Revival — Alan Cairns

Revival Begins With Israel’s Cry

Our Bible reading this morning is taken from the book of Judges, chapter 6. The book of Judges, chapter 6. We're going to commence to read at verse 7. Judges, chapter 6, verse 7. And it came to pass, when the children of Israel cried unto the LORD because of the Midianites, that the LORD sent a prophet unto the children of Israel, which said unto them, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, I brought you up from Egypt, and brought you forth out of the house of bondage.

And I delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians, and out of the hand of all that oppressed you, and drove them out from before you, and gave you their land. And I said unto you, I am the LORD your God.

Fear not the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell. But ye have not obeyed my voice. And there came an angel of the LORD, and sat under an oak, which was in Ophrah, that pertained unto Joash the Ebbe Ezraite, and his son Gideon threshed wheat by the winepress to hide it from the Midianites.

And the angel of the LORD appeared unto him, and said unto him, The LORD is with thee, thou mighty man of valor. And Gideon said unto him, O my LORD, if the LORD be with us, why then is all this befallen us?

And where be all his miracles, which our fathers told us of, saying, Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt? But now the LORD hath forsaken us, and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites. And the LORD looked upon him, and said, Go in this thy might, and thou shalt save Israel from the hand of the Midianites.

Have not I sent thee? And he said unto him, O my LORD, wherewith shall I save Israel? Behold, my family is poor in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house. And the LORD said unto him, Surely I will be with thee, and thou shalt smite the Midianites as one man.

And he said unto him, If now I have found grace in thy sight, then show me a sign that thou talkest with me. Depart not hence, I pray thee, until I come unto thee, and bring forth my present, and set it before thee.

And he said, I will carry until thou come again. And Gideon went in, and made ready a kid, and unleavened cakes of an ephah of flour, the flesh he put in a basket, and he put the broth in a pot, and brought it out unto him under the oak, and presented it.

And the angel of God said unto him, Take the flesh and the unleavened cakes, and lay them upon this rock, and pour out the broth. And he did so. Then the angel of the LORD put forth the end of the staff that was in his hand, and touched the flesh and the unleavened cakes.

And there rose up fire out of the rock, and consumed the flesh and the unleavened cakes. Then the angel of the LORD departed out of his sight. And when Gideon perceived that he was an angel of the LORD, Gideon said, Alas, O LORD God, for because I have seen an angel of the LORD face to face.

And the LORD said unto him, Peace be unto thee, fear not, thou shalt not die. Then Gideon built an altar there unto the LORD, and called it Jehovah Shalom. Unto this day it is yet an offer of the Abiezrites.

And it came to pass the same night that the LORD said unto him, Take thy father's young bullock, even the second bullock of seven years old, and throw down the altar of Baal that thy father hath, and cut down the grove that is by it.

And build an altar unto the LORD thy God upon the top of this rock in the ordered place, and take the second bullock, and offer a burnt sacrifice with the wood of the 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. And when the men of the city arose early in the morning, and, 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, they said one to another, Who hath done this thing?

And when they inquired and asked, they said, Gideon the son of Joash hath done this thing. Then the men of the city said unto Joash, Bring out thy son, that he may die, because he hath cast down the altar of Baal, and because he hath cut down the grove that was by it.

And Joash said unto all that stood against him, Will ye plead for Baal? Will ye see of him? He that will plead for him, let him be put to death while it is yet morning. If he be a god, let him plead for himself, because one hath cast down his altar.

Therefore on that day he called him Jerubeel, saying, Let Baal plead against him, because he hath thrown down his altar. Then all the Midianites and the Amalekites and the children of the east were gathered together, and went over and pitched in the valley of Jezreel.

But the Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon, and he blew a trumpet, and Abiezer was gathered after him. And he sent messengers throughout all Manasseh, who also was gathered after him. And he sent messengers unto Asher, and unto Zebulun, and unto Naphtali, and they came to meet them.

Revival Requires Honest Spiritual Assessment

And the Lord will add his own blessing to this fairly lengthy portion from his own precious Word for his namesake. We have turned to this passage of Scripture this morning, because it not only contains an interesting history, it also lays before us a very clear and graphic Bible study in the subject of scriptural and spiritual revival.

