A few weeks ago, we discussed the silent majority in Elijah's time, the same as ours. Elijah was bold and courageous but lost sight of those who weren't considered heroic, but neither did they bow their knee to Baal. Remember that we do not stand alone in the public eye even when the majority are hiding. They, too, are standing and not bowing to the real enemy of our souls. Our fight is not with flesh and blood. But let's continue with a second witness found in scripture. How does God feel about those who refuse to bow to the dictates of the hour but have grown weary of standing.
Why are so many Christians of our day out of sight and out of mind? Why are so many pastors and other leaders hiding in caves and not speaking up in the public square? Could it be because we are weary of standing and more standing? Worn out from the fight, not bowing but leaning with our backs to the wall.
We are spiritual beings struggling with the spirit versus the flesh. Fighting a spiritual battle with natural resources. This fight is beyond our natural strength. Our spirit is willing to stand, but our flesh is too weak to carry out the will of God. We have suffered devastation in our homes, and the world has and is kidnapping our children to the ways of the world. Our credit cards are maxed, and the mortgage is coming due. And we feel we have a better chance of survival outside the Church than inside. Many of us feel like we are being chased into the wilderness by those who are supposed to help us. People are leaving the only place where Jesus said the gates of hell will not prevail. Why?
Now we have a rising group of deconstructionists, former Christians, that have set their site to join the enemies' forces against the Church. Deconstruction may be your experience, or you know someone going through deconstructing the faith. And which side of the line you may find yourself on them is yet to be decided.
There is nothing new under the sun. The tricks of the devil don't change. Not because the enemy of our soul can't come up with any new tricks but because the same old tricks are so effective.
Read 1 Samuel 27:1 & 4
God is not slow in His promises, but our patience is short. We have heard and believed all the great plans God has for us. We think we are fighting the good fight of faith but don't seem to make any headway, barely keeping our ground at most.
Like David, our dreams and desires are extensively tested. It is God's way. Like David, we all have been called to something, but not because we are qualified. God has called, and we have responded. God qualifies us as we respond to the call day in and day out. Many called, but few are chosen. Why are few chosen? Because many drop out before qualifying. The cost is too high. Look at all the disciples that walked no more with Jesus after the eat my flesh and drink my blood sermon. And how many servants of God asked to be excused when the master sent his servant to RSVP for a marriage feast? Many even deserted Paul because the cost of being chosen was too high for the flesh to say yes.
For David to defeat Goliath publicly while so many hid in their tents, he had to beat the desires of the flesh in private. Lions and bears, oh my! God's grace empowers us to defeat the lions and bears in our personal life so that we can courageously publicly fight the goliaths of our day in His name.
Like David, anointed but running into the wilderness to save his life from a mad king; we wonder if our dream wasn't foolish and is the reason why we have so many obstacles to overcome. So, we leave for the wilderness to escape the fight found within our souls and outside of our bodies. The real problem is that the flesh cannot inherit the promises of God. When David's flesh gave out, so did his ambition and dream. We can defeat the lions, the bears, and Goliath, but there is always another enemy around the corner that we have never faced off with. For David, it was a man who was sitting on his inheritance. How do we fight for your future without destroying your future? David ran. And so has it gone for many Christians. Many have gone into hiding, giving up on their inheritance in the Lord but remember that they have not bowed their knee to this passing world.
Read 1 Samuel 27:5-6
The dream is too big. The fight is too great. So, we head into the wilderness to build a life that our flesh can manage. We like to be in control, the captain of our souls charting our destiny. Yet, that is not God's way. The promise is made to Isaac, not Ishmael. The promises of God are for those who walk in the spirit, not fulfilling the desires of the flesh.
Read 1 Samuel 28:1-2
In our wilderness, we deconstruct our theology. Why do we believe what we believe? Did God say? Or was it the voice of a fleshy man or the words of the smartest beast in the garden, Satan? How does God respond to our heart's desires? We believed enough to get to the middle of the sea, where the storms of life keep us at bay. We have nothing to go back for, Egypt has been destroyed before our eyes and in our hearts, but we also cannot move forward into our inheritance. Through the thick of the storm, we think we see the image of the Son of God, but not sure if he has come to help or rebuke us. But if we keep the course and pursue God, He will get in the boat with us, quiet the storm and get us to the other side. We may take a hit to our faith and pride, but we will make it. Don't allow your reputation as a great person of faith to keep you from calling on the name of Jesus. We are all led through the shadow of death, or the shadow of doubt, as I call it. It is God's way.
If we are born again and genuinely want a living relationship with God, we will not give up on His processes. Today is a time to know what you believe, not what someone else told you to think. Today is also a time not as much as what you believe but the more significant question of whom you believe. Your actions and doctrines will line up appropriately when you get in whom you believe correctly answered. In whom do you believe? Your flesh or in the Son of God: Jesus?
Read 1 Samuel 28
This stage is difficult to go through. Questioning everything you thought you knew reveals how much flesh, false teachers and prophets, mediums, and even witchcraft are in the Church. I am talking of the Church at large, not my current Church or your Church. Some churches in the wild still preach Jesus crucified and not new age Christianity 2.0. Some pastors care for every sheep they steward and are unwilling to sacrifice even one for the ninety-nine. Some prophets preach an inspired word of correction and hope, not parading as psychics foretelling the future.
