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Praise the Lord, I had a nightmarish dream the other day and I'm going to build this message around that, around that nightmarish dream. Now I would like to tell you that when I first read in the book of Daniel, that Daniel had nightmares on his bed, I thought that surely that was a mistranslation of the Scripture, I could not believe that God would give anybody nightmares, and I still don't understand exactly why we have nightmares when God communicates with us sometimes, but I suspect that if you have the call of a prophet on your life, what happens is that you literally on some spiritual level experience what you're being told, and it is so horrible that you wake up with this sense of horror, and it's really hard to explain, the example that I'm giving is one time I had a dream where there was this great bird, and he was plucking my heart out of my chest while I was alive and conscious, and I woke up absolutely horrified, and it was a horror that I experienced in my mind mentally, I experienced it definitely emotionally, and I also experience it physically, and I just, at this point I'm used to it, it doesn't happen all that often, but I'm not shocked when it happens, I know that I have to deal with it, I just wake up and I just walk around moaning, saying "oh, oh", you know, and I just know that I have to work my way out of it, if I've dreamt that dream at night, you know if its morning when I wake up, I'll go get myself a cup of coffee. This particular dream I had after falling asleep for an afternoon nap, so I just like walk around the house, just waiting for it to wear off, I don't know how to describe it anymore than that, but it's a horror that I experience on every level. And as I said the only explanation that I have for this, is that the events that are happening here in the earth that are prophesied in this dream are already happening in the spirit, and I have actually experienced that event on some high spiritual level when I'm sleeping, and when I wake up I'm supposed to be delivering a message that men could understand and somehow this process of letting me...
See I'm not just given a message, I experience something on a higher plane, I'm in the role or any prophet that's experiencing this, when you experience this, you're in the role of mediator, you actually experience something on a higher spiritual plane that translates into the events of your dream, did I make that clear? Okay, it's not a good experience, it doesn't feel good, but when you realize that it's being used for God's glory, you just live with it. Well I had one of those nightmares a couple of days ago, and this one was a little different, in that usually when I wake up with this feeling, that I just experienced, and it's more than a feeling, when I have this whole experience, this mental emotional and physical experience, usually the events that I will be relating to people or recording or sometimes I just write up the details of the dream and record them, those events are horrible, like my heart being plucked out of my body or other very unfortunate events.
But this time the events of the dream which I will get around to relating to you eventually, were not horrible, but I woke up with the mental physical and emotional horror. So I would like to tell you what I was studying in the Scripture before I fell to sleep and had this dream because the Lord is turning it into a whole teaching, and also a prophecy of national events to come to pass. I had simply opened my Bible that morning, and was reading through the King James, and I was up to the book of Judges, and in particular the account of Gideon which I think runs through chapters 8 and 9, and I was reading the account of God's call to Gideon that Israel was very backslidden in that day but Gideon had a right heart towards God, and the Lord called him and Gideon made his fleece, I hope you all know about that, Gideon made two fleeces with the Lord and Gideon became convinced that the Lord wanted him to be the vessel through which God would visit judgment upon Israel, and we're told that Gideon went out, let me see if I can give you the exact wording here.
Okay I'm in the book of Judges chapter 6:25, "And it came to pass the same night that the Lord said unto Gideon, take thy father's young bullock and the second bullock of seven years old and throw down the altar of Baal that thy father hath and cut down the grove that is by it, and build an altar unto the Lord thy God upon the top of the rock in the ordered place. And take the second bullock and offer a burnt sacrifice with the wood of the grove which thou shalt cut down. 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. Gideon tore down the idol and cut down the grove at night. And when the men of the city arose early in the morning, behold the altar of Baal was cast down and the grove was cut down that was by it, and the second bullock was offered upon the altar that was built. And they said one to another, who hath done this thing? And when they enquired and asked, they said Gideon the son of Joash hath done this thing. Then the men of the city said unto Joash, bring out your son that he may die, because he has cast down the altar of Baal, and because he has cut down the grove that was by it. And Joash said unto all that stood against him, would you plead for Baal, will you save him, will you save Baal? He that will plead for him, he that will plead for Baal, let him be put to death whilst it is yet morning, if he be a God let him plead for himself, because one has cast down his altar. Therefore on that day, he called him Jerubbaal, saying, Let Baal plead against him because he has thrown down his altar. Let Baal plead against Gideon because he has pulled down his altar."
So we see that Gideon becomes a judge of Israel, based upon this first act of faith that the Lord told him to do it, and then Gideon raises up an army and goes to war with the Midianites, and then there is peace in the land, and we hear as we continue to read on that Gideon has seventy sons from his own body, he produced seventy sons, he had multiple wives, we're not told at least in this passage how many wives he had, but he had multiple wives and gave him seventy legal sons.
