FEAR NO EVIL: DAVID AND GOLIATH

“But David said to Saul, “Your servant was tending his father’s sheep. When a lion or a bear came and took a lamb out of the flock, I went out after it and attacked it and rescued the lamb from its mouth; and when it rose up against me, I seized it by its whiskers and struck and killed it. Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; and this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, since he has taunted and defied the armies of the living God.” David said, “The Lord who rescued me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, He will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine.” And Saul said to David, “Go, and may the Lord be with you.” 1 Samuel 16:34-37AMP

The Lord is gracious and kind, full of mercy and love. In Him we live and find meaning! It has pleased God to open us up to another level entirely as we keep digging deeper into Him concerning our series on FEAR NO EVIL. We have been made to learn about different important points as regards this topic, in the past few posts we’ve published on this series. Today, we will start to explore biblical characters that will further help us glean more into God’s mind for us concerning this topic.

Amongst the numerous Bible stories that have become household stories that we can’t stop talking about for many centuries now, the story of David and his surprising victory against Goliath the giant tops the chart. No Sunday Children Bible class is complete without this special story. Despite it being known by almost everyone that passed through church from childhood, it still hasn’t lost its value and significance. There are many salient lessons to be learnt from the life of David and how God used him to save the Israelites at this particular time. In this episode, we shall be paying attention to the early journeys of David that led to his becoming God’s Champion at such an early age and how it relates to fearing no evil. Get ready for the Fire Experience!

What marks out those that overcome evil days and turn it into avenues for the glory of God to be made manifest, are those that are prepared for the evil days.

The best way to start a profound story like this is to expose us to the unwritten background outplay that led to the whole story. The first few words known to start our Holy Bible read thus: “In the beginning, God…”; God reigned supreme over everything that we see and know in the entire universe. By taking a closer look at God’s dealing with people both in the Old and New testament, we can depict that God always seem to take His time in training the people He plans to turn into saviors for every generation that ever existed till date. There seems to be an invisible training school and learning curriculum that keep marking out God’s special envoys in every move God orchestrated in the past. Men like Abraham, Joseph, Moses and Elijah all lived like gods on earth! Their lives proved to their world beyond reasonable doubt that it is possible to represent and witness a God that has never been physically present and yet meet His requirements which can be widely seen by all through the supernatural results that decorated their days and times! We are not the first generation that God will be interested in doing business with! We are about to take a closer look at the early days of David and how God’s hand landed on him silently to train and prepare him for a life of destiny fulfillment!

It is possible for God to take us through valleys of shadows of death and yet walk out of those dungeons unharmed through trusting in Him!

David was brought up in a way that positioned him for God’s special training, at a tender age. There are not many great generals that the Bible recorded their younger years and process of growth. Luckily for us, the little details that was given about the early days of David are enough to glean into how God’s business with his life started, which led to him not having to fear no evil all through his dangerous and frightening stay on earth. 1 Samuel 16 showed us the kind of path he chose very early in life. Verse 11-13 read thus: Then Samuel said to Jesse, “Are all your sons here?” Jesse replied, “There is still one left, the youngest; he is tending the sheep.” Samuel said to Jesse, “Send word and bring him; because we will not sit down [to eat the sacrificial meal] until he comes here.” So Jesse sent word and brought him in. now he had a ruddy complexion, with beautiful eyes and a handsome appearance. The Lord said [to Samuel], “Arise, anoint him; for this is he.” Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed David in the presence of his brothers; and the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon David from that day forward. And Samuel arose and went to Ramah. 1 Samuel 16:11-13AMP.

Jesse, the father of David said that David was away in the field tending the sheep(let’s not forget that he was the youngest son). How is it that the youngest son which was supposed to be enjoying the company of his father and be overwhelmed with attention and care was now the one out in the fields tending for His father’s sheep? This speaks so much about the sense of responsibility and seriousness. The right questions to ask here is: “At what time in your life did you start to take life serious?” “When did you start taking responsibility for the important issues of your life?” These are the silent virtues that singled out David early for God’s special training for destiny.

Meeting God early means initiating the training process early and as a result, becoming qualified to manifest destiny in God at a tender age.

