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Run to the Battle Line: The Battle Belongs to God

Pr Michael Koh
14-04-2019

The number 40 is significant.

40 years in the wilderness that God began a movement.

The Lord is studying a movement.

A movement is birthed by the Holy Spirit. It has distinctive realities and are spiritual realities and substances that empower the people.

How do we become an original movement born out of God?

Are we a movement? How does God constitute such a movement?

1 Samuel 17 New King James Version (NKJV)
David and Goliath
17 Now the Philistines gathered their armies together to battle, and were gathered at Sochoh, which belongs to Judah; they encamped between Sochoh and Azekah, in Ephes Dammim. 2 And Saul and the men of Israel were gathered together, and they encamped in the Valley of Elah, and drew up in battle array against the Philistines. 3 The Philistines stood on a mountain on one side, and Israel stood on a mountain on the other side, with a valley between them.

4 And a champion went out from the camp of the Philistines, named Goliath, from Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span. 5 He had a bronze helmet on his head, and he was [a]armed with a coat of mail, and the weight of the coat was five thousand shekels of bronze. 6 And he had bronze armor on his legs and a bronze javelin between his shoulders. 7 Now the staff of his spear was like a weaver’s beam, and his iron spearhead weighed six hundred shekels; and a shield-bearer went before him. 8 Then he stood and cried out to the armies of Israel, and said to them, “Why have you come out to line up for battle? Am I not a Philistine, and you the servants of Saul? Choose a man for yourselves, and let him come down to me. 9 If he is able to fight with me and kill me, then we will be your servants. But if I prevail against him and kill him, then you shall be our servants and serve us.” 10 And the Philistine said, “I defy the armies of Israel this day; give me a man, that we may fight together.” 11 When Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly afraid.

20 So David rose early in the morning, left the sheep with a keeper, and took the things and went as Jesse had commanded him. And he came to the camp as the army was going out to the fight and shouting for the battle. 21 For Israel and the Philistines had drawn up in battle array, army against army. 22 And David left his supplies in the hand of the supply keeper, ran to the army, and came and greeted his brothers. 23 Then as he talked with them, there was the champion, the Philistine of Gath, Goliath by name, coming up from the armies of the Philistines; and he spoke according to the same words. So David heard them. 24 And all the men of Israel, when they saw the man, fled from him and were dreadfully afraid. 25 So the men of Israel said, “Have you seen this man who has come up? Surely he has come up to defy Israel; and it shall be that the man who kills him the king will enrich with great riches, will give him his daughter, and give his father’s house exemption from taxes in Israel.”

26 Then David spoke to the men who stood by him, saying, “What shall be done for the man who kills this Philistine and takes away the reproach from Israel? For who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?”

27 And the people answered him in this manner, saying, “So shall it be done for the man who kills him.”

28 Now Eliab his oldest brother heard when he spoke to the men; and Eliab’s anger was aroused against David, and he said, “Why did you come down here? And with whom have you left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know your pride and the insolence of your heart, for you have come down to see the battle.”

29 And David said, “What have I done now? Is[b] there not a cause?” 30 Then he turned from him toward another and said the same thing; and these people answered him as the first ones did.

31 Now when the words which David spoke were heard, they reported them to Saul; and he sent for him. 32 Then David said to Saul, “Let no man’s heart fail because of him; your servant will go and fight with this Philistine.”

33 And Saul said to David, “You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him; for you are a youth, and he a man of war from his youth.”

34 But David said to Saul, “Your servant used to keep his father’s sheep, and when a lion or a bear came and took a lamb out of the flock, 35 I went out after it and struck it, and delivered the lamb from its mouth; and when it arose against me, I caught it by its beard, and struck and killed it. 36 Your servant has killed both lion and bear; and this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, seeing he has defied the armies of the living God.” 37 Moreover David said, “The Lord, who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, He will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.”

And Saul said to David, “Go, and the Lord be with you!”