I thought that this would be a very good passage to turn to for our last Sabbath day with you here, because as we have met for prayer week by week in this church, and as I have been around many of the homes and talking to many of the people here, I find that there is an interest in this subject of revival.

We have seen something of God's blessing, and for that we praise Him. But we do not fool ourselves. We have not yet seen revival. Yes, we have been taken a little further along the pathway of blessing, but we are not in revival.

One of the most foolish things a person or a church can do is to kid themselves that they are actually on a higher plane spiritually than they really are. In that way, they become self-satisfied, and they miss the very things which the Lord has for them.

Now, as we turn to this passage, there will be, and I had better give you this at the beginning in case, as very often happens, I will not get anywhere near through the message. We have before us a simple outline that starts right at the beginning.

Now, you say, that is a trite thing to say. Where else would it start? Well, so many preachers, when they get to talking about revival, they do not start at the beginning. They start anywhere else but at the beginning.

But this passage starts right at the beginning. It takes you through the history of a people who are far away from revival, brings you step by step through their experience until they are actually in the experience of God's revival blessing.

Now, as I say, I will give you the outline so that you can study it through at your leisure after I have gone on to other pastors. We started at verse 7 of chapter 6, and from verse 7 through to verse 11, you will find the indications of revival, the indications of revival dealing with God's ordained signs.

And then from verse 11 right through, you will find the instrument in revival, and there the subject is God's ordained servant. You have a character study in the character of this man, Gideon. And then finally, right at the end of our Bible reading, from verse 25 through to the end of our reading, and indeed had we time right through the following chapters, you have God's ordained start, the institution of revival, how God actually set it in motion.

So we have the indications of revival, God's ordained signs of revival. We have the instrument in revival, God's ordained servant in the revival. And finally, the institution of revival, God's ordained start of revival.

Now we are going to look at those things as the Lord enables us. First of all, the indications, the signs which the Lord gave. You will notice verse 7, It came to pass when the children of Israel cried unto the Lord because of the Midianites.

The first sign that revival was on the way was given when yet the oppression of the enemy was very strong. When the powers of darkness were ranging throughout the land, when the work of God was at an all-time low.

And then there came the first indication of revival. What was it? It was simply among the people of God, a feeling of their need and a getting down to earnest prayer. They were not now merely interested in going through the forms.

They were not now merely interested in saying the right words in prayer, but they were a people prostrated before God with broken hearts and yearning spirits and they are crying, Lord, we have lost the power and the blessing of God and we have come unto the dominion and the oppression of the enemy.

And while the work of God languishes, the cause of Satan flourishes in the land. And they began to cry and to plead for an intervention of God. That was the very first indication of a stirring of the Lord in the midst.

And let me say this to you, that that is always the first indication of revival. And any process of church building or blessing, in quotes, is unscriptural unless it starts there. My friend, unless we see our need, unless we see the awful spiritual declension and apostasy of the day in which we are living, unless we feel, as so many Christians do, unless we feel deliberately to come to terms and to get used to the awful spiritual apathy and coldness of the day, and unless then we get down to business with God, there will never be a stirring of God in the midst.

It starts with a people on their faces before God. That is where it commences. My friend, as I leave this congregation, I can give you no better advice and I can leave with you no stronger plea than that you be a people of prayer, a people who will, as did the early apostles, Renax chapter 6, give themselves to prayer and to the Word of God.

And as you go to prayer, crying out to God, you are dealing with a God who answers prayer. That is the very first indication of a stirring of revival. But you will notice how God answered the prayer. The second indication of revival, verse 7 through to verse 10, was faithful preaching.

Faithful Preaching as God’s Answer to Prayer

Now, I want you to watch this carefully. Verse 7, It came to pass when the children of Israel cried unto the Lord because of the Midianites, that the Lord sent a prophet. That is how God answered prayer.

The people were asking that God would send a military commander. Now, he had to come and he was coming later. The people were asking that God break the heavens and come down with miraculous power that would consume the enemy.

Now, God was going to do that. That would come later. But one thing they were not expecting was the very thing which the Lord gave them. They prayed, Lord, deliver us from the Midianites. And God immediately sent a preacher.

