God indulges my adventuresome spirit by guiding me to His word through some breath-taking twists and turns. “Something” made me look up a passage that was referenced in a list called “Keys to Cultivating Breakthrough.” Point number 1 – Keep God first. The scripture sent me on a wild goose chase to discover daring courage, interesting intrigue with insurmountable odds with glorious victory. My kind of story.
runt of the litter
Imagine if you will being the runt of your litter, the youngest and most insignificant in the family, or even performing a job as a caregiver making minimum wage, changing adult diapers and pushing wheelchairs through the snow. People sort of forget about you, yet you are vital to your calling 24 hours a day. Much like a shepherd boy. The work is lonely, it is dirty and the only visitors are lions and bears who come to eat the sheep you are charged with caring for.
he sees your heart
You can be out tending your sheep, changing the diapers and feel totally forgotten, but God is watching all the time. He sees your heart. He sees how you operate when no one is looking. His ways are not our ways. They are Supernatural, things that cannot be explained by science or the laws of nature.
So imagine you got picked to go on a road trip. The monotony of your day now has a bright spot. You were selected by your dad to deliver groceries and to check on your older brothers. And that one brother who seems to hate you accuses you of shirking your responsibilities. He calls you conceited and describes what a wicked heart you have. He taunts you and says you are only here to watch the fight.
a giant threatening your village
Unbeknownst to you, there is a giant threatening your village. He has stood outside every day for forty days goading for a fight. He is big, really big. He has a bronze helmet and is dressed in armor weighing 126 pounds. He wears bronze shin guards and carries a bronze sword. His spear is like a fence rail and the spear tip alone weighs over fifteen pounds. He has the nerve to send a shield bearer out ahead of him.
Because you don’t get out much, you ask “who is that uncircumcised Philistine who defies the armies of the living God.” I love that description. I have used it many times particularly when some self-proclaimed religious types stop payment on your last paycheck. And then that same brother who called you conceited with a wicked heart says “what are you doing here, why don’t you mind your own business, you should be out tending to that scrawny flock of sheep.”
You roll your eyes and say “what is it to you? All I did was ask a question.” You ask someone you don’t know what is going on. They tell you the giant has challenged one of them to a dual. The giant says “Pick your best fighter and pit him against me. If he gets the upper hand and kills me, my brothers the Philistines will become your slaves. But if I get the upper hand and kill your best fighter, you all will become my slaves and serve me. “
called in to the boss’ office
Then your boss finds out you are asking questions and summons you to the office. Your boss says “you can’t go fight this Philistine. You’re too young and inexperienced.” You say to your boss “I have been a shepherd, tending sheep for my father. Whenever a lion or bear came and took a lamb from the flock, I’d go after it, knock it down and rescue the lamb. If the bear or lion turned on me, I’d grab it by the throat, wring its neck and kill it. And I’ll do the same thing to this Philistine pig who is taunting the troops of the living God. God, who delivered me from the teeth of the lion and the claws of the bear, will deliver me from this Philistine.”
So your boss says “Go. And God help you.” Your boss then outfits you with a helmet, a sword and some body armor. You can’t move. You take it all off and you pick up five smooth stones from the creek. You pack them in your fanny pack and off you go.
The giant looks you up and down and starts to lick his lips. He sees you as a mere youngster, apple-cheeked and peach-fuzzed. He sneers and says “I’ll make roadkill of you for the buzzards. I’ll turn you into a tasty morsel for the field mice.”
don’t curse and mock the God-of-the-Angel-Armies
And you say, “you come at me with sword and spear and battle-ax. I come at you in the name of God-of-the-Angel-Armies, whom you curse and mock. This very day God is handing you over to me. I am about to kill you, cut off your head and serve up your body and the bodies of your Philistine brothers to the crows and coyotes. The whole earth will know that there is an extraordinary God in Israel. And everyone here will learn that God does not save by means of sword or spear. The battle belongs to God. He is handing you to us on a platter.”
You reach into your fanny pack and pull out one of those smooth stones and load it into your sling shot. God takes over and does the rest. Your aim from all those years fighting lions and bears is good. You hit the giant Philistine in the head and he dies on the spot. You use the Philistine’s own sword to cut off his head. Haven’t you always wanted to do that to the bully who continually taunts you or the boss that continually agitates you?
tap in to the power
Well you can you know. You can enlist the power of the Living God and He can fight your battles. In fact, He makes it easy because He has commanded you to leave the vengeance work to Him.
So no matter your stature, your age, your education, your worldliness, you can tap into the God’s power. You can slay the Devil in between changing adult diapers. You can cast out demons which have debilitated people with mental illness. You can encourage someone to get out of their wheelchair and walk. These miracles are just waiting for you. You can pray for solutions to the impossible. God will come to your aid in the most improbable scenarios with Divine Intervention. You can do all these things in the authority of Jesus Christ. It is beyond exhilarating to see what He will do next.
invite him in
Get to know Him. Find out what He did last week and two thousand years ago that He is willing to do for you today. I know Him personally. He Divinely intervenes with me daily. I look for Him everywhere, because He is THERE. Invite Him in. He is just waiting for you to ask.
In case you want to read the story first hand, see 1 Samuel Chapter 17. You will get hooked like I did and will spend your morning reading all about how Samuel was born to a woman who prayed to have him. You will see how King David was selected by God even though he was just a little shepherd boy. You can see all the jeers puffing out from Goliath and you can read how the story ends. I am so pumped up, I am going to go slay some lions. Well actually God will do the work and I will just tell you the story.
It looks like an ordinary place but these are pictures of the land where David slayed Goliath. God is everywhere and available to us any time.