Ziglag, Part 2

Greetings, friends and new listeners. Welcome to the Archie Hardy Ministries Program. I'm Sharon Notts thanking you for joining us today, because we know that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. And I'm really excited today to bring you a tremendous tool to use when you are facing intense attacks against your life on many fronts.

It's entitled Zigzag, 10 Ways to React When Satan Attacks. And then you don't allow yourself to become bitter because that's what was happening to David's men. They were so overtaken with grief, everyone for their loss, that they finally, they begin to become angry and bitter. Because when you get in that place, you've got to find someone to blame. You want to find someone to lash out at. Amen.

Because it's just too much for you. You want to say, what if you hadn't done that? And if you hadn't said this, and if that hadn't happened, oh my, I spent a long time in that boat too. And let me tell you, it goes down just like the other one.

They're all sinking ships. You can revisit that what if all day long, but it's not going to change anything. Amen. Hindsight is the perfect science. You can look back and see all the places where you missed it. All the places where you should have, you could have, but you didn't.

But you know what? That's not going to help you now. It's no point in sitting there and having a pity party and letting the devil sow bitterness in your heart. The Bible says, take heed and beware of a root of bitterness that springs up quickly. I don't think anything grows any quicker than a root of bitterness.

That thing can grow overnight. You can go to bed upset. You're genuinely upset, but you can wake up the next morning, bitter, angry.

How many know that something happened overnight instead of you letting the Lord take that thing you munched on it and you let the devil talk to you and then you get up the next day and it's worse. Can you imagine that these men now spoke of stoning David? What good would that have done? What would that have accomplished if they would have stoned David? He was their leader. These people did not have leadership capabilities or they wouldn't have been scattered all over the place and nobody wanted them to be around. They needed David's leadership. Now with David at the helm, he was able to make soldiers out of these men, but they didn't have that ability. What would have been accomplished if they would have stoned David?

They would have lost their leadership. How many say men? And sometimes when things go wrong, the devil tries to get you pitted against somebody else. If something happens in your home or in your marriage, then the devil tries to put a wedge between husband and wife or parents and children and then tries to drive that wedge in there.

And then that thing grows and gets worse. When in fact you two need to come together. Amen. Because two will put 10,000 to flight. And when there's disunity, all the devil does is have a field day.

He just comes on in and takes more and takes more. That's the trick of the enemy. Amen. That's why Peter told us, he said, make sure that you don't allow bitterness to come in. He said, because when you do and you are fighting with one another, your prayers are hindered.

And how many know when you're under attack, you don't need your prayers hindered. Amen. You need to come together in unity. So the first thing is weep, but move on. The second thing is don't allow yourself to become bitter.

And the third thing is, is don't give in to despair. Now the men were allowing themselves to become bitter, but look at David. He had double trouble. He lost his wives too. He lost his family too. And now on top of it, they want to stone him. I can't imagine what David was going through.

I can't imagine what this must've been doing to him, but what did he do? He looked around and there wasn't a single person that was on David's side. There was nobody that said, David, I'm with you. What do you want us to do? I'm with you, man. Come on, man.

Let's go. Nobody. They spoke of stoning him and David had no one. He was hunted down by Saul. He was out of his own country and he was as escapee in the land of his enemies and now his own men were ready to kill him. But what did David do?

I love what it says in the end of verse six, but David encouraged himself in the Lord, his God. Amen. When there's no one else to encourage you, because sometimes when you're going through a place, the people that you expect to be there to boost your faith and encourage you, sometimes they open their mouth and all this negative stuff comes out. Amen.

How many? No, it's the last thing you need at that point. And instead of them being there to preach you something, the word of God and give you a testimony to build your faith, they, Oh man, Oh, I don't know what you're going to do all this. I mean, instead of helping you, they pour all this on top of you. What are you going to do? You've got to encourage yourself in the Lord. That's when you've got to get out the word of God. That's when you got to revisit the places of victory.

That's when you got to start singing that song. He'll do it again. He is faithful. I know what he did before.

He'll do it again. I'm going to trust in the Lord. I remember when there was no one to help me in my distress. I called upon the Lord and he heard me and he delivered me out of all of my fears. I'm going to trust in the Lord. My God, I am going to encourage myself in the Lord. And how much more can we do that when we have the experiences in the words of David? Amen. So David had to encourage himself in the Lord because nobody else was going to encourage him.

