Conquering Faith - Part 2

Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Tuesday, April 15th. When seeking spiritual role models, a teenage shepherd might not come to mind, but David's faith against Goliath offers a powerful pattern for us today. Here's part two of Conquering Faith. Now David's fight with Goliath is one of the most perfect examples in all the Bible of God facing those circumstances and challenges and battles in life. And of course, every child who knows the Scriptures and all knows about the story of David and Goliath, the tragedy is that two men and children know it, not enough adults know it. Now we sort of know what happened, but somehow we read the words and miss the principles. And what I want you to see in this passage, I want you to see seven absolutely essential basic principles to make our faith work when we go through difficulties and situations and battles and challenges in life. Now, for your benefit in mind, why don't we look at it this way? And that is whatever you happen to be facing in your life today, whatever challenge it may be, let's just identify that as Goliath, whatever it might be. And how do you respond and how do you face those challenges?

Well, the first principle I want you to jot down is this, and we'll take each one and illustrate them. The first one is this, that Conquering faith recalls past victories. Conquering faith always recalls past victories. Now, it is in the recalling of those past victories that our faith is strengthened at that very moment. And what happens is we become aware of the presence and the power of God when you and I look back to say, what did God do in the past?

David's confidence level was based not on what was happening right then. His faith level was based on what God had done in him, through him, and for him in the past. And so as he recalled facing this bear and facing this lion single-handed and killing both of them and rescuing his flock, he thought about Goliath and looked at him with all that armor and shield and javelin and sword and spear and thought, if God can deliver me and give me victory over a bear who's on all fours and not just two, and can deliver me from a lion, then surely He can deliver me from this heathen, this uncircumcised heathen Philistine who calls himself Goliath, who has challenged and taunted the armies of the living God. And so recalling what God had done for him in the past and looking the situation over, he was willing to say to King Saul, your servant is here to take care of this situation.

Now, of course, Saul looked at him with some disdain probably thinking that he's just a shepherd boy, but you see, the basis of David's faith was what God had done for him in the past. Conquering faith is continually recalling God's past victories. Number two, conquering faith reexamines and reaffirms the proper motivation for going into battle.

That is, it reaffirms and examines carefully what is the proper motivation for this battle. Now, David's ultimate motivation was not riches or the king's daughter or free family. It was his love and devotion to Almighty God. Listen to how David responds over and over again. Now, I'm going to read several of these verses several times, but listen if you will notice in verse 26. He says, then David spoke to the men who were standing by and saying, what will be done? For who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should taunt the armies of the living God? What motivated him was that the name of God was being disgraced. So when David said, you come out here and you taunt the armies of the living God. He was not about to allow that to happen. His motivation was to defend the name of God, to defend the nation of God, to defend the people of God.

So his motive was pure. Now, when you and I face those battles in our life and challenges, things we can't oftentimes know exactly what to do sometime, we have to face them with faith. And we want to be sure to be able to recall what God has done for our life in the past and secondly, that our motive and our purpose for this battle is pure. Number three, conquering faith rejects the discouraging words of others. If David had listened to the comments and the words and the authority of the king and the criticism of his brother, both of which was very negative.

One said, you have no business even being here and the other one said, you can't do it. If he'd listened to either one of those, he would never have fought Goliath and won the victory for the nation of Israel. Now listen to me carefully. You have to be very, very careful who you listen to in any challenge in life. If you listen to the negative stuff of people who are just sort of wobbling around in the Christian life and their faith just wandering here and there and blowing like the waves of the sea, as James says, you won't ever get anything done. You can't face life that way.

You can't listen to that kind of negative stuff. This is why I've said to you over and over and over again, the most important thing in your life and mine is our intimate personal relationship with God through his son, Jesus Christ. When a man or a woman learns to walk in the spirit and learns to walk in an intimate relationship with him, listen, seeing God with your spirit is better than seeing him with your eyes because the spirit is able to perceive and to understand more than the human eye can.

Why? Because you have a foundation built on something far greater than just people's opinions and their attitudes. But what? The simple truth is you will reject the words of those who are negative and you will pursue the word of the living God and the voice of God's going to be louder than the voice of man. Principle number four, conquering faith recognizes the true nature of the battle. I want to say again, you and I are in a spiritual battle and most of the things you and I face in life, that's what they are. They're spiritual battles. Listen, how can it be anything else? We talk about secular and spiritual.

