Bread Boy for God

What “clothed with power” really looks like.

“Then the Spirit of the Lord clothed Gideon with power. He blew a ram’s horn as a call to arms, and the men of the clan of Abiezer came to him.” -Judges‬ ‭6‬:‭34‬ ‭

Gideon, the hidden warrior in the wine press, the doubter, the man whose estimation of himself in light of God’s “Hero talk” was: “weak and least”. Gideon the fleece praying guy, the “where’s all the miracles of the past?” man. The idol destroyer who does his work at night because: “…he was afraid of the other members of his father’s household and the people of the town.” (Judges‬ ‭6‬:‭27‬ ). On and on it goes throughout the story with him, he struggles to believe and God keeps sending encouragements to spur him on in his shaky faith and awkward obedience.

Heaven sent prophets, Angelic visitations, personal prophesies, signs and wonders, answers to prayers, surrounding him with believing friends, deliverances and examples of divine love and favor. All this in spite of his long list of very familiar unspiritual, human-focused, very relatable responses, beliefs and actions. Basically he looks like you and me most of the time if we’re honest.

You don’t find a lot of church leadership material on his approach to taking cities for God. His story would be highly edited in the building churches industry. Podcasts would trim his narrative.

But still God got His work done through him. It seems this story is included for anyone who thinks the Lord is only looking for the best, the brightest, the prettiest, most skilled, longest praying types, deepest thinkers, most gifted, best raised and the most competent people.

Gideon is God’s type of “hero”, one that comes to eventually realize that it’s not about how great he is, but how big God is.

Gideon was just a tumbling roll of barley bread tossed by the hands of God. (Judged 7:13).

This tells us a lot about what being clothed with “power” looks like in God’s mind: He uses normal, every day people like you and me.