Lessons from David: How to Be a Giant Killer (10 page)

David, however, wasn’t the only one who had been through distress and suffered loss; all of his men had been with him. The Scripture goes on to say:

And David was greatly distressed; for the people spake of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters.

This just adds insult to injury! The guys who had been with David through all his troubles turned on him, as if it was his fault all of these things had happened! He had provided for them, led them to victory in battle, and how did they repay him? They blamed him for this tragedy! David could have just quit right here. Most people wouldn’t have survived this one incident, let alone what David had been through the previous thirteen years. Yet, this was happening less than twenty-four to forty-eight hours from David seeing his dreams fulfilled.

David Was No Fool

If David had quit and given up, which is what he was tempted to do, he wouldn’t have become king. He could have given up and his men would have dispersed, or he could have said, “What’s the use? What’s the point in living now?” and let his men kill him. This is just like what Job’s wife told him after they had been through terrible loss:

Dost thou still retain thine integrity? curse God, and die.

Job 2:9

There’s a great lesson in this. I guarantee you will be pushed to a place where you will think, “Why even try anymore? I should just give up.” But look at how Job answered his wife when she made that suggestion:

Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh.

Job 2:10

It would have been foolish for David to give up, even in the face of this tragic situation. But David was no fool! He stuck with God no matter what. The Bible tells us how he responded:

But David encouraged himself in the LORD his God.

This is powerful! I can’t tell you how many times God has used this to speak to me. I’ve been in situations where in the natural, it looked like I ought to just quit. Then I remembered this passage of Scripture and realized that David was in a worse place than I have ever been in, yet he was able to encourage himself in the Lord. Very few people do this. They’re always calling somebody else, depending on them to bring encouragement. But you have to get to where you encourage yourself in the Lord. How do you do that? There are lots of ways to do this. Right here in the very next verse, it says,

And David said to Abiathar the priest, Ahimelech’s son, I pray thee, bring me hither the ephod. And Abiathar brought thither the ephod to David.

The ephod was a breastplate that the priests wore and somehow or another, God could communicate through the stones that were on it. This would be comparable in our day to the Word of God. God speaks to us through the Word. David encouraged himself by going back to the Word. I’ve done this same thing many times. I just go to the Word, start remembering the promises God gave me, and encourage myself in Him.

Speak in Tongues

Another benefit that I think a lot of Christians do not take advantage of is speaking in tongues. The Scripture says in 1 Corinthians 14:

He that speaketh in an unknown tongue edifieth himself.

The word “edify” means to build up. It says something similar in Jude:

But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost.

Jude 20

That’s talking about speaking in tongues too. When you speak in tongues, you are building yourself up on your most holy faith. Now, I know there are a lot of people who don’t understand these verses and they say, “What does speaking in tongues have to do with anything? It’s total gibberish! I don’t see how speaking in tongues would make a difference.” But one of the very reasons that speaking in tongues is so powerful is because it doesn’t make sense to the natural mind.

If therefore the whole church be come together into one place, and all speak with tongues, and there come in those that are unlearned, or unbelievers, will they not say that ye are mad?

Your carnal mind will say you’re foolish for speaking in tongues. It will try to stop you. But the reason speaking in tongues is so powerful is because if you do it over a prolonged period of time, it forces you to get into your most holy faith. Why? Because you don’t know what you’re saying.

For he that speaketh in an unknown tongue speaketh not unto men, but unto God: for no man understandeth him; howbeit in the spirit he speaketh mysteries.

When it comes to speaking in tongues, there’s a tendency not to do it. It takes faith to believe that there’s actually a benefit to doing it. But as the Scriptures say in 1 Corinthians 14:4, you edify yourself when you speak in tongues. You are building yourself up and promoting your spiritual growth. In order to pray in tongues over a prolonged period of time, you have to move into faith because you have to overcome thoughts that what you’re doing is silly and foolish. But if you persist, you’ll move into faith and begin to edify yourself.

I say all this to say that for the New Testament believer, when you need encouragement like David did, you can pray in tongues and build yourself up. If you’ve been filled with the Spirit, this is a resource you need to use. It’s with you all the time! God has given this resource to you, and you can speak in tongues anytime you want and receive this benefit. This is tremendous!

There are many Spirit-filled people who will allow themselves to go into depression. They will sit there and pray, “God, I need something. Would You please send someone my way?” I’m not denying the fact that God can use other people. I believe that God is using me right now to speak to you. If you’ve been praying for direction from God, here’s help coming your way: You need to be like David and encourage yourself in the Lord. In the New Testament, speaking in tongues is one of the most important things that you could possibly do.

Hold On!

There’s not a single a Christian who is facing something more than they can bear.

There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.

Satan doesn’t have different things to throw at you. It’s the same contents with a different wrapper and a different bow on it. You will never have to endure something you just can’t handle. You might think that’s not true, that I don’t know your situation. Well, I know the Word of God, and God promised He would not suffer you to be tempted above what you are able to handle. Everything you’re facing is what’s common to man. When it seems like you can’t stand another minute and you’ve hit your limits, God is going to make some way of escape so you can survive and come through victoriously.

