The Refuge

            By Tashia Creech

                As Christians we all have struggles some are little and some are so big that we can’t see over them and that is just how life in general is whether you are a new creature in Christ or a sinner. Take heart, we have an advantage with Jesus that He can turn our sorrows into joy and turn our tears into laughter. He can make our struggles in the past our victories in the future. Just praise him in the storm.

                Struggles all have there various degrees and like I said some are little and some are big. I want to talk about the BIG ones. The Deep ones, the ones that are hard to overcome, the ones that you can’t see over no matter how hard you try.

                In II Samuel 23 is recorded some of the most valiant men in history under the reign of King David, there are 37 to be exact. Thirty seven men worth recording. Thirty seven men that faced struggles or trials in various degrees and all overcame them. In all of their battles they all had to prepare themselves to engage in the fight. They faced fear and abandonment while going through the battle. They fought and held on to God, which led to their victory.

                The Thirty Seven were called to be over comers and to stick out above the crowd. You like them are made to overcome obstacles thrown at you by the devil or the enemy. You can have victory over the enemy.

It is time for your victory, but first you have to get prepared to face the enemy.

                        Get Prepared. It is time to wield your spear.

            What warrior do you know goes out into battle with no type of armor on except David?  No one does. David had faith, which is one of the main things you have to have when going to battle. But Adino in II Sam. 23:8 knew to prepare for his battle he needed to not only wear his armor, but make his own sword. Verse 18 tells about Abishi also wielding his sword before battle. So it must be important for you to wield your sword -Amen?

                Eph. 6:11-18 describes best how to win a battle by putting on the armor of God. Verse 13 “Therefore put on God’s complete armor, that you may be able to resist and stand your ground in the evil day [of danger]”. Apart of the armor is the sword, verse 17 says “And take the helmet of salvation and the sword that the spirit wields, which is the word of God”.  Know that the bible refers to the Word as Jesus. John chapter one talks about in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and was God, (which is Jesus Christ) so if the sword that the spirit wields is the Word of God then it is talking about Jesus Christ. Your Sword is Jesus. Jesus is the mighty weapon that brings down Satan and his foes.

                So first put on your helmet of salvation- get saved. When you are saved Jesus makes his home in you. His spirit comes and lives inside of you and it leads you and guides you. It helps you make good decisions and gives you strength to face heartache and trials. He is your present help in time of need. Jesus is in you if you are saved. You are His temple. He abides in you. So since He abides and lives in you then you posses His power in you. He commissioned the disciples before He ascended into Heaven and told them to go preach the word and that these signs shall follow them that they would cast out devils, heal the sick, etc. all in His name. They did it because He had to go back to Heaven and He needed someone to carry out His perfect plan. He doesn’t need anyone to help Him. He doesn’t depend on us to carryout salvation or bring healing to someone, but He wants us to be apart of it. I don’t even understand it all. But I do know that Jesus gave us power to do these miracles. Not that we are the ones doing them, but that we allow Him and His power that we possess on the inside of us through His spirit to work out side of us. He is performing, as we are believing. He said greater works that I have done will you do because I go to the father. It is that easy. The sword is in our possession. It gives us authority over the enemy. It is up to us to use it, to use the power He has given us.

                Adino and Abishi made sure before they faced their enemy they possessed the power to bring the enemy down. They brought the enemy down alright! II Sam. 23:8 says, “Adino wielded his spear and went against 800 men, who were slain at one time. Verse 18 says, “He [Abishi] wielded his spear against 300 men and slew them, and won a name beside the three.” Because two men made a decision to get prepared, they won and became extremely victorious. By the way, how many foes or trials have you overcame? 300 or 800? You will be surprised what the power that you posses can do. The spear lives in you, use it. Here are some ways we can use our sword or spear- which ever.

