Names of God – Part 5 Lawson and Aaron Perdue

  Praise the Lord, friends, and welcome to the broadcast. You don’t wanna miss this teaching. My son Aaron is with me. He’s gonna be teaching on Jehovah Shalom. You know when the Jews greet one another, they say, “Shalom.” When they leave one another, they say, “Shalom.” And they are speaking blessing and peace. We’re gonna share where that comes from today from the scripture. So open your heart and receive God’s good word. Blessings. Friends, it’s great to have you with us today, and glad to have Aaron. We’ve been sharing all of this week on his teaching on the names of God, and this is fantastic teaching. Aaron actually studied biblical Hebrew at Rice University when he was studying music there, but he took it as an elective and you got some great revelation. In fact, I love it, Aaron, when you teach Old Testament.

 

  Awesome. So we’re gonna talk about one of these redemptive names of God. You know, there are several different names of God throughout scripture, but I love looking at the seven redemptive names of God. Sometimes called the compound names of God because it’s God’s name, Yahweh or Jehovah, glued with another name, right? So we talked about Jehovah Gyra, the Lord is our provider. We talked about Jehovah Rapha, the Lord is our healer. And these names, you know, God has joined his name to these, so he’s always the Lord who heals. He doesn’t change.

 

  Amen.

 

  God changes not. We talked about Jehovah-Nissi, the Lord our banner, our victory. Today we’re gonna talk about one of the names, Jehovah Shalom, the Lord our peace. And this name was revealed in the life of Gideon,

 

  Right.

 

  And I love the story of Gideon because when you first meet him, he doesn’t really express much faith. He actually expresses a lot of fear. But God just keeps showing Gideon grace. And then Gideon, what really shifts his life is when he gets a revelation of who God is. At first, he doesn’t really even know who he’s talking to.

 

  Right.

 

  When God’s talking to him. But then he realizes that this is God, and then he realizes that God isn’t gonna kill him, but God, you know, loves him and has peace for him. So he has this revelation that God, Jehovah is Shalom, and God is still Jehovah Shalom today.

 

  He’s the Lord our peace. And he’s also the Lord our provision. You know, the Jews, when they greet one another, they’ll say, “Shalom.” When they leave one another, they’ll say, “Shalom.” And that means total wellbeing, peace, prosperity, blessing, me to you in every area. It’s really talking about spirit, soul, and body. And so, Aaron, you can jump into this. It’s in Judges chapter six, where we first see this name mentioned in the scripture.

 

  Yeah, we’ll start reading in the very first verse. It says, “The children of Israel did evil on the sight of the Lord. So the Lord delivered them into the 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, caves, and strongholds, which are in the mountains.” So they were living just underground for years, seven years. “So it was whenever Israel had some, the Midianites would come up, also, the Amalekites and the people of the east would come up against them.” You know, I was reading through the Old Testament just yesterday actually, and I was talking about how part of the curse is when you sow that your enemies are gonna come and reap it. They’re gonna eat the fruit of it, they’re gonna get the harvest. They’s part of the curse. You know, whatever I sow, I expect a harvest in my own life.

 

  Amen.

 

  And when I sow into this ministry, when I give, I expect a harvest in my life. So it says, whenever, you know, they would come up against ’em, verse four, it says, “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 in their tents coming in as numerous as locusts. Both they and their camels were without number. They would enter the land to destroy it.” They just came to destroy it. It sounds just like what’s happening in Israel today and Gaza, you know, we see these things that are part of history. People just want to destroy Israel.

 

  Yes.

 

  Verse six. So it says, “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, 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. I delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians and out of the hand of all who oppressed you, drove them out before you and gave you their land. I said to you, I am the Lord your God. Do not fear the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But you have not obeyed my voice.'” So I love that there was a prophet speaking up here. You know, there’re still prophets today. There are prophets in the Old Testament. There’s still prophets today. Now here’s where we get into the heart of the story. It says the angel of the Lord. And we’ve mentioned this before too, when we’re talking about Abraham. Abraham getting the revelation that God is Jehovah Jireh, the Lord who provides, that there was an angel of the Lord who spoke to him who stopped him, and you said it, the angel of the Lord is often a pre-incarnate form of Christ.

 

  Yeah, a lot of Bible scholars believe that.