David was in that situation, but if he would have given in to his hurt and pain and just given up hope, he would have done so only hours before he would have received what he had been patiently waiting on for thirteen years. I’m telling you, if you feel like you should quit, you could be just moments away from seeing the breakthrough you’ve been looking for.

You’ve got to encourage yourself in the Lord and stand on the promise that He will not suffer you to be tempted above what you are able to handle. God is telling you to hold on! Don’t quit! Don’t give up! Encourage yourself in the Lord. God is going to come through.

After David encouraged himself, he asked God what he should do about his situation:

And David enquired at the LORD, saying, Shall I pursue after this troop? shall I overtake them? And he answered him, Pursue: for thou shalt surely overtake them, and without fail recover all.

The rest of this story says that David took leadership of his men, they submitted unto him, and he pursued the Amalekites, caught them off guard, and completely destroyed them. This is a great example of what I was talking about in the previous chapter: David pursued his enemies until they couldn’t come back. He didn’t just fight the Amalekite army until he couldn’t see them anymore; he kept going until he utterly destroyed them! We need to learn to do the same thing in our lives.

David and his men got back every woman, every child, and all of their livestock—they didn’t lose a single life. Plus, they got all the spoil of the Amalekites! God blessed them. Then, just hours after this, David received the news that Saul had been killed in battle, and he was crowned king. So after thirteen years, when things were at their worst, David encouraged himself in the Lord and that’s when he saw the breakthrough!

You might be contemplating quitting, but remember what Peter said:

Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life.

John 6:68

Where else can you go? Who else has the words of everlasting life? You don’t have anywhere else to go; you just need to stand and believe God. You need to get to the place David was. His dreams began to come to pass in a relatively short period of time because he didn’t quit. If you will stand your ground and encourage yourself in the Lord, you’ll become a victor like David. You’ll outlast what the devil is trying to do in your life. This is one of the great lessons you can learn from the life of David.

Chapter 11
Actions and the Heart

Let’s contrast Saul, who was the first king of the nation of Israel; David, who has been the focus of our study; and Absalom, David’s son who tried to take the kingdom from his father by force. These are the three kings we’re going to look at.

David is one of the central figures of the Bible. Only Moses had more chapters written by him and about him. This means that by sheer volume, David occupies the attention of a tremendous amount of scripture. He’s the only person the Word calls “a man after God’s own heart” (1 Samuel 13:14).

Born-Again Spirit

As New Testament believers, every one of us who have been born again now have God’s heart placed within us. This is a fulfillment of Ezekiel’s prophecies:

And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh.

Ezekiel 11:19

A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you.

Ezekiel 36:26-27

Every born-again Christian has a recreated heart that is superior to what David had. However, not every believer operates in this. Even David himself, the man after God’s own heart, didn’t always operate in accordance with the Lord. He had flesh flashes that were devastating.

We’re going to look at these three kings and give priority to showing that David walked in the superior way. This doesn’t mean that everything he did was right. God’s Word records his sins, too. But we need to look at these three kings in order to see what made David a man after God’s own heart.

An Imperfect Relationship

In contrast to both Saul and Absalom, David’s heart was what made him a man after God’s own heart. It wasn’t primarily his actions, but his heart.

When talking about what grants us God’s favor—what things the Lord looks at that please Him—most people today will put the emphasis on actions. The Word reveals, however, that there is a relationship between what’s in our heart and our actions.

But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead? For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.

James 2:20, 26

The Bible calls a person a hypocrite who says they are something but whose actions never back up that description. So there is a relationship between actions and what is really in someone’s heart. However, it isn’t necessarily a perfect relationship.

Actions aren’t always a perfect reflection of what’s truly in a person’s heart. For instance, David—a man after God’s own heart—committed adultery and then murder in order to cover up his adultery. Now certainly, those weren’t expressions of God’s heart. When David did this, he was unplugged from the Lord. He wasn’t walking with God. But even though David sinned in doing these things, he remained a man after God’s own heart.

As you and I become people after God’s own heart, it will be reflected in our actions. If someone claims to be something but there are no actions to back it up, then it’s appropriate to call them hypocritical. However, we can have a good heart and still do some stupid things. We can have a heart after God and still have occasional flesh flashes where we do some severely wrong things.

Once David was reproved, the way he responded to his sin by both his attitude and actions, revealed God’s heart. In our church world today, I think we’re too judgmental of people’s actions. We need to take them into account. We can’t just separate a person from their actions, because actions are an indication of what’s inside a person. But there’s more to it than that. It’s a heart issue.

Comparative Morality

There’s no record in Scripture of Saul ever committing adultery. He was never reproved over sexual immorality of any kind. It’s possible that there could have been some of this type of sin in his life, but if there was any, it wasn’t an issue. And it certainly wasn’t why God rejected him.