Disclaimer:
Due to the large amount of sermons and topics that appear on this site I feel it is necessary to post this disclaimer on all sermons posted. These sermons are original to the author and the leading of the Holy Spirit. While ideas and illustrations are often gleaned from many sources including those at Sermoncentral.com, any similarities and wording including sermon title, that may appear to be the same as any other sermon are purely coincidental. In instances where other minister’s wording is used, due recognition will be given. These sermons are not copyrighted and may be used or preached freely. May God richly bless you as you read these words. It is my sincere desire that all who read them may be enriched. All scriptures quoted in these sermons are copied and quoted from the Authorized King James Version of the Holy Bible.
Pastor James May
Can You See the Wind?
2 Samuel 5:17-25, "But when the Philistines heard that they had anointed David king over Israel, all the Philistines came up to seek David; and David heard of it, and went down to the hold. The Philistines also came and spread themselves in the valley of Rephaim. And David enquired of the LORD, saying, Shall I go up to the Philistines? Wilt thou deliver them into mine hand? And the LORD said unto David, Go up: for I will doubtless deliver the Philistines into thine hand. And David came to Baalperazim, and David smote them there, and said, The LORD hath broken forth upon mine enemies before me, as the breach of waters. Therefore he called the name of that place Baalperazim. And there they left their images, and David and his men burned them. And the Philistines came up yet again, and spread themselves in the valley of Rephaim. And when David enquired of the LORD, he said, Thou shalt not go up; but fetch a compass behind them, and come upon them over against the mulberry trees. And let it be, when thou hearest the sound of a going in the tops of the mulberry trees, that then thou shalt bestir thyself: for then shall the LORD go out before thee, to smite the host of the Philistines. And David did so, as the LORD had commanded him; and smote the Philistines from Geba until thou come to Gazer."
This same incident is also recorded in 1 Chronicles 14:8-17.
The Spirit of God is often referred to in Scripture as a wind that blows.
It was the Spirit of God represented in the wind that blew upon the waters of the flood that caused the waters of judgment to dry up and bring Noah and his family to the safety of dry ground.
The Spirit of God is again shown in the blowing of the wind that brought the cloud of locusts upon Egypt and then reversed direction to drive the judgment of locusts out of Egypt.
Then we can see the Wind of the Spirit as it blew upon the waters of the Red Sea to divide the Red Sea for Israel to cross upon dry ground and escape the armies of Pharaoh.
It was the Wind from the Lord that brought Israel quails to eat in the desert country. So many quails that they were on the ground for a day’s journey in every direction from the camp of Israel and nearly three feet deep.
On the Day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came as a rushing mighty wind to fill the 120 who were gathered in the upper room.
In the scripture portion for today, we will find that God is again representing the move of His Spirit by using the metaphor of a wind that blows.
David and his armies had already destroyed the Philistines as they drew up into a battle line to conquer Israel. God had given David a great victory by putting the Philistines on the run. They had retreated so quickly that they had even left their statues and images of their god, Baal, in the camp. David and his men burned these images to purge the land of idols and to signify to the Philistines that the Lord God Jehovah was more powerful than Baal.
There have been a number of times in my life and yours when the enemy has come against us in battle with the intent of destroying our soul.
Like David in Psalms 18:2, I know that I am safe from the attacks of Satan upon my life for like David I can say, "The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower."
The Devil does not give up easily though.
The first battle had been won but the war wasn’t over yet between Israel and the Philistines. They returned and lined up for battle the second time with reinforcements.
It seems to me that, as quickly as we win the battle in one area of life, there arises another battle that must be faced as the onslaught of the enemy never cease in his attempt to destroy what we doing for the Lord.
The thing that impresses me most about this story of David is the fact that David did not rely upon his own strength or ability to fight the Philistines. Even though Israel had just won the first battle in a great victory, David did not presume that he could do the same thing again. Just as he had sought God for the first battle, he was back on his knees asking God for direction again.
All to often, Christians tend to wait until after the battle starts to ask God’s help in the fight.
