Know Who You Are

Posted on 16. Jul, 2015 by in Faith, Identity, Sonship, Thursday Thoughts

I love the story of David and Goliath. In fact, in the last year my love for the Old Testament has grown tremendously, as my more recent readings in Genesis, Exodus and 1 Samuel have given me so much insight into the greatness of the God that I serve, and so much understanding of His character and His purpose. Specifically, the story of David and Goliath has really spoken to me recently, and I wanted to share what I have gleaned. We all know the background of this story. Goliath, measuring in at 9 feet and “a span”, has been taunting the armies of Israel for 40 days, trying to coax a soldier of Israel to fight him one on one. To the victor go the spoils. Of course no one responds, except to run away at his taunts and challenges. Finally, in walks David, who immediately assesses the situation and says the following:

“David said to Saul, “Let no man’s heart fail on account of him; your servant will go and fight with this Philistine.”” (1 Samuel 17:32, NASB95)

The simplicity of David’s belief in God amazes me. Whereas all the soldiers around him, including the King of Israel, are frozen with fear, David steps up and volunteers to fight. He goes on to say:

““Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; and this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, since he has taunted the armies of the living God.” And David said, “The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, He will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.” (1 Samuel 17:36–37, NASB95) (emphasis mine)

In my initial reading, the phrase “armies of the living God” stuck out to me. I was not really sure why initially. He repeats this thought further down, when addressing Goliath:

“Then David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword, a spear, and 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 taunted. “This day the Lord will deliver you up into my hands, and I will strike you down and remove your head from you. And I will give the dead bodies of the army of the Philistines this day to the birds of the sky and the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, and that all this assembly may know that the Lord does not deliver by sword or by spear; for the battle is the Lord’s and He will give you into our hands.”” (1 Samuel 17:45–47, NASB95)

Again, the confidence in David’s speech is amazing. There is not a fiber in his being that fears Goliath. For David it is as simple as 2+2=4: Goliath is taunting God, God has protected David in the past, and therefore God will deliver Goliath into David’s hand. Not even a smidgen of doubt. Wow. That is inspiring to me.

The day after I initially read this I was driving to work, reflecting on the phrase “armies of the living God”. As I did I finally made a connection to a concept that the Lord has been building in me for the last year or so, an idea that I blogged about previously in a post entitled Sonship vs. Servanthood. The concept of identity. You see, David knew who he was. He knew what it meant to be an Israelite. He knew what it meant to be in the army of the living God. He understood the relationship between God and His people. Again, David KNEW WHO HE WAS!!!

In this respect David stands in stark contrast to the rest of Israel present on the battlefield that day. Even Saul, the King of Israel, didn’t understand this relationship, didn’t understand who he was in the context of God’s kingdom, as manifested at that time by Israel, the chosen race. Because Saul failed to understand who he was he was therefore unable to walk in faith. On the contrary, because David DID know who he was, and who God was with him, it was EASY for him to walk in faith, and the result is astounding.

In our lives we must learn who we are, in the context of God’s Kingdom, as currently manifested by the global body of Christ. You see, God is no different now, in our lives, then He was then in David’s life. The definition of the Kingdom has changed, the identity and scope of the chosen people has changed, but the favored relationship between God and His people is the same now as it was then. We have been brought into covenant relationship with Almighty God, and have been given the keys to the kingdom, so to speak. But if we don’t apprehend our identity in Christ then we will forever live like Saul, taunted, sad and defeated. If, however, we DO apprehend our identity, or can even BEGIN to catch a glimpse of what it means to be His son or daughter, then we can begin the process of maturing into full-grown children in the Kingdom. And as maturing sons and daughters in the Kingdom we will understand who He is, who we are IN HIM, and the giants that once looked so big and scary will begin to look small in the light of His awesome splendor, power and faithfulness.

The last key to this passage that I will mention briefly is David’s understanding of who was actually fighting the battle. David understood that it wasn’t up to him to defeat Goliath. All he had to do was be obedient and trust, and God would do the rest. We must understand the same thing. The battle is, and always has been, the Lord’s. When the circumstances of life come against us we have to know who is fighting for us, and be willing to be obedient to His leading.

