Defy

Posted by Jeffrey Smith June 13th, 2016 2,222 Views 0 Comments

1 Samuel 17:42-44: He looked David over and saw that he was only a boy, ruddy and handsome, and he despised him. He said to David, Am I a dog, that you come at me with sticks? And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. Come here, he said, and I’ll give your flesh to the birds of the air and the beasts of the field!

The whole battle doesn't happen at all unless Goliath stands up and said: “today I defy the ranks of Israel.” The definition of the word defy is to openly resist or refuse to obey. 

We can learn so much from this beyond the obvious cliché killing giants reference that we often hear at least once a year from the pulpit. There is a deeper illustration here that we must examine. I want you to imagine this whole scene playing out in your mind. There are thoughts that we have every day. We have armies worth of thoughts good and bad. The bad thoughts come against us and we have an army of thoughts to combat them.  What happens though when we can't seem to come up with something to combat that one massive thought that wants to enslave us. That thought is larger and full of judgment, fear, and defiance which refuses to go away. It taunts us and lingers there too long. We stand in a stalemate not wanting to agree to the terms of thought which is, if you fight me head to head and lose, I will own you. If you defeat me, you will own all of these other ones here too. 

You see it a fresh revelation that we often need. These thoughts have to obey, they can try and defy, but they cannot stay disobedient to us forever. Why? Because we aren't fighting a foe with a sword. 

I love how Goliath says " that you come at me with sticks?" There is no mention of any sticks in what David is carrying. The description is amazingly detailed about what Goliath is wearing. Head to toe in bronze, a 15lb. tipped blade on his spear, yet David had only 5 smooth stones in his bag and a sling. He took off the armor and didn't even have a sword on him. The sticks Goliath is referring to is the cross of Christ. The five smooth stones represent the number of grace, and the sling is the ministry that gets the stone to hit Goliath square in the forehead. Goliath had a bronze helmet on so, it would have had to be a perfect shot. That is how we overcome thoughts that seem to occupy our minds. We hit it in the head with the victory of Jesus Christ. The grace that fills us is more than enough to defeat a foe that looks to defy a child of God. Do you understand? David didn't wear the armor or sword because he wasn't used to it, and it didn't fit. That is what happens to us when we try and put on things that don't fit us to try and defeat a foe in the natural instead of the supernatural.

It is what David says to him that we need to carry with us from this moment forward. When you have a thought that is negative or against God's best for you, remember this. David tells Saul about how he killed a lion and a bear, and says, " this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the Living God." While facing Goliath, David says in Sam 17:45: ..."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."

We know the rest of the story. We must get in agreement with the power of the Living God. We don't barter with anything adverse to God's best in our lives. We don't negotiate, we don't give in to it. We face it with the position of power that Jesus affords us. It doesn't matter what the thought is, the experience we've had with that thought in the past.  The pain, fear, sickness, and disease, they are all in the army that defies the Living God, and how dare they do that? Who dares defy the army of the Living God? We are in the position of power because of Jesus. We will defeat anything that comes our way when we stand in the face of it and cut off its head before it can infect ours. Trust in Jesus. Like David we have all been delivered from lions and bears in the past otherwise we wouldn't be alive to read this today. Rely on the blood-bought position you have and take back the battle in your mind today. 

Father, thank You for helping us battle these giants of doubt and fear. Thank You for helping us to increase our faith in the blood of Jesus that overcomes all things that attack us. In Jesus name, amen.