 

  And I believe that here too, because it’s the angel of the Lord speaking to him. But then just mid sentence almost, it switches and talks about the Lord speaking directly to Gideon. “So the angel of the Lord came and sat under the terebinth tree, which was an Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, while his son Gideon threshed wheat in the wine press in order to hide it from the Midianites.” So he was threshing wheat down in a cellar. You can imagine how dusty and how uncomfortable that would be.

 

  There’s some people like this today, and they’re just trying to make a living. They’re just trying to exist. You know what, that’s never been God’s plan, never has, never will be. What God wants you to do is bless you so much that he makes you a blessing. And it’s not just about you and your four and no more. And that’s how Gideon was thinking. And that’s a poor way to think. So you gotta break out of that poverty thinking, that limited thinking so you can move into the blessing of God and be a blessing and accomplish what God called you to.

 

  And the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him in verse 12, “The Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor.” So Gideon obviously didn’t feel this way, didn’t act this way. But what God says about you is more important than what you think about yourself. Gideon said to him, this is a really interesting exchange. Gideon, who’s a mighty man of valor, just said, “Oh my Lord, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us?” People still have that same question today. If God is with us, if God loves us, if God wants to save us, why do bad things happen?

 

  Right.

 

  That’s what Gideon is saying. It’s that it’s an age old question. Where are all his miracles? You know, there are people even in the church today who don’t believe in miracles. They’re called Cessationists. That miracles have ceased to exist.

 

  What a sad place.

 

  What a sad, yeah. If you go to a church where that’s the doctrine, you should leave it immediately.

 

  You know, Aaron, they had a confrontation. They actually had this deal at a church here where they invited numbers of Christians together. And these pastors from the community actually got up and debated this. And man, there is no debate. All I need to do is take a couple people from here that God has healed, miraculously bring their medical doctors that have, you know, said, hey, this is a complete miracle. This is, you know, we had a little boy here that was supposed to die, premature, you know, young, all this was on over 10 prescription medications a day. He was completely healed. We had a woman who was supposed to die within a month of cancer. She was completely healed with no medical treatment. And we’ve had this happen, not just now, we’ve had this happen over and over and over again. We have testimony after testimony that’s medically confirmed. And if you believe that God doesn’t heal anymore, you’re just deaf, dumb and blind. Crazy.

 

  “So where are all his miracles, which our fathers told us about, saying did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt, but now the Lord has forsaken us and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites?” Now it says then the Lord. Now notice this is just kind of mid sentence. It goes from talking about the angel of the Lord to just the Lord.

 

  Right.

 

  So I agree that the angel of the Lord is often a pre-incarnate form of Jesus, and Jesus is Lord. So it says, “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?'” So you know, the Lord here doesn’t even argue with Gideon. You don’t always have to argue with doubt and unbelief. You don’t have to argue with people who are full of doubt and belief. You can just cut straight to the chase, cut straight to the promise, cut straight to God’s plan of redemption. And Gideon goes on in verse 15, says, “Oh Lord, how can I save Israel? Indeed my clan is the weakest in Manasseh.” Manasseh was a half tribe, not even a full tribe, a half tribe. And of the half tribes, it was the weaker of the two tribes.

 

  He’s like, we’re the poorest, we’re the sickest, we’re the weakest. You know what, if you’re singing that old victim song, it’s gonna be really hard for you to walk in the victory that Jesus has for you.

 

  It says, I’m the, you know, “We’re the weakest clan. I’m the least in my father’s house.” You know, he’s saying, my dad doesn’t even like me. I’m the least favored in my dad’s house. And the Lord said to him, “Surely I will be with you and you shall defeat the Midianites as one man.” Then he said to him, “If now I found favor in your sight, then show me a sign that it is you who talks to me.” So God actually shows him a sign.

 

  Right.

 

  You know that he’s telling him the truth,

 

  Right.

 

  God meets him where he is at.

 

  Amen. And so Gideon brought these, you know, aspects of the covenant and he brought these things in really, you know, as a type of the covenant and the angel of God. In verse 20 said, “Take the flesh and the unleavened cakes, lay them on this rock and pour out broth.” And so it’s a type of the bread and the wine. “And the angel of the Lord put forth the end of his staff that was his hand, and touched the flesh in the unloved cakes and there arose of fire out of the rock.” Well, I believe Jesus is the rock. Praise God, I believe fire out of the rock is like the Holy Ghost. “And consumed the flesh and the unloved cakes. And the angel of the Lord departed out of his sight. And Gideon perceived that he was an angel of the Lord.” And Gideon said, here’s another sign. This is probably a pre-incarnate form of Christ or God. He says, “Oh Lord God, because I’ve seen an angel of the Lord face to face” in verse 23, “And the Lord said unto him,” this is judges 6:23, “Peace be to you. Fear not you will not die. And Gideon built an altar there to the Lord and called it Jehovah Shalom unto this day, as it yet is in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.” So Jehovah Shalom, the Lord is my peace, and the Lord is my provision.

