Facing the Giants

The story of David and Goliath is outlined in 1Samuel 17. It tells of an adolescent David challenging the feared giant of the Philistine army, Goliath. To the story reader, it appears that with just a sling shot and a stone David was able to annihilate his enemy. But, when applied to life as we know it today, this story metaphorically symbolizes the giants we face everyday. On a daily basis we deal with strongholds such as pride and lusts and situations that overwhelm us like financial difficulties, marital stress, demands on the job, family instability and or dysfunction, different types of abuse, alcohol and drug misuse and so many other things. But we can always draw from the Word of God which is expertly designed to bring us comfort in this time. Relating to the story, King Saul was so impressed when David decided to go up against the giant because he was confident that his God was with him, that the king took off his battle gear and put it on David as he sent him on the field. But, the king was fearful for this young teenage boy, like we are when we face the giants of life. Fearless David on the other hand went forth in boldness knowing that anyone fighting against the people of God was heading for defeat. So, David threw off the battle clothes that was weighing him down and leaned on the armor of God that he was already clothed in and slew his enemy. Therefore, if we follow pattern, we will stand up to our giants, not letting them intimidate us as we declare our victory over them. We too, like David, have to become fearless and bold against them in the Spirit. A man of war only wins battles by using strategies that the enemies do not expect. Goliath did not expect any Israelite to stand up against him, just like the devil does not expect us to stand up in our darkest moments and declare our victory. Like Goliath, the devil has no defenses prepared for us because he thinks he will automatically win.
David's secret to his victory was that he was allowing God to prepare him while he was building a relationship with our Father, daily. Every time he attended to the sheep I believe he was not alone, but was enjoying the sweet fellowship of Christ. Daily, he was able to see God in the things he did. He fought against lions and bears who tried to take away his sheep, not knowing that God was preparing him for the battle with Goliath. When the time came, David had no doubt that the same God who stood with him to protect his sheep was indeed with him in that very moment.
So, in this season of our lives when we are called to face giants, let us clothe ourselves with Spiritual armor, the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, your feet shod with the gospel of peace, your shield of faith, the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God! We cannot fight against the enemy with physical armor. These just weigh us down. Let us prepare ourselves with the armor designed to win in the fight against the evil ones. When we come in the name of the Lord, no enemy, no job, no person, no financial lack, no habit, no sickness or disease, no enemy, nothing can stand before us and have success.
Success is for us...let us arise and claim it in the name of Jesus!

We are living in evil times...

The AMP version of the Bible outlines these two verses in James chapter 1, which says,

14 But every person is tempted when he is drawn away, enticed and baited by his own evil desire (lust, passions).

15 Then the evil desire, when it has conceived, gives birth to sin, and sin, when it is fully matured, brings forth death.

God doesn't tempt man to lure them into sin. When we are tempted it is because there are evil ways within us that keep nagging at us... If we continue to dwell upon it, we will premeditate upon it enough to act upon it. When we fulfill the act of sin, it is only a short while after until we see the consequences of the sin, being death.

For example, when we have a disagreement in our homes, we could sit and ponder about the things someone said to us and how much it hurt us. We could then allow our minds to go to a place where we want to return the favor and spit words back at the person. The bible says that we are not to let the sun go down on our wrath..but when we get too angry we go to sleep thinking about what happened. The devil sees the entrance we have created and as such, he comes in a drops more evil thoughts to have us dazed, confused and swimming in sin. After a while, we explode with anger causing the situation to worsen. Sometimes it means that our spouses walk away, our children leave feeling worthless, our neighbors become our enemies, we lose our jobs, etc. This will be the consequences of our sin... The final result is death in the situation and not life. Too often we sit and focus on the problem...allowing the situation to become magnified in our minds. We need to trust God to fight our battles for us, while we look for solutions...

Our Lord only thinks good thoughts towards us..let us renew our minds daily to rebuke the devil bodily and cause him to flee!