David: A Champion of God (A Man of Victory-Part 3)

And he took his staff in hand, and chose him five smooth stones out of the brook, and put them in a shepherd's bag which he had, even in a scrip; and his sling was in his hand: and he drew near to the Philistine. 1 Samuel 17:40

A while back, I began a short series about David. He was just a boy going to take his brothers some substance from home while they were on the battlefield and he ended up participating in the battle. Goliath, a giant and an enemy of Israel, came out by day and night, taunting the Israelites, trying to persuade one of them to duel with him, and David was the only one courageous enough and with enough faith in God to take Goliath up on his offer. The outcome of their duel would determine the fate of the Israelites.

Now from the above passage, we see that David didn't go to Goliath with the usual tools of warfare. He went with some rocks, a staff, and a sling. Then he went up to that Philistine as if he were the most confident man in the world; in a way, he was. The Bible says in verse 42 of the 17th chapter of Samuel, that when Goliath saw David, he disdained him. And in verse 43 it states that Goliath cursed David by his gods.

Verse 44-"And the Philistine said to David, Come to me, and I will give thy flesh unto the fowls of the air, and to the beasts of the field."

Now imagine yourself standing in front of a man heads taller than you, older than you, more experienced than you with that sword in his hand, bedecked in armor, angry and cursing you by his gods, and finally stating, very convincingly I might add, that when you go over by him, he's going to give your flesh to the birds and the animals to eat. Would you be shaking in your boots? Most men would probably hear what Goliath had to say, look down at that little sling in their hand, drop it, and run for their lives. But Goliath didn't scare David one bit. If anything, he made him mad. Remember, David knew he had a covenant with the God of Israel and he had faith that God was with him.

David says, verses 45-47-"Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield: but I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied. This day will the Lord deliver thee into mine hand; and I will smite thee, and take thine head from thee; and I will give the carcases of the host of the Philistines this day unto the fowls of the air, and to the wild beasts of the earth; that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. And all this assembly shall know that the Lord saveth not with sword and spear: for the battle is the Lord's, and he will give you into our hands."

I want you to see what David's doing here. He's talking right back at his enemy, and he's confessing the outcome of their duel. David is confessing his victory. As Believers, we have an enemy, his name is Satan, and like David, we have every right to talk right back at that devil and confess the outcome of whatever situation we may be facing. Instead of allowing him to put those thoughts of doubt and unbelief and fear in our minds, we can say, The Word of God says in 2 Corinthians chapter 2 verse 14 that God always causes me to triumph. Now it may look bad, but I win. I confess my victory. The Lord will deliver me! Because He's said so.

Jesus said in Mark 11:23 that we can have what we say.  (Whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea: and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith.) There's more to it though, than just speaking what you hope will come to pass. See, you have to believe it in your heart that it's already so. That's what faith is. Faith is now, not hoping sometime in the future it will be. Faith says when you're feeling sick, By Jesus' stripes I was healed, and if I was healed, I am healed right now even if it doesn't look like it. Faith doesn't go by what your physical eyes see, but by the eye of faith. We have to learn to see with our eyes of faith. When David was looking at Goliath, he was looking through his eye of faith. He knew that he knew that he knew that God was going to deliver him. But how do we get that way? How do we see through our eye of faith instead of by what our physical eyes are showing us? It's as simple as this. We allow the Word of God to put an image in our hearts.

 Don't stop reading now and think I'm crazy, because I'm not. This is one of the things that makes your faith work.



"Well, if I confess it enough, it's supposed to work," one might say. But that's not necessarily true. If you're not believing what your confessing, you're not going to be speaking those words in faith. There will be doubt in your heart, and Jesus said that when we believe we have what we say we'll have it. Not if we just think we might have it, it will come to pass. Do you see the difference?

The moment you felt a pain in your body, doubt would come up in your heart and any faith you had would be gone. Your victory won't come with doubt.

The proper way of putting your faith to work would be to get that scripture your standing on, in this case it will be 2 Peter 2:24, sitting down with it, reading it over and over, thinking about it in your mind, By His stripes I was healed, and allowing that word to paint an image in your inner self of you being healed from whatever sickness you have. Then once that image is there, you speak it out and speak it out and speak it out until it's manifested. And it will be. God doesn't lie. His Word is truth. Jesus healed you when He took those stripes on His back and shed His blood. We just have to take it because that enemy of ours doesn't want us to have it. We have to take it by faith.

