. Sign, let it be as I'm going, the first sister that greets me, that greets me very well and smile very well, let that person be my wife." And then as you are going, the first one that smile and look you very well, maybe that one read philosophy and you read... and for you, you're a medical doctor. You say, "No, this one cannot be God. You know I need somebody who is also well-educated." And then you move to the next one, the second one is a school cert holder. You say, "God, no, it cannot be this person." You keep saying different kind of sign today, moving round, running from pillar to post. But what I'm trying to make you see is that when God really want to help a man, it's a personal dealing of transforming the mind. When God want to help you, what God does with you is what? A personal dealing of transforming your mind. The one we check last week with Abraham, was it not a personal dealing? Do you see it? It was a personal dealing. God began to change the imagination of Abraham. For Moses, was it different? No. God set the burning bush. The bush was burning, Moses turned to go and see it. And when he got there, God began a personal dealing of transforming his mind. And you see the same thing when Satan wanted to finish Eve. How was it? It was a personal dealing of transforming her mind. So real men, real men are made in the place of a changed mind. When I mean mind, I'm talking about the imagination of your mind. Now, look at something. After all those things, Gideon could still not... Gideon could not really still go ahead. Let me show that to you. You will notice that in the chapter 7, after the whole issue of the fleece... sorry, the issue of the fleece is in chapter 6, not 7. Now look at the chapter 7. Judges chapter 7. In chapter 7, the whole issue of the fleece, sorry, is chapter 6, 6 from 36 to verse 40. Now in chapter 7, that was where God raised a matter that the people that came with Gideon, they were too many, lest they say that it is their might that saved them. So let's look at that. So God told Gideon to announce, saying that "Whosoever is fearful and afraid, let him turn and depart at once from Mount Gilead." And what happened? The Bible says and 22,000 of the people returned and 10,000 remained. Now, how many gathered for the war? How many gathered? 32,000. When they announce that, "Hejo, enyin t'eru n ba, t'okan yin o bale, e pada wale." Are you afraid? Are you scared that, "Heh, heh, I hope I will come back. I hope it will be well with me." If you are afraid, please go back. How many went? 22,000. You know what I'm trying to show you? One thing that makes majority of believers not fit for the battles of God is the state of their mind. They came for the battle of God, but there was fear inside. It is the state of their mind. They were not fit for the battles of God. They could not fight the battle of God. I'm trying to make you see that God could see the imaginations of the thought, and God told Gideon, "Those people that gather around you, just make one simple announcement." They are carrying sword, "He-ho, he-ho, he-ho, he-ho," but actually they are not fit for this battle. Why are they not fit? There was fear. And where is fear? It's a matter of the imagination. Now, they remain 10,000. Then they took a test, reduced it to 300. I believe you are familiar with the story. So in the verse 7, the Lord said to Gideon, "By the 300 men who lapped I will save you and deliver the Midianites into your hand. Let all the other people go home, every man to his place." So the people took provision and their trumpets in their hands and he sent away all the rest, every man to his tent, and retained those 300 men. Now the camp of Midian was below him in the valley. Now look at something. I want you to look at something in the verse 9. I want you to see something that God did with Gideon. It happened on the same night that the Lord said to him, "Arise. Go down against the camp for I have delivered it into your hand." What do you see in the verse 10? "But if you are afraid to go down, go down to the camp with Purah your servant, and you will hear what they say. Afterward your hand shall be strengthened to go down against the camp." Please, what are you seeing in this place? What are you seeing between God, fear, and Gideon in this place? There was still fear in his heart. God trying to enlarge his fear, that is true, but there is still something there. Look at what God first said. "It happened on the same night that the Lord said to him, 'Arise. Go down against the camp for I have delivered it into your hand.'" If Gideon go that night against that camp, will he win the battle? Will he win the battle? Yes. Why? They have been delivered into his hand. But do you see that even though the enemy had been delivered into his hand, Gideon is still living in the fear of those enemies? Are you following me? Gideon is still afraid. His major fear is the fact that from 32,000, it became 10,000, 10,000 to 300. The people he wants to fight with, do you know their number? The Bible says they were as many as the sand of the seashore. So the fear of Gideon... maybe you want to know what I just said. Look at the verse 12. "Now the Midianites and the Amalekites, all the people of the East, were lying in the valley as numerous as locusts, and their camels were without number as the sand by the seashore in multitude." Please, are you understanding the fear of Gideon now? You have 32, it became 10,000. 