SPEAKER_01: Hey, I'm Pastor Steve Hole.
SPEAKER_01: I want to empower you today to walk in your true identity as a worshiper and warrior.
SPEAKER_01: Today, embrace the power of God's Word and the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Welcome to the Born for War podcast.
SPEAKER_01: So today I want to pick up where we left off in 2 Samuel.
SPEAKER_01: We were in 2 Samuel 5, and it was too much stuff.
SPEAKER_01: There's just, man, the Word of God is amazing what you find in God's Word.
SPEAKER_01: And me as a pastor and a teacher, I'm blown away with how I can prepare and prepare and prepare, study and be ready.
SPEAKER_01: And then I get up here and new stuff comes to me.
SPEAKER_01: I just get new stuff.
SPEAKER_01: And so we didn't even, it was supposed to be one sermon, so now it's two sermons.
SPEAKER_01: So turn to 2 Samuel chapter 5, and I'm not going to go over all that I covered last week, so I'm just going to give a quick overview.
SPEAKER_01: But 2 Samuel 5 is where David has been on the run for 15 years from Saul.
SPEAKER_01: Saul and Jonathan are killed in battle.
SPEAKER_01: David is anointed king over Judah.
SPEAKER_01: Remember, Judah was his tribe, but the rest of Israel still aligned itself with the house of Saul.
SPEAKER_01: Then the house of Saul falls in battle seven and a half years later, and there's now a united kingdom with David, and his first act is to attack Jerusalem, take it back, and set up his capital, his sort of headquarters at Mount Zion or the mountain of David or Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_01: So he's there now.
SPEAKER_01: Well, the Philistines then hear that David is on the move, and so they begin to march up from what we would call a present-day Gaza strip area along.
SPEAKER_01: They were called the Sea People.
SPEAKER_01: The Philistines were called the Sea People.
SPEAKER_01: We don't know exactly.
SPEAKER_01: We think they might have come from Crete.
SPEAKER_01: But the sea people come up, and if you remember, some 15 years before, David had taken out Goliath, one of the sons of Anak, who was probably nine feet nine inches tall, a descendant of the Nephilim in Genesis 6, 1 through 4, at the Valley of Elah.
SPEAKER_01: So that's a that's a northeasterly direction.
SPEAKER_01: And instead of going to the valley of Elah, they're not going to go there because they were defeated there.
SPEAKER_01: They're going to actually move a little bit more northwesterly toward Jerusalem to a different valley.
SPEAKER_01: And that's where we pick up the story.
SPEAKER_01: So look at verse 17.
SPEAKER_01: Now, when the Philistines heard that they had anointed David, king over Israel, all the Philistines went up to search for David.
SPEAKER_01: David heard of it and went down to the stronghold.
SPEAKER_01: Now, I told you last week, and let's just say it again.
SPEAKER_01: If you didn't underline it last week, underline it this week, anointed David.
SPEAKER_01: So David is anointed by God, and you've heard me say this many times before.
SPEAKER_01: Old Testament concealed, New Testament revealed.
SPEAKER_01: And what I mean by that is that the stories of the Old Testament conceal a truth that becomes clear to us in the New Testament through the life, death, and resurrection of Christ and through the church.
SPEAKER_01: And so what we see here is the Philistines represent demonic activity.
SPEAKER_01: Philistines are never good in the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_01: They represent demonic activity, satanic activity.
SPEAKER_01: They come up to take out the anointed one.
SPEAKER_01: And as we know in the Old Testament, it was prophets, priests, and kings that were anointed by God with oil, and men and women, you're anointed by God now.
SPEAKER_01: Every one of you in this room are anointed as a king and a priest, and Philistines from the enemy want to take you out.
SPEAKER_01: And so at that point, where you got saved, you gave your heart to Christ, you are anointed by the Holy Spirit as a king and a priest in the heavenly realm.
