How We Are Supposed To Live
This morning I continue our series entitled, “Standing on a Word from God.” This is Part 51 of the series and Part 23 of the life of David.
In our message I did not focus in on any specific part of the David and Goliath story. I provided an overview of David’s life to the point and I share a few nuggets we could glean from David’s attitude. Today’s message will be similar. I will highlight some of the aspects of David’s story from the perspective four major themes that I teach on regularly: purpose, vision, faith and grace. My desire is that you get an understanding of each of these major aspects of your walk with God, so you can become the man/woman you are called to be.
So what does this mean to you today? Let’s see:
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. David was born as the 8th son of Jesse, a commoner. 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. God 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. David spent time with the Great Shepherd while he was shepherding his father’s sheep. Application: Your purpose was established before you were born and your goal should be to find it. Purpose cannot be decided, because God decided it before you were born. Purpose, therefore, must be discovered. Once you discover it, your life will have a level of clarity that it lacked before your discovery. 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, because you were. You are not a mistake. God sent you to this planet WHEN He did and WHERE He did because of WHY He did.
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, and 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 your current season 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. Life with God is a journey. Every season, stage and level are purposeful.
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 the grace of God had already made available to him. Application: Faith is about you agreeing with heaven. When the Lord reveals your purpose and He begins to give you divine vision, you will require 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. Most of the time God will lead you to do something that has no sense-realm evidence to support it. Furthermore, there is often plenty of sense-realm evidence that actually flies in the face of what God is telling you to do. But faith believes God, even in the face of opposition. To live by faith you must have the audacity to see the invisible and attempt the seemingly impossible. That’s what David did. Will you do the same?
Grace: To be clear, David did not kill Goliath on his own. God’s grace was on him to do it and it took the grace of God even put him in position to do so. 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. It was by grace that David received divine vision for what he was going to do. The grace of God was on David to accomplish the Father’s will. Beginning to end, David was a grace-case. 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. Without God you simply cannot do what He calls you to do. Without God we cannot. Without us God will not. But when God finds a man/woman who is willing to believe what he reveals and who then has the audacity to attempt the seemingly impossible, God reaches down and flow through this person, so He can be seen in the earth. God does not do this because the person deserves it. God does not do this because the person worked hard to earn it. God does this solely based on His unearned and amazing grace!
In summary, your purpose was established before the world began. The Lord reveals your purpose to you 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. This is how we are supposed to live.
Closing Confession:
Father, this is a season of expectation for me. You established my purpose before I was born and I expect to complete my divine assignment before I die. Knowing my purpose gives birth to divine vision. You incrementally and progressively give me the vision I need to become who I was born to be. 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! I declare this by faith. In Jesus’ name, Amen!
This is Today’s Word! Apply it and Prosper.
