This morning we continue our series “Grace that is Simply Amazing.” It’s Friday and as we close out the week and prepare for the weekend I want to highlight some of the aspects of David’s story, from the perspective of what I have learned over the years in this amazing journey the Father has me on. I have walked with God for 17 years and have been preaching/teaching most of that time. Early in my ministry I primarily taught on faith. Then there was a season where I did a great deal on teaching on purpose. From there the Lord had me to teach on vision. Lately, for the past year or so, I have been studying grace and am now teaching on it. As I look back over my personal journey, the Father has taught me many things and has had me to share most of what He has taught me, but of all the things He has dealt with me about these four topics — faith, purpose, vision, and grace — are certainly the major ones. With that in mind, I will briefly discuss each within the context of David’s story.
Purpose: Before the foundations of the world the Lord established David’s purpose and ordained him to be the king of Israel. Normally, to be a king you would have to be born a prince, but David was born as the 8th son of Jesse, a commoner, and he was raised as a shepherd. That is somewhat of a strange start for a destined king, but God routinely uses the foolish things of the world to confound the wise and He loves to elevate and promote the unexpected, so He can get the glory. From the perspective of purpose, I am sure David knew he was different. Even while tending sheep David did things that shepherds don’t normally do. David killed a lion and a bear with his bare hands, developing his relationship and reliance on God, as he spent time with the Great Shepherd while he was shepherding sheep. Application: Your purpose was established before you were born and your goal should be to find it. Purpose cannot be developed, it must be discovered and once you find it, your life will have a level of clarity that it did not have before and things will begin to make sense. You will understand why all your life you have had certain tendencies, as if you have been pre-wired for a certain purpose.
Vision: Once purpose is known the door to vision is opened. David saw himself killing the giant and cutting his head off well before he actually did it. How? Through divine vision. However, while the Father gave David the vision of killing Goliath, at that point in David’s life the Father had not released the vision for ruling as king. Why? Two reasons: 1) It was not the proper time yet. 2) David was not ready for it. Application: Divine vision is incremental and progressive. It is incremental because the Lord will only give you enough vision to see the next season of your life. He may give you glimpses of what is far down the road, but you won’t have the clarity to walk in those realms until the time is right. For now, the Father gives you clear vision to walk in the season you are in, so that you can maximize it and prepare for the next. Vision is also progressive, because the more you walk with the Father and learn His ways, the more He is able to reveal to you. You should be able to handle more vision today than you could 10 years ago. By giving you incremental and progressive vision, the Father equips you to pursue your purpose.
Faith: Once David had the divine vision of killing the giant, it took faith to actually to do it. David needed faith to go stand before the king and ask for the assignment. He needed faith to refuse the king’s armor and to step into the valley with nothing but a slingshot, a stone and a stick. David operated in faith in order to access what God was leading him to do. Application: Faith is about you agreeing with heaven. When the Lord reveals to you your purpose and He begins to give you divine vision, you will need faith to make an alignment with your divine assignment. Most of the time, doing what the Lord is leading you to do will require you to go against conventional wisdom and common sense. But if you have the audacity to believe God and step out in faith in what He is leading you to do, you will experience the supernatural.
Grace: To be clear, David did not kill Goliath on his own. God’s grace was on him to do so and it took grace to get him to that point in the first place. David was in the field, minding his own business, when God interrupted his life, completely by grace, in order to anoint him as the next king of Israel. It was by grace that Saul put the future of his entire kingdom in the hands of a teenager, and it was by grace that David received the vision of what he was going to do. The grace of God was on David to accomplish the Father’s will. Application: Knowing your purpose is essential, receiving the vision to walk it out is awesome, having the faith to attempt it is required, but without the grace of God you will never be able to do it. Faith is your part, grace is God’s part. By faith you access the grace.
In summary, your purpose was established before the world began. The Lord reveals to you your purpose and He then gives you incremental and progressive vision in order to pursue it. You must then have the faith to do what flies in the face of common sense, and once you step out in faith, the grace of God will be on you to experience God’s best.
Closing Confession: Father, I thank You for this teaching. You established my purpose before I was born and You reveal it to me as I walk with You. Your purpose is why I am here and why I was born for such a time as this. I am no mistake and the timing in which I was born is no mistake either. I am here, in this season, for a reason and that is my purpose. Knowing my purpose gives birth to divine vision. You incrementally and progressively give me the vision I need to pursue my purpose. This vision is foresight, birthed from insight, with the benefit of hindsight. I don’t loosely stumble my way through life. I am able to SEE what You want me to do, in each season, and I am therefore able to maximize one season as I prepare for the next. I have the faith to step out into all You reveal to me, even when it flies in the face of reason, logic, and common sense. I don’t live by what I see with my natural eyes, I live by faith… by what I see with my spiritual eyes. And as I step out in faith, with the clarity of vision, pursuing my purpose, Your grace is on me to succeed! I am who I am and what I am by Your amazing grace! In Jesus’ name.
This is Today’s Word! Apply it and Prosper.
