[Linux4christians] OT: SO GOOD, I had to post it! Giant Killing Faith

[Fred A. Miller]

    Giant Killing Faith

*Scroll*

     Those upon whom the fulfillment of the ages has come, have _much_ 
to learn about faith from the Biblical account of David killing Goliath, 
and, as it is with much of the Old Testament, this event in David's life 
was not meant for him alone. It was also intended as a source of 
_revelation_ for us, because there be *GIANTS* greater than Goliath 
gathering just over the horizon to persecute the people of the Lord and 
oppose the will of God in the last days.
Giants, although never common, were apparently not uncommon in David's 
day, and we're not talking about NBA seven footers. We're talking about 
nine feet of muscle and sinew. They would have their own weight class in 
the WCW or WWF.

       In *Genesis 6:2-4* we find that the occurrence of giants 
originated with a strange event in which fallen angels, referred to here 
as "sons of God", mated with women.

/*      When men began to increase in number on the earth and daughters 
were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were 
beautiful, and they married any of them they chose. Then the LORD said, 
"My Spirit will not contend with man forever, for he is mortal; his days 
will be a hundred and twenty years." */
*/ The Nephilim...(giants)... were on the earth in those days and also 
afterward when the sons of God went to the daughters of men and had 
children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown. (insert is 
the author's) /*

*/ /*

Mankind, with bloodlines corrupted by fallen angels, was given over to 
evil in those days, and God determined to cleanse the earth with a 
flood. Only Noah, his wife, his sons, and their wives were spared.

However, in Numbers we find that the descendents of the Nephilim still 
existed in the days when Moses led the Israelites to the promised land.

*/       We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from 
the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we 
looked the same to them. /**/_Numbers 13:33 NIV_

/*

*/ /* Although scripture does not provide an explanation, it is possible 
that at least one of the wives of Noah's sons was contaminated by the 
Nephilim bloodline. This would seem strange since the very purpose of 
the flood was to purge sinful mankind, but Noah's sons, their wives, and 
any children would have been covered or sanctified by Noah's covenant 
with God, regardless of their individual standing with God and 
regardless of any contamination of the bloodline.

It also appears that Gath was the stronghold of these descendents of 
fallen angels and the daughters of men, and Goliath the Gittite was the 
predominant Nephilim of his day, the champion and hero of the Philistines.
Goliath challenged the Israelites to provide a champion of their own to 
face him in single combat, because, from the Philistine point of view, 
if the Israelites were foolish enough to take up the challenge, Israel 
would quickly become subjugated to them.

On the surface of things it seems unlikely that a young man, who was 
still considered to be too young for military service, would be allowed 
by Saul to face this giant, since the outcome of this uneven fight could 
put the entire nation of Israel into slavery.

*So why did he allow it?*

Unknown to Saul, David had already been anointed by Samuel to be the 
future king of Israel (1 Samuel 1:1-13), and Saul had chosen him to be 
one of his armor-bearers, although Saul did not yet know that David had 
been anointed to take his place as king of Israel.

The fact that Saul did not know about David's anointing by Samuel is 
easy to understand. David's brothers could have spread the word, but 
they were embarrassed by their own rejection, and David himself kept 
quiet, waiting on the Lord to reveal the anointing at the appropriate time.

Therefore, David, as Saul's armor-bearer, had some standing with Saul 
before the event, or he would never have had an audience with Saul at 
the battlefront. And Saul's jealousy had not yet been aroused, because 
he knew nothing of David's anointing.

*/      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 Samuel 
17:32-37 NIV_

       David's account of killing the lion and the bear is unbelievable 
when considered from the natural point of view, and it would have been 
just as unbelievable to Saul. The only other person in the Bible who 
killed a lion with his bare hands was Samson, and he only killed a 
"young lion". Not even a powerful grown man is capable of seizing a lion 
or bear by the hair and killing it with a single blow. *Only a man 
anointed and empowered by the Holy Spirit would be capable of such a 
feat.** *

We assume, because of Saul's failure later in life, that he was _not_ a 
man of faith, but only a man who had been given "ears to hear" would 
have believed that David had killed a lion and a bear with his bare 
hands in the strength and anointing of the Holy Spirit.