One last thought. I made reference to “covenant relationship” and it reminded me of a book I read recently, that has greatly increased my understanding of the Old Testament, in regards to the covenants and customs of Israel. The book is called “The Epic of Eden: A Christian Entry into the Old Testament”, by Sandra L. Richter. I highly recommend this book, and will likely blog about some of the interesting points in the future. 

 

Biblical Examples of Faith – Volume 1

Posted on 03. Feb, 2011 by in Faith

I finally was able to get through the majority of my testimony on faith, and now want to turn to some things I have learned subsequent to these events, that still pertain to walking in faith.  I will try to these in shorter snippets, so here goes.

I recently read the book of Joshua, a book that really deals a lot in faith.  The first time that the children of Israel reached the promised land, their lack of faith sent them packing back to the desert for another 40 years.  Only Joshua and Caleb survived to see the final victory, because only they had faith and gave a good report.  Reading Joshua is very instructive to how we are to live our lives, as there was no doubt that the people of Israel had to  rely on God to bring them victory.  The first battle we read about after crossing Jordan is at Jericho.  I am sure you all know the story.  It is interesting that the Lord instructed them to do things that, in the natural, had nothing to do with the victory that they sought.  This is a good example of how we can not rely on our understanding of cause and effect to determine whether we follow the Lord’s instructions.  If He has said to move, and that move doesn’t make sense in the natural, we still must move.  1 Samuel 15:22 and Psalm 40:6-8 speak to the importance of being obedient to the call of the Lord.  The story of Jonah as well speaks to this.  In this case, the children of Israel obeyed, and the victory was astounding.

The next battle is against the town of Ai.  We read of how the people of Israel make plans for the battle, but this time it appears they make their own plans, and it appears that they quickly became over-confident.  The scouts recommend that only 3,000 go into battle, “for they are few”.  Unfortunately, the hand of the Lord has been removed from them, due to the sin of Achan, and this time an enemy they thought they could beat defeats them soundly.  Of course after this the Lord reveals the reason for the defeat, and makes it quite clear that Israel’s victory comes only by God’s might.  The sin of Achan is dealt with, and now God gives the instructions, for ALL the men of war to go forth,  and they follow God’s specific instructions to defeat this king.  Of course, overwhelming victory follows.

These two examples, as I read them, made it incredibly obvious to me the importance of putting our trust in Him.  At Jericho, Israel was victorious against overwhelming odds.  At Ai, Israel was defeated by an enemy they should’ve beaten easily (according to their own estimation).  This outlines a lesson I have learned in the past few years, that when we endeavor to serve God, but attempt to operate in our own ability, we may find ourselves defeated and frustrated by things that, from a natural perspective, shouldn’t have been a problem.  Likewise, when we trust Him, nothing is impossible to us.

The other thing I took from these passages, oddly enough, was a lesson in humility.  The more I read about the awesome intervention and power of God on behalf of the Israelites the more I became impressed that humility must come along with this.  If the Lord is going to operate in my life in an overwhelming manner, how can I live in pride?  How can I walk puffed up with my own importance?  Of course this got me thinking about some events in my own life in the last 3 years, and what I finally realized was that I had been trying to build the Kingdom of God, in a manner in which He had instructed me to build, but I was doing it in my own power, and much to my surprise at that time, was taking credit for it.  I really had a vigilante attitude about certain things, and this revelation from Joshua totally revealed my motives in this manner.  Now, reading through these verses I can not say “this verse made me think this”.  It was just a great example of how the Holy Spirit can use the written word to drop a revelatory word into our hearts, and suddenly bring light where once there was darkness.  Since that time I have gone to 3 specific individuals that I was previously at odds with and apologized, as my attitudes were totally unrighteous and inappropriate.  I am still learning to walk in that release, but it is good.

One last thing I want to share from the first part of Joshua comes from Joshua 3:3-4.  In this circumstance, God has instructed the people that the Ark should go across the Jordan first, and the people are to follow after, at a distance.  Verse 4 says “Do not come near it, that you may know the way by which you shall go, for you have not passed this way before”.  I can definitely say that I have not walked before in the manner in which I now walk, and must keep my focus on the embodiment of the presence of God on the earth, Christ.

More from Joshua later.  I really loved this book, and recommend anyone to read it.