"Do this, knowing the time, that now is high time for you to awaken out of sleep; for now salvation is nearer to us than when we believed."-(Romans 13:11)
Why do we arbitrarily call out to Him when it is either convenient or when we are wounded? Why do we seek Him only to find His hands, rather than His Face? In a fallen world that is crying out every day as one who is dying and losing their hold on life, clutching at straws to survive, we see, hear, and experience for ourselves the signs of the times. They are imminent warnings of what will inevitably, prophetically, and scripturally come to pass. Disease, Earthquakes, Tsunamis, Tornados, Hurricanes, natural signs and devastations wiping out entire villages, cities and civilizations... Wars, conflicts, abuses, cruelty, murder, slavery, human trafficking, genocide and man's gross inhumanity toward man rack our conscience and hearts with the clanging alarm of a species destined and somehow determined to undermine and destroy itself. The news media blares the authenticity of the havoc and magnifies these significant omens to the point of cacophony, as if the enemy would have us desensitized to the imminence of our calamity. Numbing us with the inundation of tragedy, we crawl back into our safe, quiet, insulated bed-chambers and try to block it out.
But while Satan attempts to lull us back to impotent slumber with the lullaby of lust, self-importance, dissension, greed, complacency, comfort and worst of all, doubt and fear, he sets the stage for the deceived to operate on his behalf. He uses extremists who bear the banner and the Black Flag of the spirit of Anti-Christ to march toward the fulfillment of his designs. We sit idly by, asleep in the midst of chaos and catastrophe as the evil one mounts his assaults. I do not speak of the slumber that Jesus rebukes the disciples for waking Him out of due to a lack of faith in Mark 4:35-40. I cite the type of spirit of stupor that Paul mentions in Romans 11:18 that keeps our eyes from truly seeing and our ears from hearing what is TRUTH. If you are awake right now, you will have had revelation that the adversary has used individuals enclosed inside the body of Christ to cause division from within since the inception of the church. Denominationalism, sectarianism, doctrinal disputes and hatred from one arm to the other in the Corpus Christi here on Earth have been his means to decay the infrastructure of our Kingdom. Division is the cancer destroying the anatomy of Christendom in its interior. We are called to occupy in dominion until Messiah returns, but while we hold fast, we have been, for centuries, more trouble to one another through our self-righteousness and schisms than his minions ever needed be. For millennia, the fallen worship leader of heaven has allowed the church in her own vanity to subversively engage in civil war. But the plot is thickening...
Right now, as you read this in the security of your own personal sanctuary, I would kindly ask you to consider two things. First, ARE YOU AWAKE? "Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep."-(Psalm 121:4) And second, ARE YOU AWARE? "Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind."-(Romans 12:2) As my bride and I traverse the globe to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ and dedicate our lives to discipling the Saints, we do not take lightly the clarion call to quicken the Bride of Christ. We know without the shadow of any doubt that the Holy Spirit has shown us that we are commissioned and equipped, for such a time as this, to AWAKEN and make AWARE. If you are awake, we encourage you to rouse others. If you are aware of the urgency of the times, we would rally you to share the critical nature of the precipice we all stand upon. The end is relatively... well, NIGH.
I remember as a child observing the obscure corner-dwelling, billboard-wearing presumably insane people on the streets of New York City. They were pensive, intensely urgent and purposefully selfless in their efforts to sound the alarm to any and everyone who would harken the almost maniacal cry "THE END IS NIGH!!!", or "Repent! for the End is at hand". When asking one of my teachers on a school field trip to the Museum of Natural History what precisely these seemingly insane people were prognosticating, I received a very secular "Crazies" as an answer. But more than 25 years later, and wiser, I am quite sure that a good percentage of these "Crazies" were more prophetic than deranged. When looking at the grand scheme and juncture in relation to our minuscule lifetimes, and compounding the prophetic timelines it is perfectly feasible to discern that, YES, the end is upon us. Like them or not, in lieu of their unorthodox approach, the placard-wearing "crazies" on the corners are not too far off base. (That is with the exception, of course, of anyone spewing hatred and judgement toward others while using the medium of picketing and rallying to actually aid the forces of evil.)