We confess that Jesus is Lord of our lives but we don’t give Him that Lordship until we have done everything in our own power to win the battle first. Only when we have exhausted our strength and finally reach a point where we can’t win on our own will we finally cry out to God for help.
Another problem that is prevalent in the church world is that we tend to presume upon God that if He did something one way that He will continue to do the same thing every time.
If you let one person get healed because of a handkerchief that has been anointed and prayed over, then you will have 10,000 people come forward with a handkerchief in their hand wanting the same thing.
Let a preacher come through town that blows on someone and they fall out in the Spirit and the next thing you know there will be hundreds falling at the same time.
Start praying for people to be blessed at the altar and see the Spirit of God as He falls upon one or two individuals and they are slain in the Spirit and the next thing you know, we will be assigning professional catchers to keep them from falling and hurting themselves or keeping them from having some indecent exposure when they fall.
Let the Spirit of God manifest his presence with oil upon the hands of one person, with gold filling in teeth, with spiritual visions, with dreams or you name it, and suddenly there will be an epidemic of those types of “manifestations” because people love to copy cat and believe that God will move the same way every time.
Just let one person get blessed with the reality of Holy Ghost filled laughter and pretty soon you will see people who assigned as sectional leaders in the congregation to get that “Holy Laughter” started right on cue from the preacher.
How far have we come and how far will we go from the reality of the move of the Spirit? How much have we presumed upon God, grieved the Holy Spirit and tried to confine Him to moving only in ways that we want Him to? How many times has God been unable to move and to bring great victory and blessing simply because we didn’t seek after His will?
We can’t place God in a box. He is omnipotent and omniscient. He has ways of doing things that we could never understand. He has power that is without limits and ability. How can we ever think that God has to move the same way every time?
David went before the Lord in prayer for this second battle just as he had done the first time. David knew better, through some hard learned lessons and defeats, than to presume to attack the Philistines just as he had done in the past. Those past battle plans just may not work again.
You can rest assured that Satan is one smart enemy. He is ever learning; he knows every trick and has experienced every strategy that we can imagine; and he has already made his plans to defeat you. What has worked once probably won’t work the same next time because he has already figured out how to counter your plan with one of his own. Satan can easily outsmart me, but he can’t outsmart my God.
That’s why David went back to God for direction and that’s why we must ever be in prayer, seeking direction from God for every facet of life. The devil will never quit attacking as long as you have breath, but thank God, we have a God that never sleeps and will hear our cry and fight for us with a new battle plan as the Wind of the Spirit leads us.
This time God told David to circle around behind the Philistines. It seemed to the Philistines as though Israel was retreating as the army of Israel marched away from the battlefield. God’s instructions to David were very simple. Leave the battle line in front of the Philistines, circle around behind them and just wait among the Mulberry trees until you hear the wind blowing the leaves, then attack.
That wind blowing through the Mulberry trees would cause the leaves to rustle and that would be David’s signal to get his army up and ready for battle because the Lord was moving out in front to prepare the heart of the Philistines with fear. This was to be a surprise attack from the rear, led by the Spirit of God. There is no greater chance for victory than to have complete surprise upon your unsuspecting enemy. But it was far more than that. The Holy Spirit of God, blowing across the tops of the trees, seeing the enemy from a different perspective and unlimited in his ability to move upon the enemy, struck terror into the Philistine camp and they fled as never before. This time the war was over and Israel’s victory was complete and the Ark of the Covenant was returned from the camp of the Philistines to the hands of David’s army.
Has it seemed to you that your salvation is at risk, that your victory and joy have been stolen, or that your family is in ruins?
Satan, like the Philistines, may have come against you and wreaked havoc in your life. Perhaps we have presumed once too often upon God and lost the battle because we thought God would move again as He did in the past and He didn’t do so. God will let us fight our own battles if we want to but He will also let us lose those battles too.
Israel had experienced that same thing. They had presumed upon God and lost the Ark of the Covenant. The very thing that represented the presence of God in the land was gone and in the hands of their enemy.
