Have a David attitude

Have a David attitude

1 Samuel 17:28-30 And Eliab his eldest brother heard when he spake unto the men; and 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. And David said, What have I now done? Is there not a cause?

And he turned from him toward another, and spake after the same manner: and the people answered him again after the former manner.

And when the words were heard which David spake, they rehearsed them before Saul: and he sent for him.

There’s lots of lessons in these scriptures and the whole chapter of David and Goliath. It goes so much deeper than just a boy and his stone.

David was a young boy and remember also that he was an anointed boy. He was the baby of the family, and no doubt his brothers remembered Samuel coming out to choose David. The young boy was chooses and anointed to be Gods chosen king, though it wouldn’t take place for a long time!

Listen, it doesn’t matter your age or stage; young - old- or In between, if God wants to choose and use you, He can if you will. We all know the story of David and Goliath, how David knocked Goliath down with a stone. This is prime example that just because you’re young doesn’t mean you can’t do great things for God. Just because you may be older, doesn’t mean He’s finished with you. Both ends of the spectrum too often take this lie and run with it, and hide! I dare to say any age or stage: he’s not looking at age or appearance, He’s looking for HEART. One brave heart can change everything.

But the LORD said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart. 1 Samuel 16:7

If it had been up to Samuel, he may have picked the wrong king. God chose. We don’t always see things the way God does, we often see things the way the world says that we should.

So here we have David’s older brother Eliab, telling David to go back home and tend to his few sheep. He was basically saying, “go back home and play. Your job doesn’t matter, it’s unimportant as are you, and your few sheep don’t mean anything.” He largely downplayed David and his abilities. He made fun of how many sheep he was in charge of because he wanted to hurt him. No doubt he was just jealous. Others will be jealous of your anointing too.

People are always sticking daggers in us where they can to make us feel small, but really they already do feel small themselves, or else they wouldn’t have to! They will stick it where it hurts because the fact is, the enemy knows where and in what areas you struggle, so he knows where to put the word that cuts deep. Otherwise, it wouldn’t hurt or wound you. We don’t have to take the bait, we can put the dagger down, we don’t even have to give it back. In fact, we are encouraged and told not to because it’s easy to want to, but you and I don’t win wars this way, with verbal fights.

Peter was always wanting to defend Jesus and I’m always wanting to defend myself, but Jesus was silent before His accusers. We ought to look to Him for power and for the example He left. He only answered calmly and matter of factly. This is what David did.

Eliab told David that he knew the evilness of his heart and that he was basically conceited and had just come down to watch the battle! He didn’t believe that he was of any help or wanted to help. Again, he was jealous! But what we’re these other men doing but standing around trying to figure out how to bring the giant down? No one had defeated the giant yet! Isn’t it funny how the very ones that are always belittling aren’t doing anything great themselves? They’ve too got tangled up in satans lie. The ones who are doing great things, are to busy tending business to stop and criticize everyone else: they’d have no time to. They are too busy fighting the real enemy to stop and cut others down. So David pretty much just said, what did I do, it was just a harmless question! Don’t get your pants in a wad is what he was probably thinking but he stayed cool, calm and collected.

You see, it’s easy to fall apart at the seams when others hurt us. Maybe we are use to being hurt so we just go ahead and cave and give in. EXACTLY what the enemy wants you to do. You gotta remember that he’s the one working through evil anyway, so when we give in to them, we give into him. He’s the one we should be fighting and the right way. Ephesians 6 will tell you all about how to fight, when and why, and how to win! The best way to go up against the enemy, is to keep on doing what God has put in your heart to do and don’t stop! Thats what He wants you to do! Unbothered! How do you think Nehemiah finished the wall with such opposition? That’s all he wants from you.

Opposition will come but what you do will determine if you overcome!

It’s easy to take offense, it’s easy to keep on being rejected when you have been for so long, and it’s easy for the devil to keep us small by these things. They become our defense and what we’re recognized by! But God doesn’t see us this way. We keep ourselves small when we harbor these things in our heart, then they become us. I was at the store one day and someone must have said something over the phone to upset me that I didn’t like, and it was like God spoke directly to my spirit and said: “Do you want to be offended?” I said: “No.” And I heard: “Well then don’t be.” We don’t do well to take and grab hold of everything that comes at us. Instead of always trying to dodge it, maybe we should just turn from it!