                *Praying

                *Reading the bible

                *Praying scripture over situations (Overcoming evil-Is. 54)

                * Praying in the spirit (tongues)

                *Fasting

                *Staying positive that God is going to work things out

Those are just a few ways we can use Jesus’ power to overcome the enemy. In the wilderness Jesus used the Word (scripture) to undermine Satan of his evil plots. When Satan tempted Jesus, Jesus would throw the word at him. It would knock Satan for a loop every time. Get ready to knock Satan out! Find scripture that fits your battle and start slinging or speaking it out loud to the situation. By faith we can speak to a mountain and command it to be moved. By faith we can speak to the mountains in our life and they have to scoot over and get out of our way. The sword is sure to win and is able to- “successfully stand up against [all] the strategies and the deceits of the devil” (Ep. 6:11).

                Before Jesus died on the cross, which was His ultimate call, he preached for 3 years. Before He stepped into His call to preach he went on a forty day fast. He made sure he prepared Himself. It is SO important to get prepared.

                                          The Time Comes For the Battle

                 When the battle begins, fear likes to show up. But don’t let that knock you out of your victory. Faith is the opposite of fear. So have faith when fear arises. Fear is deceiving.

 Here is fear’s story: There was an ancient tribe that nested on a small island out in the middle of no where. On that island lived four courageous young men who were curious about the monster who lived on “The Big Mountain”. All of the young men’s lives their parents talked about the monster who lived on the big mountain. Legend said no one had ever reached the top of the mountain because of the fear of facing the monster that lived on “ The Big Mountain”. So the four young courageous men decided one day they would try to defy the odds and take the risk and climb the mountain. The day came for them to climb and they all were in good spirits as they left their family behind and disappeared into the dark wilderness. They were walking and climbing when suddenly they heard a low growl coming from the top. The ground started to shake. Two of the four young men decided right then and there that they were out of the weekend camping trip. They weren’t about to die. The other two laughed it off and said, “So long!” and continued up the mountain. Half way up the mountain as the growl got louder and deeper, the ground began to shake and rocks began to fall and crumble.

One guy looked at the other and said, “Is it really worth it?”…

  “I don’t know, let’s go a little farther,” said the other.

“No! I have a wife a two little kids at home, forget it.”

So the one left and all alone was the other. His knees were shaking, heart pounding but he put one foot in front of the other and went on. The growling got louder as he reached the top. Finally he made it. The growling was so loud his head rang. He saw something dark in the bushes. He felt his stomach tie into a knot and his knees felt weak. He cupped his hand over his ears and walked toward it, when all of a sudden the growling turned into a high pitch scream.

“AHH, please mister, please, don’t hurt me!” squeaked a little voice.

Out of the bush popped the legendary monster .The monster was as little as an ant and his name was Fear. The man laughed and wiped the sweat from his forehead and with one big stomp, squashed the Fear into the ground.

That day was so liberating for the whole village. Now they all could stop living in fear of “Fear” and could get on with their lives. They all lived happily ever after.

               The point is fear can make you believe things that aren’t true. It can trick you into running away from what lies ahead. It can keep you from pressing forward to reach your goals in life. Fear sounds mean and disguises itself as vicious when in reality it is tinny and petite and scared of you.

                It has no respect of persons and it even tried to keep Jesus from His ultimate sacrifice in the garden. After the last supper Jesus and his disciples went on a walk and they came to the garden of Gethsemane. Jesus asked them to stay up and pray for him as he went into the garden alone. It was night and you know what a full belly and the moon combined can do. Jesus entered in and prayed to Daddy. The Big D. He went to prepare himself for what was about to happen. Jesus started to pray and as soon as he did, Satan came with his Fear.

“Please, let this cup pass from me. But let not my will, but your will be done.” he said with great strife. Perhaps he could already feel the nails being hammered into his hands. Maybe he heard all of the mocking and blasphemies ringing in his ears. The thought of such agony and darkness brought blood to his brow. It ran down his face and dropped off his nose.