SPEAKER_01: Revelation 1.6, God has made us all kings and priests to his God and Father.
SPEAKER_01: Revelation 5.10.
SPEAKER_01: And God has made us kings and priests to our God, and we shall reign on the earth.
SPEAKER_01: 1 John 2.27.
SPEAKER_01: But the anointing which you have received from him abides in you.
SPEAKER_01: See, sometimes you don't feel like it, sometimes you don't act like it.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes you're not where God wants you to be, and that's part of the battle of us growing and becoming more and more sanctified in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: But the reality is you are a king and you are a priest.
SPEAKER_01: And so the first great commission is not Matthew 28, 18 through 20.
SPEAKER_01: The first great commission is Genesis 1, 26 through 29.
SPEAKER_01: That you've been given dominion, that you are imagers.
SPEAKER_01: I love dogs.
SPEAKER_01: I train dogs, but dogs are not created in the image of God.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you in this room love horses, and I think horses are cool.
SPEAKER_01: I had a horse as a kid.
SPEAKER_01: I like riding horses, but they're not created in the image of God.
SPEAKER_01: Very few of you like cats.
SPEAKER_01: And I love cats.
SPEAKER_01: I think cats are cool.
SPEAKER_01: We have a cool cat.
SPEAKER_01: We have a barn cat that's got little, I call her needles, because she comes and pumps on me and just pierces me with those.
SPEAKER_01: But that's how she stayed alive for eight years.
SPEAKER_01: Who knows what she does at night in the fights she's been in.
SPEAKER_01: That's a bad cat.
SPEAKER_01: All right.
SPEAKER_01: But only we as human beings are created in the image of God.
SPEAKER_01: Male and female, he created us in the image of God.
SPEAKER_01: You are a king and a priest.
SPEAKER_01: And in Genesis 1, it says you've been given domain.
SPEAKER_01: You've been given a dominion.
SPEAKER_01: You're to have dominion to rule over the fish of the sea.
SPEAKER_01: We're to rule over the earth.
SPEAKER_01: We've been given this domain as kings and priests.
SPEAKER_01: So men and women, God's given you a home.
SPEAKER_01: Some cases, he's given you a marriage.
SPEAKER_01: In some cases, he's given you children and grandchildren.
SPEAKER_01: In some cases, he's giving you a job.
SPEAKER_01: You're to have dominion there.
SPEAKER_01: You're to bring Christ there.
SPEAKER_01: You're to, as a humble servant of the living God, you come and you take dominion for him.
SPEAKER_01: So you're a king and a priest.
SPEAKER_01: Now that's good news.
SPEAKER_01: The bad news is the enemy knows that some of you don't know that.
SPEAKER_01: And so they're coming.
SPEAKER_01: You've got a target on your back, just like they're coming after David, they're coming after you.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 18.
SPEAKER_01: The Philistines also went and they deployed themselves in the valley of Rephaim.
SPEAKER_01: The valley of giants.
SPEAKER_01: The giants are there.
SPEAKER_01: You've got giants.
SPEAKER_01: We have giants.
SPEAKER_01: All of us battle with giants in our life, giants of shame, giants of failure.
SPEAKER_01: I think for most women, when Brene Brown talks about shame, she's probably one of the best experts on shame.
SPEAKER_01: She says, for a woman, it's not being enough.
SPEAKER_01: For men, it's failure and not being strong enough.
SPEAKER_01: So for a woman, it's always not enough.
SPEAKER_01: You're not enough for something.
SPEAKER_01: And for men, it's oftentimes a fear of failure because you got a few failures in your life.
SPEAKER_01: If you've lived life a while, you've had some failures.
SPEAKER_01: You've had some times where you were defeated in something you felt like you should have won.
SPEAKER_01: And for the women in this room, you've had areas where you thought you had enough, but you didn't have enough.
SPEAKER_01: And so the enemy comes and just reminds you again and again, you're not enough.
