The Spiritual Leader knows themselves
If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.”
― Sun Tzu, The Art of War
There are three things extremely hard: steel, a diamond, and to know one’s self.
Benjamin Franklin
As close as we are to ourselves, it is amazing how little time we take to get to know ourselves. We spend way too much time with our past self or with our future self. While those are acceptable routes to know ourselves, we must start with an honest assessment of the present.
A spiritual leader must sit with the Lord and ask the question to the King of Kings, “Who am I?” While there are plenty of generic ways to answer the question, we must wait upon Him to answer that question. Too often we allow our circumstances or our own thinking to shape our answer and then attribute that answer to God. Think of Gideon. The environment at the time is one where the Midianites are consistently raiding the wheat harvest. Gideon is a minor member of a minor family in a minor tribe in a disjointed union of Israel. In his eyes he is looking to simply survive. An interview with Gideon might reveal that Gideon will do whatever it takes to survive. This seems to be true in the culture around him. His neighbors are boldly worshiping idols, forsaking the God who just a couple of generations earlier had delivered them from slavery. This same God had sustained them in the wilderness and then brought them many victories in the taking of the promised land. Gideon was part of this culture that had lost all hope and, in that hopelessness, turned toward worthless idols made of wood or stone. Gideon and his family had forgotten that he was part of the plan of God.
Certainly, sitting around the campfire as a child he would have heard stories of pillars of fire and cloud. It seems likely he would have heard of life in Egypt, plagues, and the crossing of the Red Sea.
In the present though there is no view of that history. Day to day the people are shaped by hunger and fear. That hunger and fear is their reality in that moment. That is what is presented and seen. But that is not their true reality. In the wilderness God protected the people from enemies and hunger and thirst. This same God was open to rekindling the fiery relationship that had started with Abraham. All the spiritual leader needed to do was bend his head and submit to the Almighty while forsaking all of the idols. To know yourself the Spiritual leader must often ignore what they see with their own eyes.
Gideon was hiding as he threshed his wheat. I’m not really sure how this would have worked because he did not have the wind to drive the chaff away. While threshing he may have been kicking himself for being such a coward. His young heart may have fantasized about taking on the hordes of Midian. His heart raced with the vision of leading the warriors of his community and seeing his people free of hunger and fear. But here he was hiding as he threshed his wheat. Gideon may have seen himself as a dreamer. It is easy to envision but difficult to take the steps to rise above our current circumstances. Gideon would need help.
That help arrived in the form of an angel who referred to the Gideon of his wildest imagination. “Mighty warrior.” That is Gideon’s real identity. This identity defies everything that he can see with his eyes. But he likes the sound of it. Looking in the mirror he has doubts. Remember he has been shaped by fear and hunger. While not as dramatic as when his forefather, Jacob, did it; Gideon verbally wrestles with the angel. To get to our real identity, we must often wrestle with God. By the way He will win, but only 100% of the time. The sooner we submit to His lordship the sooner we can get on with serving Him and fulfilling His desire for our lives.
The same is true for you. Sit with God and see what He says about you. He will speak and then over the course of your life He will confirm this identity in ways that if you are aware will fill your heart with joy.
