Goliath, you are going down……
     by Gayle Smith

If you are like us, you have noticed a sudden increase and intensity in the attacks of the enemy. Some of you have been experiencing this for some time now, but for us December has become an intense battlefield of one confrontation with the enemy after another.  It was several weeks ago now that I found myself in bed suddenly very ill and really in an unusual way.  Thankfully, we have powerful prayer partners that we can call anytime and they began to pray for me and carry me before the Lord in prayer daily. After several days of unrelenting physical attack but with prayers going up, something unexpected happened.  God brought something that was hidden deep in my heart to light and brought deliverance to my soul in a particular area.  It was something that I did not know was there but when it was identified, repented of and released to God, the peace came and it was precious!  In the middle of a terrible attack, God did something powerful in me and I love the way He does things!  So unpredictable and so incredibly right on time!  However, the physical attack remained.  One afternoon, laying in bed and trying to fight off fear, I heard the Lord say, “you need to get your fight back.”  He was so right. In that physical condition, my flesh was so weak that my spirit just seemed to lay down with it.  This is when the Lord began to speak to me about Goliath….

My faithful prayer partner called to check on me the next day, I said “Jaka, I need to get my fight back,” she said you’re right and we began to pray in the spirit.  As we continued and petitioned the Lord, I felt strength come on the inside of me and felt some fight coming back into my spirit!  So I started declaring my victory in Jesus, out loud and praising and worshipping Him for his faithfulness, when suddenly I said…”Goliath, you are going down!”   I said, “Jaka, I feel like I need to roar like a lion and let it out!” She laughed and said maybe you should step outside and just let it go, then we thought better and I said I am heading to the shower to intercede and I am going to roar there, and it was a great time of prayer and meeting with the Lord!  It was that day, I started to get some fight back on the inside of me and it has continued to grow.  Now that I have recovered from what was probably a terrible virus that attacked the nerve in my inner ear, Joe and I have both been faced with a variety of other attacks against us…extremely strategic and carefully orchestrated by the enemy to rob our hope, block our destiny, and steal our joy in this Christmas season.  BUT, with this has come a stirring from the Holy Spirit to come up to a greater level of faith.  We have read numerous articles and prophecies about 2012 and the intense time of warfare that is setting up before the body of Christ.  We have heard about impending judgments and catastrophes about to come into the world.  But God is calling his people, his armies, his faithful ones, to VICTORY in every circumstance!  But this calls for faith like never before, and faith is not accidental.  Having faith, and the kind of faith that actually moves mountains, and brings down Goliaths, takes a discipline that many of us haven’t brought ourselves under. But now we must. The time is now, the challenges are great and getting stronger and operating in a place of victory in the world today requires strong faith.  Growing faith is an on purpose action.  Reading and hearing the Word of God brings faith, but then getting the Word of God deep into our hearts and coming out our mouths, and causing our thoughts to line up with the Word in every situation takes discipline and consistency, and that is what God is calling us to today!

Here is what the Lord showed me today in 1 Samuel 17 about Goliath and David.  And we have all heard and read this passage many times, but think about this…Goliath came at the armies of Israel and defied them and cursed them and they ran in fear. But David was incensed that this enemy of Israel would be allowed to continue to threaten the armies of Israel and disrespect the Living God, his God, the God of Israel!  David knew his God was faithful, the God that had taken him through battle after battle, with lions and bears, and shown him strategies and strengthened him in the middle of his wilderness, and delivered him every time.  I actually think David was perplexed when he came on the scene and saw what was going on….I’m sure he wondered why hadn’t any of these mighty men of valor gone out and taken down Goliath. But God had a plan that day, and He has a plan for you today.  He actually spoke it out of David’s mouth…

1 Samuel 17:45-47: You come to me with a sword, with a spear, and with a javelin. But I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.  This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you and take your head from you. And this day I will give the carcasses of the camp of the Phillistines to the birds of the air and the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel!  Then all this assembly shall know that the Lord does not save with sword and spear; for the battle is the Lords, and He will give you into our hands.

And then it came to pass that with one smooth stone, and the anointing of God, David killed Goliath and took his sword and cut his head off and it was done.  Now get ahold of this!  The weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds, casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God.  Goliath came out with natural weapons, spears and swords, but David came out with the NAME OF THE LORD - totally a spiritual weapon. But here is what won the battle that day.  David already knew from previous battles that God was faithful, and this battle was no different, just a different day and a little different looking beast. But out of his mouth came a confession of faith that was so power-filled and Holy Spirit anointed that it completely super-charged the atmosphere on that battlefield and caused Goliath to go down with a stone out of a sling! And I love the way the Word points out that David did not have a sword on him, so he took Goliath’s and beheaded him in front of all the Phillistines which sent fear and panic through their troops and then the army of Israel went after them and slaughtered them. This is the victory that God wants to give you today and every day if need be!  Fill your heart with the Words of the Living God, speak them out of your mouth, speak them to one another, declare the faithfulness and power of God and when Satan comes at you through natural things…illness, lack of finances, depression and grief, lost children, or whatever it is, you address him the same way David addressed Goliath.  You stand up boldly, knowing the faithfulness of Jesus Christ and when others are running in fear (the world), you run to the fight and say OK Goliath, it’s go time, game on, let’s roll, if you are going to come at me and my family, I will come at you in the Name of Jesus Christ and His shed blood, the Lord of hosts, the Holy One of Israel, the King of Kings, and the Lord of Lords, the one and only Living God and this day, the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you with the Word of the God (sword of the spirit) and take your head off!  This day all of the armies of demons with you will see the sure victory that my God has given me and they will run in fear.  This day, my God will restore unto me everything that you have attempted to steal and He will bring me health and cure and ALL THE EARTH will know that there is a God in heaven that is alive, and his Name is Jesus!  I give this battle into your hands Lord Jesus for it is yours and not mine, and I call it done and won in Jesus Name!!

This is the kind of faith that needs to arise in the people of God.  We need to be full and overflowing with His Word and with His Power and Faith!  Don’t run in fear, don’t shrink back from the battle, do not get into human striving and try to fight the battle on your own,  and don’t let the devil speak threats and lies into your mind!  Stand strong in the Lord and in the power of His might and then the victory will be yours!  I love how the chapter continues and David of course is recognized by Saul and King Saul wants to know who is this “David” and where is he from?  David answers, I am the son of your servant Jesse the Bethlehemite.

And so, we go back to Bethlehem once again and think upon our God, the immenseness of His love for us.  The way He came to us as a baby on that special night, was laid in a manger of hay in the most humbling of circumstances and that night the King of the Universe was born into the earth.  He came for us, to rescue us from the power of sin and death, and to bring us into his Heavenly Kingdom.  He lived, he loved, he bled, he died and conquered, he arose.  And that is the truth that will bring us through to victory every time. 

2012 will be challenging, and every day going forward now brings us that much closer to meeting our God face to face.  But I want to close on this scripture from II Cor. 2:14a:  Now thanks be unto God, which always causes us to triumph in Christ Jesus! So let the hope and peace of Jesus arise, joy return, and insist on experiencing the joy of Christmas this year!  Run into 2012 knowing that the battle is the Lords, it’s already won, and He will bring you through every single time!

Think upon these beautiful words….

O Come, All ye Faithful
Joyful and Triumphant,
O Come ye, O Come ye to Bethlehem.
Come and behold Him,
Born the King of Angels;
O Come, let us adore Him,
O Come, let us adore Him,
O Come, let us adore Him,
Christ the Lord!

Merry Christmas and a Blessed 2012 to you!
We love you,
Joe and Gayle Smith