Please don't make the mistake and think you are any better; neither am I. You wouldn't see any of your blemishes if not for the grace of God. Besides, Jesus said the gates of hell would not prevail against the Church, even with the many blemishes, wrinkles, and other things. It is the safest place to be, positional speaking. Don't excommunicate yourself from the Church. You are a living stone placed where He wants to put you. And when He sets you, no demon in hell will be able to move you, even in a place that needs God's grace abundantly. Where evil is grace, much more abounds.
Read 1 Samuel 29
I know you feel betrayed and used by the Church. We are sheep among wolves, even in the Church. But this, too, is God's way. God placed Adam and Eve in the center of the garden, knowing full well what would happen with a talking serpent. God is a good Father even when we don't understand His ways. God is love, not neglectful. My sheep know my voice, and they follow no other.
Don't allow the devil to use your mouth to fight against the Church. Don't commit treason! David almost crossed that line, but when we pray, lead us not into temptation; God is faithful to keep us from crossing that line.
David's temptation to fight Israel as his enemies would be the same for us to use the words of our mouths against the brethren. Hold your tongue whether you have left the Church physically or in the heart.
The world will always see you as a Christian and part of the Church. When you were born-again, you burned your bridges of returning to the world. Egypt should be a distant memory. Never consider the thought of returning.
You probably have a friend or two who are 'good' but not in Christ. A few people saw David's integrity and trusted him, but most did not. As a true disciple of Jesus, you will experience the same. To be friends of the world is to be an enemy of God. The world will not fully embrace you again as its own. Treason is not worth it.
Read 1 Samuel 30
The God of this world and his followers, as we once were, come to kill, steal and destroy. The wilderness is no place to raise a family. God wants us to settle in his promised land of milk and honey, where we are protected to be fruitful and multiply. The Church is supposed to be this promised land, but she has not yet fully developed and matured into the bride of Christ. Let us be cautious of what we say about the future wife of Jesus.
Many of us have served God will all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, only to come home to find our children taken by the world. Our spouse enamored by the things of the world, and into debt owned by the world. And now we are too wearied even to put up a fight. Our family and friends have left us to be stoned, and our only encouragement is a long-distant relationship with God. We long for the days we were happy to go to Church and fellowship with the brethren.
1 Samuel 30:6-8
We once approached God boldly, speaking His promises in Jesus with a yes and amen. But now we scarcely come to Him, just enough to survive another day. Let the weak say they are strong! If we want to thrive more than survive, we must also say it from the spirit and not the flesh. Today we must know it is not my might or my power but His Spirit. When we encourage ourselves in the Lord, we can say grace and grace to the mountain and see movement.
Read 1 Samuel 30:9. David pursued the enemy just as he had to run to meet Goliath.
We have been running from the Saul church for years, thinking that Saul is the enemy, but Saul or the Church is not our enemy. The true enemy is our flesh, immaturity, which Satan continues to hack.
Our enemy is the flesh, and the trigger of our flesh is the devil. Our flesh wasn't created for evil, but Satan triggered Adam and Eve and launched the sinful nature into all humanity. The devil also tried the same trick on the last Adam's flesh. But Jesus was born from above, had the blood of eternal redemption, and His flesh knew no sin, nor was Jesus born with sinful nature. The flesh of Jesus was in the rightful place and followed the leading of His spirit. The god of this world failed to hack Jesus' flesh. Jesus walked in the spirit and didn't give room for the flesh to have the right of way.
Jesus had to face the enemy face to face, and so did we. But we have an advantage. Greater is He that is in us than what is the world—something the world doesn't value. The greater one!
But now God is telling us to pursue the enemy and not run. And the enemy is not the Church. Jesus knows how to clean out a temple and cause all our accusers to leave our presence.
Read 1 Samuel 30:10
But this is where many go silent. Disillusionment is where many grow weary and no longer pursue the life God has for them. The inheritance is not worth pursuing, but now neither is what Satan has stolen from us. We now have less than when we started. The only thing we left have is the integrity that even though Satan has taken it all, we have not bowed our knees to this world. We are still standing.
Read 1 Samuel 30:17-19
David attacked and recovered all! God does not favor one man over another. When we learn it is not in the power of the flesh, we win. But in the power of His might that infuses our spirit to go on even when we have to throw our flesh over our shoulder to move forward. What a picture!
Read 1 Samuel 30:22
Only by the grace of God am I able to run and not grow weary and walk and not faint. How can I look at the weary I had to leave behind and not have compassion on them? How can I keep from them and not share with them the bounty that God has given me?
Read 1 Samuel 30:23-26
If we want to be people known to have a heart after God, we must have a heart for the weary. Come to me all who are weary and heavy laden. David shares the bounty of the Lord with the exhausted and revives their strength. David then shares with Judah and refreshes them as well. Then in 1 Samuel 31, we see the death of King Saul or the old religious system that caused people to have more faith in the wilderness than in the Church. And a new King is crowned. Not a King unfamiliar with the dictates of the flesh but a King who subdued the flesh, trusted in God, and will one day receive His inheritance and will share the bounty of God with the weary who have not bowed their knee to this world, even those who grew too tired to finish the race set before them. Works do not save us; only the grace of God can save you and me. But we are saved to do great and glorious works when we learn to walk in the spirit and not the flesh.
Let us not count out those not standing publicly with us but hiding in caves. Remember, if we stand, whether it be on the front lines, it is because of the grace of God. And if our stand is in a cave refusing to bend a knee to the enemy, that to is the grace of God.
And if we are those who can strengthen ourselves in the Lord to pursue all that is lost. Let us not forget those who have grown too weary to pursue and mistakenly call them worthless. The only worth any of us have is in the eyes of the Beholder. What can any of us offer the maker of the heavens, the earth, and everything in them?