Principle of Decrease

“The LORD said to Gideon, ‘You have too many people for Me to hand the Midianites over to you” Judges 7:2.

Gideon was facing his biggest fear for his imminent future…the battle was on the horizon and he was going to experience the challenge. Gideon had calculated…considered…counted on his number of men who would go with him into the experience. But God had different ideas as He usually does. While Gideon’s focus was security, God’s focus was his dependency…while Gideon put his trust his numbers God demanded his trust in One number – Yahweh. God arranged circumstances wherein Gideon had no choice but to let go of his trust in numbers and lean completely on God. God continued to dwindle down his men and decrease his resources until Gideon’s army was down to the bare bone – from 32,000 to 300 men.

We all have dreams for our future but when we allow the pursuit to become greater than the One who will get us there we run the risk of experiencing God’s principle of decrease. Within His will, God wants us to have the desires of our heart but only as a result from the overflow of our intimate relationship and trust in Him. If He feels that we are going about our life trusting in our own numbers and resources, He will set up the principle of decrease. If we meet our goals in exactly the manner we planned for, we leave no room to witness God’s power and His grace. Our flesh will tell our spirit that we did a good job and that the armies we built were sufficient for the battle. This will never fly in the economy of God.

I find it interesting that in my Bible as the Lord is speaking the word Me is capitalized while referring to Himself. When we live our life with God capitalized over ourselves then we will walk in victory when facing any future event knowing with complete confidence that it was the Lord who gave us success – not our plans.

‘Be careful that your heart doesn’t become proud and you forget the LORD your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt, out of the place of slavery’ Deut 8:14.