Verse 36 Your servant has killed both lion and bear; and this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, seeing he has defied the armies of the living God.
Last week we talked about our responsibility for the place the town, the city, the nation and we live in. We are responsible for the peace of that place for God said that he would forgive and heal the land if we humbled ourselves and turned from the things that we do wrong. We also discussed the need for us to focus on what we need to put right in our lives rather than pointing out what is wrong with others.
Isaiah 58:9 nkjv; Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; you shall cry, and He will say, Here I am. If you take away the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness.
We learned that if we are to move into a new season for our lives we have to be very carful about what we allow to come forth from our mouths. Our words must be seasoned with faith for it is faith that pleases God. One thing we do not want to do is to make the same mistakes with our mouth and get ourself right back into the old season. Remember the bible says that God has called us from glory to glory that means our best is yet to come and our best days are still ahead of us! “Do not say.”
So how do we avoid making the same mistakes in our new season?
Well the first thing that we need to agree on and settle in our hearts is that we will experience the future and the hope God has set out for us and before us. Our part in this equation of course is we must be willing to make any adjustments, corrections, and changes that the Holy Spirit leads us to make. One of those changes is to put a guard over our mouths and this is accomplished as we speak forth faith and testify to what God has done and is doing in our lives rather than being caught up with all the things that want to pull us down.
Note David’s confession;
1 Samuel 17:36; Your servant has killed both lion and bear; and this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, seeing he has defied the armies of the living God.
Words either free us, or they bind us. Words either build us up, or they tear us down. Words either encourage us or discourage us. Words declare a heart full of compliments or a heart full of complaints.
David did not get caught up with the words of fear that God’s people and king Saul got caught up with. Yes there was a giant to defeat and yes this giant was real but David was more concerned with testifying what God had done in and thru him then what was standing in front of him. This was just another opportunity for God to work in him and thru him.
Verse 37 Moreover David said, "The Lord, who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, He will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.
David testifies to what had been and then declares what will be and the foundation of this declaration was what already had been.
We all at some time or other have had some run ins with the lions and the bears of life and some of us are still facing and still running into them but we as His people have seen God bring us through time after time and delivered us from the paw of the lion and the bear and it is these experiences we need to remember and it is these victories we need to declare as we press toward the new season before us.
We have to be careful about what comes out of our mouths and what we listen to that comes out of other mouths.
Heb 11:3 nkjv; by faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.
Note Hebrews says that words frame worlds. The life or the world we live in has been framed has been created or formed by words - words that both others and we have spoken and then we have made these words a part of our life.
Words are absolutely vital and that is why we are encouraged to place a watch over our mouth.We have already learnt from scripture that words contain the power of life and of death.
Proverbs 18:21 njkv says, Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit.
The seed we sow with our mouth forms the fruit we eat. David framed his world with words of what God did and then releases the word of faith and slays the giant that stood before him.
When God called Jeremiah to be the prophet he wanted him to be Jeremiah was afraid of what was going to happen and so he begins to build a framework around his life to protect himself. He tries to create a world or a veneer that would insulate him from what he has to face and he does this by the words he speaks.
Listen to what he says;
Jeremiah 1:6 nkjv then said I Ah, Lord God! Behold, I cannot speak, for I am a youth.
Then in the next verse God corrects him and the world that Jeremiah was trying to create; Verse 7; But the Lord said to me: Do not say, ‘I am a youth,’ For you shall go to all to whom I send you, and whatever I command you, you shall speak. Do not say, why? Because worlds are formed by the words that you say.
It is so important to read and meditate and know what God says about us and what we have and can do in this life and stop listening to the voice of the enemy who is trying to get you to create a world that does not in any way line up with the world that God wants you to live in.
Proverbs 6:2 nkjv says we are snared by the words of our mouth; we are taken by the words of our mouth. So what this is saying is that it is possible to first be “snared” or caught in the trap and then “taken” away from the world God wants us to have by the negative words of our mouth!
Today to many wonderful people are living far beyond the level of life that they were created for because of words spoken by them or words received that were spoken by others. In some way they are snared in that circle of life because their confession has not changed. We need to dream of life in our hearts, we need to dream and vision our life in God and settle it in our hearts so that from the abundance of our heart let our mouth speak.
Having the choice in life to speak what ever we will and then knowing the power of our words it behooves us as believers to retrain our mouths to speak good things especially over our lives and loved ones. What we say can make the difference between success and failure. You will see that victory and defeat is found in the words we speak.
Pro 18:21 “...And those who love it will eat its fruit.”As we speak we enjoy the fruit of our speach whether good or bad. Good words bring a good harvest.
Proverbs 18:20 njkv says; A man's stomach shall be satisfied from the fruit of his mouth; From the produce of his lips he shall be filled
This brings us to the second thought I would like to share; once we have decide that we want to live different then we have to give weight to that which we have conceived in our hearts by declaring the matter. Our declaration enforces and reinforces our decisions. Once we have decided to come out of our old season, we then need to declare that decision with the words of our mouth.
David faced the giant because his heart was full of the possibilities of God and despite the desire in his heart to see the giant destroyed, desire was never enough to get the job done. David had to give strength to his desires by declaring the matter. When we were confronted with the revelation that Jesus is Lord it was not enough for us to have the desire to be saved or even a belief that we need to be saved there had to be a declaration of that belief there had to be a world created where that belief could grow.
Romans 10:9-10 nkjv says; that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
There has to be a belief then a confession.
How often as believers have we been distracted away from believing that God heals and so we don’t confess it as much as we ought because we have settled with the thought that yes we know God heals for the bibles says that every one that came to Jesus was healed and Psalm 103:2-3 says; Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits: Who forgives all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases. We have no trouble with this for the possibilities are all there in the bible, we know about but what we may struggle with is do we know that God wants to heal us.
Before we can change direction or cause something good to happen, we must first decide something and step into the belief of it, and then we must declare it to be so. If we believe that God heals then we have to conceive and release the belief of it into our hearts and don’t let go of it no matter what circumstance throw up at us and then begin to declare our belief in the goodness of God in the land of the living.
Job 22:28 nkjv you will also declare a thing, and it will be established for you; So light will shine on your ways.
When we decide and declare something, it will be established in our life. Nothing happens until you declare it.
This new season do not say anything that will not produce life but instead Use our own mouth to speak into our future. Use the creative force that God has given us to speak into our goals, dreams, desires, and what we know God has for us according to His word. Use our mouth to speak deliverance use our mouth to speak perseverance, for life instead of death.
Let me close with this thought. We will eat the fruit of our lips and some times we can be led away by the fruit of others. When David is about to face the giant the promise to him or who ever slays the giant was to be part of the kings household and that seems to be a great offer in its self but the reality is that God did not want him to be part of the kings house God had destined David to be the king himself.
No matter how persuasive the words of another are or how great the offer or how persuasive this offer is to solve the problems of our lives we have to stop and ask our selves is this what God has called me into. Do I join another or do I become the king of the situation my self. There is a difference between what God offers and what a man may offer. Too often on our way to our destiny there are opportunities to become side tracked. There is no doubt that this has be the ruin of a many a wonderful Christian. Some times in the midst of facing a giant it becomes more inviting to partake in the things that impress men instead of the things that impress God.
David knew where his strength came from and this then enabled him to defeat the lion and the bear,he declared where his strength came form and this enabled him to be ready for the challenge of Giant. The difficulty for us on our road to destiny is to remember that our strength comes from His presence and it is God’s presence in our lives that causes us to have victories not our strength and if we remember this then the giant no matter how big will be defeated.
“Do not say”
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