In this engaging episode, we delve into the powerful story of David from the book of 2 Samuel. Learn how David’s anointing as king attracted immediate opposition from the Philistines and how he overcame this supernatural resistance by remaining steadfast in his faith and proactive in his actions. Discover the importance of not being passive in the face of spiritual warfare, but rather clinging to God and responding with strategic prayer and trust. We explore how motion changes emotions and how nurturing oneself with God’s Word can shift the atmosphere of one’s life.
00:00:06 David’s Anointing and the Philistine Attack
We’re going to go now to the book of 2 Samuel, where we’ll be picking up in chapter number 5, verses number 17 through 25. Now, I’m going to begin at the beginning in verse 17, which we covered last time, and I’m just going to quickly review what it was that I shared. Hear the word of God. 2 Samuel 5, beginning there in verse number 17. When the Philistines heard that they had anointed David king over Israel, all the Philistines went up to seek out David. And when David heard of it, he went down to the stronghold. Now, the point that I made last time was this. As soon as the enemy, the Philistines, saw that David was anointed, they immediately attacked him. You see, when you’re anointed supernaturally, you will attract the enemy. We have to understand that we’re in a war. And when you start moving forward in the things of God, listen, the enemy is going to resist you. The Bible tells us not to be ignorant of the schemes of the devil. We need to understand, like Paul said, that we’re in a war and that our fight is not against flesh and blood, but against forces of spiritual wickedness and darkness. The enemy, listen, he resists the move of God. And if you’re part of the move of God, you’re going to encounter supernatural resistance. And when you understand this, when you encounter resistance, you’ll be able to continue to move through it successfully as opposed to not understanding what’s going on and giving up. You see, James tells us, don’t think it’s strange when you encounter trials. This is the natural momentum of God’s purposes in your life. Even Jesus, as soon as he was announced the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world in the Gospel of John chapter 1, as soon as he was revealed as the anointed one, what’s the next thing that happened in Jesus’ life? He was led into the wilderness, listen now, to be tempted by the devil for 40 days and 40 nights. Hear me. When David realized that he was under attack because he was anointed, he didn’t just sit there waiting for God to stop the attack, but he did something about it. And so the scripture says there in verse 17 that when David heard of it, when he heard the Philistines were now out to attack him, listen, he went down to the stronghold. You see, motion changes things. When David heard of it, listen now, he went down. He did something rather than staying in a passive state. He didn’t just say, oh, Lord, I’m under attack. No, he got active. He went down to the stronghold, which comes from the Hebrew word metzudah, which means place. place of defense or castle. And then when he went down to the stronghold, he dug down deep in the word of the Lord. He encouraged himself in the word of God. He prayed. He talked to God. He trusted God. He looked to God for a strategy. He responded to the attack of the enemy by becoming aggressive. And listen, if you’re going to get breakthrough in your life, you’re going to have to get aggressive. And this is going to become even clearer as we continue on, beloved ones, with the word of God today. So once again, motion changes things. David went down. Motion changes emotion. In other words, if you’re feeling down, what do you do? Do something. I talked last time about how we need to always be nurturing ourself with spiritual literature, the Word of God, and other inspired books, not at the same level as the Bible, but other great writings of people that love God that are being led by His Spirit. We need to have a continual steady diet of holy writings into our life because it changes things. we don’t just sit there and say, oh, I’m being under attack. No, we feed ourselves on the word of God. We go down to the stronghold. We dig deep down into the word of the Lord and into his presence and spirit. Oftentimes, it’s as simple as simply getting up, going for a walk, going to work, doing something because motion changes emotion and it changes the spiritual atmosphere around your life. You see, it’s good to know, beloved friends, that we have a choice. We do have a will. And so when we’re under attack, we can choose to respond to it. And as we engage in responding and become proactive rather than passive, we’re going to change the atmosphere because greater is he that’s in us than he that’s in the world. But we need to respond from the inside. Let’s continue on. Verse 18. David went down to the stronghold. Then in verse 18. Now the Philistines came and spread themselves out in the valley of Rephidim. So this is important to understand. When the Philistines or the enemy came to attack David, listen now, they didn’t just attack him in one way. but they spread themselves out. They surrounded him. And so the enemy was attacking David in many ways. Let’s listen to that verse again, verse 18. Now the Philistines came, get it now, and spread themselves out in the valley of Rephidim. Sometimes what happens is the enemy attacks us one way and then as soon as we are able to get victory in that