The Spirit who clothes us

Scripture

READ Judges 6:28-35 

But the Spirit of the Lord clothed Gideon, and he sounded the trumpet, and the Abiezrites were called out to follow him.

Judges 6:34

Observe

Gideon is a well known Judge. He's known for his fleece-test and for hiding in a wine press rather than fighting in the battle.

What’s interesting to observe here is the description of how the Holy Spirit came upon Gideon. We’re told that the Spirit ‘clothed’ Gideon resulting in Gideon’s rallying call and appointment to lead the people. The Spirit clothed Gideon. The image of being wrapped in a cloak and of being swamped in a garment comes to mind. Gideon is wrapped in the Spirit of God conveying the sense that the Holy Spirit was all around him and about him. The Spirit of God was like a breastplate of armour to him covering him and equipping him for the task ahead. To be clothed is to be endowed with confidence and power, it is to remove a person’s nakedness or shame. To be clothed is to feel like a different person and to take on a new identity. We’ve all known the feeling of confidence a new item of clothing can give us, and this is certainly how Gideon feels. 

Confident as he is that God has appointed him to lead Gideon sounds a trumpet and summons the people to follow him. Just a few moments earlier in the story people were ready to kill him for destroying their idolatrous artefacts. Now, having been renamed Jerubbaal - aggressor of Baal - he’s ready to fight and die in service of God. This is how the Spirit of God can change a man.

Apply

This is a wonderful description of what it is to have the Holy Spirit with you. Sometimes the Bible describes us being filled with the Spirit, other times receiving the Spirit, still others having the Spirit on us. All of these ideas allow us to articulate different aspects of the Spirit’s activity with us. 

We know what it is to be full to bursting from food or can picture a yacht’s sails full of the wind. We know what it is to receive a gift or to receive good news and the joy it brings. We can picture the Holy Spirit coming on us like a weight, we can picture a burden resting on a person’s shoulders. Here in the example of Gideon we’re given another handle to reach for. The Holy Spirit clothes us. He is given to you freely as a gift, he comes to fill you with fresh faith and courage but he also comes to clothe you with power. He comes to give you a newfound confidence in God that doesn’t shy away from the tasks he calls you to. 

Jesus exhorted his disciples not to be anxious when they stand before rulers and authorities on account of him. ‘Don’t panic’ he said ‘the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.’ 

The Holy Spirit will clothe you for what he has called you to do; don’t shy away or shrink back. In Gideon’s day the Spirit only clothed particular people appointed for particular tasks. Now since Jesus, the Spirit has been given to all disciples and that includes you.

Prayer

Thank you Father for sending your Spirit to strengthen your people and to glorify Jesus. Please let me have the experience of feeling clothed with power and boldness to witness about you and to see your kingdom come in my life and through my life. Amen.