       Many who have read this account miss the singular and important 
fact that Saul believed, *by faith*, David's account of killing a lion 
and a bear, and he, too, received *by faith* the promise that this 
uncircumcised (outside the covenants of God) giant could not stand 
against the anointed of God, even if the anointed one was still a 
shepherd boy and not a warrior.

* *The decision to let David face Goliath is proof that Saul's own faith 
was involved in the decision and, yet, he tried to equip David with his 
own armor and weapons.

In the life of the body of Christ today that would be the equivalent of 
receiving a command or commission by revelation from the Holy Spirit and 
then trying to implement that command or commission with the strong arm 
of the flesh.

It won't work, as many Christians and many churches today have proven 
over and over. The work of the Lord is only effective when the grace 
(anointing and empowerment) of God is manifested through our active 
faith, and David's faith was evident.

David rejected Saul's armor, saying, "I cannot go in these, because I am 
not used to them."

His rejection of Saul's armor was a rejection of the strong arm of the 
flesh in favor of the power of God.

In this account we also see how the Holy Spirit prepared David for this 
work of faith by allowing him to face the lion and the bear. *Sometimes 
we don't understand the difficulties and hardships we have faced in the 
past until we have to face the giant.* Then we understand that we would 
never have had the faith to stand against the giant if we had not 
experienced other fiery trials along the way. *The fiery trials were 
_necessary_ for the development of David's faith, and they are necessary 
for ours as well.*

Oddly enough David's killing of a lion and a bear appears not to have 
been known by anyone but David. He kept it to himself until the Holy 
Spirit caused him to reveal it to Saul. If he had revealed it to his 
family at the time, he would either have been ridiculed as a liar and a 
braggart, or he would have become a famous folk hero.

       How many of us would keep such a thing to ourselves? But David 
kept quiet and waited on the Lord.

As David prepared for the fight he picked up _five_ smooth stones as the 
Lord obviously instructed and put them into his shepherd's bag. But why 
_five_ stones? If the Lord was going to deliver Goliath into his hands 
why would he need five stones? Was this an act of unbelief, a momentary 
lapse in the extraordinary anointing of the moment?

       Yet, immediately afterward we hear David prophesying to Goliath.

David said to the Philistine,*/You come against me with sword and spear 
and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the LORD Almighty, 
the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the LORD 
will hand you over to me, and I'll strike you down and cut off your 
head. Today I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the 
birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and the whole world will 
know that there is a God in Israel. All those gathered here will know 
that it is not by sword or spear that the LORD saves; for the battle is 
the LORD's, and he will give all of you into our hands./*

*In David's heart it is already done*. He had the *revelation* of God, 
and he is so eager for the manifestation that he _ran_ toward Goliath.

Can you imagine the giant's confusion? He is a fully armored, battle 
hardened, four hundred pound warrior, and David is a teenage boy in 
sandals running toward him with a slingshot whirling around his head in 
a noisy blur.

The outcome was never in doubt with David, and the outcome should never 
be in doubt with us.

*If we have the revelation of God in our hearts* we should run to the 
battle with the joy of the Lord rising up inside us no matter how the 
circumstances seem to be stacked against us.

David's faith was not something he worked up on his own. He didn't copy 
some other man of faith, using his words and actions. He didn't dig 
through the Bible looking for promises to claim. He didn't decide that 
he wanted to kill Goliath so he could marry the king's daughter and then 
try to work up the faith to get the job done.

He did what New Testament believers are supposed to do. He did not try 
to direct the anointing to meet his needs. *He responded with obedience 
to the anointing he received.*

When Samuel anointed David, David did not refuse, nor did he boast. He 
simply received and believed, and he waited on the Lord. When the lion 
and the bear attacked the sheep David responded to the anointing without 
hesitation, and the Lord allowed him to experience the supernatural 
power of the Holy Spirit. Again he did not boast or attempt to gain 
glory for himself. He simply obeyed and then waited on the Lord.

Most New Testament believers would immediately go out looking for more 
lions and bears to kill. Some would start a lion and bear killing 
ministry. In short order there would be a new denomination, the Church 
of the Lion Killers, who would believe that they now had the whole truth.

But David waited on the Lord, and the Lord brought him out of the fields 
to the battle where he anointed his trustworthy servant once again.