And again, let me emphasize it, that is how God works. And that is how God indicates that revival is on the way. For revival is indicated not merely by faithful praying and earnest, strong crying, but by faithful preaching.

And any church building program that is not built solidly upon the exposition of the Word of God, preaching that deals with sin, preaching that calls for repentance of sin, preaching which humbles the hearts of proud men, and preaching which brings people to repentance, that movement is not of God.

Because when God answers a prayer for revival, He sends a preacher. And what is more, I think this prophet was a free Presbyterian. For he certainly talked like one anyway. An uncompromising preacher.

He did not come to beat about the bush. He did not come to tickle the ears of the hearers that God gave him. He did not come on a quest for popularity. He did not come to build up his own personality and his own reputation among the people.

He came to deliver his soul of a message, whether they would hear or whether they would forbear. My friend, when Greenville gets preaching in the power of the Holy Ghost, and with the anointing of God's blessing, preaching that is straight up and down the line, preaching that sticks to the book, whoever likes it or whoever does not like it, then you have an indication that though the world may hit you and scorn you, and the church establishment may turn their back upon you, yet God is for you because this is an indication of revival.

The Lord’s Presence and the Opening of Heaven

Then you will see the third thing. Following the preaching, verse 11, is the heavens opened. Now, that is a tremendous verse. There came an angel of the Lord. I do not want to get off the track, but if you read the passage carefully, you will see that the angel of the Lord in this passage, as he is in so many passages, is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ.

This is what is called in theology a theophany, an appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ prior to His actual incarnation. You will see that in verse 14, it is still speaking of the angel. It says, The Lord looked on him and said.

Jehovah looked on him and said. So, the angel was none other than the Lord Jesus Himself. The heavens were opened and the Lord came down. I want to tell you, that is revival. That is revival. Isaiah in chapter 64 was praying.

It is a wonderful prayer. I often pray it. I would commend it to you, not merely as a matter of words, but to get down with this book open before you and pour out your soul and make every word of those opening verses of Isaiah 64, the petition of your heart.

Oh, that thou wouldst rend the heavens, that thou wouldst come down, that the mountains might flow down at thy presence. We have mountains of opposition about us today. We have mountains of worldly power.

We have mountains of apostasy. We have mountains of immorality. We have mountains of every kind of social evil and iniquity that it is possible to imagine. We would need to cry, Oh, that thou wouldst rend the heavens, the heavens which have become like brass, heavens which are shut against us.

People pray and they get no answers. Churches have prayer meetings and they get no response. The heavens are like brass. There is no shower of blessing from glory. Oh, we would need to pray that thou wouldst rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains might flow down at thy presence, as when the melting fire burneth.

Oh, the Lord can come with force, with fury, with power, just as He needs to come. And He will come in answer to prayer and following the faithful preaching of the Word of God. Those are the indications of revival.

I think that we can take encouragement then in the church. The Lord has been in our midst. We have had times of prayer when souls have been led to pour out their very deepest desires to the Lord. When hearts have been broken, we have a preaching which the Lord has come and blessed, and we have seen the Lord's presence in a marked manner in the midst.

So there are indications, there are ordained signs of the movings of God in the midst. Now we move on to the instrument in revival, God's ordained servant. I want you to look at the person involved here.

Gideon as Worker and Warrior

His name is Gideon. Now, Gideon, you will see from verse 11 and verse 12, was both a worker and a warrior. You will see that in verse 11. He threshed wheat by the winepress to hide it from the Midianites.

He was a worker. Verse 12, the Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valor. He was a warrior. And those two things go together. And the Lord had a man who was a worker and a warrior, because in revival you need to be both.

There is a place for working and a place for warring. So many people, and they are happy with the work, but they do not want the warfare. There are other people, must have a wee bit of the Irish in them, and they are happy to have the warfare, but they do not want the work.

The two things go together, and you cannot possibly be in revival having one without the other. Now, the word Gideon means a feller, one who fells or hews down. And it was an apt name for the man that God was calling to the work and warfare of the cause of Jehovah in Israel at that time.

He was called, and you will see the Lord put him to this very quickly, to hew down the altar of Beal, to hew down the grove where the idol worship of Beal was carried on. And then he was called to build up the altar of the Lord.