Amen. He had to get a grip on himself. Have you ever been to the place? There was a place where you come, it's a line of demarcation and here all of this stuff is happening to you and you feel like you're on the right there. You could just so easily go over that and fall into despair and fall into a pit and you know it. Something in your soul is telling you whatever you do, fight whatever you do, fight now. If there was ever a time for you to dig in your heels and not give in to discouragement, this is it. Because if you don't fight now and you fall into that pit, it's going to be hard to get yourself out.

I didn't say it's impossible because all things are possible with God, but I'm saying it's going to be hard. Just don't go there. Have you ever been to that place where the Holy Ghost is shouting on the inside of you? Don't go there. Don't say that. Don't push the envelope any further. Amen.

Let it go right here. Stop right now and say, no, I'm going to change direction. I am not going to let the devil push me in that pit. I'm not going to open my mouth and speak what thus sayeth the devil. I'm going to open my mouth and speak what thus sayeth the Holy Ghost, what thus sayeth the Lord God.

You have a decision to make how you're going to respond in that moment. And because you have the Holy Ghost, he's in there. Oh, and he stirred up. Amen. And he's trying to give you the right direction to go.

Amen. So you got to encourage yourself in the Lord. So that's what David did. Essentially he said, I'm going to get up.

I'm not giving into this. How many remember the prophet Elijah after he had the great victory and then Jezebel said, you are history. I'm going to do to you what you did to my false prophets. And what did he do? This great man of faith and power who called fire down from heaven, ran and hid. And he was weeping and crying and saying, there's nobody left but me. I'm the only real one who really knows God and I'm the only one left. And he was having a pity party. And what did God do? He came and he basically said, Elijah, shut up and get up.

What are you doing sitting there like that? My God, just get up. Are you afraid of a woman of Jezebel? Amen.

It's time for you to get up, Elijah. I want you to know you are not the only one left. You're not the only person ever been in this test. You're not the only one's been in this kind of a trial. You're not the only one who's ever been sick. You're not the only one who's ever been in pain. You're not the only one who's ever had their light cut off in their face and things.

You're not the only one. Just get up, Elijah. How many say Amen? So, you know, even preachers can get depressed sometimes. I've had people say to me, Oh, well, you know the word of God. Oh, you know the word of God so good.

And I know I still have things just like you do. Those demons come and talk to me too. Amen. There's that lion devil comes, he comes around me too. Amen. And I have to do what you have to do and you have to do what I have to do. We've got to encourage ourself in the Lord.

Just because you know the word doesn't mean you're going to use it. But move on. Don't allow yourself to become bitter.

Don't give into despair, but encourage yourself in the Lord. Okay, let's read a few more verses here. And David said to Abiathar the priest and Ahimelech son, I pray you bring me hither the ephod and let Abiathar and he brought thither to David.

Now you all know what that was. That was, they had this breastplate and they use that to ask direction of the Lord and the Lord would speak to them through this. So this is what he did. He went to the priest and this is an important part.

So we, even though you don't, may not realize it, this is very important. He went to the priest and here's verse eight is what I want you to see. And David inquired at the Lord saying, shall I pursue after this troop?

Shall I overtake them? And he that is God answered pursue for thou shalt surely overtake them and without fail recover all. So David went, he and the 600 men that were with him and came to the brook Bessor where those that were left behind had stayed. But David pursued he and 400 men for 200 men abode there, which were so faint that they could not go over the brook Bessor. Now let's stop here for a moment and see what happened. What did David do after he encouraged himself in the Lord?

Then David went to the priest and he sought a word from God. And these next three steps are so integral. If you miss everything, don't miss this. Let me tell you something. When you find yourself under a satanic attack, there's all kinds of pressure. There's all kinds of noises.

There's all kinds of sounds. The devil is pressing you on all sides. If you don't do anything else, you have got to get away and seek the Lord. David was wise enough to know this.

This is too big of a situation for me. I am in way over my head, but thank God God is able. He's the all wise, all knowing, all powerful God. Amen. And when you don't know what else to do, seek the Lord. David went to the priest. He said, I have got to get a word from God. If you don't know what else to do, stand still and wait on the Lord because a hasty spirit is not of God.