way, let’s assume, for example, that the enemy attacks by putting a thought in our mind that begins to cause us anxiety. And then we talk to the Lord. Maybe we talk to a friend or spouse. And as we look to the Lord, get into His Word, talk to a friend or spouse about that thought that Satan put into our minds that was making us anxious, we’re able to get victory over it as we begin to think and talk to our friends and get into the Word. But what does the devil do now? He tries to come in through another thought that might be totally unrelated. In other words, maybe first, when you’re under attack, the enemy begins to put fear in your mind about your health. And then you get into God’s Word, you get strong, and you’re able to break off that fear about your health. But now, as soon as you get victory in that area, 10, 15 minutes later, the enemy puts a thought in your mind trying to cause you to get anxiety and put you in fear about your finances. And then maybe you get into the Word of God, think that through, pray, and you get victory over that thought. fear of your finances. Maybe then another hour later, the devil starts to put a tormenting thought in your mind about a relationship somewhere that you’re disturbed about. The point that I’m making is, is that when you realize that first the devil’s putting this thought in your mind that’s causing you fear, then he puts another thought that’s unrelated in your mind that starts causing mental torment. Then another day goes by, he puts another thought in your mind. Realize you’re under attack and the devil is doing to you Through your mind, which is the primary place that he operates, he’s doing to you the same thing that he did to David. He spread himself out and surrounded David. You see, the point is that when we realize what’s happening, we can stop it. If we just sit there and just, oh, you know, we’re anxious and we’re upset and we just sit there in that passive state, we’re going to remain victims. But if we realize we’re under attack and then aggressively say, this is demonic. This is an attack from the devil. I reject you, Satan. Get out of my head. And we cut him off at every front. Then what’s going to happen is we’re going to ascend into the victory and learn how to remain in a place that we’re clinging to God and walking and remaining in his victory in the spirit.
SPEAKER 01 :
You’re listening to Discovering the Jewish Jesus and Rabbi will be right back. But first, I would love for you to download the Rabbi Schneider mobile app. When you do, you’ll have access to Rabbi’s daily devotionals, messianic content, and full-length shows of Rabbi’s teachings. We’ll also have a link to Rabbi’s teaching notes for each and every teaching. All you have to do is search for Rabbi Schneider in your phone’s app store and download the app today. Jesus said, man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God. We need his word and people are hungry for it. That’s why we’re spreading the gospel worldwide through radio, TV, podcast, and on the ground outreaches. To help us reach them, would you financially support us? If God is moving you to join us, call 800-777-7000. Or visit discoveringthejewishjesus.com. And now, back to Rabbi.
SPEAKER 02 :
When you’re walking in the anointing, when you’re making progress in God, you should expect opposition. We see it here. The king tried to eliminate the Hebrew children because he heard the Messiah was born. Same thing, beloved one, is true today. When the devil sees your anointed, when he realizes that you’re empowered in the spirit, when he sees you moving forward in God, he is going to resist and try to stop the move of God in your life. So get ready. Dig yourself in. Then we saw that oftentimes the way that the enemy tries to stop us is not singularly dimensional, but multidimensional, right? What did he do? The Philistines spread themselves out around David, looking to attack him from many different ways. Even with Jesus, what happened? Jesus is led into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil for 40 days and 40 nights. First, the devil comes at him this way. Then the devil comes at him from another angle. Then the devil comes at him from another angle. Finally, when the devil can’t defeat Jesus, the scripture tells us, then the devil left him to look for a more opportune time. So we realize we have an enemy. He’s looking for ways in and he tries to get in multidimensionally. But I want you to hear me. There’s nothing to be afraid of because greater is he that’s in you once again than he that’s in the world. Don’t be ignorant of the schemes of the devil. When you understand the nature of the battle and that you’re in a battle, you’ll be able to walk in victory. Keys to breakthrough. Let’s continue on. Verse number 19, then David inquired of the Lord. So once again, David is anointed. Immediately the Philistines begin to launch an attack against him. When David realizes he’s under attack, he goes down to the stronghold, taking from the Hebrew word metzudah, which means castle or place of defense, and he begins to call upon God there. He gets in an aggressive posture of prayer and encouraging himself in the Lord, clinging to God. Verse 19, then David inquired of the Lord. So David didn’t just rush into battle against the Philistines, but instead what he did first was, listen, he grounded himself in God. Jesus said, listen, if you abide in me alone, you will bear much fruit. We need to be grounded in the Lord. We need to be grounded in the spirit. We need to be grounded in the word. We