 

  And then once he gets this revelation, that’s where things really shift. You know, you have to know God yourself. When you have a revelation of who God really is, that he’s not angry at you, he’s not out to destroy you, he’s not the problem. He’s not even the one that allows these bad things to happen, but he actually wants to deliver you. When you get that revelation of who God really is, that he is Jehovah Jireh, he’s my provider. He is Jehovah Rapha, he’s the Lord my healer. He is Jehovah-Nissi, the Lord my banner, my victory, the one who fights my battles. And he is Jehovah Shalom. He’s the Lord my peace. That’s when things are gonna shift in your life because you know God for who he truly is. That is what brings a shift in your life.

 

  Amen. We’re gonna take a short break and right after this break we’re gonna be back and we’re gonna be sharing more on Jehovah Shalom, the Lord is my peace and he is my provision. Friends, I’m so glad that you’ve been watching. We’ve been sharing from my son Aaron’s teaching on the names of God. And in these broadcasts we’re just able to share only a small portion of the teaching. But you can get the entire teaching on eight downloadable audios on our website, free of charge at CharisChristianCenter.com.

 

  Look what God has done for you. You know, I mean, aren’t you so glad God restores all of us?

 

  Yes.

 

  And even to above and beyond, God brings it, when he does it, when he restores something, it’s even more than you could have imagined. And I love that again, when God did something for us, it affects others and then other people even see it and testify to the goodness of God.

 

  Friends, I’m so glad that you stayed with us and we’re happy to be sharing on the true nature of God, the names of God, the redemptive names of God in the Old Testament. There are seven of them, and they represent who God is and God’s true nature today.

 

  And I love when Gideon gets this revelation that the Lord is Jehovah Shalom, Yahweh Shalom, the Lord our peace, that the Lord speaks to him right away and gives him something to do.

 

  Amen. You know, when you get a revelation of who God is, when you have an encounter with God, God is gonna tell you what to do.

 

  Amen

 

  And God immediately speaks to him. In verse 25, it says, “It came to pass the same night that the Lord said to him, take your father’s young bull and the second bull of seven years old and tear down the altar of Baal that your father has, and cut down the wooden image that is beside it. Build an altar to the Lord, Yahweh, your God, on top of this rock in the proper arrangement, take the second bull and offer a burnt sacrifice with the wood on the image which you shall cut down.” So Gideon was complaining to God just a few verses before saying, “Well, I’m the least in my father’s house. My daddy doesn’t even love me.” And God speaks to him right after he gets this revelation that he is Jehovah Shalom, lord your peace.

 

  Gideon, you need to go tear down that altar of Baal. There is still a spirit of Baal on the earth today. An antichrist, anti-God, anti-creator spirit. And you don’t have to bow down to it, you don’t have to put up with it. You know, there’s a young woman on the worship team here, she’s going to a local university to get a degree in nursing.

 

  Amen.

 

  And, you know, she was taking psychology and she just flat out told the professor, “I’m not gonna read this chapter on LGBTQ in this psychology book. I’m not gonna read it. It’s an offense to the gospel. It’s an offense to me as a believer, as a Christian. I’m not gonna read it. I’m not gonna study it. I’m not gonna have anything to do with it.” You know, God brought her promotion. She was actually promoted and given an award for being the top science student in the university. She’s been given favor. But you can’t bow down to the altar of Baal. And people try to set, people who don’t love God, who actually hate God, try to put up these altars.

 

  Right.

 

  Against God.

 

  Right.

 

  Even here in Colorado Springs, which is predominantly a Christian community, there are pride flags hanging everywhere downtown on public property, you know, and people attacked us for wanting to have a paid advertisement that said Jesus is Lord. We were attacked for saying that Jesus is Lord, for paying to express our own freedom of religion, our own freedom of speech. People attacked us over that. We took a stand and got that attack shut down. But there are Baal altars everywhere and you don’t have to put up with it.