10,000 to 300. Now with 300, God now says, "I will deliver the people to your hand." And then you raise up your head to look at the people you want to fight. When you saw the number... and today, this is not the days of you press one button and one hydrogen bomb will kill 500. You know these were not the days. These days it is the more the number, the stronger the army. If there was something that Gideon would just press in the land of Israel and one rocket would just go, "Phsh-boom," and then half of them were dead, there would have been no fear. But they will go there sword to sword. Now, if 300 enter into 3 million, please, what do you think will happen? That is why I am telling you something. Until you can see God, the reality of your situation cannot make you follow Him. Until you can see God, really see Him, the reality of your situation, when you are looking at your situation, you won't be able to follow God. The reality of your situation... when you are looking at your situation, you see... when we talk about faith, men who follow God by faith, they were able to see God. In the image of their mind, images were formed such that they could no more see their immediate situation. They were seeing those images of God that had been created in their mind. And until the other images are broken down, until they have been destroyed, until they have been dealt with, you will not be able to do anything. So God told Gideon, "Go and take over." But God knew that Gideon is not likely to go. And so many times today, these things, they are so real. They are so real with us. Many times the Lord tells you, "My son, you have been raised up with Christ. You are made to sit with Him in the heavenly places." And as you go, somebody tells you that, "Wo! Mo ti ri kini kan w’ole sibi o. To ba koja l’ori e, o ku lapa o." "Heh! Heh! I can't go there again o. I can't. They said they have put something inside the ground. If I mash it, I will die." Why like that? It is because the reality of your situation cannot make you to do what? Follow God. That is why when God want to help any man, when God want to make anybody to follow Him, what God first deals with is what? The imagination of the man. Because that is where your bondage is and that is where your freedom is. Now, God said if he's afraid... and true to the word, look at the Scripture. Look at the Scripture. He said he should go to the camp with his servant. We have read verse 12. Go to verse 13. "And when Gideon had come..." So Gideon went down that night. I hope you are getting it. He went down. He didn't go to fight them. What did he do? He went down because he was afraid. So when he went down, when he had come, there was a man telling a dream to his companion. I want to show you something about the imagination of your mind. May God help the imaginations of our mind in the name of Jesus Christ. Look at it. It said a man was telling a dream to his companion. He said, "I had a dream. To my surprise, a loaf of barley bread tumbled into the camp of Midian. It came to a tent and struck it so that it fell and overturned, and the tent collapsed." Then his companion answered and said, "This is nothing else but the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel! Into his hand God has delivered Midian and the whole camp." And it was so, when Gideon heard the telling of the dream and its interpretation, that he worshiped. He returned to the camp of Israel and said, what did he say? "Arise! For the Lord has delivered the camp of Midian into our hand." What did God do to make the mighty man inside Gideon to come out? He said, "Go into the camp and hear what they are saying." And then one said, "I had a dream. In that dream, ordinary a barley loaf..." Maybe you don't understand what he's trying to say. Let me make it real to you. You know the kind of tent we do today? You want to do party, you do tent for a party or something, for camping, camping tent. You go and take stone, stone. Go and throw it against the tent. See whether the whole tent will collapse. He now said he had a dream, it was now bread. Bread! They threw bread against tent and the tent collapsed! Do you get it now? That one now said, "Ah! Ordinary bread! Ordinary bread and the tent collapsed. Ah, this cannot be but that Gideon o. That small boy, that least in his father's house, that weakest in the clan, that Manasseh, that man with just 300 men coming to face battalions of soldiers. It cannot be but that thing o." What had God just help him to do? God helped him to change the imagination of his mind. There is a connection between imagination and faith. There is a connection between our imagination and our faith. So as he was looking at the bread and he was thinking, "If ordinary bread can destroy a tent, ah-ah, a whole 300 men, they are stronger than bread. Ah-ah, then a ma wom-wom ni o! We will completely..." "Oya-oya, let's go now! Let's go and fight!" because he saw himself that with 300 men, he's far stronger than ordinary loaf of bread. May you see correctly. May you see correctly. Can you just pray one minute? God help my faith. God