And I don't know whether he had more than one concubine or not, the Scripture says it in the singular, and he had a concubine, and the concubine had a son called Abimelech. So I don't know if he had more than one concubine and I don't know if this concubine had more children, but we know that Gideon who is now called Jerubbaal, that he had seventy legitimate sons and one illegitimate son that the Scripture talks about and the illegitimate son was envious of the legitimate sons. It's the same scenario as Ishmael's envy of Isaac, okay it's the same problem that's going on in the middle east today, the Arabs are the offspring of Ishmael, and the Jews are the offspring of the legitimate heir Isaac, and there is a spirit of envy that manifests not only in the Arab world, but in the whole Christian, in the European and the whole Christian world there's a spirit of envy that has led to hatred against the Jews, and the same thing manifested amongst the twelve patriarchs when they were still young, the eleven put Joseph in a pit, and left him to die.
So we see that there is nothing new under the son, but that the basic foundational themes of the Scripture repeat themselves from generation to generation. So Abimelech, the illegitimate son who was envious of the legitimate heirs to, well I should tell you this, the legitimate heirs to that which Gideon left Israel. Let me back up a little. Gideon brought Israel into a place of peace, he delivered them from the Midianites, they returned to the worship of their God Jehovah, and they were living in peace, you see. And we're also told that the men of Israel came to Gideon and said to him, will you rule over us, and Gideon said, no I will not rule over you, God will rule over you. Gideon knew that it was always God's intention to have each man under the control of the spirit of God, you see. The only time you need a king, the only time you need a government is when the people are not being controlled by an indwelling Christ, and that is the promise of the Scripture, that every human being on the face of the earth in that day will be controlled by the indwelling Christ and there will be no need for a king, a human king, there will be no need for government because every man will do what is right because he's under the control of righteousness. And in that day the lion will lie down with the lamb and there will be no more destruction, that's the promise of the Scripture you see.
So Gideon said, no I will not rule over you, God will rule over you. Then after that we find out, now remember the Scripture is very abbreviated, we find out that Gideon had seventy sons, and not one of them was raised up as a king over Israel, so I'm reading between the lines and it looks to me like there must have been some kind of government that was set up from Gideon's royal family you might say, just like we have a government, a representative government, we have senators and we have representatives, I believe this is what the Lord told me that the offspring of Gideon, they were helping the people, they were ruling between disputes, they were judging between disputes of the people, but no one man was ruling over the tribe of Judah or the nation of Israel at that time.
And Israel was in peace, and Abimelech the illegitimate son was very jealous of the good life that Israel was living, and he was also jealous that the legitimate sons had power and respect. I don't know what Abimelech had, I don't know, but for the purpose of this message, we're told that Abimelech went to the family of his mother, he went to the house of the father of his mother, his grandfather on his mother's side, which family came from northern Israel, they came from the ten tribes that eventually separated from Judah when David became king. So we see that already they're from that part of Israel where idolatry had to already be working in the spirit for that separation to come forth further down the line in the future. In case you don't know it, northern Israel became idolators, that was when the golden calves were set up and worshiped and the common men were made priests after the separation of northern, from southern Israel, after David became king.
So Abimelech went to his brethren the house of the father of his mother, he went to the men of Shechem, and he said to them, what would you rather have, seventy of Gideon's descendants ruling over you who are not your blood, or would you rather have one man your blood ruling over you? And the men of Shechem said well we would rather have someone from our tribe, or someone from our blood ruling over us, and they went with Abimelech and together as a group they slew sixty nine of the seventy legitimate sons of Gideon, it was a massacre, and it must have been a very big fight. You see the Scripture doesn't say, at least at this point it doesn't say did they sneak up on them when they were sleeping or was there an outright military encounter, my guess is there was an outright military encounter. How do you sneak up on sixty nine people that are sleeping? They invaded the Shechem the relatives of Abimelech invaded the area where Gideon's sons were ruling and killed sixty nine of the seventy sons. Then we are told that one son the youngest son, Jotham, his name is Jotham, he pronounced a judgment upon Abimelech and Shechem that was a curse, and this is what Jotham said, I am reading in Judges chapter 9:7, "And when they told it to Jotham he went and stood in the top of the mount Gerizim, and lifted up his voice and cried and said unto them, hearken unto me ye men of Shechem, that God may hearken unto you, the trees went forth on a time to anoint a king over them, and they said unto the olive tree reign thou over us, But the olive tree said unto them, should I have my fatness wherewith by me they honor God and man, and go to be promoted over the trees? And the trees said to the fig tree come thou and reign over us. But the fig tree said unto them, should I forsake my sweetness and my good fruit and go to be promoted over the trees? Then said the trees unto the vine, come and reign over us. And the vine said unto them, should I leave my wine which cheereth God and man and go to be promoted over the trees. Then said all the trees unto the bramble, come and reign over us, and the bramble said unto the trees, if in truth you anoint me king over you, then come and put your trust in my shadow, and if not, let fire come out of the bramble and devour the cedars of Lebanon. Now therefore if you have done truly and sincerely, in that you have made Abimelech king, and if he have dealt well with Jerubbaal and his house and have done unto him according to the deserving of his hands, for my father fought for you and adventured his life far, and delivered you out of the hand of Midian, and ye are risen up against my father's house this day, and have slain his sons three score and ten persons, upon one stone and have made Abimelech the son of his maid servant, king over the men of Shechem, because he is your brother, if he then have dealt truly and sincerely with Jerubbaal, and with his house this day, then rejoice ye in Abimelech and let him also rejoice in you. But if you have not done right, let fire come out from Abimelech and devour the men of Shechem and the house of Millo, and let fire come out from the men of Shechem and from the house of Millo, and devour Abimelech."