can’t just try to fight the battle on our own. David went into the stronghold. Listen, then he inquired of the Lord. So I want to encourage you, put Jesus as Lord of your heart. Make him Lord in your thoughts. Rely on him. Cling to him. Trust him. Go to him first before you go on the counter offense. Put yourself in the stronghold of God, His Word and His Spirit. Then David inquired of the Lord, saying, Shall I go up against the Philistines? Will you give them into my hand? David here, listen to me, he was clinging to God. David was clinging to God. He went down into the stronghold and then church. He clung to God. He wasn’t in the flesh. He was clinging to God. His strength was the Lord’s strength in him and through him, which I’m going to show you in a marvelous way in a moment. Years ago, I came to a crisis point in my life and my faith in Jesus. Let me tell you what happened. This is going back over 10 years ago. In the early days of my walk in God, I was so in love with God, so in love with His Word, and I read all these incredible promises in His Word that motivated me and inspired me and gave me such hope and gave me such vision for my life. For example, some of the promises that really inspired me, beloved one, were these. Jesus said, if the Son shall set you free, you shall be free indeed. And I thought about that total freedom. And I thought about the highest moments of my life. I thought about the times in my life where I experienced the most bliss, the highest times of ecstasy, you know, the times in my life that were most fulfilling. And then I thought about Jesus and He said, if the Son shall make you free. You will be free indeed. I remember years ago when I was such a committed athlete in the sport of wrestling. I wrestled all through high school and got a small scholarship to college. And I remember during those years, I would lay in my bed at night and imagine myself becoming state champ. And I imagine myself with the referee holding up my hand as state champion victory and chills would go through my body. I mean, just such an incredible feeling. feeling came over me of achieving that goal of getting to the top of that mountain and so when jesus said if the son shall make you free you shall be free indeed that’s what it reminded me of that jesus was going to raise me up to a place of victory in the spirit where i’d have such peace such bliss in him you know the scripture says in the book of ephesians that we’ve been raised with christ and seated with him in the heavenly places And then we read in Paul’s writings that we’re more than conquerors, that we overwhelmingly conquer through all these things, that we’re to be lights on a hill, that when people see us, they’ll say, wow, and they’ll look up to Father God and want to have a relationship with Him. So I saw all these promises in God’s Word, and these promises really motivated me. But the problem was that when I looked around at the lives of so many people that named the name of Jesus, that called themselves Christian, I didn’t see any of the victory that I was looking for in my own life. In other words, they didn’t seem free. they didn’t seem like they were victorious, but rather they seemed beaten down and they seemed like they were continually walking in defeat. Now, all of us struggle and we go through challenges, but I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about people that name the name of Jesus that were Christians, but yet it seemed like every area of their life was in defeat constantly. And I got to the place where I said, Lord, I can’t go on anymore because what Your Word says should be the reality of our life isn’t the reality that I’m seeing in so many people, Father God, that are calling themselves Your children and calling themselves Christians. Your Word says that greater is He that’s in us than he that’s in the world, that we’re more than conquerors. But I said, Father, when I look around at the lives of those that say they’re Yours, it doesn’t seem like they have any victory in their lives. And I said, Father God, if you haven’t done it for them, how can I have confidence that you’re going to do it for me? I said, I need an answer to this. I can’t go on anymore without an answer. For such a long time, I just kind of disconnected myself from the reality that so many of God’s people were living in defeat because I couldn’t handle facing it. But finally, I came to the place where I couldn’t hide from it any longer. I said, Lord, such a discrepancy between what your word says we should have versus what so many Christians are walking in. Until I understand why this is, I can’t go on because if you’re not doing it for them, I can’t trust you to do it for me. And so I just resolved in my spirit that I was just going to wait on God until I had an answer. It wasn’t like I was giving up my faith. I didn’t do that at all. But I just said, Lord, I can’t go forward anymore in you until I have an answer to this dilemma. And so this went on for several days. I was just waiting on God, sad in my heart. but somehow knowing that God was going to answer me. And after waiting on Him for several days, suddenly I was driving out of a parking lot and the Holy Spirit spoke to me vividly. And He said this to me. And when I first say it to you, beloved one, it’s going to sound like you’ve heard it before, but just hear me out because I want to tell you the fullness of what happened. Again, I’m just waiting on God, sat in my spirit, but expecting He would answer. So I’m in my car, driving out of a parking lot from