The open field where sheep could graze and be tendered would definitely be a far-away from home. This kind of atmosphere opened up the young David to challenges and the scary dangers of this world at a very tender age. What we can call the evils of his days met him in a location where he could decide to do whatever seemed right to him without anyone questioning him for it. So far he was out in the fields, he was in charge and responsible for his decisions and actions. The events that followed later in 1 Samuel 16 gave us the report card that David lived those early moments well! He met God! His words and actions in latter chapters revealed that he indeed met God and was trained by God to fear no evil. The aloneness and separation that surround his staying out of home at an early age became his point of meeting God and being trained by God, thus his season of Becoming was initiated! When you meet God matters! The earlier you encounter God, the better for your destiny! Meeting God early means: initiating the training process early and as a result, becoming qualified to manifest destiny in God at a tender age. David got it right very early. You don’t have to wait till you are thirty-five years before submitting to God. Start Now!

When you meet God matters! The earlier you encounter God, the better for your destiny!

Moving on, after the prophetic ordination of David as the King over Israel while Saul was still on the throne physically, the Bible recorded that the mighty hand of God began to move upon David from that time henceforth. 1 Samuel 17 opened up the legendry war between the Philistines and the Israelites. David happened to appear on the battle ground while running errand for his father; this is another important lesson to note about the early days of David. He was a responsible and dependable young man that could be trusted with matters that required urgency and seriousness. What made Jesse his father so sure that his son wouldn’t ignore the assignment and go about wasting precious time by joining his mates to follow the order of the day?

Only men that have passed through the training process of God will stand tall in the days of trouble!

David seemed to be the youngest lad in the camp of Israel, having delivered the message of his father successfully, he witnessed Goliath intimidating and humiliating Israel’s army as he had been doing for 40 days. That marked the entrance of David into that war zone. There are different circumstances that leads us into what we term “evil” in our days. What matters most is what you do when the evil days come. Evil days will surely come to the lives of every man on earth; but what marks out those that overcome the evil and turn it into avenues for the glory of God to be made manifest, are those that are prepared for the evil days. Only men that have passed through the training process of God, men that have been conquered by the love of God and as a result can no longer fear any man will stand tall in the days of trouble! We all know how the battle against Goliath ended, David finished him off with a sling, bringing victory to God’s people flawlessly.

It is true that the strength of your encounters with God in the secret place tells us the kind of result your life will command!

Furthermore, we need to consider the journey into how David emerged as the Champion of Israel that eventually faced Goliath and led them to victory. In verse 34-37 of 1 Samuel 17 which is our anchor scripture, we saw that David already bold-talked his way to the presence of King Saul on the battle field. The words in that passage proved that he had stayed enough with God to witness the dimension of God that Goliath was challenging in battle that day! It is true that the strength of your encounters with God in the secret place tells us the kind of result your life will command! David had the track record of killing a Lion and a Bear with his bear hands! Pause and picture that scene for a moment. If you have ever being to a Zoological garden before and seen movies about wild animals, you will be able to picture the words of David better and realize how scary what he said was! Who goes about killing a goat or a dog with bear hands?

The situations life is bringing to you constantly are not meant for you to weep about but to trust God to walk you through them all and learn life-long lessons from them that will turn you into God’s champion eventually!

Now, David didn’t tear a dog or a leopard apart with his hands, he caught a lion by its jaw and struck it! Without depleting the intensity of this supernatural display of the spirit of might at work in the life of the young David. Can you try to turn the lion and the bear that David killed into lion-like situations of life and bear-like challenges that a man can face while walking through life? We are seeing a clear picture that it is possible for God to take us through valleys of shadows of death and yet walk out of those dungeons unharmed through trusting in Him! The situations life is bringing to you constantly are not meant for you to weep about or complain about, rather you are to trust God to walk you through them all and learn life-long lessons from them that will turn you into God’s champion eventually!

The place of hiding is the best location to impress God and project to Him that you are faithful enough to represent Him to your world.

Finally, we saw that David won God’s heart where it mattered most, in the secret place! This is one important lesson this generation of believers are missing out the most! The place of hiding is the best location to impress God and project to Him that you are faithful enough to represent Him to your world through your unshakable faith and demonstrations of trust in Him as He leads you through different phases of your life! David succeeded in catching God’s attention in his season of hiding, where no one knew him, far away from the noise and applauds of men that can be misleading and distracting!

Each dimension of God that you have captured in your season of training is the area in which God will position you to stand as His witness in the face of terror and bring glory to His Name.

When David declared his victory ahead in verse 45-47, he proved that he understood the victorious dimension of God and by so doing, Goliath became a dead meat while still standing on his feet. Each dimension of God that you have captured in your season of training is potentially the area in which God will position you to stand as His witness in the face of terror and bring glory to His Name just like David! There is no excuse for anyone in this generation. God is still in the business of making men and training them to fear no evil. Will you be that God’s witness that will turn the darkest nights of this world into unforgettable days of jubilation? God is waiting! Shalom.