That's a curse, that's a curse and it's a righteous curse. Why is it a righteous curse? Because Jotham said, "If you did the right thing, he said, I'm not able, I don't think you did the right thing, that's why I'm pronouncing this judgment, but if you did do the right thing than be blessed, but if you really did the evil that I perceive that you did, may you Abimelech and the men of Shechem that followed you turn on one another and destroy each other. But the issue that I want you all to see is how righteous judgment was executed here. Because righteous judgment and judging righteous judgment is one of the things I'm trying to teach you in this ministry. See Jotham, he did not assume that his judgment, he did not assume that the way he was viewing what happened was correct, even after sixty nine of his brothers were slaughtered, he still didn't stand up and say, I know this is the mind of Christ in me and you are guilty. He still gave the final judgment to God. And those of you, mostly the people here in New York that hear me pray that is the way I pray. I'll say Lord this is how it looks to me, but I want to pray the way you would have me to pray, and but this is how it looks to me, so if I'm wrong let it turn our for their good, don't let me hurt them if it's wrong.
So we see an example here of how the sons of Gideon were ruling over Israel, they were ruling righteously, this is our witness that they were ruling righteously, giving God the glory and preeminence in all things. So let's take a look at this curse which began with a parable, I don't know about you but I've read this, these verses over and over again, over the years it never made any sense to me at all, but today it makes sense to me because the Lord has given me understanding on these verses.
So we're in verse 8, The trees went forth on a time to anoint a king over them. Who are the trees? Okay, the Scripture refers to me as trees, individual trees. That's why when Jesus was healing people he gave the one man his eyesight and he said to the man, what do you see, and the man said, I see men walking as trees, we are all spiritual trees. So the trees that went out to appoint a king over them, are Abimelech the men of Shechem, and they said unto the olive tree, reign thou over us. Who's the olive tree? The tree of life, the question is, who is the tree of life?
COMMENT: I think you said the fig tree.
PASTOR VITALE: No, that's the what comes next, I'm sorry who is the olive tree, I'm sorry verse 9 says who is the olive tree, so who is the olive tree? The olive tree is revealed to this ministry as the tree of life, so who is the tree of life?
COMMENT: Jesus is the tree of life.
PASTOR VITALE: Well this was before Jesus was born, who is the tree of life?
COMMENT: Adam?
PASTOR VITALE: Yes, Adam in his right standing is the tree of life, in this dispensation we can say Christ Jesus is the tree of life, but of course Christ Jesus is a manifestation of Adam, of the resurrected Adam, Jesus said he is the first and the last Adam, Jesus is Adam, okay. So we see in the parable in Jotham's parable, he's saying the trees of Shechem went forth and to anoint a king over them, and they said to the olive tree reign thou over us. Now I suggest to you that Jotham is not talking about these particular men of Shechem who were following Abimelech, Jotham is talking about the men of Israel that went all the way back at the time that Gideon set Israel free from the Midianites and the men of Israel said to Gideon rule over us, and Gideon said no. So Jotham is saying Gideon was the olive tree, Gideon was the tree of life, Gideon was a manifestation of Adam in all his glory, Adam the thought form of God, okay, you see, you went to Gideon and you asked him to rule over you and he said no, because he was a righteous man. So we see I think that I just, the Lord just corrected me, the trees that are doing all this asking are not the men of Shechem, it's all of Israel, see, it's all of Israel. And the next verse is, But the olive tree said unto them, should I leave my fatness wherewith by me they honor God and man, and go to be promoted over the trees. That was what Gideon said, if I promote myself over you, I'm going to lose all of the benefits of being the olive tree and I won't be an olive tree anymore, you see. Next verse, verse 10, and the trees, the men of Israel, said to the fig tree, come thou and reign over us, so who's the fig tree, okay? The fig tree you were close, I wouldn't say the men of Israel in this case, but I would say the offspring of Gideon, Gideon, one man expanded into seventy men he had seventy sons, okay.
So apparently, although we're not told about it in this account, apparently the men of Israel also went to Gideon's offspring and said to them rule over us, you see.