A dear friend recently contended with me "Well, the news media is magnifying all of the madness and disaster. They thought the world was ending 2000 years ago, and they had no T.V.; there was as much devastation and war then as there is right now". Yes, people have been declaring the end of days for centuries. Each civilization, culture and cluster of mankind has proposed a potential cataclysmic date or season. Christian, Pagan, Atheist, Scientist and Philosopher alike have all identified a looming apocalypse within their own lifetimes. Dating back to the dawn of the Church, we know that there was significant presumption about the end of all things even as the first disciples were being martyred. Each generation has its own potential end waiting in the proverbial wings. However, when denying the reality or truth of the progression and escalation of the inevitable end of all things, it is imperative that we swallow the jagged pill of perspective, particularly when dealing with relative timelines. Considering the age and scale of time that we have been traveling on as a race from the creation until now, it is more than feasible to imagine that we are nearing the inevitable and ultimate renewal of creation. The frequency of destruction is increasing on a level that is historic. The atrocities of human hatred and self-decay have reached a fever pitch the likes of which the world has NEVER seen. "Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places, and famines. These are the beginning of birth pains."-(Mark 13:8) Anyone who is awake and truly sees their surroundings can acknowledge that there is more devastation, more evil and darkness filling the earth to date than ever before. Without mutating this article into a thesis, or following the rabbit down the hole to side-tracked confusion, I reflect back to the real purpose of writing this. We must not treat our lives as fodder. We must not ingest the lie that we should live as though we will never die, but rather live as though we might die ANY MINUTE... Because WE MIGHT. We must be committed to declare the Gospel and whole-heartedly tell the truth about Jesus the Messiah to the entire world. Without fear of rejection, retribution, loss or martyrdom, we are commissioned to “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature."-(Mark 16:15) We cannot let the sedative of doubt fill us with paralyzing inactivity. This IS really happening. And there are others, who work for the opposing forces who believe that it is, whether you do or not.
I proclaimed earlier how we preach to the Body of Christ to awaken. Recently, while watching a broadcast of the recent revolution in Egypt, we witnessed something disturbing. As one of the leaders of The Muslim Brotherhood began to speak over the noise of elated "free" Egyptians, he uttered "This is the beginning of the great Muslim Awakening! Muslims around the world will rise up to claim what is theirs!". My jaw dropped. We were immediately aware that this was a direct counterfeit of the same directive that the Holy Spirit has given to us and many others in the Body as a charge to prepare for the coming season of turbulence.
When listening to another man of God recently as he revealed the prophetic and actual timelines that are being fulfilled, he interviewed a former bodyguard who defected from within the hierarchy of Iranian rule who unveiled the consistent and constant dialogue from within the counsels of Iranian and Muslim Extremist Leadership. They believe that the Thirteenth Imam, the Imam Mahdi or "Guided One" has already arrived. If you are unfamiliar with the Mohammedan Prophecy of this "being of light", I suggest that you invest some time into the research. I will tell you that according to Muslim Prophecy and in comparison with Christian Eschatology the comparisons are unsettlingly congruent. They believe that the Mahdi's reign and appearance will be coupled by the return of Hadhrat Isa, better known to you and me as Jesus. Although He is denied by Mohammed as being the Son of God, in spite of being esteemed as one of the highest "prophets" in the Koran. Which leads me to a sidebar of substantial significance: CAN A TRUE PROPHET LIE? If the answer is "NO", then the Koran is false. Ironically, they identify Jesus as "the only one who will have the power to kill the Anti-Christ". I should also mention that the length of the reign of the Mahdi is SEVEN YEARS. He will also purportedly LEAD WORSHIP from Mecca. The counterfeit here is transparent. However, due to its importance and the depth of detail, I will spend more time disclosing my dissertation on this subject at a later date. Regardless of the Mahdi's arrival, the behavior and lifestyles of the majority of everyday people who worship as Muslims and the conduct of the general (rapidly growing) world population of Muslims, there are many in positions of authority at the ready. They hold high the sword of Jihad, Holy War. They are poised for the great cleansing of the infidels. Who, pray tell are the "infidels"? According to Islamic Extremists- anyone who does not believe in and worship Allah and his Prophet Mohammed. Specifically Christians and Jews. With the confirmed death of long-hunted terrorist and Al Qaeda Leader, Osama Bin Laden, comes the imminent rumble of retaliatory plans and a successor who I believe prophetically will fit the bill for the aforementioned "Guided One".