SPEAKER_01: You're not enough.
SPEAKER_01: You're a failure.
SPEAKER_01: You're a loser.
SPEAKER_01: So these are giants in our life.
SPEAKER_01: And so the enemy always wants to coax us into the valley of giants.
SPEAKER_01: And what we tend to do is we run.
SPEAKER_01: We run from our fears, we run from our concerns, and David decides to face the giants.
SPEAKER_01: In church, face your giants with breakthrough courage.
SPEAKER_01: Face the giants that are there.
SPEAKER_01: Don't waste a giant.
SPEAKER_01: Don't waste a giant, don't waste a failure.
SPEAKER_01: You're gonna fail, you're gonna have giants.
SPEAKER_01: Don't waste it, learn from it.
SPEAKER_01: Face it, go in there and battle and watch God show up in our lives.
SPEAKER_01: And so, what I want to do today is I want to take the remaining time and let's look at what and how we experience breakthrough in our life looking at David in this valley of Rephaim, the valley of the giants.
SPEAKER_01: So let's look at the first thing he does in verse 19.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 19.
SPEAKER_01: David inquired of the Lord, saying, Shall I go up against the Philistines?
SPEAKER_01: Will you deliver them into my hand?
SPEAKER_01: And the Lord said to David, Go up, for I will doubtless deliver the Philistines into your hand.
SPEAKER_01: The first thing David does is he inquires of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't assume what God wants him to do.
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't use natural reasoning.
SPEAKER_01: And by the way, natural reasoning is great.
SPEAKER_01: It's important.
SPEAKER_01: I don't think you have to inquire of the Lord about everything.
SPEAKER_01: I don't think you have to inquire of the Lord what color socks to put on or whether you should get dressed today.
SPEAKER_01: But there are things, there are times, men and women, where there's big issues, there's valleys before you where demonic powers are there, and God would require of us, inquire of me.
SPEAKER_01: Ask me what to do.
SPEAKER_01: Ask me what my will is about this particular matter.
SPEAKER_01: So keep your finger in 2 Samuel 5 and then turn to the middle of your Bible to Psalm 27.
SPEAKER_01: Look with me at Psalm 27.
SPEAKER_01: And it could be that David pinned these words right here, going toward, moving toward the valley of Rephaim.
SPEAKER_01: He's become king.
SPEAKER_01: He was a poet, musician.
SPEAKER_01: He might have written these words, but they certainly fit our context.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord is my light and my salvation.
SPEAKER_01: Whom shall I fear?
SPEAKER_01: The Lord is the strength of my life.
SPEAKER_01: Of whom shall I be afraid?
SPEAKER_01: When the wicked came against me to eat up my flesh, my enemies and foes, they stumbled, they fell.
SPEAKER_01: Though an army may encamp against me, my heart shall not fear.
SPEAKER_01: Though war may rise up against me, this in I will be confident.
SPEAKER_01: One thing I've desired of the Lord that I will seek, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple.
SPEAKER_01: So David goes to the stronghold, the cave of Abdulum, and he inquires of the Lord, God, what are you calling me to do?
SPEAKER_01: Will the Philistines be delivered into my hands?
SPEAKER_01: And then look at verse 14.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 14 of Psalm 27.
SPEAKER_01: Wait on the Lord, be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart.
SPEAKER_01: Wait, I say, on the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: So there's something about waiting on God.
SPEAKER_01: There's something about not moving until it's time to move.
SPEAKER_01: Not moving until your Capital L leader, Jesus Christ, who's the ultimate of breakthrough courage at Calvary, where he broke through our sin, he broke through our shame.
SPEAKER_01: He broke through our inabilities and our shackled bondages and strongholds of the enemy, and he set us free to be his kings and priests.
SPEAKER_01: He's looking for men and women who will inquire of him, that will call out, that will cry out to him.
SPEAKER_01: So first thing David does, he inquires of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 20.