But we see that Gideon's offspring were righteous too because the fig tree also says, should I forsake my sweetness and my good fruit and go to be promoted over the trees, would I set myself as higher than you? So whether the fig tree is Gideon's offspring or the other leadership of Israel it's not clear, but I feel in my spirit it was Gideon's offspring. Okay. And so you would say, how could an olive tree give birth to fig tree, and my answer to that is, that Gideon was the olive tree because Adam God's thought form was ruling through him, initially he was the main guy okay, he was the one like Moses was the main one, that was the one that anointing was upon, and the fig tree, Gideon's offspring, I would liken them to the church with the Holy Spirit, you see. Now remember if you're the tree of life, that means you are a living manifestation of Christ, if you are a fig tree, you are carnally minded person influenced by the Holy Spirit, it's not your nature. With the olive tree, your nature is righteousness, if you're a fig tree you're a carnal man but the Holy Spirit is so powerful on you that you're acting like you're a righteous man, but it's not your nature. If the Holy Spirit is lifted off of you, you will once again be a carnal man. So we see that the men of Israel, are going lower and lower and lower, looking for someone who will be king over them. The most anointed man Gideon said no way, okay the one that had the imparted anointing said, no I won't rule over you.
How many times have I told you that, I've told you that many times, I will not be your king, you have to start making your own decisions, you see. Then he went to the people with the Holy Spirit, and they told him no too, okay. Then they went, well let's see what comes next here, "But the fig tree said to them, should I forsake my sweetness and my good fruit and go to be promoted over the trees? The people with the Holy Spirit said to the men who were looking for a king, I know that if I let myself be promoted over you, I won't be a fig tree anymore, I'll lose my sweetness, I'll lose the anointing that I have, because only the spirit of pride would exalt himself over other men, make himself a king, you see. So when you become something that you're not, when you become the king, you die to what you were, so to become a king you have to die to your righteousness. Praise the Lord, unless of course God makes you king, God made David king you see, and he didn't die to his righteousness.
Okay then the tree said to the vine, come thou and reign over us, and the vine, as I was praying about this, I believe the Lord was telling me, and again, I don't know whether these were different ones of Gideon's sons, or different men of Israel, I'm not sure, but the vine is the man who has faith in God but isn't manifesting the Holy Spirit, see. So these men of Israel that wanted a king, they kept going to men that were less and less anointed, they kept going down the line until they were going to find someone who was carnal enough to say okay, that's the bottom line. They went from the man with the imparted anointing to the men with the imputed anointing, to the men with faith in God, and the men with faith in God, the men of the vine said unto them, should I leave my wine which cheereth God and man, and go to be promoted over the trees, so the men with faith wouldn't do it either. Then said the trees unto the bramble, come thou and reign over us, and the bramble said unto the trees, if in truth you anoint me king over you, then come and put your trust in my shadow. And I want to suggest to you that this was on a high spiritual level, okay when the trees went to the olive tree, they went to the group of men okay, who were manifesting the anointing, but it was on, they went to the group of men that were manifesting the imparted anointing, when they went to the fig tree, they went to the group of men that were manifesting the Holy Spirit, when they went to the vine they went to the group of men that were manifesting faith in God, and then when they went to the bramble, they went to the group of men that didn't even have any faith. They went to the common man, and this is so interesting, because as I told you earlier, these people are amongst the northern kingdom which separated from Judah, and made the common man priests, they gave the office of the Levites to the common man, and here they're already doing it with Abimelech.
So Jotham is indicting the men of Shechem. He's saying, you just kept on going until you found someone to do it. And I knew somebody a long time ago, who got married that way, who wanted to get married so badly, and there was no, they couldn't find a mate on a high spiritual level where they were, so they kept going to churches that have less and less anointing until finally they found someone to marry them in a very carnal church, a main denominational church, God never told them to get married, and it didn't exactly work out, they kept going lower and lower, they kept compromising as to the standard of their mate until they found someone, this was a person who had a very high anointing, they married someone from a very denominational church, they kept going lower and lower until they got what they wanted, you see.
So we see the men of Shechem rising up, going down as low as the men of Israel, or a man of Israel who was not, didn't even have faith in God and had no righteousness whatsoever, because he rose up and killed he was a murderer, he was a common criminal. Oh doesn't that sound familiar? I remember the Jews picking Barabbas over Jesus, there is nothing new under the sun. The men of Shechem took a man who was a murderer to be their king, killed sixty nine righteous men. But what's interesting is the Scripture says he killed seventy righteous men, because even though Jotham survived, the presence of Gideon, or the spirit of Gideon was destroyed over Israel and an evil king took over. So even though Jotham survived, the Scripture says all seventy sons were killed. Isn't that interesting? And of course the, now as I told you earlier, let me repeat this to you, Jotham being a righteous man tells them, let me read this to you, then said all the trees unto the bramble, well let me get back here, sorry, verse 14, "Then said all the trees unto the bramble, come thou and reign over us, and the bramble said unto the trees", now this is the men, they don't even have any faith in God, they're common criminals, "if in truth you anoint me king over you, then come and put your trust in my shadow." Who is the shadow of the bramble? The shadow is the man who is manifesting the bramble. Who is the one that has no faith at all? Cain is the one that has no faith at all. Cain, the part of us that is in, we're calling him the old man, the part that has no faith at all, the earth okay is Cain.