an appointment, and suddenly the Holy Spirit spoke to me. It was as clear as a bell in my inner man. And He said to me, the reason you’re seeing what you’re seeing is because my people are not, listen now, trusting me. But when He said the word trusting me, It was filled with the meaning that was different than I ever considered before when I thought of the word trust. Again, the Holy Spirit said to me, the reason that you’re seeing what you’re seeing, the reason you’re seeing so many Christians living in defeat is because they’re not trusting me. But when he said the word trusting me, it was filled with the spirit of God, with the revelation of what he meant by trusting him and what he meant was that God’s people, listen now, are not trusting him. Clinging to Him, that God’s people are not clinging to Him. He said the word trust, but when He said the word trust, it was filled with the meaning of the word clinging. You see, we need to cling to God, but too many people that call themselves believers, they’re not clinging to God. God may be a part of their lives, but they’re not clinging to Him. They’re going into the world by themselves. They’re relying on their own mechanisms. They’re trusting in their own security blankets. But God’s saying, if you don’t cling to me, if you don’t depend on me, like Paul said, when I am weak, Paul said, then I am strong. You see, if we’re not clinging to God, we’re not going to have power in the world to overcome the devil. You see, David, when he realized he was under attack, he went into the stronghold. And by his behavior, we see that he was clinging to God. He didn’t just go up against the enemy. He said, shall I go up? He said, will you go with me? Beloved ones, he was clinging to God. I want you to know, unless you and I cling to God, we’re going to fall on our face. We need to stop and cling to God. We need to not just be going by the momentum of our flesh and of our soul. We need to stop, pause and cling to God. Again, Jesus said, if you abide in me, you’ll bear much fruit. I want to ask you, is the fear of the Lord in your heart? Do you realize that without Him, you’ll fail? Beloved, if we want breakthrough in our life, we need to be afraid to go on without Him. Moses said, unless you go with me, I will not go. Beloved one, the key for breakthrough that I want to leave with you today is this. We must cling to God. Beloved, it’s important that we put God first in every area of our lives. It concerns me that it seems that so many people today are trying to use God for an experience, but they’re not being obedient. I think of many, many people that are going to churches, they love the worship music, but they’re not being obedient to God’s Word. jesus said unless a man picks up his cross denies himself and follows me he cannot be my disciple sacrificial obedience is the only way to truly walk hand in hand with god this is why it’s important how we handle our finances going back to the first book of the bible with abraham all the way through the new testament we see that those that truly walk with god honor him in every area of their lives including their finances I want to just ask you today, if discovering the Jewish sheaths is being used by Father God in your life to be a blessing, would you honor him with your finances through this ministry? Thank you for your love and for your financial support.
SPEAKER 01 :
Thank you, Rabbi and friends. If the Lord is leading you to financially support Discovering the Jewish Jesus with a gift of any amount, give us a call at 800-777-7835. You can also give online at discoveringthejewishjesus.com and you can also send your financial donations in the mail. Our address is Discovering the Jewish Jesus, P.O. Box 777, Blissfield, Michigan 49228. And when you give a gift of any amount, we want to make sure to send you our latest newsletter in the mail. It’s packed with insightful updates from the ministry and special events. Plus, you’ll also receive Rabbi’s monthly teaching booklet. Each issue, it has a brand new message every month with multiple chapters in it. And I believe that you’ll be blessed. And for those listeners who decide to become a new monthly partner, we want to send you a special thank you gift, an authentic handcrafted shofar made in Israel. And you know, the shofar, it’s an instrument in scripture that’s used to announce the coming kingdom of God. And here at Discovering the Jewish Jesus, we truly believe that when you partner with us You’re joining in that call to announce Jesus’ return in these last days. And if the Lord is nudging your heart to support us, please partner with us today. Get your shofar by simply going to discoveringthejewishjesus.com and click become a monthly partner. And now let’s turn things back over to Rabbi again so he can wrap up today’s message with God’s special blessing.
SPEAKER 02 :
The words from the Aaronic Blessing in the book of Numbers, chapter 6, verses 22 through 27, helps us to realize how good God is to you and I personally. So receive His blessing into your life, and then beloved one, go bless somebody else in Jesus’ name today.
The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift you up with His countenance. And the Lord give you, beloved one, His peace. God bless you and shalom.
SPEAKER 01 :
I’m your host Dustin Roberts and this program is produced and sponsored by Discovering the Jewish Jesus. Join us again tomorrow when Rabbi Schneider shares how righteous anger can lead to strength and happiness. That’s coming up Friday on Discovering the Jewish Jesus.