SPEAKER_01: So David went to Baal Parazim and defeated them there.
SPEAKER_01: And he said, The Lord has broken through my enemies before me like a breakthrough of water.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore he called the name of that place Baal Perazim.
SPEAKER_01: Baal Perazim, the God of breakthrough.
SPEAKER_01: David's obedience in facing the giants brought a breakthrough like a dam breaking.
SPEAKER_01: The picture here is like a dam breaking by the pressure of like a white water river or a lake just breaking through, flooding the valley with the grace of God.
SPEAKER_01: How many would like to have that in your life?
SPEAKER_01: That God would come, you would face your giants, whatever they are, and then let God fight for you.
SPEAKER_01: Let God move in a mighty way, like a breakthrough of water.
SPEAKER_01: Now I've been in whitewater streams fly fishing before, where I got myself in a ton of trouble.
SPEAKER_01: I remember being on the Arkansas River years ago, and I had not fished this particular, I haven't fished the Arkansas but a few times, so I didn't know how fast it was to the degree that I was used to some other rivers.
SPEAKER_01: But I got myself in the middle of that river and I knew this was really, really dumb.
SPEAKER_01: I remember saying to myself, this is very dumb, Steve.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm sitting there and I can't go either way because the rocks are so slippery and the water so fast.
SPEAKER_01: Well, I'm here today, so obviously I figured out a way to get out of it.
SPEAKER_01: But I didn't want to go ripping down and breaking bones going down the river.
SPEAKER_01: But that kind of pressure is this idea that David has of the God of breakthrough.
SPEAKER_01: And that's actually literally what Bel Perazim means.
SPEAKER_01: That there's a that he's a ruler of, he's the master of breakthrough.
SPEAKER_01: How many need some breakthroughs in your life this year?
SPEAKER_01: Raise your hand.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I mean, it's true for all of us.
SPEAKER_01: And you know, I think that there's sometimes it's like right here, sometimes it's out there, but God is a master of breakthrough.
SPEAKER_01: He's a master of breakthrough.
SPEAKER_01: And that's why our theme, our theme in 2025, is the God of breakthrough.
SPEAKER_01: The the breakthrough courage that David needed is the breakthrough courage that you already have.
SPEAKER_01: Men and women, you have it.
SPEAKER_01: You have everything you need.
SPEAKER_01: You're anointed as a king and a priest and an overcomer.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I could have kept reading the priest in King passage of Revelation 1.
SPEAKER_01: Revelation 2.
SPEAKER_01: And then if you if you recall in uh Revelation 2 and 3, seven times that we're overcomers.
SPEAKER_01: You are an overcomer.
SPEAKER_01: You have everything you need through the power of the Holy Spirit and the Word of God to overcome these giants in one's life.
SPEAKER_01: So I share with this at the prayer time.
SPEAKER_01: We had the fasting and prayer time to begin the year, December 31st to January 1st, but some of you were not there.
SPEAKER_01: But God gave me John 20, 25.
SPEAKER_01: God gave me John 20, 25 for the new year.
SPEAKER_01: And I was in a time of seeking God.
SPEAKER_01: I said, God, I know you've given me breakthrough courage, but is there a passage for John 20, 25 that you want to speak to me from?
SPEAKER_01: And he gave me John 20, 25, 20, colon, 25, 20, 25.
SPEAKER_01: And I love this because the disciples are discovering that Jesus has risen from the dead.
SPEAKER_01: And in John 20, 25, it says, We have seen the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: We have seen the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: And men and women, you need to see the Lord this year in some of these areas.
SPEAKER_01: There are things you've not seen the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, you know it intellectually, but experientially.
SPEAKER_01: It hasn't been there yet.
SPEAKER_01: But God wants you to see God show up in some fear areas.
SPEAKER_01: God would show up in your family.
SPEAKER_01: God would show up in your job.
SPEAKER_01: God would show up in your finances.