You see, that is the way that God presents this work of revival. Jeremiah was sent to pull down and to destroy and then to build. Gideon was sent out as one who would hew down and then build up. This is what the Lord sends His people out to do.

A preacher who is not against anything, a preacher who does not have what the New Evangelicals mockingly describe as a negative ministry, has no ministry at all. If I am not against anything, I cannot be for anything.

If I am for Christ, I am against Antichrist. If I am for the Bible, I am against the liberals, and I am against the modernists, and I am against every pervader of the Word of God's truth. There is no way a man can be faithful to God without having a double side to his ministry, a pulling down and a building up.

And that is exactly what Gideon was called to do. Now, you will notice the preparation of this man, Gideon. His call is given to us in some detail. You will notice first the place of his call. I haven't time to follow this through in any great detail, but it did interest me to notice that it was in Ophrah under an oak.

Now, there are many laws of Bible interpretation, many things which help you to understand the Bible as you are studying it. I am not going to try to go into them this morning, but there is one which Dr. Peasley is very, very fond of, and for a while he was really making sure that everybody who went to his church got this and learned it and put it into practice.

And it is the law of what one writer calls the first mention. You go back to the first time a word or a phrase occurs in Scripture and see its significance there, and normally that sets the tone right throughout the Bible.

It is a wonderful thing to realize because it lets you know that the Lord has planned this Bible and has planned it right down to the use of the words and where they first occur and how they first occur.

Total Consecration Under the Oak

Now, in Genesis 35, you have the first occurrence of the word oak. Now, watch it very carefully. Genesis 35, let's just quickly start at verse 1. God said unto Jacob, Arise, and go up to Bethel, and dwell there.

Make there an altar unto God that appeared unto thee when thou fleddest from the face of Esau thy brother. Then Jacob said unto his household and to all that were with him, Put away the strange gods that are among you, be clean, and change your garments, and let us arise, and go up to Bethel.

And I will make there an altar unto God, who answered me in the day of my distress, and was with me in the way which I went. And they gave unto Jacob all the strange gods that were in their hand, and all their earrings which were in their ears.

And Jacob hid them under the oak, which was by Shechem. That's the very first mention of the word in the Old Testament Scriptures. And isn't it interesting that under the oak is the place of cleansing?

It's the place of consecration. It's the place where they give up everything to the Lord. And that is the significance of the oak. Indeed, if you read on, I haven't time to follow it through. As I said, you will find that under the oak also was the place where Jacob's old nurse died, and she was buried.

In other words, all that nourished the old flesh was put to death and buried under the oak. And that's all there in the significance of the word and the phrase. Now we come to Judges chapter 6. Where was Gideon?

He was under the oak. He was in the place of total consecration. He was in the place where all that nourished the old carnal man was put to death and was buried. And he had given up all he had and all he was to the Lord Jesus Christ.

And it's significant that when Gideon got under the oak, there the Lord came to him, and there the Lord called him into full-time service and into a work that was to bring revival to his people. I want to tell you this morning that that's the kind of man and woman the Lord is looking for in this church.

Looking for people who are not playing with the idols of this world. People who are saying, the dearest idol I have known, whate 'er that idol be, help me to tear it from thy throne and worship only thee.

My friends, you may be saved this morning, but I want to tell you, unless the Lord has your whole heart and your whole being and everything you are and own, then you are never going to be of any use to the Lord.

The Lord does not take a genius. The Lord does not take a millionaire. The Lord does not take a person of great talents and use one-tenth of those abilities and say, now, I'm going to make great inroads into the kingdom of Satan and I'm going to overthrow the devil through the use of one-tenth of this great man's talents, time, money, or whatever it is.

God doesn't do that. But the Lord will take the person, whether he's rich or poor, great or small, talented or untalented. He'll take the person who gives everything. It may be just like the poor widow coming with her two knights.

Your life might be just like two knights. You may have no great education. You may have no great abilities in the eyes of the world. You may not have much money to give to the Lord, but my friend, whatever you are and have, you bring it and you say, Lord, take everything.

I'm not giving you part of my heart. I'm giving you all of my heart. I'm not giving you part of my home. I'm giving you all of my home. And I want to tell you, when you give the Lord all you are and have, the Lord will take all you are and have and He will use it.