But we stand under the covering of the one true living God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The Creator of the Heavens and the Earth. We worship the God who sent His only begotten Son to die for our sins on a cross at Calvary. We believe on Him. He is called I AM. Is He God or is He not? If He is, then everyone reading this should and must repent of their fleshly ways, receive the shed blood of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, be baptized in His name, discipled through His precepts and examples, and made full with the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. "John answered, saying unto them all, I indeed baptize you with water; but one mightier than I cometh, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire."-(Luke 3:16) If He is God and His Word is TRUE, then every soul reading this who calls themselves "Christian", "Believer" or "His", should be a liberal soul who sows bountifully out of the increase of their first-fruits by way of tithing to their storehouses (the local church) and offering unto the Kingdom of God above their tithe. "You then who teach others, do you not teach yourself? While you preach against stealing, do you steal?"-(Romans 2:21) If He is the Lord of Lords, Alpha and Omega and Father of all Lights to you, then you must love your enemies and pray for all who spitefully use you, curse you and mean to harm you. "But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you."-(Luke 6:27-28) If God the Father is TRULY the Creator of the Heavens and the Earth, and Jesus, His Son, the Messiah who is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords and His precious Holy Spirit the paraclete who guides our every step, the we MUST be committed to His cause. “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me."-(Luke 9:23) We must be totally, unwaveringly engaged in His call upon us. We must be utterly dutiful, diligent and fervently passionate about His Great Commission. If He IS God. And, dear precious ones, I know indubitably, HE IS GOD.
It is most certainly not a time to celebrate, revel in short-termed, human victory or woefully become complacent in our faith. It is high time that we arise and lift the veil off of our eyes and spirits and stand unwinking and staid in the coming hour. "Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour."-(1Peter 5:8) It is also not a moment to become so heavenly-minded that we are no earthly-good. Neither is it a season to hide away in a cavern or bomb shelter far into reclusive solitude in an attempt to avoid the oncoming storm. No. We must work with more vigor, more passion and more critical persistence than ever before. "We must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work."-(John 9:4) We must stand fast. We must stand firm. "And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?" (Romans 8:28-31) We are called to be AWAKE. We are commissioned by the Master Himself, Jesus Christ to be AWARE, and moreover, galvanize others into this same awareness. Join in true unity with other believers in spite of your doctrinal disputes or human differences. Overcome your fears, doubts and opinionated selfishness and pick up your cross. It is coming... HE IS COMING BACK. We implore you right now- WAKE UP AND GET READY.
Pastors Brian and Jeni Stivale travel the globe spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ and ministering with signs and wonders following through the anointing of the Holy Spirit. Their ministry of preaching, teaching, prophetic, and worship reaches millions throughout the world via Churches, Conferences, Internet and Television. www.StivaleMinistries.org
Showing posts with label disease. Show all posts
Showing posts with label disease. Show all posts
Saturday, April 30, 2011
Thursday, July 8, 2010
The Winepress Giant
"And there went out a champion out of the camp of the Philistines, named Goliath, of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span. And he had an helmet of brass upon his head, and he was armed with a coat of mail; and the weight of the coat was five thousand shekels of brass. And he had greaves of brass upon his legs, and a target of brass between his shoulders.
