God Often Uses Unusual, Ordinary People To Do His Extraordinary Works

What if I told you that ordinary people are often used by God to do extraordinary things.

When I was young, my mother used to sing a song called “Ordinary People”. It was based on God’s willingness to use plain ‘ole ordinary people to do His will. As I got older, I realized how true that really was.

One of my many favorite stories/events in the Bible is that of Gideon’s 300. Gideon was an Israelite military warrior and prophet, whom God told to prepare an army against the Midianites. He started off with 32,000 troops, but the Lord warned him that there were too many of them, which would cause them to believe the battle was won by their own might. So the Lord told Gideon to let everyone who was fearful go home. 22,000 left the field!

God knew the remaining 10,000 were still too many, so He instructed Gideon to take the men down to a body of water to test them. Whoever knelt down to drink from the body of water was cut from the mission. 21,700 more troops departed that day. The remaining warriors to fight the battle against the tens of thousands of Midianites were 300! Just 300!

It sounds crazy, right? But adding on to the craziness of the size of Gideon’s army, was how God chose them. The men who lapped water up with their tongues like a dog when they drank were the ones appointed by God to win the battle and make history (Judges 7)!

The average person would consider anyone who laps water up like a dog to be quite unusual, meaning that wouldn’t be a common way of doing things.

Your weirdest characteristic may be your greatest asset!

King David

Many wouldn’t consider King David to be ordinary, but according to his father and brothers, he was. To them, he was just an ‘ole shepherd boy. But, God used David to do the extraordinary throughout his entire life because of his heart for the Lord. He became the most popular earthly king of all time!

The Disciples

What about Jesus’ disciples? Seven of them were fisherman—again, what we’d consider ordinary people. Those ordinary people learned to raise the dead, heal the sick and make the blind see by the power of God.

John the Baptist

John the Baptist wore animal hair for clothes and ate locust and wild honey! This unusual cousin of Jesus was used by God to prepare the way for the Messiah (Luke 3:4-6).

Jesus

Would you believe that people even considered Jesus Christ as ordinary (at first) and unusual? Well, they did!

When word got out that Jesus was the Christ, the locals were shocked, attempting to simplify Him as just the carpenter from Nazareth. It was noticeable that He was unusual since the age of 12 when He taught the religious men in the Temple, astounding them!

His whole earthly ministry was unusual because He was/is not of this world; therefore, everything He does would be considered unusual and extraordinary!

In Summary

The point is, no matter who you are, rich or poor, young or old, known or unknown, God can still use you to do His amazing works! He doesn’t see you as the world sees you. When He looks at you, He sees potential!

Did you know that not everyone can be used by satan, but anyone can be used by God? Let that sink in.

There may be things happening in your life or in the world right now where you feel things are impossible because you’re expecting “big” people to do “big” things.

Rest assured, there’s a possibility that the Lord will use someone you’d never expect, someone unusual or ordinary to do those exact “big” things you are hoping for. Who knows? …That unusual and ordinary person may very well be you!

It’s amazing how Jesus is the only God Who is humble enough to cause and allow mankind to do His extraordinary works!