So when the parable says they went to the bramble, it means they went to Cain, okay. And Cain said, If you would have me to be king over you, put your trust in my shadow, the human being that is reflecting my nature. Put your trust in the human being that is reflecting the nature of Cain. "Come and put your trust in my shadow and if not, let fire come out of the bramble and devour the cedars of Lebanon." And the cedars of Lebanon are the righteous trees, "If in truth you anoint me king over you, then come and put your trust in my shadow, trust in the man that has no faith and if not, if you don't want to put your trust in my shadow then let fire come out of the bramble, let fire come out of Cain and devour the cedars of Lebanon. I'm not really sure what that means to tell you the truth. I don't think it has anything to do with this message, so I'm going to go past it, I realize now that I didn't pray over that phrase. So he says, if you really want me to be king, in other words if you're really going to do this evil deed, if you're really going to choose Cain, because that's the only one you can get to go along with your plan, okay, then you're going to have to have faith in the man that has no faith, and if you're not willing to do it, then fire come out and kill the righteous. I have a feeling that that's a poor translation, but I'm just going to let it go for now.
What's in my spirit is, if you would really like me to be king over you, then put your trust in the man who manifests my nature, Abimelech, and let fire, oh that's, and let fire come out of the bramble, that's fire come out of Cain, and devour the cedars of Lebanon, Gideon's sons. Go and kill Gideon's sons.
But of course there's a negative in this verse, I don't know where they got the negative from and I'm not going to stop here to go look it up in the Interlinear Text. Put your trust in my shadow and if not let fire come out of the bramble and devour the cedars of Lebanon, I'm sure that's what it means, so let's just go on, verse 16. Now remember Jotham is indicting these men of Shechem, first he tells them what's been going on in Israel, doesn't that sound like Stephen, something like Stephen going through that whole account of Israel, okay when he's talking to the high priest. Here's Jotham first, he's telling them what's been going on in Israel all of these years, okay, and he's giving this background, now he says to them, now he's dealing with them personally, after giving the spiritual history of Israel, just wanting a king over them over and over again.
Now Jotham says to them in verse 16, "Now therefore if you have done truly and sincerely, if you did the right thing by making Abimelech king, and if you have dealt well with Jerubbaal and his house, have you done the right thing by murdering my sixty nine brothers?" Look at Jotham's humility, he's not standing up there and saying, I judge you for doing it, he's saying if this is really what happened here, okay, if you really did, if you did this because you really believed it was the right thing, and if you really think that you did right by Jerubbaal and his household, that's the sixty nine brothers, and we don't know how many wives and children were killed in the battle. If you have done unto him, if you have done unto Jerubbaal according to the deserving of his hands, did my father really deserve this from you?
Verse 17, "For my father fought for you, and adventured his life...", he put his life on the line for you, and "...and he delivered you out of the hand of Midian." And you turn around and you kill sixty nine of his children of his sons? "And you are risen up against my father's house this day, and have slain his sons three score and ten persons", so we see Jotham considers himself slain. "And you have made Abimelech the son of his maid servant a king over the men of Shechem, and you've done it because he's your brother, and you want your own brother ruling over you why? So that you could get better treatment? If that's the truth if that was your motive for doing it, if then you have dealt truly and sincerely with Jerubbaal and with his house this day, then rejoice you in Abimelech and let him also rejoice in you, because nothing bad is going to happen to you. If you did this out of righteousness, it was the right thing to kill these men, then rejoice because nothing bad is going to happen to you, I won't touch a hair on your head see.
See in these days Jotham probably would have had the right to raise up an army and go and kill all these guys, but he said no, I'm not going to come and kill you. Let God decide whether you did righteousness or not. If you did righteousness you have nothing to worry about, but if you haven't done righteousness, verse 20, let fire come out from Abimelech and devour the men of Shechem, let the men you have fought for turn against you, because you have picked somebody of a very weak moral fiber, that he would kill the sons of the man that set Israel free to make himself king, that's a man of poor moral fiber, and he'll do it to you what he did to the sons of Gideon. But if not, let fire come out from Abimelech and devour the men of Shechem and the house of Millo, and let fire come out from the men of Shechem from the house of Millo and devour Abimelech. He said if you did this for a wrong motive and you did it for selfish motives and murdered innocent people to give yourself power, I pronounce division upon you, you will destroy each other.
So once again, Jotham said, I am not going to avenge my family we're going to let God reveal for the whole world to see what your motive was in doing these deeds.
Now we go on to verse 23 of chapter 9, and we find out the truth of the matter, that by the events that transpire, Abimelech and the men of Shechem, because we're told in verse 23, "Then God sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and the men of Shechem." There's your division right there, God sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and the men Shechem, and the men of Shechem dealt treacherously with Abimelech. That the cruelty done to the three score and ten sons of Jerubbaal might come and their blood be laid upon Abimelech their brother which slew them and upon the men of Shechem which aided him in the killing of his brethren. And the men of Shechem set liers in wait for Abimelech in the top of the mountain and they robbed all that came that way by them, and it was told to Abimelech. And Gaal the son of Ebed came with his brethren and went over to Shechem, and the men of Shechem put their confidence in him.
