There’s a reason why the Lord will reduce our options for success. He does this so that we must rely on Him for our victory, not our ability, experience, or the resources we bring to the conflict.

The Lord reduced Gideon’s army from 32,000 warriors to only 300, “You have too many warriors with you. If I let all of you fight the Midianites, the Israelites will boast to me that they saved themselves by their own strength” (Judges 7:2). The size of Midianite army dwarfed the original 32,000 warriors Gideon had at his disposal to fight, “The armies of Midian, Amalek, and the people of the east had settled in the valley like a swarm of locusts. Their camels were like grains of sand on the seashore—too many to count!” (vs. 12).

To gain victory over this immense army, the Lord relayed a dream to Gideon to use what appeared to be a foolish plan of attack. He was told to attack the enemy camp at midnight after the changing of the guard armed only with torches and clay pots. “Suddenly, they blew the rams’ horns and broke their clay jars. Then all three groups blew their horns and broke their jars. They held the blazing torches in their left hands and the horns in their right hands, and they all shouted, ‘A sword for the Lord and for Gideon!’”(vs. 19-20).

The surprise attack confused the Midianites: “When the 300 Israelites blew their rams’ horns, the Lord caused the warriors in the camp to fight against each other with their swords”(vs. 22). After the attack, 120,000 enemy warriors had been slain.

Sometimes the Lord’s plan for victory makes no sense to a natural mind. It is in our yielding in faith to the Lord’s plan where victory is possible, especially when we are outnumbered by an opposing force or when we do not have the resources needed to gain a victory. The purpose of us going into a spiritual battle with limited resources is to affirm that God is the one who brought the victory and, at the end of the battle, only God will get the glory.