(week 48/03)
Olubi Johnson
In this 3rd. day God is revealing to the church the things Satan, through the weakness and impurities in our flesh, has taken captive in our lives: the spots, wrinkles and blemishes, and such like, that hinder us from being all God wants us to be.
However, like David at Ziklag, God is telling us to encourage ourselves in the Lord, to enquire of Him and then pursue, overtake and recover all the enemy has taken through the flesh.
1 Sam 30:1-4
Now it happened, when David and his men came to Ziklag, on the third day, that the Amalekites had invaded the South and Ziklag, attacked Ziklag and burned it with fire, 2 and had taken captive the women and those who were there, from small to great; they did not kill anyone, but carried them away and went their way. 3 So David and his men came to the city, and there it was, burned with fire; and their wives, their sons, and their daughters had been taken captive.
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1 Sam 30:6
Now David was greatly distressed, for the people spoke of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and his daughters. But David strengthened himself in the LORD his God.
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1 Sam 30:8
So David inquired of the LORD, saying, “Shall I pursue this troop? Shall I overtake them?” And He answered him, “Pursue, for you shall surely overtake them and without fail recover all.”
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This account speaks to the church prophetically in this hour: this third day, that as we come to Ziklag, which represents the place where we are trained to become spiritual kings (1 Sam. 27.6) : in which we will experience and demonstrate total dominion over sin, sickness and Satan, we will see what Satan has taken, through the weaknesses of our flesh and how to pursue him and recover all.
The first thing David did was to encourage and strengthen himself in the Lord. David, here, represents the end-time Christian who is being prepared to be manifest as a spiritual king.
When you look at the weaknesses of your flesh in the light of God’s expectation for a glorious, perfect, 3rd. day church without spot, blemish, wrinkle or any such thing it is enough to thoroughly discourage and distress you.
However we are to encourage ourselves in the Lord knowing God will help us and that it is God not ourselves that is at work within us both to do and to will of God’s good pleasure.
We are then to seek the Lord in prayer and the Word with an attitude of the fear of God and the love of God.
In seeking the Lord. we are to make the decision to pursue, overtake and recover all Satan has stolen through the flesh.
Now as David pursues the Amalekites, a type of our flesh, he comes across an Egyptian who had been servant of the Amalekites.
This Egyptian represents the satanic nature in the air that the enemy uses to control the desires of the flesh and mind:
Eph 2:2-3
in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.
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This Egyptian is now fed by David and then leads David to the Amalekites to destroy them and recover all that they had taken.
1 Sam 30:11-18
Then they found an Egyptian in the field, and brought him to David; and they gave him bread and he ate, and they let him drink water. 12 And they gave him a piece of a cake of figs and two clusters of raisins. So when he had eaten, his strength came back to him; for he had eaten no bread nor drunk water for three days and three nights. 13 Then David said to him, “To whom do you belong, and where are you from?” And he said, “I am a young man from Egypt, servant of an Amalekite; and my master left me behind, because three days ago I fell sick. 14 We made an invasion of the southern area of the Cherethites, in the territory which belongs to Judah, and of the southern area of Caleb; and we burned Ziklag with fire.” 15 And David said to him, “Can you take me down to this troop?” And he said, “Swear to me by God that you will neither kill me nor deliver me into the hands of my master, and I will take you down to this troop.” 16 And when he had brought him down, there they were, spread out over all the land, eating and drinking and dancing, because of all the great spoil which they had taken from the land of the Philistines and from the land of Judah. 17 Then David attacked them from twilight until the evening of the next day. Not a man of them escaped, except four hundred young men who rode on camels and fled. 18 So David recovered all that the Amalekites had carried away
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In the same way we feed the air around us with:
Bread- which represents the spoken Word of God – Jn. 6. 35
Water , which represents the life of God- Jn. 4. 10,14
A cake of figs- which represents the power of the Holy Spirit released through speaking in tongues-Act. 2.4, Hos. 9.10
Clusters of raisins- which represent the practice of the fruit of the Spirit: love-Gal. 5.22
As we do this as a daily habit, we will overtake and recover all the Satan has taken from us through the lusts and weakness of the flesh and begin to experientially reign as kings having total dominion over sin, sickness and all the works of the devil: doing the works Jesus did and greater (Jn. 14.12).
