When God Manifests His Presence

When God called Gideon He was not depending on what He was, rather what He knew He could make of him! God called Gideon a mighty man of valor not because of who he was, but because of who he would become. God does not see you as you are. He sees you as He can make you, what you will become when you are empowered by His divine presence.

God always manifests His presence for a purpose. Immediately after you have such an experience with God, you are usually called upon to do something that will take supernatural courage, wisdom, and insight. This is exactly what happened to Gideon.

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 Abi-ezer 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 up to meet them. (Judges 6:33-35)

Immediately after God’s presence came upon Gideon, a great army came against Israel. Instead of retreating in fear, when the presence of the Lord came upon Gideon, he blew the trumpet and called all of Israel to battle. When God’s presence is upon your life, you not only will be able to stand against the enemy, you will be able to motivate and mobilize others to fight as well.

When the army was amassed, Gideon said to God…

“If thou wilt save Israel by mine hand, as thou hast said, Behold, I will put a fleece of wool in the floor; and if the dew be on the fleece only, and it be dry upon all the earth beside, then shall I know that thou wilt save Israel by mine hand, as thou hast said.” And it was so: for he rose up early on the morrow, and thrust the fleece together, and wringed the dew out of the fleece, a bowl full of water.

And Gideon said unto God, “Let not thine anger be hot against me, and I will speak but this once: let me prove, I pray thee, but this once with the fleece; let it now be dry only upon the fleece, and upon all the ground let there be dew.” And God did so that night: for it was dry upon the fleece only, and there was dew on all the ground. (Judges 6:36-40)

This passage recounts the story of the famous fleece Gideon set out to make sure he had heard from God. We must keep in mind that Gideon was not just convincing himself of God’s promise that His presence would go with them, he was also convincing the men of Israel who had gathered together for battle. They wanted to be assured of God’s presence before they advanced into enemy territory.