It only takes 5 stones....

I stood and looked around me.  So amazing and surreal to be in the same field looking at the same hill and searching for my own set of 5 smooth stones.

As I listened to our guide talk about this field and the significance of that moment in David's life so long ago I could help but think of those moments in my own life.  We all have moment of decision where we either take a stand or we run.  It's just that simple.  I cannot honestly say that I have always made the choice to stand.  I think we have all had our moments where running was a clear and favorable option.

But in listening to this man speak, I heard more than just the story.  I heard the Love of God giving me strategy and encouragement.

You see the field where David stood stills in a valley.  When it rains, the stones from the hill where Goliath came run down into that very field.  What I kept hearing from the Lord was this, "You can use the very stones that the enemy throws at you to bring him down".

That's what David did.  He picked up the stones of insult, fear, intimidation, slander, and doubt.  He gave those stones new names because he knew in that moment that the Lord of Hosts was more powerful than any enemy that came against him.  He declared strength, the power of God, courage, victory and most of all truth into those stones.  And then he created sound with them and he cast them into the air with his sling.  It was a sound that brought down not only a giant, but an entire army.

When David walked into that field he did not try to be anyone other than who he was at that very moment.  He didn't take on Saul's identity-or even his armor.  David brought with him into that moment the testimony of his own story out in the fields with just he and the sheep.  Where he and practiced for this moment bringing down lions and bears.  He brought with him those smaller moments where the enemy before him brought death and he chose not to run.  He had practiced this moment without even realizing it.  The Lord had been grooming him to understand that he could stand.  That he could take courage in the strength of the Lord in those moments.  He had practiced making that sound of victory with his sling.

David said these words, "You come to me with a sword, with a spear and with a javelin. But I come to you with the name of the Lord of Hosts. The God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied."
He had no doubt, no fear, no places of struggle.

In that moment I stood in that field, I picked up my stones and held them in my hands.  I gave them names and took ownership of the identity in them for me.  I made my own sound of victory and declared that the enemies of my family and my life would be taken down.  Not by man's hand, but by the Lord of Hosts who watches over us.

What are the stones that have rolled into your life during those seasons of rain?  What are the enemies who stand in the way of your journey telling you that you are not able to move forward?

I want to encourage us all to look around and have the Love of God show us how to use those very stones to take out the lies, the voices, the doubt that comes against us.  And when you see another looking about, help them.  Encourage them.  Declare the promise over them that they are able to stand.

It only took 5 stones of flint and a man willing to stand in the clear knowledge of who he was in that moment and who God was for him.  What if all of us did this at the same time.  Oh what a moment that would be.