David didn’t take offense to his brothers snide remarks and there were many of them, even in just as a small sentence! David simply turned away from him. The one simple act kept him pursuing. So what did he do? He continued to ask others about slaying this giant! You must too! He didn’t let the laughs, sighs, ignoring ears, or gestures stop him. He didn’t let it hinder him one bit. He didn’t give up and you must not either. Keep searching and Keep finding. Keep asking and Keep receiving. Keep knocking and Keep-opening. The way won’t be opened unless you pursue it. David wouldn’t have had the opportunity to slay Goliath if he would have waited till everyone told him to! Think about it. When is the right time to pursue?

Be relentless in your pursuit to please God, act for God and follow God. Always look for opportunities, they are all around. They might not just look how you want them too! David wanted to fight right and I believe that he had a holy zeal for God. I believe that he was never the same after that anointing day when Samuel (God through him) choose David.

God has chosen you and what God has chosen and anointed, no one can stop. No one can stop you unless you don’t let them, because you have the very power and spirit of God in you! It was more than just about the giant, it was about the God that was for David and He is now the same God in us. The giants are just standing in your way to stop you. They are smoke screens to intimidate you, but you’ve heard it said: the bigger they are, the harder they fall. I could go on more into the story about how David slew but first in order to fight battles, we must know what the real battle is. It’s a fight for your soul and it’s not won by holding onto offense. So If you go in fighting this way, you go in all wrong, we must lay it at the cross. At the feet of Jesus. He paid the price already for that sin.

The biggest obstacle to overcome is the one with yourself , because you will face many more trials along the way. Many things will fight for your attention and will try to stop you along the way in your pursuit to follow and do mighty things for Christ. If you always blame others, it’ll be a different fight, a different day, a different person or situation, BUT THE SAME WAR. The common denominator is you. Satan wants your mind, attention, focus and ultimately soul! (John 10:10) But you must have a made up mind to follow through!!

Many soldiers have given up wounded on the battle field and don’t want to keep facing the persecution. Jesus didn’t and I must not either. A battle is not won until it’s finished. It is a fight no doubt but we are on Gods side and He is on ours, and it’s the good fight of faith. We must use our faith to stand!

But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. Matthew 24:13

The Bible talks about that in the end time and Ali believe even at the closest of your wins, many will grow cold in their love because of their wickedness. What is love? The first command and it’s your power! Your connection to God. Unforgiveness separates us from God and healing because God is love; and that’s just he truth! Jesus died for our sins.

If we always take offense, we just grow further and further away from love, living, healing and truth! If the devil can get our hearts hard and cold, he’s won! God wants us to be hot in pursuit or we won’t pursue. He said to be hot or cold, He’d rather you be, for Luke warm is detestable! Why? Because it’s comfortable and does nothing! He needs soldiers with zeal!

It’s not pleasing to God for us to give into and surrender to the enemies will. It’s not easy no doubt, but we must be like David to turn away from our enemies taunts and not catch them. We want to fight them with tongue or accusations but we just cut deeper and don’t win. I know! We must keep on pursuing truth and action. So many times we want to give up when the first time we ask, we are rejected. But David was relentless.

This wouldn’t be David’s last battle, “done in one.” No! This was only the beginning. He had already killed a lion and a bear that tried to mess with the sheep. We must realize that the real attack is on the sheep; the body of Christ. David would go on to fight many more battles and make a lot of mistakes along the way. But, he would get it right and continue to honor God till the end, although not all of his decisions did. Don’t let your mistakes, or past failures, or even recent ones, define and stop you! No! That’s just what the enemy wants.

Pick yourself up by your bootstraps to continue on soldier. You have the very Spirit of God in you and it’s real. We ought to be encouraging one another instead of hiding out, isolated and alone. Again, another tactic of the enemy. He isolated us to target us. Stronger together! It makes all the difference when you have the Spirit of God in you. Do you know Him today? Please don’t turn Him away. Because if you try to fight the enemy alone, you already lose! Don’t discount what He can do, through you! You are His vessel! The house where He lives. Stop fighting with the wrong sword!

So he answered and said to me: “This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ Says the LORD of hosts. Zechariah 4:6

You can do many mighty things but not without Him. You won’t do anything but shrink back if you don’t already know you have Him. So either way, whether you pursue or hide, you do ill like the rest of these men who came to fight the giant but couldn’t figure out what to do. You can only step up to the plate when confident in WHO is in and with you !!