So we see that the men that accompanied Abimelech to kill Gideon's sons now have given their loyalty to another criminal and are going to fight against Abimelech. Jumping forward now to verse 53, there's battle reigning here, and in verse 53 we read, "And a certain woman cast a piece of millstone upon Abimelech's head and all to break his skull." Then he called hastily unto the young man his armor bearer and said unto him, draw thy sword and slay me that men say not of me a woman slew him, and his young man thrust him through.." and this is how Abimelech died. "And when the men of Israel saw that Abimelech was dead, they departed every man unto his place. Thus God rendered the wickedness of Abimelech which he did unto his father in slaying his seventy brethren."
Verse 57, "And all the evil of the men of Shechem did God render upon their heads and upon them came the curse of Jotham, the son of Jerubbaal." Praise the Lord, now this was the study that the Lord had given me, are there any questions on this study. Okay, the illegitimate son rose up and murdered the legitimate errors to the rulership in Israel, and the one surviving brother pronounced a righteous judgment which in the old, in the King James is called a curse, but what it really is is a righteous judgment upon Abimelech, giving him a chance to escape, if by some chance this righteous judge had made a mistake, pronouncing destruction upon these forces, let God justify them. And we find that Abimelech was guilty, and the men of Shechem were guilty. Now this is the study that the Lord had put me in, and for some reason I wound up taking a nap, I don't know whether it was immediately after studying it, or later in that day, I don't remember, but I had a nightmare, and I will relate the details of that dream to you in a couple of minutes as the Lord leads me. I woke up utterly, the word I used to explain it is frazzled, as if I had my finger in an electric socket, and I think I forgot to tell you this, while I was reading this chapter and getting revelation on it, reading these verses, I felt the Lord telling me that these verses have something to do with the present day conditions in Israel, and the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, and also that have had something to do with the particular preacher that I know whose name I can't mention on this tape.
But as I was studying the verses, I couldn't really relate to either of these two events, see. And after I prayed about the dream, I related the events of this account that I've just shared with you to both situations, now I may not be able to share the account of the preacher, because I really don't want to put that on a tape, but I will tell you that the Lord told me that he was using these Scriptures to bring forth a righteous judgment upon the Palestinians, that the Palestinians are the illegitimate offspring of Abraham, and the Israelites are the legitimate offspring of Abraham, and the Palestinians are seeking to completely destroy Israel out of that same spirit of envy that rose up in Abimelech, and out of the same spirit of envy that caused the Pharisees to crucify Jesus.
So let me tell you the details of the dream. I think it would better if I read it to you. Okay now there are people in this dream that I know, that means this dream could be about the people that I recognize or the people that I recognize could representing someone else. So I will be open to any words that come forth from the members of the congregation. This was the dream, "my daughter Maria, I was on a city street with my daughter Maria, and she was strongly rebuked by a man getting into a car that was parked on the street where we were standing, he seemed to very angry over Maria writing graffiti on the brick wall behind us." Now this may identify Maria whoever she represents as a spiritual juvenile delinquent, and the rebuke as a corrective judgment. So I don't know whether that's for my daughter or for someone else who is named Maria, I don't know, you have to get revelation on a dream like this, but it wasn't bad okay, it was someone that was standing with me, and I usually represent Christ, and a correction was coming forth. Now also recognize that graffiti is art work that's illegally drawn on public property. Usually this is done by talented youngsters who are misdirected. So whoever this Maria represents in this dream, whether it be my daughter or somebody else, it represents a spiritual talented youngster who has not been directing their talent correctly, and at the same time, I who usually represents Christ was standing right there.
So I perceive that to be whoever Maria represented that that person was being called by Christ. And you have to know or you should know that as soon as you're called or at the time that you're called, judgment is falling simultaneously, they always go together. Judgment comes with a call, because you can't do what God is calling you to do, if your sins are not judged, okay, so that's a positive thing, whoever Maria might represent. Maybe it's her, I don't know. Now the next thing, the next scene, I heard a man whisper to someone saying that this person, he is a preacher, now this was my dream, okay, I heard a man whisper to someone saying that this preacher was finished, and that the left side of his brain was crushed and under water. I heard the man saying that the problem went back to the preacher's childhood, then I heard something about what sounded to me like lymphatic something or other and which had something to do with the brain condition. Now I don't know if that's a legitimate medical term, concerning a brain condition or not, but it sounded to me like lymphatic, but of course I could have gotten the word wrong. So the person has a serious brain condition.
Now this could mean the crushing of that man's left side, it doesn't have to mean his physical death, the term finished may not mean physically dead, although he may die to his life as a preacher, at least for now til he rises again in Christ, and the one who came to mind was Ananias, and for those of you who are not familiar with my teaching on Ananias, I do not believe that Ananias physically died. The Ananias who visited Peter in according to the way the King James translation reads, Ananias both Ananias and his wife Sapphira died because they lied to the Holy Ghost. I have a whole different translation on that after looking up every word, and I believe that Ananias died to his old man and became a disciple of Christ. I believe that it was the same Ananias that laid hands on Paul for him to receive his sight, as the Ananias who died to his old man and to his sin nature, in his interaction with the apostle Peter. My first reaction to this aspect was that this preacher was going to die because he has had some health problems and I was really shocked, it was just shocking in the dream you know, but as I thought it over the thought occurred to me that thought which I just read to you that the dream said he was finished okay. Well that could mean anything you know. You have to be very careful when you interpret spiritual things, it could mean he's finished his rebellion against God is finished. It could mean that he's finished as a preacher because in my opinion he's gone off in his teachings. Maybe he's going to have to be finished as a preacher until the Lord could revamp him and get him teaching the right message, you know, I don't know.