Amen. And before you make your counter attack, you want to make sure that you're on the same page as the Holy Ghost. David went to the priest and he said, should I pursue or not? And God gave him a clear word. And this is one thing I love so much about the Holy Spirit. He said, if any man lacks wisdom, let him ask of God who gives to all men liberally and a braid if not, and it shall be given him.

James one five. This is one of the scriptures that I live by. Just let him ask of God. God wants nothing more than for you and me to come to him.

There's nothing too small. And in this case, there's nothing too hard, too great for our God. He said, just ask me. I want you to ask me.

I like to put it this way. He will not withhold and he will not scold. He says, just come.

I want you to come. When I was a young girl about age nine or 10, I had a preacher sign my Bible. We had all the preachers sign our Bible.

I guess we thought that was going to make us more spiritual somehow. And so we had this one preacher. He signed my Bible.

His name was brother Terlizzi and he wrote in there proverbs three, five and six. So I ran and got my Bible to see what it said and I wrote it in there. And this scripture has been a hallmark of mine all my life. Trust in the Lord with all in thine heart. Lean not on thine own understanding. Oh Lord God, for just to have victory right there. Just right there to have victory. Lean not on thine own understanding, but in all of thy ways acknowledge him and he will, he will direct your path.

Oh, the victory that will be ours. Oh, the many troubles and snares and pitfalls we will avoid if we learn to acknowledge him in all of our ways. You see, that was one of the essential differences between David and Saul. David went to the Lord with everything. Everything David went to the Lord to inquire and saw the extreme opposite when he was given direct commandments of God through Samuel the prophet, he wiggled them around and he manipulated them and did what he wanted to do and then he tried to make an excuse for it.

The extreme opposites. David was afraid to make a move without God and Saul just totally disobeyed God outright did what he wanted to do. Do you see why God called David a man after his own heart? Do you see why God said, I reject Saul? I repent that I ever made him King.

Oh, the difference it is God. If you make, if you make a whole bunch of mistakes, if you do all kinds of things, let me tell you something, nothing will touch the heart of God more, but that you come to him and you ask him and you seek his face. And if you, and let me tell you something, this is how you grow. This is how you develop. This is how you mature is making mistakes and learning from them.

Amen. Because as time goes on, you will make less mistakes and you will hear the voice of God more clearly and you will become more discerning and you will become more obedient. I love the scripture in Hebrews.

I think it's five 12 that says that the mature, those who can eat strong meat because they have had their spiritual senses exercise by reason of use that they know how to discern good from evil. That means they just learned how to go to God every time. And God says, now here's what the devil's up to, but I want to tell you what you can do and you can cause the devil to look like a fool every time. And as you continue to do that, it becomes, your ear becomes sensitive, sensitive to the voice of the Lord. And then after a while, all he has to do is just nudge you and just nudge you a little bit off the hit you over the head with the Bible. You know, he's saying, no, no, stop it. But then after a while he just says, no, he gets that rod. And you know, the rod and the staff, you see the rod is for correction when you need it. But it also is to, Hey, don't go that way.

Get over here. Just touch him a little bit and then he'll go the right way. And that's what the Holy Ghost wants to do. He wants to be able to give us that little nudge so we don't fall in Satan's pitfalls. So we find out that David inquired of the Lord and he said, what shall I do if I, if I go after them?

Am I going to overtake them? Should I wait or should I go? And God said, go.

Oh, I love it. When you know that, you know that God said, go. When you know that prompt means go, go.

And when you know that check means no, don't go. Amen. But God said, pursue them.

And I love the thing about God. He said, go after them, David, because you'll not only overtake them, but you will recover. L L somebody said, I want it all back.

I want it all back. I'm going into the enemy's camp and I'm going to take back what the devil stole from me. Amen. So number four is seek a word from God. And then number five, when God gives you a word, act on it.

The time to act is when God gives you a word. Then don't begin to allow, cause you know, as soon as God gives you a word, the enemy is right there. How many know, you know the parable of the sower, the four grounds. What happened when the word was sown? Immediately the enemy come to steal the word and that follows through on everything. Didn't Jesus say that's the key to all the parables and all the gospel? How many know Jesus said that? So that means if God gives you a word and says, I am the Lord thy God that heal a fee, the devil's going to come and say, Oh no, you're not going to get healed.

