About Gideon's Trumpet
Introduction
This web site has a theme based on the Biblical account of Gideon in the book of Judges. It is only a tool used to hopefully reach out through the Internet with a word in season which I believe that God has ordained for me to preach. The Bible tells us that the life of a Christian should basically be one of being filled and sent out to reproduce other Christians. He gave us five offices or faculties of ministry – apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers. These faculties were not given for people just to come and sit in front of to hear someone speak. He has designed it so that the officers would pour out to feed the flock and the flock would then go out to reproduce more sheep. He says in Ephesians 4 that the ministry is for the maturing of the saints, so that the ministers (saints) can then also do the work of the ministry in order that the body of Christ may be edified and built up into the fullness of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is the duty of every born again Christian to do the work of the ministry. At a minimal, I must preach the gospel. Be warned, I am not a theologian. I don’t have degree in seminary or a doctorate. I never even went to college. But I know God has called me. It is my deepest desire to see the torment, enslavement and desctruction being inflicted upon humanity by a satanic kingdom be destroyed by the brightness of the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. This longing is coupled with the longing for the unity of the Body Christ, coming together in totality of spirit and truth in one accord.
How can two walk together unless they be agreed?
Amos 3:3
Faith Statement
It is my belief that Jesus Christ is the only begotten Son of God who was born of a virgin, lived a sinless life, was crucified for the sins of the whole world and resurrected from the dead to justify those who receive Him as Savior by faith...In one God who is three persons, Father, Son and Holy Ghost. We believe these three persons are one united in purpose, plan and pursuit...
That God the Father is the patriarchal head of the Godhead, Jesus as the Word is the obedient Son and the Holy Spirit is the omniscient, omnipresent comforter and revealer of Truth...
I believe in the universal Church Body of Christ which is made up of sanctified, cleansed, regenerated, believers who worship God in Spirit and in Truth...
That the Bible is the revelation of God to man given to instruct, guide and transform the mind of man so that he can come into covenant with God as a Father and obey Him...
That the same bodily Jesus of Nazareth that was murdered, was buried, resurrected and ascended will return soon to receive His regenerated body of believers to make them His bride and rule and reign on Earth...
That God will judge the righteous and the unrighteous, rewarding every person based on the deeds they perform in their mortal bodies...
In eternal salvation for the righteous and eternal damnation for the unrighteous sinners.
Testimony
I identify myself not for attention or glorification, but to state for the record that I am responsible for the contents of this site and I stand by it – to the death if need be. My name is Tom Gaughan. I pronounce my last name (gaw-gan). I have heard numerous pronunciations, some of which are (gone, gaw-han, gow-an and gaw-gan). My parents divorced when I was about 13 and my sister and I from that point on, lived with my father. As this is a traumatic experience for any child it was no different for me, even though at the time I didn’t really seem to be affected or bothered by it. I don't believe that is ever the case for a child. I know this, a door was opened up by Satan to steal, kill and destroy and I walked in. Soon I was smoking cigarettes which evolved into drinking alcohol which then led to heavy marijuana use. By the time I was about to graduate from high school I was a wreck and was smoking pot, hash, snorting cocaine and dropping LSD. I had absolutely no desire to be in school but by God’s grace I passed and received a diploma. Soon after I inherited a very good paying blue collar job with Eastern Airlines and “life was good”. I had money and was able to just live life doing whatever I wanted, which was mostly partying and traveling.
My father died of cancer in 1996 and I was shocked. Although I knew he had battled throat cancer a few years before and seemingly had gotten over it, I did not realize that it never really went away and was slowly eating him away. Since we were 500 miles apart he didn’t really want me to know how bad he was. Maybe he thought he would be alright, I don’t know. I hadn’t seen him for a about a year and then all of a sudden he was gone. My mother, after having left our family, led a tumultuous life due to bitterness, rejection, anger etc. and our relationship was similar. Having nobody, she moved close by my family around 1999 having a desire to have some sort of family environment. I wasn’t exactly cordial to her and I was barely tolerant of her presence. In 2000 she discovered that she had ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease). As I was the closest relative to her, it became my responsibility to tend to her. I did this very begrudgingly. Selfishness is a very ugly thing. It is really a pathetic site to be angry at someone who is basically helpless but that was me. She began to lose use of her fingers and hands and within 6 months had to move to a convalescent home where she basically became paralyzed from the neck down. ALS does not affect the mind so she was alert and she was taking it pretty well. I hope she called on Jesus to save her. Her attitude over the last few months of her life was dramatically changed for the positive so maybe she did, I don’t really know for sure though.
I do know this, when she died that’s when the Lord became real in my life. She died 3 days after 9/11. That night, I was there sitting by her bed, knowing that she would not be here very long. I can remember sitting there with the TV on showing the twin towers still smoldering and my mother laying there near death. The Lord has a way of getting your attention. As I sat there with my hand touching her I remember saying to her “He’ll take you”. It started occurring to me – what about me? Would he take me? Who am I to tell her that “He’ll take you”, what do I know about Him? That’s when I really came to a point of heartfelt forgiveness. I stood there as I heard her last breath come out and I asked the Lord to help me.