But I would go so far as to say for a word like this to come forth, if it means the man that's named, which it probably does, he's finished in so far as his present existence. But we all have to die to self, you know. So I'm going to choose to believe that this is not a physical death, but his rebellion is finished, and he's going to start moving in the path that the Lord called him to years ago, when he deviated from the path. Praise the Lord. Okay. Now two of the people that attend these meetings were in this dream, I don't know that I'll put their name on the tape, but there were two of the people that attend these meetings were in the dream. One of the disciples here was talking while I was calling the meeting to order, and this is very interesting, this whole concept of a meeting was very bazaar, because I don't, I seem to be sitting in a funeral parlor, I seem to be sitting in the lobby of a funeral parlor, and I explain that in the next paragraph down, that's where the asterisk should be, I was calling a meeting to order in what looked like a lobby of a funeral parlor. I could see through a big archway into the next room where there were many candles burning, and it looked to me like either it was a Catholic church or a Catholic funeral. I don't really know whether candles are burned at Catholic funerals or not, but the impression that I got was what you sometimes see in a movie where you go into a Catholic church and you go over to light a candle, and you see all that whole mass of candles burning together, do they have that at Catholic funerals? No, so then it was like a Catholic church but it looked like it was in a funeral parlor, that was what I saw, that whole mass of burning candles, and the impression that I got was that I was in a funeral parlor. And it was in the waiting room of that funeral parlor that overheard the young whispering concerning the events of that preacher. There were a lot of people milling around but the focus was on the whispering man who was bent towards a sitting woman, who I cannot identify, whispering in her ear. Yet two people came to mind, someone who attends meetings here and a young man who calls her frequently. The waiting room may have been the lobby of the funeral parlor.
So here I was calling a meeting to order, in the natural it's bazaar, but that's what was going on. Now there was someone who attends the meetings here who was present while I was calling the meeting to order, and she was just talking away and didn't seem to realize that I was calling the meeting to order. I rebuked her strongly and cruelly, saying, am I interrupting you, I'm sorry if I'm interrupting you, and I rebuked the second person in the dream who also attends meetings here in the same manner, but the first person was the greater offender. She was walking right in front of the table that I was sitting at trying, I was sitting at that table trying to call the meeting to order, and she was talking to the second disciple, and the third person that I didn't recognize, as if I didn't exist, she was totally unaware that I was there trying to call the meeting to order. Now what that says to me off the top of my head is that Christ was present, and he wasn't recognized, and I don't know whether these two brethren that attend these meetings, whether this dream is about them or about somebody else, I honestly don't know. So the last time I called to that lady, she had her back to me, but when I called that last time, she looked back over her shoulder as if seeing me for the first time. Now if that is about you, or whoever it's about, that's a good thing, because I really believe I typified Jesus, in this dream, and you finally heard, you finally heard the call. Whoever this typifies, they finally heard the call. So that's a good word. She looked at me and then continued walking, that's not good, I think she was alarmed when She saw me, she seemed to be going to the ladies room, she was wearing a dress that I did not recognize as this lady said was pink, either short sleeved or sleeveless with big dark flowers, perhaps navy flowers. The back zipper was open about one inch, and the fabric on the right side of the zipper was laying back, the zipper was very prominent, it had big metal teeth, and was inappropriate for a fragile cotton dress. It was more like a zipper you would expect to see in a coat. The dress looked like a dress that I had worn at my sweet sixteen party.
I honestly don't have much revelation on this, I don't understand why, what came to mind with the teeth of that zipper is Netzach, and I think I wrote that up somewhere too, well maybe not. Netzach, one of the Sefirot, Netzach is suppose to be the Sefirot with big teeth, that's constantly trying to consume Hod on the other side so as to bring forth the Christ mind, but I don't really have any deep revelation on it. Let me see what else I have here. I think I may have represented the Lord who is prevailing over all these events. Maria's reconciliation, the man's death, the disciple's response to the voice of the Lord, is that lady wearing my sweet sixteen dress because she will be following in my footsteps, or is she picking up her life where it was arrested at sixteen years old, I don't know. And I have somewhere, oh here it is where I wrote about Netzach. The metal zipper was very prominent and also the part of the dress that flapped back, as of this time I have no revelation on these symbols, the zipper has teeth, if the teeth of the zipper suggest Netzach, I still do not understand the symbolism here. It seems that the material that was flapped back merely emphasizes that the zipper was partially undone. Now I don't, like I told you I don't really have much revelation on that, and yet in the background, I felt that very powerful anointing towards Israel. This is a strange dream, I don't think I made it clear to you.