If God comes to you and gives you a word and says, I am the Lord thy God who supplied all thy needs according to his riches and glory. And I want to give you this so that you desire. I see your need of a home. I see your need of a car.

I see your need of a better job. I, the Lord thy God, I'm going to give it to you. And the devil will come and say, it is never going to happen.

He comes to steal the word immediately, no matter what the word is God gives you. And when God says, rise up and pursue and overtake for I am with thee said the Lord and you will recover all the devil's going to come and say, are you losing your mind? Are you going to go out there with these 600 men?

Are you going to go out there after them? Amen. But what did David do? When God says, go, he didn't sit there and think about it. He obeyed the voice of the Lord.

Now, the only time we hesitate is when we're not sure. We're either not sure or God has not given us a word yet. If God hasn't given you a word yet, where are you going to go?

How do you know where to go and what to do if he hasn't told you so you would be foolish to do it then. But on the other hand, if God has given you a word and you sit there, you can talk yourself out of it. You can sit there and rationalize that whole thing. And when you're done, you'll say, I don't think that was God.

Amen. So when you know that, you know, and you say, well, how will I know? I can only give you that verse I just quoted by reason of use by exercising that God will start you off with little things. He's not going to start you on some huge thing that has the, could bring disaster to you. He'll start you off on something little. He'll say, you're going to go to super fresh today or you're going to go to giant today to shop for your groceries. And he'll say, no, go to super fresh. I just think I should go to super fresh. I don't know why, but I, I don't know, but I got this strong feeling to go to super fresh. So you go to super fresh and what happens?

You end up praying for somebody to get healed and super fresh. Now, if you had gone to giant, would it have been the end of the world? No, you would have never known.

But because you learn and you say, man, am I so glad I went to super fresh. Wow. That's a big thing to you.

That's huge to you at that time. You think, wow, did you see what God did? Whoa, go get them God. And you know what God says? You ain't seen nothing yet.

If I can trust you with these little things, I'm going to give you something bigger. Don't you remember when they brought Nathaniel to Jesus and they said, here, this is Nathaniel. We've told him to come see you, that you're the Messiah. And Jesus said, Nathaniel, you're a true Israelite in whom there's no guy or no malice. And Nathaniel said, what?

Can anything good come out of Nazareth? What was he talking about? He said, and Jesus said to him, Oh, let me tell you something. You think that because this is a big thing because I told you Nathaniel that I saw you when you were sitting under the fig tree and Nathaniel thought, Oh my God, he saw me because apparently that was something that meant something to him. He was not just sitting under a fig tree.

He must've been sitting under the fig tree doing something, meditating, praying, thinking, whatever, something that when Jesus said that he had a flashback. So he said, pursue. When God says pursue, then you need to obey the voice of the Lord. All right. Now we find here that we know we had 600 men, but what only 400 men went to fight. So they went from 600 to 400.

Why? Because 200 of the men were so physically exhausted and weak, they did not have the physical strength to go. So they allowed them to stay behind.

And that's important because we'll revisit that in a moment. Okay, let's look at verse 11 and they found an Egyptian in the field and brought him to David and gave him bread and he ate and they gave him water to drink and they gave him figs and clusters of raisins. And when he had eaten and his spirit came again to him for he had not eaten any bread or drunk any water for three days and three nights. Now here's this young man that had not had any food for three days and three nights. He apparently was part of the enemy that had come in and invaded zigzag, but when they all left, he was so sick and weak.

They just left him behind, basically left them for dead. But this was part of God's plan because when you seek a word from God and God tells you pursue, he's not going to leave you hanging there to figure out what to do. He's going to give you a specific direction. He's going to tell you what to do, where to do it, how to do it and when to do it. God is very precise.

If you ask God for direction, he's capable of giving you clear direction. And so God allowed this young man to be left there because he had all the inside information that David needed. So David said, to whom do you belong and whence and from whence are you? And he said, well, I'm a young man of Egypt. I'm servant to the Amalekites.

Ah, okay. The Amalekites. And my master left me because three days ago I fell sick. Now we made an invasion upon the south of the Karathites and upon the coast which belongs to Judah and upon the south of Caleb and we burned zigzag with fire. This young man had been there and David said to him, can you bring me to this company? Do you know where they went?