help me, help my scene. God open the eyes of my heart. Open the eyes. Your bondage is in your mind. God open the eyes of my heart. God, Lord, do something about my scene. Do something about my scene. Where there is no vision, the people perish. Where there is no vision. Ko ba ti le riran, riran nkan ti Olorun so ati ti Olorun n se. Once there is no vision, once men cannot see into what God is doing, what they cannot see into it, they remain ordinary. Men of valor cannot stand as men of valor until they can see correctly. Until the imagination of their mind is affected, until God... for some of you, God must format you. God must do a formatting, a reformatting of your system. God must change the operating system so that you can function correctly, so that you can work well. So many things have affected the operating system: unbelief, different nation, imagination, different nation and all that God need to do to you is to reformat you, is to format, and then God restart the system and then something great, something new will start with you. Ask the Lord this morning, cry to the Lord, cry to the Lord. God do something about my sight. Lord do something about me. Lord break down imaginations that are contrary and opposed to yours. Oh Lord, help my imagination, help my imagination. God cause me to see correctly. Oh Lord that I may see. Oh Lord that I may see. Oh Lord that I may see, that I may see. Thank You Father. Thank You Lord. In the name of Jesus Christ we pray. I want us to move on. So Gideon arose and he went to that battle, and of course in that battle you knew that Gideon never fought. Are you aware that he never fought? What simply happened was that as he blew the trumpet, God cause a confusion in the camp of the enemy. If you look at verse 22, it say, "When the 300 blew their trumpet, the Lord set every man, every man's sword against his companion." Are you seeing that? Are you seeing that in 22? "When the 300 blew the trumpet, the Lord set every man's sword against his companion throughout the whole camp, and the army fled to Beth Shittah toward Zererah as far as the border of Abel Meholah by Tabbath." And the men of Israel gathered together from Naphtali and Asher and Manasseh and pursued them. So you see that when they, when those three men, the 300 men blew their trumpet and they got to the place, did they have to fight any battle? Who fought the battle? What am I trying to make you understand? How is that different from faith? How is that different from grace? What is grace? Are we seeing that it was God that work in them and through them, both to will and to do of His good pleasure? While you are thinking that the battle is about you, actually the battle is the Lord's. While you are busy counting your 300 sword, God is counting the host of Heaven. While you are busy counting your ability, God is looking at His greatness. Why are you busy... are you understanding me? While you are busy focusing on yourself, what is God focusing on? God is focusing on His ability. I'm saying this so we can get these things right and clear. Now let's move on as we try to enter into the New Testament today. We just must enter the New Testament today. Faith and imagination. And I want to call your attention to this incident between Jesus and the centurion. Matthew chapter 8, from verse 5 to 10. Matthew 8, from verse 5 to 10. Are you there? Now it says, "Now when Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to Him, pleading with Him, saying, 'Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, dreadfully tormented.' And Jesus said to him, 'I will come and heal him.' The centurion answered and said, 'Lord, I am not worthy that You should come under my roof, but only speak a word and my servant will be healed. For I also am a man under authority, having soldiers under me. And I say to this one, 'Go,' and he goes; and to another, 'Come,' and he comes; and to my servant, 'Do this,' and he does it.'" Please listen. "When Jesus heard it, He marveled and said to those following, 'Assuredly, I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel.'" What was Jesus describing as faith? Is it not what the man said? What did the man say? The man was expressing his imagination. That, "Jesus, ah, come to my house ke? Come to my house? You don't need that. O need e. Ah, see, me too I understand authority. I'm a man under authority. I'm a centurion. You know one thing about me? I command a hundred of soldiers under him. If I tell this soldier, 'Go!'" ko le yemi l'ohun. If I say "Come!" ashe mi niyen, ko le pada m'oju. That is, I stand in authority such that my voice cannot be resisted. You don't want to come to my house? Ah, I know that You are also Commander-in-Chief. If You say "Leprosy, get out!" ko le ye l'ohun. Ah, Jesus just speak the word! Come to my house ke? I don't need You in my house. Jesus said, "Wow. This imagination is superb. This imagination is astounding. I have never found such in the whole Israel. I have never. This is great. This is great." What I'm trying to make you see: where was the liberty of the man? In his mind. So permit me to let you see this. When the Bible says in Hebrews 11 that faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen, in the practical terms of it, it means faith is