Real Fleece Or Fake Fur?

Behold, I will put a fleece of wool in the floor; and if the dew be on the fleece only, and it be dry upon all the earth beside, then shall I know that thou wilt save Israel by mine hand, as thou hast said. Judges 6:37

People throw the phrase "laying out a fleece" far too flippantly. We want to say, "I'm going to put out a fleece by asking God to do ______ if He wants me to ______," then fill in the first blank with something we expect to happen anyway and the second with something we want to do. We try to manipulate situations and make God's will into our will...then call it faith. God isn't a bureaucratic system that we can put to work for us. We don't get to work the system to tweak the outcome in our favor. That's not faith and it's not laying out a fleece for God. Gideon asked God to do the impossible, not the probable. If you want to see God work and want Him to really show you something, you have to stop playing the odds and trying to slant the results--you have to square your shoulders, clear your throat, and ask for the impossible.