The Gideon Leadership Test
The Gideon test of leadership stretches the kingdom leader by removing people and provision from his arsenal just as he is being asked to face impossible odds against overwhelming enemies.
”You expect me to face an army with a handful of guys armed only with trumpets, clay pots, and forces?” Gideon wonders. “And they will call this bunch, ‘Gideon’s army,’ one day?”
God reduces Gideon’s army to the men with the strength of will to obey and submit to his leadership, strategy for battle, and ridiculous audacity. Few are the leaders I’ve known willing to face down overwhelming opposition with a prophetic strategy. Most of God’s people will wander off to whittle a stick into a wooden cross and sell it at a church fair while warriors wield strategic sound and light accompanied by an angelic army.
The reduction is here! The strategic targeting of Gideon’s 300 identifies those prepared and positioned to obey and submit to God’s orders released through God’s targeted leaders. Thirty thousand would be warriors went home, because God sent them home. They will enter the story line later on, after the initial wave terrorizes the overwhelming opposition with nothing more than the prophetic actions of a few men with the bark on.
I had a revelation of angelic migrations occurring during 2015 that would reassemble as armies where strategic confrontations would occur. These angelic armies respond to targeted leaders prepared and positioned to obey and submit when the strategy of God expressed through Gideon-like leaders seems horribly inadequate.
”Lord of Armies” is His Name! For sure, His angels never hesitate to obey and submit, and they respond to leaders who never hesitate to obey and submit.
Angelic armies await the revealing of God’s children groaning out the birth pains of strategic interventions.
Never assume God is doing nothing when He has already prepared for intervention before you even knew there was a crisis!
Identifying the Army
God taught Gideon a lesson we need to recognize right now: God will identify the people unwilling or unprepared to properly respond to the strategy God intends to have His chosen leaders implement, to defeat an overwhelming enemy.
God is the One sending people home who are not prepared and positioned for what He intends to do next.
Do not be dismayed by the diminished army. Cheer up! It is going to get worse! When the kingdom becomes enamored with what it can do without the King, implementing strategies produced by human marketing, depending upon human machinery, and manipulated by human marketing, God prepares and positions leaders, like Gideon, to implement a battle plan that leaves out everything inconsistent with His strategy.
Eventually, the entire army will come back online. Right now, God is weeding out the poorly prepared and improperly positioned.
I don’t mean He rejects people, of course, because His present actions come from a heart of eternal love. He is protecting people rejecting His process of preparation and positioning. He is sending them home so they can observe the futility of their rebellion, countenance their immaturity, and taste the backwash of their betrayal of His purposes.
God is judging us. He is disciplining true children. He is scourging our backsides. He is identifying our fatal flaws. He is bringing His chicks under His wings.
Meanwhile, back at the battle, Gideon strategically positions prepared warriors to scare the enemy!
Hey! I want to be with Gideon!
