Heart Check IV
‘He lets me rest in green meadows; he leads me beside peaceful streams’ Ps. 23:2
A Patient heart. David was anointed king as a teenager. He did not become king, at least over the united kingdom of Israel, till he was thirty. So for at least fifteen years, David was waiting patiently and adventurously too. He was running from pillar to post. He was just waiting. A lot of us God gives you just a glimpse of what He wants to do and we just rush and make a mess of the whole thing. David had a patient heart. In fact when David confronted goliath Read the rest of this entry
Heart Check III
‘And David behaved himself wisely in all his ways; and the Lord was with him. Wherefore when Saul saw that he behaved himself very wisely, he was afraid of him’ 1Sam.18:14-15 [KJV].
How did Saul lose his kingdom? There was battle, there needed to be sacrifice so that God would intervene. Samuel was supposed to come and perform the sacrifice. Saul waited and waited and Samuel was late. How can a man of God come late? But Samuel came late. And the Philistines were approaching, gathering, and closing in. The people were agitated and Saul must have said, “I know how to do this thing. I have seen Prophet Samuel do it several times. Is it Read the rest of this entry
Heart Check II
‘But God removed Saul and replaced him with David, a man about whom God said, ‘I have found David son of Jesse, a man after my own heart. He will do everything I want him to do’ Acts 13:22.
He was just a shepherd boy when God said to Saul ‘‘But now your kingdom must end, for the Lord has sought out a man after his own heart. The Lord has already appointed him to be the leader of his people, because you have not kept the Lord’s command’ 1Sam.13:14. God said about David, “I have found David, He is a man after My heart’. Wow! David’s heart is committed to God, totally committed to God.
Heart Check I
‘But now your kingdom must end, for the Lord has sought out a man after his own heart. The Lord has already appointed him to be the leader of his people, because you have not kept the Lord’s command’ 1Sam.13:14 .
David is so unique such that in the whole Bible, there is only one person named David. People’s names are usually repeated. Although it may not necessarily mean anything, yet I find it interesting and worth mentioning. David survived all the terrible things he went through because of one thing – his heart. David had his heart in the right place. How do you deal with a father in-law that is trying to pin you to the wall with a javelin? Physically, this is not Read the rest of this entry
What’s Your Excuse?
‘Don’t excuse yourself by saying, “Look, we didn’t know.” For God understands all hearts, and he sees you. He who guards your soul knows you knew. He will repay all people as their actions deserve’ Prov.24:12
David survived all the pressures of life because of his heart. David was sidelined, his own father, Jesse, and his brothers relegated him to the wilderness, David got a prize for killing goliath, the first daughter of Saul the king, but Saul gave his wife to somebody else. Imagine you have paid the bride price for your wife and then you go there to pick up your bride with your friends and find out that she has been given to someone else. But through all of this, David Read the rest of this entry
Cultivate Hunger
‘When I remember You on my bed, I meditate on You in the night watches.My soul follows close behind You; Your right hand upholds me’ Ps.63:6 & 8 [NKJV].
Don’t be satisfied with knowing a friend of God. Don’t be satisfied that your husband or wife is a friend of God. Stir up a craving within you, a craving to pursue real friendship with God. I had an experience some years ago; I was on a flight that almost crashed. The aircraft was in free fall for at least thirty seconds. We were going through what the pilot described as a field of lightening mines. People sitting by the window could literally see the lightening tearing Read the rest of this entry
Focused Desire
‘As the deer pants for the water brooks, So pants my soul for You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?’ Ps.42:1-2 [NKJV].
Pursue intimacy with God regardless of where you are. Pursue intimacy with God. God said concerning David, “I have found a man after My heart”. What will God say about you? God said to Samuel, “I have found a man that is passionately in love with Me”. Sadly, a lot of people just want to use God because we have heard that the people that are God’s friends, they do things and they get away with it. They say to God ‘I am your friend’ so that I can do things Read the rest of this entry
Maximize The Season
‘So be careful how you live. Don’t live like fools, but like those who are wise. Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days. Don’t act thoughtlessly, but understand what the Lord wants you to do’ Eph.5:15-17.
A lot of people that go through extreme rejection have serious inferiority complex. They react to things through the veil of that complex. But David did not have inferiority complex. He would not have been able to look his brothers in the eye. How do I know? When he needed to confront Eliab, he did it without resentment. ‘…and Eliab’s anger was aroused against David, and he said, “Why did you come down here? And with whom have you left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know your pride and the insolence of your heart… And David said, “What have I done now? Is there not a cause?”’ 1 Sam.17:28-29. In order words, David was saying, “why are you all sitting in the tent like cowards? Is there not a cause?” No inferiority complex! That is what being in the Presence of God does to you. Someone says “if you can kneel before God, you can stand before men”. Another thing that comes with intimacy with God, in the case of people that are suffering from intense rejection, is not having a superiority complex. Intimacy with God protects you from having inferiority or superiority complex. People come out of the season of rejection and I’m usually shocked how they treat others that are going through the exact same thing they went through. “Let him suffer, I worked for my money”. Have you heard that before? God delivered you from something, you see someone else going through the same thing and you think you are superior to the person? Even the little Egyptian boy, David stopped to fed him and help him because David knew what it is to be left alone in the wilderness to die.Thirdly, David’s intimacy with God healed him completely and David was able to open his heart for covenant relationships. For some, after going through rejection and pain, they become suspicious of everyone. God brings people into their lives to help them reach their destiny and they are suspicious. God brings Jonathans into their lives, instead of embracing him and striking a covenant relationship, they dwell on the suspicion that he can sell them out to Saul. They begin to conjure up theories that don’t exist. That is a sign that they have not utilized that season embracing God. Read the rest of this entry
Intimacy With God
‘O God, you are my God; I earnestly search for you. My soul thirsts for you; my whole body longs for you in this parched and weary land where there is no water.’ Ps.63:1
Jesse was well to do; in fact he was a Sanhedrin [the highest political magistracy of the country]. Jesse was not a farmer. So the sheep and goats that David was sent out to care for were not his primary source of income. David was sent out to the wilderness to die [just like he sent Uriah to die in battle]. Perhaps not literally like that but they just wanted David out of the house. Yet David triumphed. You will triumph in the name of Jesus. David did not allow the Read the rest of this entry
My Shepherd
‘Then Samuel asked, “Are these all the sons you have?” “There is still the youngest,” Jesse replied. “But he’s out in the fields watching the sheep and goats.” “Send for him at once,” Samuel said. “We will not sit down to eat until he arrives’ 1Sam.16:11.
How well can you handle rejection? How well you can handle the rejection of men determines how far you will go. Let me explain. Where was David’s mother while all this drama was going on? If the number one prophet requests that all your sons be brought before him and the father forgets, will the mother also forget? Where was David’s mother? One school of thought says David’s mother was an African woman that Jesse had an affair and that was Read the rest of this entry
