Thursday, April 21, 2016

Thurs.’s Devo - Establishing the Kingdom

Read: 2 Sam. 5-6:11; 1 Chron. 11:1-9; 1 Chron. 12:23-40; 1 Chron. 3:4b; 14: 1-2; 1 Chron. 13:1-5
All I can say is that I hope you have the Chronological Bible because it flips back and forth through Samuel and Chronicles enough to make your head spin. I tried to simplify it a little.
All Israel gathered to make David their king. Judah and Israel are now united into one nation. Samuel’s prophecy comes true and David is the king after all the struggles and battles to get to the throne. God’s Word never fails.
I was intrigued by the number of warriors from the different tribes. The tribes we hear about the most like Judah, Levi and Benjamin had the least number of warriors but the tribes that had the most were Zebulun, Asher and Manasseh. Their names mean “habitation”, “happy” and “causing to forget”. These are the areas we need the most support in. Our habitation is not on this earth but in heaven so we need to battle to stay heavenly minded and not be flooded by the cares of the world. The second is happiness. I think a better word would be joy. The joy of the Lord is our strength. When we lose our joy, we are vulnerable to the attack of the enemy. Laughter is a medicine that can heal our natural and spiritual man. The last one is the most important to fortify and it had the greatest army - that is to forget our past. God will cause us to forget the sins of our past if we let him. If we don’t, the Devil will wreck havvock on our minds. He comes to condemn and torment but in Christ there is no longer any condemnation. Our sins are forgiven. If we live forgiven then we are strengthened and can move in God’s power.
One of Israelites greatest enemies was the Philistines. Philistines means to “wallow”. That is one of our societies greatest enemies. We want to wallow in self-pity, over-indulgence, ego, sin, etc. God told David not to fight them head on but to circle around behind and attack them near the poplar trees. They were to wait till they heard a sound like marching feet in the tops of the poplar trees. That would be God’s signal that He was leading them to attack. Sometimes we need to come in the back door. For example, if you want to go on a diet, you have to trick your mind. To think “diet” only makes me want to eat. I have to think of foods I can eat that will fill me up without filling me out. Sometimes we need to make a new rut right next to the old one that looks a lot like the old one but just different enough to make the difference. I don’t know if this is making much sense so pray about it. Most of all, we need to wait for God to lead us and not do it in our own strength.
Lord, help us to renew our minds in You. Help us to fight the Philistines in our lives.

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