SPEAKER_01: You would see the Lord in your children and your grandchildren.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe there's a physical ailment.
SPEAKER_01: You need a healing.
SPEAKER_01: You would see the Lord there.
SPEAKER_01: I believe that's what God wants to do.
SPEAKER_01: I think that's a God of breakthrough.
SPEAKER_01: Showing himself faithful.
SPEAKER_01: Inquire of the Lord that we would begin to believe him for that.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 21.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 21.
SPEAKER_01: And they left their images there.
SPEAKER_01: So here's what the Philistines would do: they would bring their gods with them to fight.
SPEAKER_01: They bring their little gods with them to fight.
SPEAKER_01: And evidently, from our passage, God showed up in such an amazing and quick way that the Philistines literally dropped their gods and booked it.
SPEAKER_01: They just took off out of the valley.
SPEAKER_01: But that's not the point.
SPEAKER_01: The point is what's next.
SPEAKER_01: David and his men carried them away.
SPEAKER_01: David and his men, men and women, listen, you've got to have blood-stained allies.
SPEAKER_01: You have to fight the battle with others.
SPEAKER_01: Don't fight alone.
SPEAKER_01: It's still amazing to me, even at the road, where we talk about blood-stained allies, ad nauseum, that many of you still don't have close friends.
SPEAKER_01: You don't have some buddies.
SPEAKER_01: You don't have some men and women in your life that will have your back.
SPEAKER_01: You've got to have others, folks.
SPEAKER_01: The number one reason for casualties among men, I'm not going to speak about women as much.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not an expert on women, but I'm a pretty, I've got a pretty good handle on men, and that is that we're isolated.
SPEAKER_01: We're living our lives in isolation.
SPEAKER_01: And God wants us to have some men in our life that have our back.
SPEAKER_01: And that's why we started wholehearted men on Tuesday morning.
SPEAKER_01: 420 guys every Tuesday morning are in here at a table with some guys praying together.
SPEAKER_01: I only speak for 15 minutes.
SPEAKER_01: The rest of the 45 minutes is all the guys at the table praying together, ministering to each other.
SPEAKER_01: And it's awesome.
SPEAKER_01: It's so fun.
SPEAKER_01: My table's over here somewhere, and a lot of times I'll stand up and I'll just look out and thank God because I see every, I'll see all these guys with their arms out on each other, praying for each other, anointing each other, calling out to God for each other, and they're seeing breakthrough.
SPEAKER_01: Not everybody.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, some stuff's really, really tough in people's lives.
SPEAKER_01: It's going to take years to see a breakthrough, but they're there.
SPEAKER_01: They're showing up at 5:30 in the morning because they care.
SPEAKER_01: Most of you in this room are there.
SPEAKER_01: I just love that about you.
SPEAKER_01: You care.
SPEAKER_01: You women are coming to wholehearted women.
SPEAKER_01: That's why we set up tables so you can have those women in your life.
SPEAKER_01: That's why we need to be in community groups because we need each other.
SPEAKER_01: David, look at, look back at verse 17.
SPEAKER_01: It says that the very last word in verse 17 is stronghold.
SPEAKER_01: That's the cave of Abdullah, most commentators believe.
SPEAKER_01: So he went back to 15 years ago.
SPEAKER_01: He went back to where 400 men gathered around him when he's on the run from Saul, and they gave him hope and they gave him strength, and they became the mighty men of David.
SPEAKER_01: They became the mighty men of David.
SPEAKER_01: So he was not going to go fight the Philistines without the mighty men with him.
SPEAKER_01: And we know from scripture it's upwards of 600 now.
SPEAKER_01: And so they go in and it says here, David and his men.
SPEAKER_01: It wasn't just David.
SPEAKER_01: David, the only time David fought alone was the first time.
SPEAKER_01: The only time David fought alone was the first time because nobody would follow him.
SPEAKER_01: And he went out and he took on Goliath.