Can you take me where they are? And what did the young man say? He said, you swear to me by your God that you won't kill me and you won't deliver me into the hands of my master and I'll take you right where they are. When God tells you to overtake the enemy, he'll take you right where the enemy is. God will give you a specific word and a specific answer. If you are facing a difficult thing in your life and you're seeking God, God will give you and direct you specifically what to do. Amen. And when he had brought him down, behold, they were spread abroad upon all the earth eating and drinking and dancing because of all the great spoil that they had taken out of the land of the Philistines and out of the land of Judah.

So what have we going on here? We find out that when God said he got a word from God, God said, go forth. David acted right away. He didn't hesitate. Immediately he went forth. He became aggressive.

He went after the enemy right away and when he did, God gave him a word. God allowed this young man to tell him exactly where the enemy had taken all the spoils and here they came upon this great company and these people were having a major party. They were singing and dancing and just having a great time. I guess they were picking up their gold and saying, oh, look what we got.

Look what we got. And they had all of the wives and all of the children. They had them all there somehow I'm sure held captive and sequestered and they were laughing at him and laughing at him and saying, and your husband ain't never going to come and get you.

You're never going to see your daddy again. Oh, you belong to us now. Amen. The devil was rubbing their nose in it. The devil was just boasting. But you know the devil, he doesn't know when he's boasting the loudest. That's when he's ready for a fall.

Amen. He didn't learn it when he got kicked out of heaven. He didn't learn it when Michael kicked him out. He should have learned his lesson back then. Oh, as soon as the devil starts boasting and says, look what I did to you.

Look what I've done. Look what I've taken while he is boasting, while he is all puffed up. That's when he's about to have a major fall. That's when God is going to move in. Amen. Because pride always goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall.

And the devil still hasn't learned that lesson. Amen. So when the devil is boasting, when that boss that doesn't like you on your job, when that unsaved person that doesn't like you is boasting what all they're going to do, you just let them boast and you stay humble before the Lord and you go before God and say, Lord, what should I do? Amen. Should I, should I go to the superior or should I hold my peace?

Should I report them to somebody else or should I just hold my peace and that you take care of it? What do you want me to do, God? I don't want to get in self.

I don't want to go take it into my hands and cause it to blow up in my face. I want to trust in you, Lord. I want to know what you want me to do, God. How do you want to move, Lord?

How do you want to move in this situation? Amen. Number four, get a word from God.

Number five, act in confidence once you get that word. Number six, be aggressive and go after the enemy and God led them right in the enemy's back yard. Amen.

Amen. What a powerful word of encouragement, zigzag, 10 ways to react when Satan attacks. You know, we all love David the shepherd, the warrior, the king, and especially the psalmist, because no matter what was going on in his life, he found a way to climb out of the pit, evade the enemy, deliver God's people, and to give God the praise. Many of his Psalms start out in despair, but they usually always end in an anthem of praise and expectation of good.

But the experience of zigzag may have been the lowest point of his life. Forced to flee the jealous and murderous King Saul, he found himself taking refuge of all places amongst the Philistines, Israel's avowed enemy and the home of Goliath, whom he had slain as a boy with a slingshot. Amazingly, King Achish befriended David and his 600 ragtag men and gave them the city of zigzag to live in. But to keep up the farce, they had to go to battle with the Philistines against other nations. It was all going fine until the day the Philistines went to war with Israel again.

But mercifully, the Philistine generals did not trust David to go against his own people, and David and his men did not have to blow their cover. Then things got worse. When they returned to zigzag, they found it on fire and their wives and children kidnapped. And adding to this atrocity, David's men, mourning their losses, wanted to stone David. This was rock bottom. He had lost his family too, and now his men had turned on him.

But when there was no other source of encouragement, David encouraged himself in the Lord. Then he did ten things that reversed the disaster and brought one of their greatest victories. Don't miss one of these ten strategies. Order ten ways to react when Satan attacks zigzag on CD for a love gift of $10 or more. Request offer SK139. Mail to RG Hardy Ministries, P.O. Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland, 21203. Or go online to RGHardy.org. Once again, the offer for zigzag is SK139. Send to P.O. Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland, 21203. Until next time, this is Sharon Atse, Maranatha.