man's imagination set on the reality of God. Faith is man's imagination set on the reality, the reality of God. Once a man set his imagination on the reality of God, on the power of God, on what God is capable of doing, what are you saying? You say it is an assurance of what you hope for. It is the evidence of what he has not seen. So faith therefore is simply a kind of imagination. What you are calling faith is a nation, building nation, building a nation, building it in such a way that it is built around the reality of the power of God. When it is set on the person of God, that is what we call faith. That is what that man spoke of and Jesus said, "I have never found such faith in Israel." Jesus did not say, "Ah-ah, I've not found such imagination in Israel." He did not say, "Ah-ah, I've not seen somebody thinking like this in Israel." No. What did He say? When imagination is set on the reality of what God can do, on the power of God, on who God is, what do we call that? That is faith. It means there's an assurance of things hoped for, there's an evidence of what he has not seen. He said, "Ah, if my servant cannot disobey me, the decree for my servant to be healed cannot disobey You. It means he's telling Jesus the way I have authority over all my servant, every kind of sickness in the universe, all kinds of classes of human infirmities, diseases, whatever, You are also a man of authority over them. I know You. Se ko nse iwo ni? I know You. You're also man of authority. Anyone You issue command to, it cannot look back. If You tell it 'Go,' it'll go, if You tell it 'Come,' it'll come, if You tell it 'Stay there,' it'll stay there. And that's exactly what it will be." And Jesus Christ said, "Wow. So You have been able to see Me like that. You have such assurance that if I give the command it's going to be like that. You have been able to see Me in the reality of who I am." And He called it what? Great faith. So when a man cannot see Jesus in the reality of who Jesus is, is what you call unbelief. So brethren, we will close here again today. It's already 5:30. But I want us to pray. And I want you to pray based on Luke chapter 1, faith and imagination. Luke chapter 1. I want to take my reading from around verse 26 thereof, that is the annunciation. "Now in the sixth month the Angel Gabriel was sent by God to the city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin's name was Mary. And having come to her, the Angel said to her, 'Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you, blessed are you among women.' But when she saw him, she was troubled at the saying and considered what manner of greeting this was. But the Angel said to her, 'Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you shall conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son and you shall call His name Jesus. He shall be great and He shall be called the Son of the Highest, and the Lord will give Him the throne of His father David. And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever and of the kingdom there shall be no end.' And Mary said to the Angel, 'How can this be, since I do not know a man?'" Mary saw the impossibility of the situation because there is no husband. You are talking about giving birth, I'm just still a virgin. How will it be? There is something making it impossible. This purpose of God cannot come to pass. This Kingdom of God cannot come. This word of God cannot have fulfillment because there is a big matter that is causing a limitation. There is a gap in this thing, and the gap is a fundamental one. It takes a woman that has a husband to be able to bring forth a child. A virgin cannot do so. Angel, listen, the purpose of God cannot be done. The will of God cannot come to pass. This word of God cannot become a reality. But the Angel said, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Highest will overshadow you. Therefore, also, the Holy One who is to be born of you will be called the Son of God." What I want you to see and to pray this evening is that for the Kingdom of God to come to pass in the life of a man, for the purpose of God to come into reality, for the word of God to have fulfillment in a man's life, there's always the place of the Holy Ghost coming upon the man and the power of God finding expression in him. If the Holy Ghost don't come upon a man and the power of God don't find expression in him, that man will have limitation that will limit him from fulfilling God's purpose, from entering God's Kingdom, from establishing the purpose of God for his life. I want you to pray this evening: Lord God, afresh and anew, cause Your Holy Ghost to rest upon me like never before. Let Your power find expression in my life. Let Your power, the power of God find expression in my life. Let the power of the Highest overshadow me. Lord, let Your power overshadow me. Let Your power, oh God, overshadow my mind. Let Your Holy Ghost, oh God, take over my mind. Holy Spirit, take over my imagination. Holy Spirit take over my imagination. Let the power of God begin to find expression in me, begin to break down my limitation, begin to connect me, begin to break down the gap, begin to connect me to the purpose of God, to the will of God, to the mind of God, to the things of God, to the plans of