First of all, the events that I just read off to you should not produce the terror in my spirit that I experienced, and yet that was the whole thing that I wrote up and it wasn't until afterwards, that it just came to me that I really think that the Lord is telling me that he's pronouncing a judgment upon the whole Arab world, the whole Arab world which is risen up and Shechem rose up to destroy and slaughter the sons of Gideon, and that this is the operation of the curse upon the son of the concubine. The curse that came upon the son of the concubine, that the same curse that came upon Abimelech is coming upon the Arab world, and that the Lord is saying to them, let the events that are about to come to pass show to the world whether you are righteous or unrighteous, because you're claiming, you're proclaiming to the whole world that you are the victim and that these are your lands and that you have a right to everything that you're fighting for, you have a right to everything that Israel has, that's what you're proclaiming to the whole world, and all of Europe is behind you, you know. Well let the ensuing events prove whether your motives are righteous or unrighteous. Does anyone not understand what I'm saying? That there are some events that are about to come to pass in the world that will reveal to the world, who is righteous, who is righteous in this conflict in the middle east. And what is about to come to pass is a division amongst the Arab nations, which I am certainly no expert but if you were to ask my opinion at this time, I would say apart from what God's telling me, that would never happen, these Arabs stick like glue, they stick like glue because of the brotherhood of being an Arab, and they stick like glue because they're Muslims. The Christians don't stick together like that. The thought of a chasm in the Arab world to me would be the last thing that I would ever expect.
Now you may recall what the gulf war was about was that Arak was attacking Kuwait and Saudi Arabia was in danger. So there was a chasm in the Arab world at that time, but now Arak and there have been wars between Arak and Iran, vicious wars between Arak and Iran, but today the whole Arab world is united against Israel. Well the living God say, what was sown together is going to come unraveled and chaos will arise in the middle east saith God, even one Arab brother against another Arab brother, yea even one Muslim against another Muslim saith the Lord, they will devour one another and they will destroy one another until the smoke rises across the whole middle east. And Israel will prevail saith the Lord, she will come through the furnace smelling of smoke but not destroyed. And her enemies will be dotting the landscape around her saith the Lord, and the stench will rise in to the heavens.
Praise the Lord, let the will of the Lord be done. The Lord seems to be calling this message the curse of the concubine, which I don't really understand because, to me the curse of the concubine means the curse that the concubine placed upon someone else, but no matter how I try to switch it around, it keeps coming back to the curse of the concubine, so we will leave the name of this message as the curse of the concubine. The curse of the concubine was being directed towards the present day Arab world. That they the Arab world who are seeking to completely destroy Israel, the legitimate heir to that land, to the middle east, because envy, and to the whole promise will turn against their own leader, the original initiator of the transgression, against the legitimate heir. Now initially I thought that this meant a military division in the Arab world, but while writing up this dream, the thought occurred to me that this word could be interpreted as a spiritual betrayal of Islam, which would mean the reconciliation of the Arab world to the Lord Jesus, based upon all that the Lord has taught me to date, I would say that both are true. There's about to appear, to be a great division in the Arab world, which erupt as a military conflict, which will result in the conversion of the Arab world to Christianity.
And of course on this message we heard the prophecy that came forth before I read this paragraph. So we're about to see a supernatural event come to pass in the middle east to put an end to this whole conflict. There will be military conflict, there will be military exertions between the Arab nations, they will all turn against one another, there will be a lot of death and destruction, but the end of the whole thing will be a mass conversion of many many Muslims. I don't know that they're all be converted but many Muslims will be converted to Christianity, and Israel will be saved, Praise the Lord. It's so interesting that there are two aspects to this dream, the national aspect of Israel and the Arabs, and this one man who's a preacher, and you want to put that on the tape what you said, that was a good word, what you said.
COMMENT: Part of this dream where you talk about being in a funeral parlor, and that what it looked like it could be a Catholic funeral parlor or maybe Catholic church with all of those candles, well I got the impression that that meant the Catholic church.
PASTOR VITALE: Well it perhaps is the death of a ministry, I don't know we'll see. But for now I'm choosing to believe, that this preacher is going to die to his old man and that he's going to rise again and serve the Lord Jesus, and I'm going to believe that until the Lord tells me otherwise. So what an interesting combination though, a single preacher and his ministry that had great promise which has not been fulfilled, and the situation in the middle east. Perhaps this preacher has been overtaken by the powers and principalities that sought to destroy him, as Israel, maybe this preacher was surrounded by and attacked just like Israel is being surrounded and attacked.
The Lord's going to deliver both of them at the same time, that would make me very happy. Praise the Lord. Does anyone have anything to say to put on this tape, if not we'll bring it to an end. Okay nobody has anything to say, that was a very powerful prophecy that came to pass, I pray that the Lord should be glorified in all things, and I pray for his great mercy upon not only Israel and the Arab world, but upon the whole world. May the promises of the Scripture come to pass for the whole world in this hour, in the name of Jesus, Amen. Goodnight.
07/29/02rs