At that point I started going to church. I remember that following Sunday right after 9/11, going to church where my wife had been taking our children and the place was packed with people. I was in a state of emotional shock. Some of it had to do with why the other people were there (9/11) but for me there was more to it than that. A short time later, on the night of November 11th, 2001, I was hiding in the back yard chain smoking a few cigarettes when I received the Holy Ghost and He illuminated Jesus Christ to me. That’s when He showed me that the only way to God was through acceptance of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. I asked Jesus to heal me and take these nasty cigarettes from me. I woke the next day, which is my birthday, delivered of the demonic stronghold of nicotine and have never even thought about smoking again. It is my continual prayer to be delivered from the curse of cancer (from my father and his mother) and for healing the effects of drugs, pornography, fornication and participating in an abortion.
Of course, that is not the end of the matter – not that I’m “there” now, but over the course of the next few months there was just still something missing. I enjoyed going to church, I felt relieved and free but something was missing. More than anything I enjoyed the music in the church and was joyfully praising the Lord, but I needed something more from the message. The church we were in had around 2,000 members and we knew a lot of people there from the area that we live. I was surprised that some of these people went to church, because for some reason I knew the lives they led didn’t coincide with the conviction that I had to change my ways. At the time, I was still somewhat caught up in politics and now that I had become a born-again Christian, I was interested in a radio talk show on politics called Unravelling the New World Order. One day they were at some kind of Christian Broadcasters Convention and they were interviewing a man named Gary Price about a book he had written called The Jesus Cult. In the short time that I heard him speak, I knew that everything that he was saying was absolutely true. He was talking about how Christians for the most part are living a deceived life and that the church that we all see has essentially been taken over and controlled by Satan. Upon further examination of the book The Jesus Cult and more importantly, upon further examination of the Bible, I have discovered that the Jesus of the Bible is NOT the same Jesus that the world sees as put forth by modern day mainstream Christianity. Again, God’s grace has been extended to me in that the ministry that Pastor Price shepherds is located in Atlanta, where I live. I began thinking that I had been given a golden opporutnity on a silver platter. The Lord later showed this to me in His Word in Proverbs 25:11.
Calling
I believe that the Lord confirmed to me something last year that I had speculated but could not really be sure of. Around 2004 I was watching a movie about the prophet Jeremiah. Somehow it was being told to me that I was related to Jeremiah as Jeremiah's father was telling him of his priestly lineage as a Cohen. Every now and then I would ponder this and ask the Lord “what is this…I understand that all humans are related but is there really something more specific about Jeremiah?”. In the summer of 2006 I took my family on a vacation to Florida and one night I was watching this movie again and there is a scene where young Jeremiah is going to see his first temple sacrifice and his father was telling him about his family history being of the lineage of Cohen’s. This is when the Lord showed me that I was off this same linage, specifically the Cohen’s. I soon went back to some family heritage stuff I found a few years back when I was researching my family history and praying against bloodline curses. In the material that I had was something about my family name that I didn’t take notice of. Here’s what I saw starting with the family crest:
The name Gavaghan in Ireland is derived from the native Gaelic O'Gaibhtheachain Sept (clan). This clan was located in County Mayo in the West of the country. Gavaghan is found in Mayo and Roscommon. There are a number of variants including Gaughan, Gaugan, Guihen, O'Gaughan and Gahan.
-The Name- |
-Has been modernized as- |
O'Gaibhtheachain |
Gaughan, Gahan |
I believe that the Lord has shown me that the derivative of my last name (Gahan) corresponds to a name used in the Old Testament. Here are the Strong’s Corcordance Number for the words kahan and kohen.
3547
kahan
kaw-han'
a primitive root, apparently meaning to mediate in religious services; but used only as denominative from 'kohen' (3548); to officiate as a priest; figuratively, to put on regalia:--deck, be (do the office of a, execute the, minister in the) priest('s office).
3548
kohen
ko-hane'
active participle of 'kahan' (3547); literally, one officiating, a priest; also (by courtesy) an acting priest (although a layman):--chief ruler, X own, priest, prince, principal officer.
It makes sense that as the Israelite tribes were scattered abroad thousands of years ago that their lineage can be found in many today all around the world.
Descendants of kohanim often bear surnames that reflect their genealogy, often corrupted by translation or transliteration into other languages, as exemplified below (not a complete list).
Jesus says that “many are called, but few are chosen” (Matthew 22:14). It is a terrifying thing to ponder that many will actually forsake their calling and not enter into the promises bestowed upon them by our Lord. I know that others may have more dramatic testimonies and have and will overcome even greater and more devastating obstacles in a life of sin than I have. But according to Revelation 12:11, we overcome Satan by the blood of the lamb and by the word of our testimony and by surrendering our lives unto death. Every born again believer in Jesus Christ has a testimony. I pray that millions of testimonies to the Lord are proclaimed very soon.
May the peace of our Lord Jesus Christ enrich you all as we long for His appearing.
Contact
Our home ministry is Omega Church and Ministries located in Atlanta Georgia.
If you would like to directly contact me you can email me at: tom@gideonstrumpet.org