July 7

The Spirit Of The Lord Came Upon Gideon

But Joash replied to the hostile crowd around him, Are you going to plead Baal’s cause? Are you trying to save him? Whoever fights for him shall be put to death by morning! If Baal really is a god, he can defend himself when someone breaks down his altar. So that day they called Gideon “Jerub-Baal,” saying, Let Baal contend with him, because he broke down Baal’s altar.

Now all the Midianites, Amalekites and other eastern peoples joined forces and crossed over the Jordan and camped in the Valley of Jezreel. Then the Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon, and he blew a trumpet, summoning the Abiezrites to follow him.

Judges 6:31-34    

Samuel Chadwick was one of England’s great Methodist preachers. His success, he was convinced, was due to his dependence on the Holy Spirit. Early in his ministry, when he was serving as a lay evangelist, he preached fifteen sermons with no spiritual response from the people. They were unmoved by what he said.

Was it them, or was it him? Samuel concluded that the problem lay with him. “He realized that God must be in control of everything. Then came surrender which brought him a realization of Christ’s full salvation, a fresh vision of the Almighty, and a heart-felt yearning to see people saved. By the next day God had given him the joy of leading seven people to Christ. Peace, joy, and power were now his through the Spirit.”

This prompted Chadwick to seek the Spirit’s power even more. He was persuaded that the Holy Spirit was the key to any spiritual victories—a conviction that was reinforced one day when he was reading from the book of Judges about Gideon’s power from above.

It was the Spirit of the Lord that came upon him, and on further examination of the marginal notes, Chadwick learned that, “The Spirit of the Lord clothed itself with Gideon.” It was a pivotal discovery in Chadwick’s life. “My eyes were opened,” he later wrote. “With great daring I crossed out Gideon’s name and put in my own.”

When he accepted a pastorate in Leeds, this Spirit power became evident immediately: “What a time we had!” he wrote. “The revival began on the first Sunday and by the end of September the chapel was full half an hour before the time to begin, and police regulated the crowd.” He filled the coliseum with three thousand people during the two or three winters he preached there. Conversions took place almost every Sunday in or out of the chapel. Chadwick claimed there was hardly a room in his house in which someone had not accepted Christ.

He organized converts into classes, and before he left Leeds, about two thousand people were meeting in those groups. “Whole classes were organized for converted alcoholics. Street urchins were saved; some were to become preachers . . . The great secret of his ministry was the Holy Spirit” ⁷