David said to Saul, Let no-one lose heart on account of this Philistine; your servant will go and fight him. Saul replied, You are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him; you are only a boy, and he has been a fighting man from his youth. But David said to Saul, Your servant has been keeping his father’s sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it. Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. The LORD who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine. Saul said to David, Go, and the LORD be with you. 1 Sam 17:32 – 37
David’s attitude of faith becomes even more evident when he gets an audience with the king.
So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ. Romans 10:17
Faith grows when we feed it with the Word of God. The Word is always correct and always true and always real and always the highest authority on any and every subject. You must submit your feelings and opinions to The Word and let the Word change you from the inside out.
Basically if God says it. It is. You have the power to CHOOSE to believe it. You make a CHOICE to overcome the perhaps natural inclinations to doubt by making a choice to trust God. Do whatever you can to change the way you think and go with what God says about Himself and who He is and what He can do.
Don’t give into the feelings of doubt but pray and take the thoughts captive. You have control of your mind and how you think. Don’t let a doubt or a fear spiral out of control. Its like the Gremlins. They started off as cute furry little creatures, harmless… what’s one little gremlin… but if you feed and water them they manifest into nasty nasty nasty creatures. Doubt and fear may seem like a small harmless thought but if you feed it and water it, it will manifest into a nasty in your life.
The Word of God is both an offensive and defensive weapon. Ephesians 6 describes it as a double edged sword. With it you offensively – you attack – the doubts and fears and obstacles. Use your sword (or machine gun as Isaac showed us in his day in the life) to challenge and change your attitudes. The Word gives you faith – and Ephesians 6 describes your faith as a shield to block the fiery darts and attempts of the enemy.
Remember – Jesus used the Word as a weapon to defeat the devil when He said “IT IS WRITTEN”
throughout history, game changers have stepped forward in the faith to affect the way people communicate god’s truth in the culture in which they live. @stickyjesus
David was a game changer. He believed God. He had a history with God.
To David, the Word of God was that God was always with him to deliver him and overcome. God had delivered him from the bear and the lion and God would deliver him from the giant. There was no second guessing God. No but if. No doubt. David was unshakable in his faith in God. He had built up a history of seeing God at work in his life and a history of believing and trusting in God. He had a holy confidence because knew God was faithful.
Your historical faith will fuel your present faith as you remember and stand upon the times that God has come through for you. History spring boards into today.
Take the opportunities around you now to learn faith. Take the opportunities now to overcome doubt.
Build a life long history with God. You can look back through your life and see the evidence of God’s reality in your life. Tony was saying the other night at housegroup that when he got made redundant this year he was feeling stink and unsettled, until he changed his attitude and looked back at the times God had come through in his life and how God had been our provider and had never failed us. He looked back at his history with God and began to stir up thankfulness and look at the good things in His life that God was doing and it brought breakthrough. Tony had met with bears and lions before and so had strategies to tackle the giant with.
David’s skirmishes with the bear and the lion taught him to fight a giant and deliver a nation. What are the bears and lions in your life? Get spiritual muscles and warfare tactics by overcoming them so that on the day you hear the giants insults you’re ready to swing your sling and win!
Create history with God.
“Faith is deliberate confidence in the character of God whose ways you may not understand at the time.” ~ Oswald Chambers
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