God, to the counsel of God. Holy Spirit, move again. Move afresh. The disciples, they had an encounter of the Holy Spirit, and after that encounter, they were threatened by the rulers. The Bible says they went to pray again and the Holy Ghost came upon them afresh and the place shook and then they went in that power again. I want you to pray, "Lord, I need a fresh touch on my life. I need a fresh touch again. A fresh touch of Your power. A fresh touch of Your glory. A fresh touch of Your power. A fresh touch of Your glory. A fresh touch! Holy Ghost!" Holy Ghost! Do it again, do it afresh, do it again, do it afresh. Oh, Holy Ghost! Do it again, do it afresh. Do it again, do it afresh. Do it again, do it afresh. Oh, do it again, do it afresh. Do it again, do it afresh. Oh, do it again, do it afresh. Do it again, do it afresh. Do it again, do it afresh. Do it again, do it afresh. Do it again, do it afresh. Oh Lord, that I may see. Oh Lord, that I may see. Oh Lord, that I may see, that I may see. Thank You Father. Thank You Lord. In the name of Jesus Christ we pray. Our Father, we stand in agreement tonight. And Lord, every imagination, every imagination, every imagination that exalt themselves against the wisdom of God, every imagination that are contrary to the knowledge of God, every imagination that is not in obedience to Christ. Lord, I particularly pray prophetically tonight. Every imagination that has made the mighty man of valor, that mighty Gideon inside every Gideon that is here, that has made that mighty Gideon to be impotent, that has made that mighty Gideon to be inactive, and the ordinary Gideon seems to be ruling our life. The fearful Gideon, the perplexed Gideon, the intimidated Gideon. Lord, everything that have arrested the mighty man of valor in us. Lord, tonight I address them by the power of the Holy Ghost. I command that let the fire of God consume vain imaginations in the name of Jesus. We stand by the word of God. The Bible says and the light shines into darkness and the darkness could not possibly resist it. The light of the word of God has come. The light of the word of God has come. And so we command every darkness in form of vain imagination, we command you to be broken in the name of Jesus. Every vain imagination of error, every vain imagination of limitation, every vain imagination of fear, every vain imagination of intimidation, every vain imagination that has made men to be impotent, that has made men not to be able to follow God, that have limited the life of God's people, this evening I come against you! Be shattered! Be shattered! Be shattered! In the name of Jesus Christ. I want you to lift up your heart to God this evening and say, "God... Lord, let there be an experience, oh God, again, of a renewal of my strength. Lord, renew my strength." I want you to just lift up your hands to God and talk to God in that manner. Say, "God, renew my strength! Lord, renew my strength! Lord, take me above my limitations! Take me above my limitations!" Cry to God, just roar your spirit to God. Roar your spirit, "God! God! Renew my strength! Renew my strength!" Thank You Father. Thank You Lord. In the name of Jesus Christ we pray. I say tonight, just as you have spoken, it shall be unto you. Just as you have spoken, there shall be an encounter for you in the name of Jesus Christ. And prophetically I pray. The Bible says that night the Lord came to Gideon and said... I pray for you, that tonight the Lord will come to you. The Lord our God that came to Gideon and that night something else happened to Gideon, that he went and told his army, "Come on, let's go!" I pray for you. That night, that night. I pray this night the Lord will encounter you. In the name of Jesus. I pray into the month of November for you. It shall be a month of the unusual with God in your life. November shall be for you a month of the unusual with God. For Gideon, it was no more business as usual. I pray for you in your relationship with God. It will no more be business as usual. This November will be the beginning of a beginning for you in the name of Jesus. Thank You Father. Blessed be Your holy name our God. In Jesus' name we pray. Let's share the grace in fellowship. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us now and forevermore. Amen. Thank You Father. Thank You Jesus. [Speaker 5] This message is coming to you from Family Tent Ministry, a Christian ministry involved in reaching the lives of singles and married through preaching and teaching of God's word, discipleship, family life enrichment, social and community development, and mission aid. Our regular activities are: Discipleship class every Monday 5:00 p.m.; Adolescents and Singles Club every first Saturday of every month at 10:00 a.m.; Marriage Forum second Saturday of every month at 10:00 a.m.; family life seminars, regular school outreaches, and everyday counseling. For further counseling, you can reach us at our location: Life Camp by the First Bridge, Ilere Community, opposite Very Joy filling station along Ije-Are Road, Akure, Ondo State, Nigeria. You can also reach us through our social media handles: familytent@yahoo.co.uk, familytentministry01@gmail.com, www.familytentministry.org. Our phone numbers are 08033861136, 07033613848. God bless you all.