SPEAKER_01: But that became a rallying cry for other men to come.
SPEAKER_01: Listen, everybody, you need the church.
SPEAKER_01: I know I'm speaking to the choir and all of you that are listening online, but we need the church.
SPEAKER_01: We need each other in our lives.
SPEAKER_01: And so David and his men, so he inquires of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: He has bloodstained allies in his life.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 22.
SPEAKER_01: Then the Philistines went up once again.
SPEAKER_01: They're not giving up, man.
SPEAKER_01: Demons do not give up.
SPEAKER_01: The Philistines went up once again and deployed themselves in the Valley of Rephaim.
SPEAKER_01: So it's almost like they did a 360.
SPEAKER_01: They turned around and then they came back.
SPEAKER_01: The battle with giants and shame and the enemy is ongoing.
SPEAKER_01: For the rest of our life, there will always be another battle.
SPEAKER_01: There will always be another fight that we have to go through.
SPEAKER_01: So these Philistines.
SPEAKER_01: It looks to it seems as though they were somehow defeated.
SPEAKER_01: And even at that point, David renames the valley, Baal Perazim, the valley of the God or the ruler or the master of breakthrough.
SPEAKER_01: They go, We're not.
SPEAKER_01: It's almost like they left their gods.
SPEAKER_01: They ran and they went, you know, we should get him while he thinks he's victorious.
SPEAKER_01: When he thinks he's got us beat, let's go back and let's attack him from his blind side.
SPEAKER_01: Let's go back around.
SPEAKER_01: So it's ongoing, right?
SPEAKER_01: Church, everybody go like this, if you understand what I'm saying.
SPEAKER_01: So I mean it's it's those times in our life where we we have to fight the same old battles again.
SPEAKER_01: You say, well, man, I don't know why I'm still fighting this.
SPEAKER_01: Well, welcome to life.
SPEAKER_01: You know, and so there's a there are battles.
SPEAKER_01: But look what David does.
SPEAKER_01: Look what David does next.
SPEAKER_01: It's it's quite amazing.
SPEAKER_01: The Philistines went up once again, deployed themselves in the valley of Rephaim.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 23.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, David inquires of the Lord again.
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't assume, this is important, he doesn't assume that the way he fought and got victory the last time is the way he's supposed to fight this time.
SPEAKER_01: Because remember, if he went back 15 years to 17 years back in the past, he took on Goliath one-on-one in the field of battle.
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't do that.
SPEAKER_01: He inquires of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Now he's bringing probably 600 men, at least 600 men, who probably gather at the cave of Addalam, the stronghold.
SPEAKER_01: They gather together, they think it through.
SPEAKER_01: David probably parts from them, inquires of the Lord, says, God, what do you want me to do?
SPEAKER_01: God gives him a fresh new plan, different than anything he's done before, defeats the Philistines.
SPEAKER_01: They turn around, do a 360, come all the way back to the valley, and they want to engage David again.
SPEAKER_01: David inquires of the Lord, and he said, This is God speaking, you shall not go up.
SPEAKER_01: Totally different instructions from God.
SPEAKER_01: You shall not go up.
SPEAKER_01: Circle around behind them and come upon them in front of the mulberry tree.
SPEAKER_01: So David is told to do something he's never done before.
SPEAKER_01: Church, every battle that has a unique strategy of the enemy, has a unique strategy of God to bring breakthrough.
SPEAKER_01: Now listen to the rest.
SPEAKER_01: This is when it gets really crazy.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 24.
SPEAKER_01: And it shall be when you hear the sound of marching in the tops of the mulberry trees, then you shall advance quickly.
SPEAKER_01: Underline, advance quickly, for then the Lord will go out before you to strike the camp of the Philistines.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 25, and David did so as the Lord commanded him, and he drove back the Philistines from Giba as far as Gezer.