That Ark of the Covenant, containing the tablets of stone of the 10 Commandments, Aaron’s shepherd’s rod that had burst forth with new leaves and brought forth flowers and almonds to let Israel know that God had chosen Aaron as the head of the priesthood for the new Tabernacle, and the golden pot of manna that God had provided in the Wilderness to starving and murmuring Israel.
There have been times in my life when I felt that all the Scriptures that I had studied and learned were taken from me. I could not quote any of them and their power to speak to me was gone. It seemed as though the new life that God had blossomed from within the old dead heart of the old man and the fruit that had been born of that life were gone and I felt utterly defeated and empty. There were times when the Word of God did not seem to feed my soul and the preaching of the Word felt empty and bare. It was as though, the New Covenant that God had given to me, was stolen by Satan and those things which represented, to me, the very presence of God in my life were no longer there. I wondered how I had lost them, where had they gone and how could I get them back?
Just as David, I had to go to God in prayer, seeking His battle plans for defeating the enemy of my soul. It was through God’s power and direction that I regained those precious feelings and presence in my heart once again.
It didn’t do me any good at all to go at the Devil head on in my knowledge of the Word of God. It didn’t seem to matter at all that I had quoted those scriptures before and won the victory. It didn’t seem to matter at all that I managed to work out the situation and win the victory. I couldn’t do it again no matter how hard I tried. It wasn’t until I asked for God’s help and direction that I could overcome the enemy.
I had to learn to wait upon the Lord, to wait for the leading of the Spirit, to wait for the Wind to blow through the tops of the Mulberry trees in my heart, and strike as the Holy Spirit led me into the battle. All of my learning, ability and knowledge of the moving of God in the past was to no avail. Satan knew those battle plans. It took the Holy Spirit, going before me, striking fear into the forces of the devil, for my efforts to work.
When the Scriptures tell us that the battle is not ours and that we must let God fight our battles; that is exactly what it means.
Quit trying to figure out how to defeat the Devil on your own terms. We must seek God’s face for the right way to overcome the devil. We must inquire of God for a new strategy every time. We must seek for the move of the Holy Spirit through the rustling in our Mulberry trees of the heart. And finally, when we hear the voice of the Spirit as it blows through our mind and soul, we must stir up ourselves and go out to win the battle under God’s leadership.
In those circumstances we can’t lose. The captain of your soul is the Lord of Hosts who has never lost a battle. The commander of your army is the Lord Jesus Christ, leading the angelic hosts against an already defeated enemy. How can we lose!
Isaiah 54:17, says, “No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness is of me, saith the LORD."
1 John 4:4 says, "Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world."
These are great promises of God that we will not be defeated by the power of Satan, but those promises are based upon two things.
1)The Blood of the Lamb covers us and the Righteousness of God is upon us.
2)That we have the presence of the Holy Spirit within our heart.
If we are to destroy the works of the devil and his weapons that form against us, and if we are to be over comers in this life, we must learn to seek God’s direction and then wait upon the Wind of the Spirit to move us into action.
Isaiah 40:31, "But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint."
There is the key to your victory today. There is the method by which you can experience the renewal of the presence of God within your life and heart. There is the answer to how you can live a life that is filled with joy unspeakable and full of glory.
Wait upon the Lord, seek His will and guidance in all that you do, and wait for the Wind of the Spirit to blow. Then step out and walk on the Lord.
Let God renew your strength. Let God go before you to strike fear into the forces of hell. Let the Holy Spirit lift you and carry you out “on eagle’s wings’ like he did the Israelites when he carried them forth out of Egypt. Let the Lord of Hosts be in command of your life. If you seek God’s will and follow His lead you cannot lose.
Are we inquiring of the Lord or, are we fighting your own battles?
Are you waiting upon the going in the Mulberry Trees, or are you trying to overcome Satan in your own knowledge? Seek God’s direction, inquire of Him right now and He will guide you!
Then, when you hear the Wind of the Spirit blowing and the rustle of the Mulberry leaves, stir up yourself and strike. God has prepared a great victory for you. The leading of the Holy Spirit and observing God’s timing and battle plan will make the difference. The Victory is yours!