 

  You know, you’re talking about this young woman and recently they had this anti-Israel demonstration on the campus where she goes, and you know, what she had a Star of David, she felt threatened when she was walking by. She’s not Jewish, but her granddad was a Baptist missionary in Israel for over 20 years. Her uncle married a Jewish woman and her cousins are Israeli citizens. And so actually her first cousin was right where Hamas first attacked and would’ve been killed. But she happened to be on leave. And so she felt threatened and they were shouting all these things and doing all these things. She came to church that night and found that we had not only the flag of the United States of America on our platform, thank God, but we had the flag of the nation of Israel on the other side of our platform. And she said, I felt such peace and such comfort that your mother prayed for and told her that God was going to shut the mouths of those opposing forces. And the next day when she went there was like a storm and God shut their mouths. They didn’t even have a word to say. And they completely closed down that anti-Israel demonstration here on this campus in Colorado Springs. But, you know, a lot of times we as believers don’t take authority. And a lot of times we’re blaming God for problems when we don’t rise up and take authority. And this is exactly what was happening with Gideon, is God was telling Gideon, you rise up in who you are, you rise up in who I am and take authority over this situation and start being who I called you to be.

 

  And I love what happens. He actually does what God tells him to do. He’s a little scared. So he takes a friend and does it in the middle of the night. But the people find out about all these Baal worshipers find out about it and they go to his father, to Joash, his father, and said, “You know, we know that your son did this, bring him out, we’re gonna kill him.”

 

  Yeah.

 

  And you know, if you tear down an altar of Baal, you’re gonna stir up some demons. And that’s what happened here. But God actually protected Gideon, God actually changed Joash’s heart. Joash said in verse 31, to everyone who was there, Joash said to all who stood against him, “Would you plead for Baal? Would you save him? Let the one who would plead for him be put to death by moring. If he is a God, let him plead for himself because his altar has been torn down.” So he actually changed his, you know, changed his affiliations. I’m not gonna affiliate with Baal anymore.

 

  Praise God.

 

  And it says on that day he called Gideon, Jerubbaal, which means the one who contends with Baal. So he gave his son Gideon nickname saying, you little Baal fighter.

 

  Hallelujah.

 

  And so he gave a nickname. So actually God brought redemption to that father son relationship. That was Gideon’s first victory was tearing down that altar of Baal, you know, finding favor in the sight of his father. And then later on in verse 34, it says, “The spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon.” Man, the Holy Spirit changes everything.

 

  Amen. You know, the spirit of God is in you as we’ve been teaching on these names of God. And there are seven redemptive names of God throughout the Old Testament. It’s a progressive revelation of who God is. Genesis 22, he says, “I am Jehovah-Jireh. I am the Lord your provider.” Exodus 15 he says, “I am Jehovah Rapha, I’m the Lord your healer.” Exodus chapter 17 he says, “I am Jehovah-Nissi. I am the Lord your victory. I’m the Lord your deliverer, your defender. I’m the Lord your banner.” Then he says in Leviticus chapter 20 in verse eight, “I am Jehovah Mekoddish. I am the Lord your sanctification.” He goes on right here in Judges chapter six where we’re teaching. And he says, “I am Jehovah Shalom. I’m the Lord your peace, and I am your provision.” And then he finally says in Jeremiah 23, verse six, he says, “The name wherewith he shall be called speaking of Jesus is Jehovah’s Tsidkenu, the Lord our righteousness.” And he says, then following that Jeremiah 33, verse 16, “The name wherewith, she shall be called, speaking of Jesus’ righteousness being placed in the church, is the Lord our righteousness.” And finally he says in Ezekiel chapter 48, I believe it’s verse 35, the very last verse of Ezekiel, “My name shall be called the Lord who is there, Jehovah-shammah.” And so there’s seven redemptive names of God. As you go into the gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, you can find that Jesus represents every one of these things. He represents provision, he represents healing, he represents deliverance and freedom. He represents peace. Jesus represents sanctification, he represents righteousness. He represents the presence of God. Jesus represents all of these different, you know, all of these different aspects of who the Father is. And then if you move farther and go into Paul’s letters in the epistles, you find out Christ in you is the hope of glory. And you have, by his stripes, you already were healed. You already have that in you in Christ. You have righteousness in you in Christ. You have peace in you in Christ. You have sanctification in you in Christ. You have provision in you in Christ. You have freedom in you in Christ. You have the presence of God in you in Christ. And so you find that the Bible is consistent.