And the staff of his spear was like a weaver's beam; and his spear's head weighed six hundred shekels of iron: and one bearing a shield went before him. And he stood and cried unto the armies of Israel, and said unto them, 'Why are ye come out to set your battle in array? Am not I a Philistine, and ye servants to Saul? Choose you a man for you, and let him come down to me. If he be able to fight with me, and to kill me, then will we be your servants: but if I prevail against him, and kill him, then shall ye be our servants, and serve us.' And the Philistine said, 'I defy the armies of Israel this day; give me a man, that we may fight together.'"-(2 Samuel 17:4-10)
While traveling recently, I was praying and distinctly heard in my spirit "Champion". Now immediately, I began to pray broadly for my dear friend's infant son, whose surname is Champion. In the midst of focusing on my contemporary's progeny, I felt a tug of correction and then almost involuntarily turned my eyes toward the newspaper in the hands of the man diagonally across the aisle from me, and the first thing I saw was the word "CHAMPION" in bold capital letters. There it was again. Stark and bare to my gaze in a newsprint black and white. At that point, my prayer became a request for revelation. I was quickened to my bible, where I went directly to the concordance to find in both the King James and the New King James Versions, only ONE entry for the word "Champion". It is the mention of the Philistine Giant who has became the proverbial picture of the adage "The BIGGER they are... The harder they fall". The use of the word is singularly assigned to the mammoth brute who held the self-same role of "champion" for Philistia. It can be deduced through the description in the text that, Goliath stood at a great height. By way of Hebrew measurement, he stood six cubits and a span tall, with a Hebrew cubit equalling roughly 18 inches and a span being the equivalent of about 9 inches, that would set his height roughly at an impressive 9.5 feet. His armor, weighing in at an anthropologically estimated 125-194 pounds and his spear's head at 20-30 pounds, indicates that he was not merely a giant in stature, but rather a hulking beast of physical strength and stamina. Goliath was built for destroying his opposition.
But the physical description of the "champion" of the pagan Philistines is not what pulled me deeper into the Word. His name simply means "Great" or "Very Large" in most translations, and such has the legend given value to his name and size, coining in itself a descriptive quality of massive men and challenges. We see that his name is followed immediately by the disclosure of his birthplace. "Goliath, of Gath". Gath (or in Hebrew "Geth") of the Philistines' was one of the five Philistine city-states, established in northwestern Philistia. It was a city about midway between Bethlehem and the Mediterranean Sea. It means "Winepress". What an amazing God we serve that He allows us to glean immense revelation from even a detail such as this. The "Winepress" is such a vital place of metaphorical and practical significance throughout the scripture and in God's Plans. After all, it is in the winepress that the grapes of wrath are stored... "And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God."-(Revelation 19:15) And it is the winepress which serves Jesus' parable of the wicked vinedressers or tenants as the metaphor for the "fruit of the Kingdom". "And when the time of the fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the husbandmen, that they might receive the fruits of it."-(Matthew 21:34) It also sets a vivid vision in one's mind of the wine or spirit being pushed, crushed or transformed under the pressure of change and challenge of transfiguration that the process of making wine is often defined by. A great wine must be crushed into juice at the correct time, and with the appropriate pressure, or it will spoil the outcome of the fermentation, thus destroying the destiny of the grape itself. The beautiful use of Wine as sacrament in the eucharist and symbol of the Blood of our Lord is deserving of an individual encounter, and must be focused upon with consecrated attention; however, we do recognize the importance of the foreshadowing. Jesus is of course, from the line of David. And so, we come to it. David was fighting the Champion of The Winepress. I imagine that at that particular moment, no one identified the immensely symbolic meaning of it all, but rather with great trepidation, saw a nine foot tall madman who ate Hebrews for lunch. But David did not.
