The Shepherd & The Sheep 6
Hearing God’s Voice For Breakthrough
1 Chronicles 14:8-12
2 Samuel 5:17-21
Many of us have used a power drill at one time or another… when your drilling and pushing, trying to bore a whole in a piece of wood…
You need to put pressure on the drill as you push, and then suddenly the drill breaks through the other side of the board, and there is no resistance anymore…
That’s what God can do in every area of our lives. God breaks through a problem or situation to get us into a place of insight and understanding,
…of Faith, hope, or resolve. Sometimes the problem is solved or sometimes it isn’t, but the problem no longer has the same weight.
A load is made easy, and a burden is made light. A new opportunity comes our way. a door is opened, a path forward is make clear.
Would you like breakthrough in some area of your life today? God invites us to hear His voice for breakthrough, it’s a relational process, a friendship process, a King and His servant process…
God invites you to a closer walk with Him. That’s where your breakthrough will be found… in a closer walk with Him.
I believe every Christian longs for breakthroughs from God in their lives. We long to hear His voice more clearly, more regularly.
Maybe your praying for more faith, you long for a breakthrough so that having a quiet time is no longer a struggle. Or you need a fresh perspective and spiritual understanding?
Perhaps your praying for family, for a wayward child. Or breakthrough in your finances for better $ management or more money?
In the last of the series The Shepherd and The Sheep we are going to look at a warrior who was the King with a Shepherds heart…
The Philistines have raided the valley of Raphaim and David inquires of God. In the midst of His need for a breakthrough, David inquires of God
And asks to hear the voice of the Lord about this specific matter… this is the key to practicing faith…
Stand and Read 1 Chronicles 14:8-12
2 Samuel 5:17-21 - Pray
God responded to David specifically. God told David to go up and engage in battle, for He would deliver the philistines into David’s hand.
That, to me for today, is the crux of the story because at that point David had a word from the Lord. He had exactly what he needed to act in faith.
If we define faith as taking God at His word, then we need to have a word from God that we can believe in and act upon.
Once God tells us what to do, then we’re not moving on presumptions. We don’t need to dream up faith or make it up or conjure it up.
If we ask God and God answers by His word, then we can have faith and act upon that word.
Why would David need to inquire of God when the enemy was the valley of Rephaim? Rephaim means GIANT…
David had already defeated the Philistine giant named Goliath, and now he is facing more philistines in the land of the Giants… you’d think that David would think this is no problem, I’ve done it once before…
But he chooses to inquire of the Lord. David wanted to know that his initiative wouldn’t be done on his own understanding…
David had strength and skill on his side – he killed Lion and Bear and Goliath, and killed 10’s of 1000 philistine soldiers,
He had experience on his side, yet he inquires of God because he wanted to have faith on his side. David knew that a much greater strength and confidence would come from relying on God.
How does this relate to you and me? We will not have breakthroughs in our own lives unless we have faith. And we will not have faith unless we hear God.
So we will not have breakthroughs unless we purposely and regularly set aside time to hear from God. Faith is not a blind leap…
The bible says that Gods word is a lamp unto my feet and a light for our path, when God gives a word, we have enough light to take the 1st step.
Faith is never blind, it always relies on the Word of God.
Let’s look again at 2 Samuel 5:17-21 = David specifically calls the place Baal Perazim why? Baal is the name of the philistine false god.
And Baal Perazim means “master of breakthrough” so why would David call it that? Is seems like he is calling Baal the master of breakthrough..
But in reality the mountain was call Mt. Baal before the battle, this is the place where the enemy felt strongest and surest…
Yet David actually is giving credit to Jehovah… 1 chronicles 14:11 11 So they went up to Baal Perazim, and David defeated them there. Then David said, “God has broken through my enemies by my hand like a breakthrough of water.” Therefore they called the name of that place Baal Perazim. (NKJV)
David is saying that Baal was broken through. Baal was defeated. He wanted everyone to know that the site of the pagan temple was the same place where Baal was done away with!
Here’s our application: the place in our lives where the enemy thinks he’s strongest is the exact place where God desires to give us breakthroughs…
Is there an area of your life where you’ve never been able to gain victory? It may be your Baal Perazim kind of place…
God is the master of breakthroughs. God will give you victory in the exact area where you don’t think you can have a breakthrough.