SPEAKER_01: We have to cooperate and partner with the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: We have to continually cooperate and partner with the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Because what the Holy Spirit said last week may not be what the Holy Spirit's saying this week.
SPEAKER_01: What the Holy Spirit said two years ago may not be what the Holy Spirit's leading you to do now.
SPEAKER_01: So we have to inquire of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: And that's why PB and J, Prayer, Bible, and Journal is so important that we're regularly spending time in God's word so that God can give us fresh revelation.
SPEAKER_01: What God said to the road last year is not what God's saying to the road this year.
SPEAKER_01: What God's saying to the Lord, to the road this year is not what He's gonna say in 2026.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, even President Trump has figured out I'm not gonna do it the way I did it before.
SPEAKER_01: There's a lot of enemies in my camp, and I'm not inviting them in again.
SPEAKER_01: And same with our lives.
SPEAKER_01: We do it all the time.
SPEAKER_01: We we think we can trust people, we think we we've got these people around us or these situations around us, because before that's what worked.
SPEAKER_01: But God oftentimes has a different strategy and a different way of working.
SPEAKER_01: Keep inquiring of the Lord, church, keep going to Him, seeking His face, that He might speak to us.
SPEAKER_01: Now I love the King James Version.
SPEAKER_01: The King James Version says this when thou hearest the sound of a going in the tops of the mulberry trees.
SPEAKER_01: Doesn't that sound like King James?
SPEAKER_01: When thou hearest the sound of a going in the tops of the mulberry trees, then thou shalt bestir thyself.
SPEAKER_01: That's why I don't use the King James Version.
SPEAKER_01: Thou shalt bestir thyself means to stir yourself up.
SPEAKER_01: You stir yourself up.
SPEAKER_01: God wants you to stir yourself up for the battle.
SPEAKER_01: And the translation here in the New King James Version is advance quickly.
SPEAKER_01: Go to work.
SPEAKER_01: Because there are angels in the heavenly realm fighting for you.
SPEAKER_01: Listen.
SPEAKER_01: They're moving ahead of you.
SPEAKER_01: They're gonna fight these battles for you.
SPEAKER_01: But I'm convinced that they were there, but David needed to ask for them.
SPEAKER_01: David needed to inquire of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: You know what David's thinking of?
SPEAKER_01: I think David is considering the fact that even though he took that stone and he slung that sling, and that stone buried itself in the forehead of Goliath, something in him knew I'm good with a sling, but I'm not that good.
SPEAKER_01: And he knew that there were actually forces, spiritual forces at work.
SPEAKER_01: And he always relied on that.
SPEAKER_01: He always trusted God for that.
SPEAKER_01: It reminds me of the story in 2 Chronicles of the Syrians surrounding Elisha.
SPEAKER_01: And he prays for his frightened servant and he says, Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.
SPEAKER_01: And Elisha prayed, and the scripture said, The Lord, he said, Lord, open his eyes, and then he saw a mountain full of horses and chariots of fire.
SPEAKER_01: So God has chariots of fire on your behalf.
SPEAKER_01: God has his angels at work.
SPEAKER_01: And that's my prayer for the inauguration.
SPEAKER_01: That's my prayer for the road.
SPEAKER_01: That the Lord would bring forth his chariots of fire on our behalf.
SPEAKER_01: And then he drove them back 15 miles.
SPEAKER_01: So Gaba, Gaba, as far as Ghazar or Gezer, is 15 miles.
SPEAKER_01: He was not gonna let them come back.
SPEAKER_01: He drove them back.
SPEAKER_01: Drive them back, church.
SPEAKER_01: Drive them back this year.
SPEAKER_01: Have breakthrough courage.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for listening to the Foreign for War podcast.
SPEAKER_00: We hope today's message has empowered you to make a difference in your world.
SPEAKER_00: To connect with Pastor Steve's sermons, books, and blog, visit Steve Holtonline.org.
SPEAKER_00: God bless.