Grace Makes Ordinary People Useful to God

That's what He did with Gideon. You will notice the grace of this man's call. He was the fifth judge. There is a significance to Scripture numbers. And five in Scripture is usually connected with the thought of grace.

It was grace that made Gideon all he was. You will notice what God said to him in verse 12, The Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valor. Now, just think of that. The most courageous thing that Gideon had ever done was to thresh wheat.

He had never had a sword in his hand. He had never been to battle. He had never drawn a drop of blood. He had never even blown in the face of the enemy. He had only threshed wheat. And yet the Lord comes and says, You are a mighty man of valor.

Because you see, when the Lord saves a man and calls a man to serve Him, the Lord doesn't look at that man as the world looks at him. The Lord looks at him as grace can make him. The Lord looks at you this morning.

Thank God He doesn't look at you as the world looks. The world looks at you and says, Oh, there's a bigot. There's an old-fashioned Bible-thumping halfwit. Well, let the world say what they want to say.

My friend, the Lord looks at you today and He's saying, Just give me that life. Just give it to me. Just lay all you are and all you have in the palm of God's hand and say, Lord, I'm here to serve you with all my being.

And the Lord says, I'll make you something that the world has never dreamed of. I can use you. A young person this morning, the Lord can take you and use you. He's looking for young men and young women.

I find it a tragedy that so many young Christians are drifting through life without the slightest bit of purpose. They don't know what they're doing with their lives. They're planning this and changing it and planning the other thing and changing it.

They're just being knocked from pillar to post. They have no idea as to what's happening in their lives. The best thing you can do as a young Christian this morning is to get right down before the Lord and say, Lord, here's my life.

There it is. I want to tell you, be careful when you do that. Just be very careful when you do that because the Lord will take you at your word. I remember when I did that. And I said, Lord, here I am.

I'm willing to sell out to God. In two years, the Lord had me in studying for the ministry. And I told you before, I never had any great desire to be a preacher. I never thought I could be a preacher.

I certainly wanted to serve the Lord, but I never saw myself as a minister. But the Lord put His hand and said, Out you go. I have known people that said, Lord, here's my life. The Lord has just taken them.

And He's made them mighty in the work of God. Dr. Paisley was only a young man in his teens. His father was a great preacher. His mother also was a tremendous soul winner. But he had always wanted to be a farmer.

In those days, they followed the plow. They didn't sit in a tractor with a plow following them. They followed the plow. There he was. And he was, I forget whether he was plowing or harrowing. I think it was harrowing, actually.

And the Lord dealt with him. Just a teenager. Big country boy from a town in Balamina, the heart of Northampton. The Lord put His hand on him and called him to preach. You'll not believe this, but when he preached his first sermon, one Baptist pastor who was in the meeting said to old J. Kyle Paisley, he said, Brother Paisley, you'll never make a preacher of that fellow.

You'll never make a preacher out of him. First sermon, I think, lasted about 10 minutes. It nearly killed him. Now, it nearly kills him to stay under an hour and 10 minutes. But the thing is this. The Lord had put His hand in that young life.

And the Lord had said, I want you. The Lord took him and fashioned him until there's not a man in the whole of Europe today. And I say that very carefully. There's not a man in the whole of Europe that has seen done for God what that man has seen.

Not that the man is anything, but that God takes a Gideon and by grace fills him with the Holy Spirit. And really uses him. And notice Gideon's concern when he was called. Look at verse 13. O my Lord, if the Lord be with us, why then is all this befallen us?

And where be all His miracles which our fathers told us of? That reminds me of the 44th Psalm. And it's a good prayer for the people of God to pray. Psalm 44, we have heard with our ears, O God, our fathers have told us what work Thou didst in their days, in the times of old.

This to me is a tragedy as it was to Gideon, as it was to the psalmist. You just stop and think of it. All the blessing, all the revival that this country has ever seen, it's in the past. The only thing you know about revival is what you read about it.

What somebody else tells you about it. All I know about revival is what my father told me. He saw and he heard in the days of W .P. Nicholson preaching in Belfast when riots were turned into revival, when thousands of shipyard workers bent on a campaign of destruction, turned like a tidal wheel, and went to hear the preaching of the Gospel, and were saved in countless thousands.