David saw only his destiny. It was a challenge that he had been training for. He had slain a bear. He had killed a Lion. He was faithful and willing to die for the God of his fathers. He was so whole-heartedly committed to being the willing hand of the Lord, that I believe heaven and the earth and it's fullness stopped for that moment and peered upon the occasion with awe. Prior to this dynamic milestone, David had been anointed by the Prophet Samuel upon the command of the Lord, out of the sons of Jesse. The Spirit of the Lord came upon David and left Saul that day, creating an opportunity for the young shepherd to minister to the now demon-plagued King with his renowned musical skills. I find it poetic that the presence that was removed from Saul was the only thing that could soothe his trouble. It was through this union that God divinely prepared the opportunity for David to step forward and volunteer to smite the giant on behalf of Israel. The Lord God was most certainly with him. David also recognized the great reward awaiting any who slew the beast. The divine time had arrived. Goliath had come day and night for forty days to taunt the armies of Israel. No man was of the mettle to meet the challenge and face their champion. By appearances no man was the clearly chosen "Champion" of Israel. But appearances were never what God had in mind with David. "Now he was ruddy, and withal of a beautiful countenance, and goodly to look to."-(1 Samuel 16:12) But the Lord was not concerned with his outward visage. "But the LORD said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart."-(1 Samuel 16:7) And his heart was ready.
The fullness of the showdown is marvelous and rich. David is given Saul's armor which is too heavy and "unproved" by him and so discarded. Instead, he takes only his sling and five smooth stones with him. The giant mocks him and he rebukes the Philistine. "Then said David to the Philistine, Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield: but I come to thee in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied. This day will the LORD deliver thee into mine hand; and I will smite thee, and take thine head from thee; and I will give the carcases of the host of the Philistines this day unto the fowls of the air, and to the wild beasts of the earth; that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel."-(1 Samuel 17:45-46) And he does just that. The renown of David grows, built upon his victory against the impossible through the intercession and hand of God upon him. David becomes great. David, the musician and shepherd boy, becomes the CHAMPION of the God of Israel.
He faced the Winepress Giant and utterly defeated him. But the purpose behind this meditation is not to merely revel in David's victory and profess that "we all have giants to face and conquer through preparation and a heart that is after God". While that is absolutely true, it is incomplete. For you see, David did become great, King and perhaps the most feared King-General that Palestine and the Middle-East had ever seen, but he had great human error. His failures teach us more than his successes ever could. It speaks to me that we all learn more from our failings than the moments of greatness, as the moments of greatness often are borne out of the training we receive falling on our faces. David would be known as an adulterer, a murderer, and the ruler of a reign of blood. But this day, I was drawn to the mistake he made in fleeing from Saul to the land of the Philistines. Ironically, he not only returned to Philistia, David went to the winepress itself. "But David thought to himself, "One of these days I will be destroyed by the hand of Saul. The best thing I can do is to escape to the land of the Philistines. Then Saul will give up searching for me anywhere in Israel, and I will slip out of his hand." So David and the six hundred men with him left and went over to Achish son of Maoch king of Gath. David and his men settled in Gath with Achish. Each man had his family with him, and David had his two wives: Ahinoam of Jezreel and Abigail of Carmel, the widow of Nabal. When Saul was told that David had fled to Gath, he no longer searched for him."-(1 Samuel 27:1-4) While Saul discontinued his search for David, it was to be, in broad perspective and in my opinion, a poor decision on David's behalf. Before this, he actually attempts to flee there and upon arrival at the city gates acts as a madman. "That day David fled from Saul and went to Achish king of Gath. But the servants of Achish said to him, "Isn't this David, the king of the land? Isn't he the one they sing about in their dances: 'Saul has slain his thousands, and David his tens of thousands'? David took these words to heart and was very much afraid of Achish king of Gath. So he pretended to be insane in their presence; and while he was in their hands he acted like a madman, making marks on the doors of the gate and letting saliva run down his beard."-(1 Samuel 21:10-12)