What is required? 1. Prayer and Obedience
17 In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. James 2:17 (NIV)
14-17 Dear friends, do you think you’ll get anywhere in this if you learn all the right words but never do anything? Does merely talking about faith indicate that a person really has it? For instance, you come upon an old friend dressed in rags and half-starved and say, “Good morning, friend! Be clothed in Christ! Be filled with the Holy Spirit!” and walk off without providing so much as a coat or a cup of soup—where does that get you? Isn’t it obvious that God-talk without God-acts is outrageous nonsense? James 2:14-17 (Message)
If we have faith, but that’s all we have, then the bible indicates that our faith is dead. Nothing is going to happen…
A person can go around saying, “I believe, I believe, I believe.” But if all he has is belief, then the bible says that is nothing.
So we need to put our faith into action or should I say, “put action into our faith.”
This is what was required of David, just as it is required for you and me –2. Faith and Works, Prayer and Obedience.
Right after David destroyed the philistine idols, the philistines came back for another fight.
Then the Philistines once again made a raid on the valley. 14 Therefore David inquired again of God, and God said to him, “You shall not go up after them; circle around them, and come upon them in front of the mulberry trees. 15 And it shall be, when you hear a sound of marching in the tops of the mulberry trees, then you shall go out to battle, for God has gone out before you to strike the camp of the Philistines.” 16 So David did as God commanded him, and they drove back the army of the Philistines from Gibeon as far as Gezer. 17 Then the fame of David went out into all lands, and the LORD brought the fear of him upon all nations. 1 Chronicles 14:13-17
Isn’t that a strange word? “when you hear the sound of marching in the tops of the mulberry trees…go into battle.”
It must have come as a surprise to David’s generals when he relayed what he had heard… Remember they had attacked the philistines and won and now they were not to attack the same way again?
The word was to go by a grove of mulberry trees and listen to the sound of marching in the leaves… really? That was the signal to attack.
See, it took not only faith – it took action. David heard the Lord, and then he needed to put that hearing into practice.
When we inquire of the Lord and He directs our paths straight, then we need to run in the directions of those straight paths.
“Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: 25 and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock. 26 “But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: 27 and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall.” Matthew 7:24-27 (NKJV)
The wise man heard the voice of God and obeyed Him. The foolish man heard the voice of God but did whatever he felt like doing.
Faith requires action, and it must be the action of obedience… if you want a breakthrough in your finances,
…then God invites you to do more than pray about getting out of debt…
He wants you to tithe, live within your limits, manage your money and get on a budget.
You’ve got to align yourself with the direction God wants you to go and then walk down that path.
If you want a breakthough in your family, God invites you to purposely set aside time to invest in each family member.
If you want a breakthrough in an addiction, God invites you to do whatever it takes to walk in the path of freedom.
…be willing to be inconvenienced, be willing to set aside the pleasures of sin. Pray for Deliverance.. align yourself with God’s good plan for your life.
Faith and works, listening and obeying leads us to...
3. The Relief of Trusting God
1 Chr. 14:16-17 / 2 Sam. 5:25 Read and expound…
David experienced great relief after He Prayed, and Obeyed and then put His Faith Into Action…
The relief came in the form of Breakthrough over the enemy that once seemed undefeatable and unbreakable.
I’m sure it wasn’t easy for David to patiently and obediently follow Gods direction.
It would have been easier to lean on his past experience, rather than Trusting In God.
I have come across a lot of people that feel shortchanged by God, that somehow God is holding out on them… but the truth is:
God Loves you, and He’s got you where He’s got you for a reason the more you start listening to God’s voice, looking for that reason...
Trying to understand it rather than pouting about it, the faster you’re going to get to the value of it because there is value in it.
Friends our lives are filled with constant noises competing for our attention. Yet many of us never hear the one voice we must hear.
In the midst of all the noise in your life, God is speaking. Do we hear Him? And when we do, do we obey Him?
If you’re longing for a breakthrough today then I encourage you to thank the Lord that He has given you the ability to communicate with Him spiritually.
Thank Him that He wants to speak with you, and ask Him to help you learn to recognize His voice and follow His leading.
Commit yourself to listen to Him and then obey His voice…
8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Hebrews 13:8 (NIV)
And be thankful that God doesn’t change His mind
For I am the LORD, I do not change; Therefore you are not consumed, O sons of Jacob. Malachi 3:6 (NKJV)
Jesus said it very clearly in John 10:27 - My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. (NKJV)