But I have never seen that. Oh, we have seen blessing. We have seen people saved. We have seen churches built. We have seen apostasy stem to a degree. We have seen some blessing. But we have never seen that kind of revival.

We have heard with our ears, and surely it ought to concern us. Let me say this to you, my friend, don't let us ever settle for less than God's best. And as a church, let us not measure ourselves by ourselves.

Let me explain that. Let's not say, we never saw anybody saved. Now we are seeing one or two saved. Boys, we are in revival. Let's not say, we used to have 100 people coming. Now we have 150 people coming.

Man, we are in revival. Let's not even measure ourselves by other churches. And say, well, now they have reached this level. Oh, aren't we so good? We are one step above them. That's not the way you go about it.

My friend, measure yourself by the Word of God, and you will find that in this nation, and this is a vast nation with big churches, with very successful preachers, but still I am going to launch out and say it anyway, in this nation, there is not a spot where there is revival.

There is not a square inch of America today. Not a square inch of Britain where there is old time Pentecostal revival. Oh, you've got many a counterfeit. But there is not the fullness of power. Oh yes, we do thank God for the blessings.

I thank God for the churches in this vast country that are winning souls and building up Christians and standing against apostasy. I'm not knocking them. I thank God for them. But nonetheless, let's measure our experience by the Word of God.

And we have got to say with Gideon, Lord, where are all the miracles? Where are the demonstrations of power? Where are the old time blessings where men and women just hearing a word of Gospel were smitten with such conviction that they were trembling lest they would drop into hell?

Where is that kind of power? We've got to cry to the Lord for that, my friend. Let's not settle for anything short of it. That's our concern. When you get concerned, you'll get a commission. Verse 14, Go.

Revival’s Commission, Power, and Obedience

I've only time just to say what the Lord said to him. Go. That's his activity. You'll never get revival sitting back theorizing. There are so many people and they say, now we need revival. What will we do?

We'll call a committee. And we'll get a committee together. And we'll all sit down and we'll talk. My friend, it's the greatest lot of rubbish that the devil ever foisted on the church of Christ. Revival doesn't come through committee meetings.

Revival doesn't come through rubbing our chins together and saying, we're going to have all sorts of wise schemes. Revival isn't worked up from the flesh like that. No, my friend, you get a commission.

Go. There's a spiritual activity involved. And then there is the ability in this thy might. Oh, how do we get revival? My friend, it's like the new birth. It's a miracle. It's the miracle of the Spirit's power.

We need the infilling of the Spirit of God. And we need God's people therefore day and daily. Commence each day with the prayer, Lord, fill me with Thy Spirit. That's what we need. Now nothing short of that's going to do.

You can't buy revival. You can't organize revival. No way you can get it unless the Lord breaks the heavens and comes down and fills us with His Spirit. There's going to be no revival. In this thy might is the ability.

Then once you get full of the Holy Ghost, you have the assurance, thou shalt see of Israel. Why wouldn't that be a tremendous word for this church? You shall see of Greenville. You shall see of South Carolina.

You shall see of the United States. The Lord could do that, you know. Thou shalt. And then the authority. Have not I sent thee? That's the sweetest thing of all. Gideon could face the devil and all the hordes of hell and say, the Lord has sent me.

Then the Lord gave him this great confirmation. Verse 15 -24. Verse 15, Gideon's poverty is confirmed. Verse 16, God's promise was confirmed. But verse 17 -24, God's power was confirmed to Gideon. The token of God's power was fire.

It always is. Elijah was the prophet of fire. On the day of Pentecost, the Lord sent tongues of living fire. John the Baptist promised that the Lord Jesus Christ would baptize with fire. And with the Holy Ghost.

The hymn writer said, it's fire we need. For fire we plead. Lord, send the fire. My, let's make it our petition today. The token of God's power is fire. The time that this token was given is interesting.

You'll find verse 21, then. When? Well, when Gideon had offered up the sacrifice. You see, the power of the Holy Ghost is given us on the ground of the blood of Christ. On the ground of Calvary. But then again, the power of the fire was given.

The time of the token was when Gideon continued to wait before the Lord. And then again, when Gideon fully obeyed the Lord. Now, these all have New Testament counterparts. When is the Holy Ghost given in fullness?