It was FEAR that drove David to Gath, and FEAR which made him to feign insanity. It was also FEAR of Saul that leads him there again 6 chapters later to hide under the cover of Achish thus making David and his men into raiders for that season. Do not misunderstand my tone; I do realize that God made the best of all of his shortcomings and failures. However, FEAR is never of God's will. "For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind."-(1 Timothy 1:7) Fear is a spirit, and it is a contagious disease. I have witnessed fear destroy men and women's lives. I have unfortunately also witnessed the enemy use fear to destroy entire churches and labors of the Kingdom. It was not to condemn that God brought me circuitously to this re-revelation. You see, we all must face fear and either fight or fly. Fear is inevitable in our walk. But it is not final. We have been delivered from fear from the very stripes and crucifixion of our Lord, Jesus Christ. "That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses."-(Matthew 8:17)
FEAR IS A DISEASE. If you do not believe me, look into the fruit of fearful leaders. Look into the Word and witness what fruit comes of fear. David's examples of failure root inevitably out of fear and insecurity. Yes, he lusted for Bathsheba, but is not lust a condition and sympton of insecurity, and thereby fear itself? I believe it is a sister spirit to that of fear, and that perhaps, all sin roots from our vanity. Fear is a spirit that roots like a tick into the fabric of a person's insecurities and vanity. When we are entirely committed to seeing the assignment of the Lord completed, we fear nothing. Rather, we embrace everything, counting it ALL JOY. "My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations;"-(James 1:2)
Fear is a disease. Insecurity is a condition wrought out of selfishness. Jesus bore our grief, our fear, our doubt- Do not re-crucify Him. Whatever befalls you, do not return to dwell in the land of the evil that you previously defeat. Do not remove that same mantle that God bestowed unto you as "Champion" over a challenge by delivering yourself to the birthplace of the enemy's weapons. Although the Lord uses all things together for good, it is preferable that we get, attain and use WISDOM. With wisdom, we can avoid "failure-based learning" altogether. When you go to the battlefield and face and through the favor and anointing of the God of Israel, decimate your "Winepress Giant", keep his head as David did. I assure you that the souvenir of victory will bar you from falling into the hands of the enemy as easily as forgetting it would. Above all else, seek the Lord when you are tempted to run out of the spirit of fear from that which He allowed to stretch you and make you a "Champion".
And the staff of his spear was like a weaver's beam; and his spear's head weighed six hundred shekels of iron: and one bearing a shield went before him. And he stood and cried unto the armies of Israel, and said unto them, 'Why are ye come out to set your battle in array? Am not I a Philistine, and ye servants to Saul? Choose you a man for you, and let him come down to me. If he be able to fight with me, and to kill me, then will we be your servants: but if I prevail against him, and kill him, then shall ye be our servants, and serve us.' And the Philistine said, 'I defy the armies of Israel this day; give me a man, that we may fight together.'"-(2 Samuel 17:4-10)
While traveling recently, I was praying and distinctly heard in my spirit "Champion". Now immediately, I began to pray broadly for my dear friend's infant son, whose surname is Champion. In the midst of focusing on my contemporary's progeny, I felt a tug of correction and then almost involuntarily turned my eyes toward the newspaper in the hands of the man diagonally across the aisle from me, and the first thing I saw was the word "CHAMPION" in bold capital letters. There it was again. Stark and bare to my gaze in a newsprint black and white. At that point, my prayer became a request for revelation. I was quickened to my bible, where I went directly to the concordance to find in both the King James and the New King James Versions, only ONE entry for the word "Champion". It is the mention of the Philistine Giant who has became the proverbial picture of the adage "The BIGGER they are... The harder they fall". The use of the word is singularly assigned to the mammoth brute who held the self-same role of "champion" for Philistia. It can be deduced through the description in the text that, Goliath stood at a great height. By way of Hebrew measurement, he stood six cubits and a span tall, with a Hebrew cubit equalling roughly 18 inches and a span being the equivalent of about 9 inches, that would set his height roughly at an impressive 9.5 feet. His armor, weighing in at an anthropologically estimated 125-194 pounds and his spear's head at 20-30 pounds, indicates that he was not merely a giant in stature, but rather a hulking beast of physical strength and stamina. Goliath was built for destroying his opposition.