Listen, once you've been born again with the Spirit of God and you have become a child of God, every single incident and every single area of your life, everything becomes a spiritual matter. Here's the problem with Israel on this particular occasion. King Saul and all of his soldiers raid in battle. They looked across the valley and they saw the Philistines. Here's what they saw. They thought the battle was between them and the Philistine soldiers.

When David walked up on the scene, he didn't see it that way at all. He saw this as a spiritual battle. It is the name of Jehovah versus the name of Dagon, Ashtoreth, and Beelzebub. And that's the way God likes to fight anyway, three to one, outnumbered three to one. And here is ten foot tall Goliath, 125 pounds of armor, shield, sword, javelin, and besides that he had his help along with him, the fellow who carried his shield.

And then here's what? David, no armor, no shield, no sword, no javelin, nothing but a little old slingshot and a few stones and a stick. It didn't seem to be a very good battle.

It didn't seem to be very well divided out. But you see the difference is this, that David understood what the nature of the battle was. Oftentimes people battle each other and they don't even realize that the battle is a spiritual battle. We should never see each other as the enemy. The enemy is Satan. And when we go into challenges and battles in our life, we have to be sure we understand the nature of this battle.

And I think if we do, there'll be more love and understanding and unity of spirit among people. Number five, principle number five. Conquering faith responds to the challenge with a positive confession.

This is very important. Conquering faith responds to the challenge with a positive confession. Now here's the principle. We are to listen to the taunts of the enemy always against the background of the promises of God. We're to listen to the negative, to the taunts of the enemy, to the criticisms, to the accusations. We're to listen to all of that against the background of the promises of God. Now, how did David look at all this? How did he see this?

Listen to this. Then David said to the Philistine, you come to me with a sword, a spear, and a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord, L-O-R-D, all capitals, Jehovah of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel whom you have taunted. This day the Lord will deliver you up into my hands, and I will strike you down and remove your head from you. And I will give the dead bodies of the armies of the Philistines this day to the birds of the sky, the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel.

How in the world could he say it? Here's the reason he could, because here is the key in David's mind. Look in verse 47, last part of verse 46, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. He said, you want to know why I'm out here, Goliath?

I'm out here because I believe in the one true God, and I want all the earth to know that the God of Israel is God. And secondly, he said, I want you to know, verse 47, I want all this assembly to know that the Lord doesn't deliver by sword, by spear, for the battle is the Lord's, and he is going to give you into my hands. Now friend, is that a positive confession or is it not?

That's the way he went into battle. He's responding to this challenge with a positive confession. Because you're God, this is what I know God, you can do and you will do because I'm walking in your spirit.

Now here's what I want to say. You and I, whenever we face any challenges in life, need to affirm and speak this positive confession. I thank you God for who you are in me. I thank you dear God for who I am in you.

I thank you dear God for what I have in you. That is, you and I are the sons of God, daughters of God. We have been saved by the grace of God. We have been born again. We've become the children of God. He says we have become joint heirs of Jesus Christ. We are eternally secure in him. We have been sealed unto the day of redemption by his Holy Spirit. We are the followers of the Lord Jesus Christ and we have all the power that we need in walking in obedience to God. There is no place for negative confessions in the midst of the battle because all that does is drain our faith when positive confessions energize us both emotionally, spiritually and physically to do whatever God calls us to do.

It doesn't make any difference what it is because when you get in the midst of battle, there is energy that is drained and so you need spiritual, emotional, physical energy. What that did, it just thrust David into this battle. And so when we come to understand what he means by a positive confession, that's what he means.

Now, number six. That is, when you and I are facing these situations, conquering faith relies upon the power of God only for victory. And here is the key all through this passage, though he's not being passive, here's what I want you to notice. In each of these passages when David is talking about what's going to happen, he always includes God, involves God.

It's God. There is no place in here we can accuse David of saying, I'm going to do this and I'm going to do that. Well, you say, well, over here he says, I'm going to cut off your head. But if you'll notice, he also follows that by saying, and that all this assembly may know that the Lord does not deliver by the sword of our spear, but the battle is the Lord's and he will give you into our hands. He will give you into our hands. God will do it. It is the power of God, not the power of man. Now, here's the seventh point and that is conquering faith reckons the victory, reckons the victory before the battle begins. Conquering faith reckons the victory. That is, the victory is decided in your mind.