 

  And I’m gonna just kind of talk about what happens in this story with Gideon. So he assembles an army of 32,000 people and they’re actually fighting against an enemy army of 120,000. You see that later in Judges eight, verse 10, that there were 120,000 enemy soldiers that fell, that died. So he had 32,000. God told ’em, that’s too many. ‘Cause people aren’t gonna attribute the victory to me. So just ask people if they’re scared to go home. So 22,000 people just go home. He is left with 10,000. God again says, that’s too many.

 

  Yeah.

 

  10,000 versus 120. That’s too many. So he says, “Take ’em in the brook and the ones that are drinking it like this, they can stay with you. The ones that stick their head down in the water and lap it up that way, they have to go home.” Only 300 people drink it that way. So he now has an army of 300 going up against an army of 120,000. But something happens, and I want you to see this, that something happens where that army of 120,000, they come under fear. They start hearing rumors and getting a spirit of fear against Gideon. And Gideon hears I’m talking about these nightmares they’re having about Gideon defeating them. 300 men of faith, doing the will of God, just shout the sword of Gideon and the sword of the Lord go out and defeat 120,000 people. So 300 people who are in peace, who have Jehovah Shalom on their side defeat an army of 120,000. Peace always conquers fear. I have a word right now too. And it’s actually about the nation of Haiti. Haiti has been dominated by gangs that have plagued that country with fear. Right now there is a president, the president of Kenya is trying to get a few thousand soldiers to Haiti to fight them. He actually just met the president of the U.S. to talk about his plan. And the president of Kenya is a Christian man, President Ruto, his wife actually came to our church.

 

  Yes.

 

  Rachel Ruto. At the time she was the vice president’s wife. Her husband is now the president. He wants to bring peace. A Christian man is tired of fear, tired of the devil, tired of that spirit of Baal plaguing another developing nation of Haiti. Other nations don’t want anything to do with Haiti. But this Kenyan president.

 

  Wow.

 

  Who is a Christian man is gonna change, he’s gonna eliminate.

 

  Amen.

 

  These gangs who kill Christians. They killed a young missionary couple just this past week.

 

  Amen. You know, when we first opened this church, his wife came here and she gave us a word and said, “People from the nations of the world are gonna come here and drink. This is a drinking place.” And Aaron, nearly every Sunday, we have people from different nations here in this church. People from different states that travel here. And we have people that come here to receive healing, receive the power of the Holy Spirit, get ministered to, and then they go back and share it wherever they’re at. But this word that she gave us has actually come to pass. So thank God. And you know what? We’ve been sowing seed in the nations of the world and you know what? We’re having harvest all around the world. So we thank God for this opportunity. If you happen to be in Colorado Springs on a Sunday or a Wednesday night, we would love to have you here in church at Charis Christian Center. If you can’t come and be here in person, I want to invite you to watch us online at CharisChristianCenter.com, live stream us or YouTube and check us out. We would love to have you connected with us. Thanks so much and blessings.

 

  God gradually revealed his true nature and his plan for salvation for mankind. One way he did this was through his name itself. Each of the seven redemptive names of God are revealed in the Old Testament, fulfilled in the life of Jesus and available to the believer today. We’d like to bless you with a digital copy of “Names of God,” a $24 value free of charge. Download your copy today at CharisChristianCenter.com.

 

  Friends, I’m Pastor Lawson Perdue from Charis Christian Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado. And we are celebrating 23 years of the grace of God, the goodness of God, the faithfulness of God at our anniversary service. My friend and mentor, Andrew Wommack will be teaching here at the church. We’d love to have you at Charis Christian Center for our 23rd anniversary celebration. Blessings. Friend, I invite you to pray with me right now. Heavenly Father, I believe that Jesus Christ is your son. I believe that he died for my sins and I believe that you raised him from the dead and made him Lord on the third day. Right now, I surrender my life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen. Thanks so much for being with us today. Blessings.

 

  Thanks for watching Grace for Today. This broadcast has been made possible by our faithful partners. If you would like to become a partner, need prayer or have a question, please call us at 719-418-4000 or to partner online, go to CharisChristianCenter.com/give. You can write us at PO Box 63733, Colorado Springs, Colorado, 80962. See you next time on Grace for Today.