But the physical description of the "champion" of the pagan Philistines is not what pulled me deeper into the Word. His name simply means "Great" or "Very Large" in most translations, and such has the legend given value to his name and size, coining in itself a descriptive quality of massive men and challenges. We see that his name is followed immediately by the disclosure of his birthplace. "Goliath, of Gath". Gath (or in Hebrew "Geth") of the Philistines' was one of the five Philistine city-states, established in northwestern Philistia. It was a city about midway between Bethlehem and the Mediterranean Sea. It means "Winepress". What an amazing God we serve that He allows us to glean immense revelation from even a detail such as this. The "Winepress" is such a vital place of metaphorical and practical significance throughout the scripture and in God's Plans. After all, it is in the winepress that the grapes of wrath are stored... "And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God."-(Revelation 19:15) And it is the winepress which serves Jesus' parable of the wicked vinedressers or tenants as the metaphor for the "fruit of the Kingdom". "And when the time of the fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the husbandmen, that they might receive the fruits of it."-(Matthew 21:34) It also sets a vivid vision in one's mind of the wine or spirit being pushed, crushed or transformed under the pressure of change and challenge of transfiguration that the process of making wine is often defined by. A great wine must be crushed into juice at the correct time, and with the appropriate pressure, or it will spoil the outcome of the fermentation, thus destroying the destiny of the grape itself. The beautiful use of Wine as sacrament in the eucharist and symbol of the Blood of our Lord is deserving of an individual encounter, and must be focused upon with consecrated attention; however, we do recognize the importance of the foreshadowing. Jesus is of course, from the line of David. And so, we come to it. David was fighting the Champion of The Winepress. I imagine that at that particular moment, no one identified the immensely symbolic meaning of it all, but rather with great trepidation, saw a nine foot tall madman who ate Hebrews for lunch. But David did not.
David saw only his destiny. It was a challenge that he had been training for. He had slain a bear. He had killed a Lion. He was faithful and willing to die for the God of his fathers. He was so whole-heartedly committed to being the willing hand of the Lord, that I believe heaven and the earth and it's fullness stopped for that moment and peered upon the occasion with awe. Prior to this dynamic milestone, David had been anointed by the Prophet Samuel upon the command of the Lord, out of the sons of Jesse. The Spirit of the Lord came upon David and left Saul that day, creating an opportunity for the young shepherd to minister to the now demon-plagued King with his renowned musical skills. I find it poetic that the presence that was removed from Saul was the only thing that could soothe his trouble. It was through this union that God divinely prepared the opportunity for David to step forward and volunteer to smite the giant on behalf of Israel. The Lord God was most certainly with him. David also recognized the great reward awaiting any who slew the beast. The divine time had arrived. Goliath had come day and night for forty days to taunt the armies of Israel. No man was of the mettle to meet the challenge and face their champion. By appearances no man was the clearly chosen "Champion" of Israel. But appearances were never what God had in mind with David. "Now he was ruddy, and withal of a beautiful countenance, and goodly to look to."-(1 Samuel 16:12) But the Lord was not concerned with his outward visage. "But the LORD said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart."-(1 Samuel 16:7) And his heart was ready.
The fullness of the showdown is marvelous and rich. David is given Saul's armor which is too heavy and "unproved" by him and so discarded. Instead, he takes only his sling and five smooth stones with him. The giant mocks him and he rebukes the Philistine. "Then said David to the Philistine, Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield: but I come to thee in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied. This day will the LORD deliver thee into mine hand; and I will smite thee, and take thine head from thee; and I will give the carcases of the host of the Philistines this day unto the fowls of the air, and to the wild beasts of the earth; that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel."-(1 Samuel 17:45-46) And he does just that. The renown of David grows, built upon his victory against the impossible through the intercession and hand of God upon him. David becomes great. David, the musician and shepherd boy, becomes the CHAMPION of the God of Israel.
