Then David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword, with a spear, and with a javelin. But I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you and take your head from you. And this day I will give the carcasses of the camp of the Philistines to the birds of the air and the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. Then all this assembly shall know that the Lord does not save with sword and spear; for the battle is the Lord ’s, and He will give you into our hands.”
I Samuel 17:45-47 NKJV
Young David faced a giant named Goliath. What giant do you face today? Addiction? Bitterness? Unforgiveness? Lust? Gossip? Worldliness? Greed? Complacency? Depresssion? Anxiety? Confusion? Sickness? Debt? Temptation? Trial? Grief?Suffering? Loneliness? Pain? Isolation? Doubt?
Do not think that this is your battle alone. These things defy the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, who tells us that He has won the victory over sin and death – that on the cross He declared, “It is finished!”
We can stand, like young David, with our feet planted firmly upon the foundation of Jesus Christ risen victorious over sin and death and proclaim, “This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you and take your head from you.”
We are not meant to live defeated, Child of God, but victorious!
There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God. But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. Therefore, brethren, we are debtors—not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. – Romans 8:1-18 NKJV
For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. – II Timothy 1:7 NKJV
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: “For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.” Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. – Romans 8:35-39 NKJV
Go, live victorious in Christ, Child of God. Let your enemies see that they are defeated by the Blood of the Lamb, by your testimony, and by the fact that you do not live your own lives but love God, because He loved you first. Amen.
Harold J. Ballinger 