 Not my will, but your will. Trials bring great grief, callings bring great grief, but Jesus could handle it. He really could handle it. You couldn’t have handled it, or I. Because God said he will not put us through something that He knows we cannot bear. You think you can’t go through something, but if you are facing it or right in the middle of it God said you CAN bear it- through Him. Fear cannot be tackled alone, but by Faith we can overcome. We can go all the way to the end- Jesus did. He lives on the inside of us. He conquered death, hell, and the grave. Now, so can we. We are not equal to Jesus, but he has given us power. Power over fear. No doubt fear tried to grip the warriors that II Sam speaks of but they overcame and pressed on like Jesus.

                                In Battle sometimes you face abandonment.

Everyone that you thought were behind you are now cowards in the corner. And sometimes God separates you from your friends so you rely and depend on Him and not them. That is what happened to some of the mighty men of David. Like Eleazer son of Dodo, and Shammah son of Agee the Hararite.

In IISam. 23:9 Eleazar and king David and the Israeli army were gathered together to war against the Philistines and the men of Israel decided that they weren’t going to be involved and departed the scene. Eleazer and David were left alone to fight. So, Eleazer arose and struck down the Philistines until his hand was weary and clung to the sword.  Notice Eleazer’s hand clung to the sword.  Cling to the Word of God while fighting.  The Lord wrought a great deliverance and victory that day.

After all the hard work was done, the bible says in verse 10, that the men returned after him only to take the spoil.  In other words, after all the hard work and effort was over with, the other soldiers came back to get the reward. After war, who ever won got to get the spoil or the weapons, food, horses, etc of the defeated army, the good stuff. Does that sound familiar? Here you are facing a big battle, most of your help leaves and here you are to fight alone. You over come it and win it and then the so- called help returns to get the stuff you fought for and should get to have fare and square? Really I would say that there was so much spoil that Eleazer himself couldn’t take it all. After all it was a great deliverance and victory. When you fight so hard spiritually for something chances are that after you have come through on the other side you want everyone to share in your victory, no matter how much they did you wrong.

II Sam 23:11 Next to Eleazer was Shammah.  He and the Israelites were gathered on a piece of land at Lehi. This ground that was between them was full of lentils. I believe that the lentils had great significance. There are several things that run through my mind. The first is that lentils were a main course in the Israeli entrée. Perhaps the Philistines were out to hurt Israel’s crop and cause famine on the land, I don’t know. But I really think that Shammah was fighting to save the crop. It could go even deeper than that, I don’t know.  Any way, the bible says that once more the Israeli army fled from the Philistines. They were so scared of them. But Shammah stood in the midst of the ground and defended it and slew the Philistines; and the Lord wrought a great victory. 

Again, notice that Shammah stood in the midst of the ground.

Eph. 6:13-14 says, “Therefore put on God’s complete armor, that you may be able to resist and stand your ground on the evil day [of danger], and having done all [the crisis demands], to stand [firmly in your place]. Stand therefore [hold your ground]…Shammah stood firm and defended his ground. On what ground do you stand on to defend. Don’t give up, when you get tired, stand. When you fill like sitting down, stand. When you fill like calling it quits, stand. Then and only then, after all that standing you can be like Shammah and defeat your enemy and get the victory!

Stand, Stand, Stand, Stand, then Stand some more, Stand a little bit longer, Stand, Stand, Stand… WIN!  

The Lord will go before you in battle and fight your battle for you. You may say that sounds tough. It is tough, that is what being a soldier is all about, were tough. We’re Army tough. There are no strong honorable soldiers sitting on the bench on God’s team. Were tough, and He makes us like that.  He gives strength to us.

The Holy Spirit wants to lead us and strengthen us through trials. Paul and some others were in Asia suffering affliction and Paul said that they were made sorrowful and weighed down by circumstances. But although they felt so down and out, they looked to the Lord and relied on Him.

2 Cor.1: 8- For we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about the affliction and opposing distress which befell us in Asia, how we were so utterly and unbearably weighed down and crushed that we despaired even of life itself.

2 Cor. 1:9- Indeed, we felt within ourselves that we had received the very sentence of death, but that was to keep us from trusting in and depending on ourselves instead of our God who raises the dead.

In verse 8 when you feel abandoned and weighed down even crushed, God wants you to trust in Him the one who has the power to raise the dead.