The battle line is the place where the enemy defines your life. You will hear the enemy's voice at the battle line.

The battle line is where you hear the voice that is most clear inside us. It resonates all the voices that we have been brought up with.

After 40 years, this generation only hears the voice of the enemy.

Our children and the next generation will hear the limits and extents of their power from the battle line.

David ran to this battle line to redefine it and make things different.

The battle line is something that we can determine for the next generation.

If you don't defeat the enemy and cross the battle line, you don't have a movement.

The battle line is critical. How we function is crucial.

The devil has defined your time with God.

As parents, we change and move the battle line. It encroaches upon their identity.

A movement has to start with something bigger than us ourselves.

Get hold of the oppression and the enemy and pray up until it breaks.

As you being to pray, you begin to experience the boldness.

Know the battle line.

Redefine the battle line.

It is time for us to invest in the next generation so that they see the battle lines change.

1) Jump into the mud and God is there

There's something about David.

As he begins to confront the voice of Goliath, his response is different from the men of Israel.

What is going to cause our children and our spiritual children to be a movement?

When the children of Israel heard Goliath speaking, they ran away.

David spoke out of his own instincts. His knowing is based on a totally different sort of knowing.

When the given situation arose, what he knew rose up more. His history and his upbringing began to show up.

Our next generation can know Bible studies but what happens depends on the bears and lions in their lives, like David's. He had a spiritual sensing.

As parents, it is really important that they know that the devil knows that they know that God is alive.

Seize the bear and the lion by the beard.

David knew God. He knew how to jump into the mud. He knew how to follow God.

Jump as God's Spirit teaches you. You can never if you only reduce your Christianity to words.

This kind of knowing is for the battle lines and comes out of you given the situation.

Be a people who know our God by jumping in.

Jump in and God will teach you what will happen. You have no idea what will happen but let Him guide you.

We work with our children and our spiritual children to work the works of God. Then our children have experiences of our God.

Jump in and the Holy Spirit is there in the mud. And watch what He reveals to you. Whatever the outcome, you will learn something from God.

2) Hear from God.

If you do not establish your devotional time, there will not be basis for missions and evangelism. God has for us His voice.

Teach your children how to discern the voice of God.

Experience a certain silence and quietness that is heavy with God's presence when God silences every other voice. That silence is the presence of something far heavier and far more transforming.

It is through practice and not just teaching only.

God, by His Spirit on the other side, is causing hearing to come to us.

The flesh wars against the Spirit. (Romans 8)

A lot of times we are just telling God what we want.

Many people think prayer is just human work but the work of showing up is God's work. He is coming to find us. He is the One who wants to be found. He seeks to be sought. The Holy Spirit utters things that are heard in the spirit. And God quickens us and we will not turn away. That hunger is a grace from God. When that happens, prayer is leading you and the Holy Spirit is praying through you.

Psalm 65 New American Standard Bible (NASB)
God’s Abundant Favor to Earth and Man.
For the choir director. A Psalm of David. A Song.
65 There will be silence [a]before You, and praise in Zion, O God,
And to You the vow will be performed.
2 O You who hear prayer,
To You all [b]men come.

John 1:1-3 New King James Version (NKJV)
The Eternal Word
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.

Genesis 1:3 New King James Version (NKJV)
3 Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light.

God delivers to us the very things that we are hearing about.

That Voice of God will scatter every enemy and oppression.

And there will be a movement. It becomes a reality for us. 

For us, we want to experience that.

Psalm 57:3 New King James Version (NKJV)
3 He shall send from heaven and save me;
He reproaches the one who [a]would swallow me up. Selah
God shall send forth His mercy and His truth.

David had a different knowledge and he had a word against Goliath.

Because He has spoken, His Word is substance.

When God speaks, He steadies our heart and gives us joy.

You and I want to hear the voice of God and silences other voices and causes His Word to be seen.

When we confront our Goliath, sometimes we run away. Or like David, we could run towards the battle line.

God is after you and is renewing you.


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