 Photo Credit: Unknown |
| 1 Samuel 17:51: Therefore David ran, and stood upon the Philistine, and took his sword, and drew it out of the sheath thereof, and slew him, and cut off his head therewith. And when the Philistines saw their champion was dead, they fled. |
By: L. Oliver
On this day I realized that even in a God ordained trial,
Satan will still try to kill, steal, and destroy me by any means necessary. I
realized that as relentless as the enemy is, I need to be even more relentless
in my continuous faith and trust in the Lord, and pursuit his will for my life. My friends I tell you that first, Satan has
no power! He even had to get permission from the Lord to shoot his fiery darts
at me while God had me going through my valley. God does allow some trials in
our lives and in this he is working in us patience, perseverance, faith, trust,
and total dependence on him.
What is a God ordained trial? I am so glad you asked. This is a trial, a testing if you will, that
God allows for a season to push you to your purpose, to grow in him, to move us
from a place where we are comfortable and content, to build up your faith, to
see yourself for who you are, and to have no other choice but to rely on him to
meet your every need.
My God ordained trial
began when the Lord told me to leave my full time job to transition to be a
full time natural hair stylist and work in the ministry he calls La Co’Cocoa
Natural Salon, a place of healing, empowerment, encouragement, and transition.
My response was “WHAT LORD?”, “ARE YOU SERIOUS?”, and “WHY WOULD YOU CALL ME TO
DO SUCH A THING?” My response was not a
great big YES at first. I cried, I worried, I prayed, and in all of my temper
tantrum and faithlessness he only said to me “Do you trust me?"
I was in frenzy but when my heavenly father said so calmly
to me “Do you trust me?” It made me stop my tantrum and turn my attention to
him. I willingly gave him a “YES God I do”. So I stepped out on faith and left
the comfort of my stable income and walked on water in the direction towards
Jesus. I did not understand how things would work out, if they would work out,
or when. I didn’t even understand why the Lord had called me to such a great
task. During my God ordained trial, he caused me to make some other major transitions
that I never saw coming. I had to face some serious Giants in the land. There
was a giant called Naysayers, these
giants questioned me, looked at me like I was crazy, whispered behind my back
and asked “why would you do something like that?”, they thought I had lost my
mind and was going through some type of young life crisis. Then there was the
giant of Familiar. This giant had a
serious stronghold on me. Familiar places
and people gave me a sense of comfort and contentment but I was stagnant like
standing water and not going in the direction the Lord wanted, but because I
was comfortable it was hard for me to move forward. Then there was the Giant
called Fear, fear is a lethal, toxic
giant that slowly drains the very life out of your destiny and purpose, fear is
crafty and cunning, it disguises itself in many ways. Fear says “you are not ready”, “you can’t do
this”, “wait a little while longer until you can make things better”, “you
don’t have enough of this or that to do this thing so just don’t do it at all”.
The Giant of fear is strong and subtle and slowly wraps itself around you like
a life chocking vine. The Giant of Doubt
is the best friend of fear, they work hand in hand to keep you blinded to God’s
will for you life and deaf to God’s voice of direction.
During my trial and transition, I finally submitted my will
to God’s will and in the testing there were things and people that fell off my
life. I was delivered and God humbled me
in areas I didn’t even realize I needed to be humbled. He illuminated my
insides and made it plain for me to see what he wanted to work out of me to
clean and purify this vessel, and then he poured back into me every good and
perfect gift that only comes from above.
The Lord led me to the book of 1 Samuel 17: 1-58.
This is the story of David and Goliath. Goliath was David’s giant. Goliath represented something that was big
and enormous, and Goliath’s purpose was to defeat David and the Israelites and
claim victory. The Israelites were afraid just at the enormity of the giant. Goliath had not even made a move toward them
at this time. This is typical of a giant looking more intimidating than it
really is. Think of a giant you face and
notice how it does the same thing to us. At the very sight of it we become
afraid, the giant has not even made a move yet but we immediately become
intimidated just at the sight and sound of it.
David was the only one out of the whole army of men who boldly
stood up to say “your servant will go and fight him” (v32). David said that God had rescued him from the
dangers in the land before and God will rescue him from being defeated by
Goliath this time. David did not see this giant any different than any other
giant he faced before. So endowed with faith, strength, and the power of God,
David boldly told Goliath (the giant) what he will do to him to slay him.
Imagine telling your giant before you slay it that you will come against it in
the name of the Lord, strike it down, and cut its head off.
God gave David wisdom on how to defeat his enemy and the
strength and faith to do it. It didn’t take heavy artillery to bring this
massive being to his face and ultimately to his death. After David slayed the giant, the enemy fled. The
Lord got the victory in this battle.
Do you see the parallel between your giant and David?
My name and your name may not be David but I have something
in common with him. First I am a child of the most High God, endowed with the
wisdom, power, and strength he has given me to defeat every giant that tries to
block me from what God has purposed for me.
The Lord gives us the power in him to slay every giant that is an
obstacle to our purpose and destiny.
What Giant is in your land that is trying to block you? Is it fear? Doubt? Anxiety? Worry? Family? Impatience? Money? Depression? Faithlesness?
Past hurts? Mistrust? Low Self Esteem? SLAY IT! In the name of Jesus. No weapon formed against you shall prosper.
SLAY IT! Speak to the giant, tell it that it will be slayed, bring it down to
its face, stand on it and cut its head off! SLAY IT! Recover your strength, SLAY IT! Move into
your destiny with no fear! SLAY IT!
Get your sling shot fill it with prayer, faith, trust in the
Lord, Praise, and the Word of God and SLAY
that giant in the name of Jesus! According to Matthew 11:12 the Kingdom of
Heaven suffereth violence and the violent take it by force. Do you know what
this means my friends? it means
forcefully fight the enemy with our spiritual weapons. Presses forward, don’t
give in to the giants in your land. There is a battle going on that is
spiritual and it can only be fought with zeal and the Lord’s power in order
defeat the enemy of our faith.
I still face Giants in the land even after my YES to God’s
will for my life, even after submitting and surrendering totally to him. I beat
those giants but today God helped me to SLAY the biggest Giant in my land. Like
David, I told the Giant it will be defeated, I struck it down, put my foot on
it and cut its head off. Yes I am the Giant slayer and will continue to slay
any giant that gets in my way and my God gets all the Glory for it!
No comments:
Post a Comment