Most of us yearn to experience the power of God. We're so eager for it 
that we sometimes attempt to manufacture the manifestations of the Holy 
Spirit and attempt to manufacture the manifestations of faith, but what 
did David do? David waited on the Lord.

David would have been taught the Torah and the prophets in his family 
and in his synagogue, but he waited on the Lord in regard to the 
anointing and his faith. *He waited on the Lord, and then he responded 
to the Lord's anointing in absolute, determined, joy-filled, obedience.*

* * But what about the five stones? Wasn't that a moment of doubt, a 
momentary slip of faith? After all, it only took one stone to kill Goliath.

In 2 Samuel 21:15-22 there is an account of four more giants being 
killed by David's men.

*/      These four were descendants of Rapha in Gath, and they fell at 
the hands of David and his men/.* _2 Samuel 21:22 NIV_

       The revelation and promise of God included, not only Goliath, but 
four additional giants. Thus five stones.

       David's faith and obedience *included giants that he did not, 
yet, know about*.

There are lions and bears and giants in our lives, too. If we go up 
against them in our own strength (or with some new "faith" fad) and at 
the moment of our own choosing, we _will_ be put to flight, even though 
it is the Lord's will that we overcome.

In spite of what some teachers of the Word are saying, we cannot 
generate giant-killing faith as an act of our own will. The Lord will 
first allow the lion and the bear to come against us to prove the 
anointing and the faith He is giving us. Only then will we be allowed to 
face the giant.

*If we want to experience giant-killing faith we must first be willing 
to go through the fiery trials and the testing of our faith (the testing 
of our willingness to "hear" and "obey" the voice of the Lord in _all_ 
things).*
* *

Every experience of "hearing" and "obeying" the voice of the Lord, even 
as the still small voice of the Spirit, our spiritual conscience, every 
prayer of faith, every difficult passage of life in which we have turned 
to the Lord, trusting by faith, is a preparation for the trials to come.

Like athletes, we are either aggressively pursuing the perfection of our 
faith, or we are just "maintaining." And, like soldiers, we are either 
eager to be on the front lines, like Marines or Special Forces, killing 
giants, or we are content to be lollygagging back in camp.
       But if lollygagging back in camp is our choice we will be totally 
unprepared when the giants storm the camp, and *there _are_ 
giants preparing to storm the camp. *

* *

It is noteworthy that the lion and the bear attacked the sheep. They did 
not attack David. David's fearless, faith-filled response was triggered 
by his sense of responsibility for the sheep rather than self-defense. 
Likewise, David's response to Goliath was _not_ personal. His fearless, 
faith-filled response was against the threat to God's covenant people.

What does that tell us?

It tells me that if I want the manifestation of giant-killing faith in 
my life I must submit to the testing of my faith in all things rather 
than seeking faith "techniques" for the meeting of my own needs. It 
tells me I need to be about the business of interceding for others, 
_especially_ for my brothers and sisters in Christ, but that I must not 
attempt to _manufacture_ faith, even on behalf of others.

It tells me that if I wait on the Lord He will be faithful to anoint me 
and fill me with faith for His purpose, and it tells me that if I am 
obedient to the anointing and the revelation, the giants _will_ fall, 
even those giants that I do not, as yet, know anything about.

*But I _do_ know that they are coming, and you, brothers and sisters, if 
you are paying attention to what the Lord is saying to His church, know 
they are coming, too.*

*/See, I have _warned_ you in advance./* Matthew 24:25

------------------------------------------------------------------------

*Final Instructions cover**_Final Instructions_* - *A discipleship Bible 
study guide based on the Lord's instructions to His disciples on the day 
He was betrayed and crucified. John 13-17*

*What is the primary reason for division and strife in the church, and 
what is our individual responsibility in regard to unity in the body of 
Christ?*
*Do we have to depend on Bible experts and authorities to tell us what 
to believe, or can we learn to discern the truth, promises, and commands 
of the Lord for ourselves?*
*How do we "hear" the Lord's voice and receive His truth, promises, and 
commands?*
*What is genuine faith, and how are disciples supposed to do the "works" 
of the Lord today?*
*Available from Logos Publishing Company: **http://www.logospubco.com* 
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Liberal Mandate: NEVER let the truth interfear with your
agenda and dogma!

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