So getting back to David, he saw himself as a covenant man. When he stood before Goliath, he saw himself defeating that lion and bear all because of God and that image in his heart built his faith. He was fully persuaded that God was going to deliver Goliath into his hand. And when you're operating this working, living faith, fear won't be able to keep you back. The Bible says that after David spoke Goliath went to meet David in their duel and David hasted and ran toward that army of the Philistines to meet Goliath and he hadn't even gotten out his stone yet! David ran, pulled out a rock from his pack, put it in his sling, shot the stone, and it hit the giant right in the head! Like a bullet that rock was, sinking into Goliath's forehead, and Goliath fell face down. David had won.

In closing I want to say this. Know your covenant with God. Walk by faith in His Word. Allow that Word to put an image inside you. Confess your victory. And act on your faith. You will be a champion of God.

David: A Champion of God (A Man of Faith- Part Two)

And David said to Saul, Let no man's heart fail because of him; thy servant will go and fight with this Philistine. 1 Samuel 17:32

On my last post, I began the account of David and his legendary fight with the Philistine Goliath. We know that the armies of the Philistines and of Israel are head to head and Goliath is going out morning and night calling for a man brave enough to fight him. The victor of the duel will be the victor of the war. But the men of Israel were scared and none answered Goliath's call. Yet one day, a young man named David entered the battlefield to bring his brothers substance and this young man decided to stand against him. Why? Because he knew of the covenant he had with God.

I want to continue the tale in this post.

Because of the knowledge of his covenant with God, David had his mind made up that he was going to go fight that giant and he asked around for the prize should he be victorious. The answer was, ". . .the king will enrich him [the man who kills Goliath] with great riches, and will give him his daughter, and make his father's house free in Israel." Well, David's brother, Eliab, heard David speaking to these men and the Bible says "Eliab's anger was kindled against David, and he said, Why camest thou down hither? and with whom hast thou left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know thy pride, and the naughtiness of thine heart; for thou art come down that thou mightest see the battle." David answered, "What have I now done? Is there not a cause?"

I want to point something out here. We already know that David went there by his father's order, not to be a spy. This is just an example to what people will say when we make a statement of faith. David's faith was mistaken for arrogance. Do you see that? David was confident in God, and in what God would do for him, he wasn't arrogant. But Eliab didn't understand David's relationship with God and so he mistook David's faith for arrogance. That still happens today. When someone says that a certain thing is going to happen to them, for example, they're healed of a sickness that's been plaguing them because God loves them, He wants them to be healed, and Jesus bought and paid for it with the shedding of His blood, some will think that's arrogance because they don't understand it. But it's not. It's confidence in God and living by faith.

David's words and inquisition got to the king's ears eventually, and King Saul called David to speak with him. The young man told the king that he would fight Goliath. Now you must remember that David is young, like still a teenager, and a shepherd boy at that. He didn't have any traditional arm's training. Goliath was a man of war, and he was BIG. Saul said to David, "Thou art not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him: for thou art but a youth, and he a man of war from his youth."

Listen to how David replies. Beginning at verse 34.

"Thy servant kept his father's sheep, and there came a lion and a bear, and took a lamb out of the flock: And I went out after him, and smote him, and delivered it out of his mouth: and when he arose against me, I caught him by his beard, and smote him, and slew him. Thy servant slew both the lion and the bear: and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them, seeing he hath defied the armies of the living God. David said moreover, The Lord that delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philisitine. And Saul said unto David, Go, and the Lord be with thee."

We can get a few things from these passages.

First, the time David spent as a shepherd keeping his father's sheep was his training period. In this time, he grew close to God and learned how to trust Him. Though David didn't have any traditional combat training, God taught him how to defend himself against that bear and lion. If you don't remember, a few chapters back, David was anointed by the prophet Samuel to be the next king of Israel. And if he was going to be king, he had to be trained. His shepherding was his training. I believe that we all have our own times of training. It may seem like not a whole lot is going on, but if we use these times in our lives to seek God and allow Him to mold us into what He wants, we'll be prepared for whatever it is He wants us to do and become.

Second, in David's training period, he learned that God was faithful to His covenant, which allowed him to be faith-full, or full of faith.

Lastly, David gave God the glory of victory before he even stepped on the battlefield to face Goliath. He said, The Lord delivered me out of the paw of the lion and the bear, and he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philsitine.

David wasn't arrogant or conceited. He was completely and utterly confident in his God's ability. He was full of faith! He understood that it wouldn't be by his own might or power that Goliath would be slain. He knew that he could only come out the victor by the hand of God. Search your own heart today. Have you been thinking it's by your own ability that you're successful? Allow me to say that it's only by the power and anointing of God that we amount to anything. Give the glory to God and allow others to see that you're living a blessed and victorious life because of Him and Jesus.