1 Samuel 17 45 Then David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword, with a spear, and with a javelin. But I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.

46 This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you and take your head from you. And this day I will give the carcasses of the camp of the Philistines to the birds of the air and the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel.

47 Then all this assembly shall know that the Lord does not save with sword and spear; for the battle isthe Lord’s, and He will give you into our hands.”

David knew by Who and how! It would be God who would come through! He didn’t fight with sword but a rock. This would prove that God can do anything and He isn’t limited. Everyone would know this was impossible for a boy to do but not with God on His side! He proved them wrong! And many stories have been told and will continue to be told, about how God used the weak to confound the wise! He will and wants to do the same for, in you and through you! David didn’t back down, even though he was rejected many times. He finally convinced King Saul to let him fight. Saul said ok -“Go, and the Lord be with you!”

You see because David refused to back down or quit, or let offense and continual “no’s” to stop him, word finally got to the right peridot. Someone finally went and told the king , so the king summoned David.

If you continue to be loud for the Lord (not at people) then God will put you on the ear of someone too! You might think it’s to harm you but He actually knows just what to do and who to use. This would actually be the king whom David would take his over his thrown and God would overthrow. But like I said, God can use who He wants to, even sinners!  God will work it all out for the righteous one’s good. None are righteous on their own but made righteous by Jesus when standing in right standing with Him.

Whose side are you on? That’s who you believe. If you believe everything your told, you side with the enemy and don’t even know it. You are a child of God; The Most High King. You must know that. Believe that with every fiber of your being! If you believe the lies then you fall for the lies and so live and fall beneath truth. Beneath the truth that God loves you and is for you and can do mighty things in you. You might believe God, and that He can do it for everyone else but somehow not for you. That somehow you are damaged, your goods are no good, you are flawed and slipped through quality control, but that is not true!

I was so down one time that I just went around saying, “I’m a dud.” Howe inaccurate and a slap to the One Who made me. I thought I was no good, too far gone. I took the bait! Maybe you’ve taken it to. But, Thank God I was convinced of the truth that God loved me and I wasn’t flawed like the enemy had said. I took the voices into consideration instead of contradicting them with the word of truth. Our words and responses are powerful when loaded with truth, yet so many times we do nothing and say nothing to fight for truth. That’s why Jesus said: “Thus say why the Lord.” What does HE say about it??

All that I believed and took was a lie straight from the pits of hell. You and I were created carefully, fearfully and wonderfully made by God Almighty Himself. You we’re you, no mistake! You haven’t made a mess of it, it’s not too late and you haven’t come this far to turn back now!

We are beautiful to Him because we are His masterpieces. Scars and all. He can use it all. So many, even wicked ones, don’t know their true identity and so perish for it. It’s time to get a new point of view and trade that old ID in for a new one. ITS NO GOOD. That lie has expired because I’m telling you truth. Not just any truth, Gods truth!Throw that one out the window and never go back, with no chance of finding it again.

That’s what Jesus did for Mary. He told her who she was. That’s what He can do for you. Lose your self in Him. Lose your opinion and trade It for truth. He give people new names all the time because He wanted to trade their identity for who He says they are. Names mean something and if you have a label on you that you don’t like, or something that’s stuck and don’t belong, it’s time to rip it off. Does it align with truth? Trade it for truth.

Wear the new name proudly. Loved. Cherished. Honored. Lovely. Strong. Courageous or whatever it may be. A good inclination or place start is the opposite of the lie and the name you’ve been called. If rejected, accepted. If flawed, perfect. If stupid, smart. If ugly, beautiful. Maybe you’ve been told you’ll never make it, you don’t have what it takes. You’re too big, too small, too uneducated. The list goes on and on but the only way to rise above it, (the lies we hear), is to rise above it with truth. The devil is always opposite of Gods truth. He always offers a counterfeit, he will lie to you. That’s all he can do, he is the father of all lies and he actually knows the truth! That’s why and how he can lie to you. Know the word to know what God says about you. You are perfectly loved and like David, you can win this fight because God is in you.

He’s an equal opportunity God. He’s not looking for excuses to keep us this way or for us to stay in our sin as some would think. He died to save us FROM our sins and grace to change our minds and point of view. He’s looking for those who would drop the lies and follow Him!