Surrendering in Advance from Refreshing Hope Ministries on Vimeo.

Many times when we are faced with something intimidating, we just don't want to face it, and we surrender in advance. A weak man can overcome an army if they cower in fear in front of him, even though he would be squashed like a bug if they decided to stand their ground and challenge him.

In 1 Samuel 17, the Philistines had a champion named Goliath who defied the army of Israel for forty days. One man, though he must have been a terrifying sight to see when he stepped onto the battlefield. He was over nine feet tall. His bronze armor and weapons alone weighed 175 pounds. Goliath carried a sword, a javelin, and a huge spear with an iron tip. He had an armor bearer who carried a large rectangular shield in front of him to block incoming attacks. Goliath would have been the historical equivalent of a modern tank rolling onto the battlefield.

Yet, it was not his strength that shut down the Israelite army. It was intense fear and intimidation. Goliath had not actually harmed anyone there. Yet, when King Saul and the army saw Goliath and heard his words, they were "dismayed," meaning they were distressed, horrified, appalled, shocked, shaken to the core -- paralyzed.

(1 Samuel 17:10-11 NKJV) And the Philistine said, "I defy the armies of Israel this day; give me a man, that we may fight together." When Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly afraid.

King Saul was the tallest man in Israel, head and shoulders above everyone else (1 Samuel 10:23). Anointed as King of Israel by God, I believe that if he had faced Goliath that day, he would have been victorious; instead, he surrendered in advance.

All that evil needs to succeed is for good men to do nothing, or to cower in fear of what may happen. Most followed that path, but not all. Young David was just a shepherd boy whose father, Jesse, sent him to bring supplies to his older brothers. However, when he heard Goliath's taunts, it provoked his spirit.

(1 Samuel 17:23-24 NKJV) Then as he talked with them, there was the champion, the Philistine of Gath, Goliath by name, coming up from the armies of the Philistines; and he spoke according to the same words. So David heard them. And all the men of Israel, when they saw the man, fled from him and were dreadfully afraid.

To shorten this up, David picked up five stones from a brook, took his sling, and walked out to meet Goliath while the King of Israel and the army cowered in fear. Goliath began to curse David and tell him all the horrible things he was going to do to him, but David kept coming.

This was something new... Usually, Goliath's words were enough to paralyze an army. Goliath probably began to shout louder, but then David reached into his bag and broke into a run towards him:

(1 Samuel 17:48-49 NKJV) So it was, when the Philistine arose and came and drew near to meet David, that David hurried and ran toward the army to meet the Philistine. Then David put his hand in his bag and took out a stone; and he slung it and struck the Philistine in his forehead, so that the stone sank into his forehead, and he fell on his face to the earth.

When Goliath said, "I will feed you to the birds," David said, "No, you won't, but I am going to take your head off." One rock later, Goliath was lying on his face, wondering what hit him, while David was busy taking his head as a trophy. The great giant strong man was destroyed by a young boy who would not surrender in advance.

There was also a divine purpose, as the Lord was raising David up in the eyes of the people to become the next king. Goliath was merely part of the journey. There was no skipping him. David was trained with a lion, a bear, and then Goliath. The difficulty of the tasks increased. At any point, David could have given in to fear and stopped his progress.

Fear is a tool of the enemy that he uses to paralyze and gain an easy victory without a fight. I can tell you from experience that surrendering before the fight will always bring you into bondage, but facing and overcoming it will bring a reward. John Wayne said, "Courage is being scared to death but saddling up anyway." You do not know if this is a test, and like David, the Lord is trying to raise you up.

When the Lord began pushing me into a computer business, He would put me in awful situations with no one to turn to but Him. Each time I would grow a little confident, the Lord would raise the bar a little more. Clients would call with some intimidating problem I had never seen, like a corrupted network database. Fear would always be there, and I would not want to go. During those times, I could hear the Holy Spirit saying, "Go, and I will go with you," and that is all that I had to do. As long as I showed up, He would allow me to fix the problem, and they would think I was a genius. There is no genius here, but just like David, I showed up, and that is all the Lord needs from you.

The technical challenges became increasingly complex until I was dealing with firewalls and load-balancing mail servers in datacenters. It was to train me for what we are doing today. This is a picture of our current network. Don't surrender in advance. The Lord may be trying to prepare you for something just as He did with David.

(1 John 4:4 NKJV) You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.

That pattern, that fear challenge has not stopped. Recently, our daughter called us and said her car wouldn't run but 30 mph. When she got it home, we drove it and discovered that the third and fourth gears were gone, and the car was in limp mode. The fluid was burnt. The transmission was fried.

She needs a vehicle to get to work, so we called around to find a shop to repair it, but they wanted more than the car was worth. I tried to find a used transmission, but the people wouldn't call me back, and we needed to get it on the road. We looked around for another car, but didn't see anything worth having in our price range.

So, we all joined hands and prayed for the Lord's will to be done. I didn't hear anything, but I felt His peace come. Now, I don't recommend trying this in the yard, but we bought a transmission rebuild kit, a torque converter, three gallons of fluid, and had a father/daughter rebuild-your-transmission day. We pulled the transmission out, put it on a table, tore it down, replaced all the worn parts, and she is driving it today.

Don't surrender in advance because you are intimidated. Make the enemy work for it. Make him have to defeat you because you won't give up. You may be surprised at the outcome.

You can pray this with me if you like:

Prayer: Heavenly Father, please help me see the situation through the eyes of faith. Give me the courage to stand in the face of adversity. I want to live an overcoming life pleasing to You. Fulfill Your perfect will in my life. In the name of Jesus Christ, I pray. Amen!