He faced the Winepress Giant and utterly defeated him. But the purpose behind this meditation is not to merely revel in David's victory and profess that "we all have giants to face and conquer through preparation and a heart that is after God". While that is absolutely true, it is incomplete. For you see, David did become great, King and perhaps the most feared King-General that Palestine and the Middle-East had ever seen, but he had great human error. His failures teach us more than his successes ever could. It speaks to me that we all learn more from our failings than the moments of greatness, as the moments of greatness often are borne out of the training we receive falling on our faces. David would be known as an adulterer, a murderer, and the ruler of a reign of blood. But this day, I was drawn to the mistake he made in fleeing from Saul to the land of the Philistines. Ironically, he not only returned to Philistia, David went to the winepress itself. "But David thought to himself, "One of these days I will be destroyed by the hand of Saul. The best thing I can do is to escape to the land of the Philistines. Then Saul will give up searching for me anywhere in Israel, and I will slip out of his hand." So David and the six hundred men with him left and went over to Achish son of Maoch king of Gath. David and his men settled in Gath with Achish. Each man had his family with him, and David had his two wives: Ahinoam of Jezreel and Abigail of Carmel, the widow of Nabal. When Saul was told that David had fled to Gath, he no longer searched for him."-(1 Samuel 27:1-4) While Saul discontinued his search for David, it was to be, in broad perspective and in my opinion, a poor decision on David's behalf. Before this, he actually attempts to flee there and upon arrival at the city gates acts as a madman. "That day David fled from Saul and went to Achish king of Gath. But the servants of Achish said to him, "Isn't this David, the king of the land? Isn't he the one they sing about in their dances: 'Saul has slain his thousands, and David his tens of thousands'? David took these words to heart and was very much afraid of Achish king of Gath. So he pretended to be insane in their presence; and while he was in their hands he acted like a madman, making marks on the doors of the gate and letting saliva run down his beard."-(1 Samuel 21:10-12)
It was FEAR that drove David to Gath, and FEAR which made him to feign insanity. It was also FEAR of Saul that leads him there again 6 chapters later to hide under the cover of Achish thus making David and his men into raiders for that season. Do not misunderstand my tone; I do realize that God made the best of all of his shortcomings and failures. However, FEAR is never of God's will. "For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind."-(1 Timothy 1:7) Fear is a spirit, and it is a contagious disease. I have witnessed fear destroy men and women's lives. I have unfortunately also witnessed the enemy use fear to destroy entire churches and labors of the Kingdom. It was not to condemn that God brought me circuitously to this re-revelation. You see, we all must face fear and either fight or fly. Fear is inevitable in our walk. But it is not final. We have been delivered from fear from the very stripes and crucifixion of our Lord, Jesus Christ. "That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses."-(Matthew 8:17)
FEAR IS A DISEASE. If you do not believe me, look into the fruit of fearful leaders. Look into the Word and witness what fruit comes of fear. David's examples of failure root inevitably out of fear and insecurity. Yes, he lusted for Bathsheba, but is not lust a condition and sympton of insecurity, and thereby fear itself? I believe it is a sister spirit to that of fear, and that perhaps, all sin roots from our vanity. Fear is a spirit that roots like a tick into the fabric of a person's insecurities and vanity. When we are entirely committed to seeing the assignment of the Lord completed, we fear nothing. Rather, we embrace everything, counting it ALL JOY. "My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations;"-(James 1:2)
Fear is a disease. Insecurity is a condition wrought out of selfishness. Jesus bore our grief, our fear, our doubt- Do not re-crucify Him. Whatever befalls you, do not return to dwell in the land of the evil that you previously defeat. Do not remove that same mantle that God bestowed unto you as "Champion" over a challenge by delivering yourself to the birthplace of the enemy's weapons. Although the Lord uses all things together for good, it is preferable that we get, attain and use WISDOM. With wisdom, we can avoid "failure-based learning" altogether. When you go to the battlefield and face and through the favor and anointing of the God of Israel, decimate your "Winepress Giant", keep his head as David did. I assure you that the souvenir of victory will bar you from falling into the hands of the enemy as easily as forgetting it would. Above all else, seek the Lord when you are tempted to run out of the spirit of fear from that which He allowed to stretch you and make you a "Champion".
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