Warriors Running to Victory – David and Goliath

Warriors Running to Victory – David and Goliath

 by Ashly. P. Ash

Excerpt from Graham Cooke: Qualities of a Warrior (Interactive Journal) p91

 “Spiritual warriors give courage to people.  They are refreshing to be around.  They have that sense of being indomitable, impossible to subdue.  Soldiers line up behind warriors because they know there is an excellent chance of victory.  Warriors make things happen.  Good people add something to us by who they are and how they live.  Other people are negative and take things away; still others have a contrary spirit and become divisive.  Warriors multiply.  They give more than is required.  Measure has no meaning for them.  Abundance is their language and way of life.  When you meet real warriors they overwhelm you with possibilities and refresh you with their certainties.

They are unafraid and it shows.  They attract faith and power.  It’s in their mindset, their attitude, their bearing.  They wear it like armor.  They contribute these things to the atmosphere around them.  They create a better environment because they are massively in league with the Creator.  They help to shape the way we position ourselves to fight in the situation we are facing.  Such warriors hear the Lord laughing at the enemy.  It echoes in their own hearts.  They feed off the sound of victory.”

 

 Background:  In 1 Sam 16 David was anointed by Samuel to be king of Israel.  David was the least likely candidate, a young shepherd that when Samuel told David’s father to bring and present his sons so the Lord could reveal who would be the next King his own father forgot to call for him.  Yet when presented, Samuel anointed David and we open chapter 17 bearing in mind that David had received a promise.  He had received from the Lord a future, a hope, a purpose, but most of all a promise.

 

Read 1 Sam 17: 1-16

Whenever we receive a promise, there is always going to be a trial!  We must have a servant heart which prepares us for greatness in the Lord Jesus!

Can you think of a time when you felt you received a promise or a hope in regards to something and immediately faced a trial afterward?  How did you respond?  Did you realize right away it was a “test” or did it take time for that to become known?

 Notice the scripture tells us that for 40 days Goliath challenged the army of Israel.  When we are confronted by something and we do not respond the way God wants us to immediately the problem can become much bigger than it really is in our minds!  It seems that fear has taken hold of many of the men here.

Has there been a time when you felt lead to do or say something and the longer you thought about it, the more time that passed, you couldn’t find the “get up and go” for it?  Did you ever go back and do what you were lead to do?  How did that feel when you realized that the thing you were dreading went just fine?

 David received his promise, now we enter the situation

 

Read 1 Sam 17: 17-31

David was being prepared with a servant heart for greatness!  But most of the chapter isn’t the actual battle which David fought with Goliath…most of the chapter here is about the preparation of the battle!

 David had to defeat his circumstances.  What were some of the circumstances David had “stacked against his odds?”

 David had to defeat several accusations and discouragement.

Do you think it is possible David’s brother Eliab was jealous because of the anointing to be King David had just received? 

 Several of the soldiers told David all that King Saul had promised to the man that would take on and kill Goliath, if it was such a good deal why didn’t they step up to the plate?

 How did Saul discourage David from being the one to kill Goliath?

 What was David’s response to all of these?

 

 When we are faced with accusations and/or discouragement we need to follow David’s example and remember the good that our God has done for us!

How do you celebrate what God has done in your life?

 

 David had to receive Anointing and Authority for what God wanted him to do.

When God anoints us for something that anointing is contagious!  Saul had no reason to allow a risk such as a young shepherd boy with no experience to fight and represent the entire army of Israel!  Yet when confronted by David, hearing David’s testimony of how God had delivered him before, he allowed him to go!

Reminds us of Esther 4:44 when Mordacai told Esther: “ For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?? 

What are your thoughts about this?

David received authority from the necessary earthly vessel as well to confront the giant.  Submitting to our Pastor’s, parents, spouse’s can be an important piece to confronting a Giant in our own life successfully!

What are your thoughts?

 

David had to prepare for battle!

Is there a hidden treasure that lays in the verse that explains that David was not comfortable in his own armor?  What lessons can we glean from this in regards to our own life?

 God can use what appears to be weak to conquer what appears to be strong!  (1 Cor 1:25)

David took 5 stones and needed one, perhaps he knew Goliath had brothers?  Either way if he truly believed God’s promise for him to become king he had to have the faith necessary to know that God would not be defeated through Goliath that day!

Was there ever a time when you were challenged by something, someone, a struggle you were coming against, or any other type of Giant and held steadfast to the promise that God had given you?

 

Time for BATTLE!  1 Sam 17:32-54

What are some of the qualities you notice about Goliath as he approaches the fight?

Goliath was insulted by the fact that David was young, inexperienced, and unarmed in the conventional way.  Are there times when we too are looking at things on the surface and not to the “Lion standing behind the mouse”? 

David recognized that Goliath wasn’t insulting the army of Israel but rather God himself.  This is when David responds and quotes Dt 28:25-26.  Then David RAN to the battle Line!  He responded immediately!  Describe how you felt and/or the situation of a time when God lead you to do something and you responded immediately…
 

Look at Life:

 We know whenever we are going through a struggle that God is doing something on the other side.  The question is:  What are you doing God, now, in this struggle that you couldn’t do or teach me at any other time?  What promise lays here for me?

 Do I have a servant heart?  How has God been preparing me for greatness lately?

 When accusations/discouragement comes at me how do I respond?  Do I respond as David did in recounting the good God has done in my life?

 How does the armor spoken and taught to us in the New Testament help us face giants today?