BENDED & BREAKTHROUGH: No Weapon Formed Against You Will Prosper
Some of us feel as though we have escaped 2020 and 2021 with nothing more than the clothes on our back. We enter 2022, but the hopes are dampened by the years of horror and hardship preceding this new threshold. It’s like running from a burning building, and though we may have made it out, we don’t have much to show for it. Even more, it appears there’s a big mess to clean up before we can feel the joy of a new season.
In starting the new year, God has prompted me to study the life of David. Today in my reading, I was impressed by the way God provided weapons and nourishment for David when his hands were empty, his life was being hunted, and, in his words, “…truly, as the Lord lives and as your soul lives, there is but a step between me and death” (1 Samuel 20:3).
As the story goes, David had been serving King Saul, but Saul’s jealousy toward David stirred a hatred so dark that he lost sight of his own kingdom and put all his focus on hunting David’s life. David escaped Saul’s house with nothing but the clothes on his back after Saul declared to his son, Jonathan, “As long as that son of Jesse is alive, you’ll never be king. Now go and get him so I can kill him!” (1 Samuel 20:31). Jonathan gave his loyalty to David rather than his own father, and ran to tell David to escape for his life. After falling to the ground and weeping, David fled.
Where is GOD? Why isn’t he protecting David? Why is God letting David lose everything at the hand of some demonized leader? At this point in the story, it looks like God has failed to keep His promises with David, and it looks like everything has fallen apart.
Sometimes God doesn’t show up in the way we hope or expect, but if we look closely, we realize He hasn’t failed in keeping His promises amidst the hardship.
David runs swiftly and finds himself at the house of the Lord, where the priest, Ahimelech, resides. David is starving and the priest gives him the bread from the altar of God. (David is fed the very bread of God!). The next thing on David’s mind is to get his hand on a weapon. He asks the priest, “Do you have a spear or a sword?” (1 Samuel 21:8). The priest offers him an artifact from the altar of the Lord: the sword of Goliath, the Philistine giant that David killed as a young boy. In his greatest time of need, when it appeared he had no help, nowhere to go, no strategy or hope for breakthrough, God Himself was David’s help. Through the hand of the priest, God handed David the very weapon his enemy once wielded against him to kill him. It’s almost like God was saying, “David, do you remember? When you faced the giant in my name, you overcame it! Now take the sword of that enemy as a reminder, and stand firm against the enemy you face today! Do not fear! No weapon formed against you will prosper! Trust Me.”
“No weapon formed against you will prosper.” Isaiah 54:17
There are past victories we must recall to gain faith for our current trials. What weapons have you gained in battles won in the past that need to be grabbed and pulled forward for such a time as this? The amazing thing about David’s weapon in this story is that it was not his own; it was the very weapon his enemy used against him intending to kill him. You have weapons in your life that are the plunder from past victories. It's time to remember and take hold of those old victories in order to find fresh faith for the road ahead.
Today I’m pondering… What weapons have been used against me that did not prosper? I’m asking God to place them back into my hands, and to remind me of His faithfulness. Just like his predecessor Joseph, David could look at his enemies and say, “You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good. He brought me to this position so I could save the lives of many people,” and we can say the same thing (Genesis 50:20). David’s life was not fixed overnight. In fact, he spent years running from Saul, but all of it had a purpose, and all of it was forming David into the greatest King Israel would ever know. "And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them" (Romans 8:28).
Let’s recall those past victories (healings, financial breakthroughs, relationship reconciliations, etc.) and praise God for them out loud in front of the MOUNTAINS we face today. When the disciples of Jesus faced a situation where a demon was afflicting a little child and causing him to have seizures and they couldn’t cast it out, they asked Jesus for help, and Jesus cast it out and healed the child. The disciples asked Jesus, “Why couldn’t we do it?” Jesus answered, “Because of your UNBELIEF… if you have FAITH as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you. However this kind does not come out except by prayer and fasting” (Matt. 17:14-21). There are mountains we are facing as we enter 2022 that will require a faith bolstered and purified through prayer and fasting in order for us to command them to be removed. There are enemies that may be chasing us down that require the weapons of past victories to be taken in hand to overcome and see the breakthrough. Now is not the time to forfeit in discouragement. Instead, like David, let us find ourselves in the house of the Lord, eating the BREAD of the LORD, and taking in hand the WEAPONS of the Lord. I hear David shouting to us from generations past, “I would have lost heart unless I had believed I would see the goodness of God in the land of the living. Wait on the Lord; be of good courage, and He will strengthen your heart; WAIT, I say, on the Lord!” (Psalm 27:13-14). Let us join together in this 21 Days of Prayer and Fasting and expect great things from the Lord.
TO DO: Join with Sanctuary to PRAY every night, 6-7PM, January 8-28, and participate in our 21 Days of FASTING. Join on FB LIVE @sanctuaryministries. God is giving us a word for BREAKTHROUGH in 2022. Let us (1) SEEK GOD, (2) HEAR GOD, and (3) OBEY GOD. We are on BENDED KNEE for BREAKTHROUGH.
TAKE A 5-MINUTE WALK:
Today, take time to be alone with Jesus. Be honest with Him about the place you find yourself. Do you see yourself standing before Him with nothing but the clothes on your back as your enemy, the devil, seeks to hunt you down and destroy your life? Fall to your knees and ask Him for fresh bread and weapons for the road ahead. He promises, “No weapon formed against you will prosper” (Isaiah 54:17). Seek Him in His house, receive the bread of His WORD. Ask Him to place that old sword back in your hand. Ask Him to remind you of the old days when you watched the victory of the Lord unfold on your behalf. In new strength stand up and pray, praise, speak Scripture aloud to the mountains looming over you. When the priest offered Goliath’s sword to the young warrior, David said, “There is none like it; give it to me” (1 Samuel 21:9). Take the sword of the Spirit in your hand to today, and remember your GOD as you face the impossible remembering, with GOD nothing is impossible!
"Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God,
so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.”
Ephesians 6:10-1