It is a settled issue with you. It's as good as done in your thinking before the battle ever begins. You see, when David heard Goliath out there shouting around saying what he was going to do and so forth, when David looked at him, he saw him as a dead man because, you see, David understood what it meant to meditate upon the Lord, to walk in oneness with Him, sweet, intimate fellowship with Him, and therefore, no matter how big the giant in his life, bears, lions, or Goliaths, all of them on the same level, when you're fighting in the power of God, doesn't make any difference what the force against you may be. It is God who gives the victory and never man. Now, what I want you to see in this passage, I want to give you this strategy that David used because I think this is a strategy that you and I must apply in our own lives. If we're going to be able to view it as done and the victory won, here are the seven steps. Number one, and this is the most important part of these seven, you fight the battle before the battle. You fight the battle before the battle. You say, how can you fight the battle before the battle? Because what you do is you fight it in your heart, fight it in your spirit, and fight it in your mind.

I think about how many times I've faced difficult situations and circumstances and get in the prayer room, sometimes it may be one day, it may go on for weeks or months. But what I find myself doing is fighting that battle on my face before God. And I do believe that is the key. You fight the battle before the battle. You fight the battle in your heart with God until you know that you know the will of God. That's why fighting the battle before the battle is the only thing that gives you assurance in the battle. Fighting the battle before the battle gives you assurance in the battle because listen, God knows that you and I face some things that are frightening. But if we have fought the battle before the battle, then we'll have confidence and faith in the battle and we will not turn and run when the heat gets on. Number two, you reaffirm in your heart this battle is the Lord's. It is not my battle, it is God's battle. You reaffirm that you confess that this is the Lord's battle, not mine. Number three, you declare the victory.

Thank you, dear Father, for the victory. That's exactly what David did. You see, when David saw Goliath, immediately he began to think about how God had blessed him and worked in his life. And he began to look to God and began to visualize and see what was happening in his own mind and heart. And then he declared the victory. I'm going to cut off your head.

I'm going to deliver you to the birds of the air and the beast of the field and the whole Philistine army with you. Declare the victory. Number four, very important part, wait for God's timing. Don't go rushing into something until you've got God's timing. What constituted the right timing here?

Here's what constituted it. When Goliath came out and he made his little speech, well, David could have just started running toward him right then and slung that stone. But that wasn't the right timing. God's timing was this.

God's timing was following your confession, David, that I am the issue here. When you have made that declaration, then it'll be time to go to battle. And what happens is when he made that speech, David suddenly was faced with an angry foe. Listen to me, you don't go into battle angry.

You will make a mistake. You don't fight battles angry. You fight them in the fear of God and the reverence for God. And what happens is when he got him angry enough with that speech telling me he's going to cut off his head and feed him, here comes Goliath. And when he came, David started running toward him.

And at that split second at the right moment, he let it fly. And Goliath was a dead man before he ever put the stone in his sling. God's timing. Number five is doing it God's way. No sword, no shield, no javelin, no spear. What was God's way? God's way is usually this, the most insignificant way, the way that only He can be glorified.

What is it? Five smooth stones? Really the truth is one smooth stone and one slingshot. You have to do it God's way.

You can't do it your way. We are prone to rely upon the world's ways when we get into battles. We have to trust God. And usually He's going to tell us to do something that doesn't make sense. Then number six, you fight with confidence.

Now listen, I want to go back again. That confidence is built upon what God has done in your life in the past. As you have built an intimate relationship with Him, you fight with confidence. And number seven, you trust Him in the battle. That is you trust Him for victory. You trust Him for victory. You're going and you say, well is confidence and trust the same thing?

Yes. But you fight with confidence and you're trusting Him for victory. Now David's fight with Goliath is one of the most perfect examples in all the Bible of facing those circumstances and challenges in battles in life. There it is. And you see, isn't it wonderful that God put that in an illustration that every child who reads that story, what, says, come on David.

Three cheers for David. But beneath that incident are these wonderful principles that work in your everyday life and my everyday life. And I want to say to you, my friend, if you've never trusted the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, then you can't know God. Because He says no man comes to the Father but by me. And I want to challenge you to trust Him as your Savior.

You do that by asking Him to forgive you of your sins and acknowledging and confessing that when Jesus Christ died at Calvary, He paid your sin debt in full. And if you're willing to receive by faith Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, you can be saved and become a child of the living God. Then all the power of God through His Holy Spirit begins to rest in you. And you can face any and every circumstance of life knowing that it is not your strength, it is not your wisdom, it is not your energy, it is not your power, but it is the living God living within you and living through you His life. Only a foolish person would turn down living in relationship to Holy God. Thank you for listening to part two of Conquering Faith. If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or In Touch Ministries, stop by InTouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.