King David said in Ps. 37:25- “I have been young and now am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their seed begging for bread.”

Ps. 37:34- Wait for and expect the Lord and keep and heed his way and he will exalt you to inherit the land; [in the end] when the wicked are cut off, you shall see it.

                As long as we don’t give up and wait for God in troubled times then He will exalt you to an inheritance. You can get double for your trouble. God will not cause you to go through something alone. He is here, even though you may feel like you are the only one in the world who is going through a tough time. He says that He is always with you and that He will go with you even to the end of the world. God sticks with you through thick and thin. We are His beloved. Don’t have the mentality that when you pray your prayers are just hitting the ceiling and bouncing right back on the ground. That may be how it feels, but it’s not true. Jesus is in you. He not only hears your whispers, He hears your thoughts. He lives in you. If you pray, if you think, if you imagine, He knows. Jesus knows you so well read Ps. 139 that is God’s perfect knowledge of man. My point is that Jesus knows and He cares and He is always here for us. Feeling Abandoned isn’t fun, but Jesus said He would be a father to the fatherless. He loves when we are totally Dependant on Him and not totally Independent . Lean on him through these times.

                What would have happened to Israel if the valiant men of David had decided to call it quits when the armies that was behind them bailed out? What would happen to you if right now nearing the end of your battle were to give up?

                When engaged in battle you can grow weary. Jesus grew weary He could barely walk up the mountain to be crucified. Could barely carry the cross. There comes a weary stage right before your Victory.  That is when most people give up; it gets too tough for them.  And that is usually a sure sign that Victory is near.

                                                Victory is Here

                Is. 40:29-31- He gives power to the weary and to him who has no might He increases strength [causing it to multiply and abound]. Even youths shall faint and be weary and [selected] young men shall feebly stumble and fall exhausted. But those who wait for the Lord [who expect, look for, and hope in Him] shall change and renew their strength and power; they shall lift their wings and mount up [close to the sun]; they shall walk and not faint or become tired.

                I lift my eyes unto the hills where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the maker of Heaven and earth….

                Your help comes from the Lord. Victory comes from the Lord. And right as the battle gets too much for you to handle, Jesus steps in and conquerors. Mighty Conqueror. See, Adino, Abishi,Eleazer, Shammah, or the other thirty three valiant men of David didn’t conquer the enemy, God did. God just gave them the ability to fight. He did the rest. And if we just engage, draw our swords and run, Jesus will accomplish the rest. Could you kill 500 men all by yourself in one afternoon? Doubt it, but Jesus can. Jesus conquered death, hell and the grave in just three days. He made us more than conquers. We are able to overcome the battles because the overcomer lives within us, telling us what to do. We just have to listen and then we will be valiant.

                I believe that engaging in battle and following through to the end is the hard road to take. A real Christian doesn’t take the easy way. A real Christian is aggressive and focused. The valiant men were aggressive and focused. They didn’t take the easy way out. They ran to battle and won. They took spoil (the defeated army’s riches and food etc.). Lets take the enemy on and win. Stay focused. Fight hard. Because while you are fighting all of Heaven is standing up looking down and shouting, “GO, GO, GO!” The valiant men of old have been there in your shoes. Jesus has been there, The Thirty Seven, Matthew, Luke, John, Timothy (the young one), Paul, Silas, Peter, Stephen, Ester, Hannah, Deborah, Phoebe, Mary, Anna, just to list a few, the list goes on and on. Since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us press on. Their testimonies live and they are there in the midst cheering us on as we continue in their footsteps. Make the decision that you are going to be apart of the Thirty seven. Be an overcomer. And one day you can be up in heaven cheering on the new Christians as they fight their battles.

                Remember Get Prepared because Battles will come, and with battles always comes Fear and Abandonment, but hold on because if you wait on the Lord You will have Victory! Automatically you will be added to the List of the Valiant men and women of God. God bless you and keep you. Press on and Stand you Valiant Soldiers of Christ Jesus!   -Tashia