Beloved Of God

God said to me the other day “I’m taking Saul’s Armour off the Church!”

What does that mean?

When no-one in the heavily armed and well-trained Israelite army was bold enough to take on the giant Goliath, young David stepped forward, sling in hand, and said “I’ll take him!”

Saul proceeded to dress David in his own kingly armour, but David said, “I cannot go in these, I haven’t tested them!” Removing the armour, David runs at Goliath, praises God, swings his sling and hits his target – BOOM! (1 Samuel 17).

Demanded or Beloved?

The names in this story are prophetic and give us a telling parable for our new era churches today:

SAUL means “demanded” – as he was the king the crowd wanted and demanded, even though God didn’t want them to have an earthly king.

However…

DAVID means “Beloved”. He was a God-lover, abandoned to worship, a man after God’s heart.

Here’s what I think God was trying to tell me: Saul was bogged down by the necessities of a king, dressed in all the expected finery and polished weaponry – but did not have the power to take out Goliath. In fact, for 40 days solid, the entire Israelite army ran every time Goliath bellowed. They were armed to the teeth but terrified!

David was just a God-lover, moving in simple gifting, and the Name of the Lord. He was not bogged down by the expectations of expectation. He was walking freely with his God!

And it was David The Beloved, not Saul The Demanded, that took out Goliath and won Israel’s war!

Goliath’s name is also great for our little parable. It means “exile” or “captivity”, representing the giants ability to intimidate us out of destiny and keep us exiled and captive.

The Church face some giants. We need to shift beyond captivity in this world, to occupation, invasion, blessing the world with God’s goodness and Kingdom. Giants stand in the way. They stand in the way of church influencing business, government, media, the arts, medicine and education. Giants of intimidation, laws, expectations and established cultural norms try to keep us from occupying and transforming the world around us.

But who will take down the giant? Will religion, nice tidy churches with tidy little programmes and polite little ministers? Will exhausted Christians, stretched thin by all the projects and plans, really have the strength and energy, the God-Given fire, to take new enemy ground?

Sometimes the enemy doesn’t need to directly confront us; instead he just makes us so busy we’re exhausted and distracted. We’re so busy doing things we think we “have” to do, we have little time for the fresh, miraculous, first-love voice of God.

We’re armed to the teeth, but ineffective. Trained but distracted. God’s Sons, but lost in the frenetic haze of activity, while Goliath guffaws from the sidelines!

But a new kind of Christian is emerging. A First-Love Christian, one who looks at all the “Got-To-Do-This” lists and says “No, I can’t operate under that any more. I need to operate in the relational Gift my God has given me. I need to walk as a beloved son, not an exhausted servant.”

They are saying “no” to methods, styles, projects, departments, timings, ministries, opportunities and operating systems that most Bible Schools would say you “ought” to be doing. And instead, and choosing “the one thing” God has asked them to do!

Which of the two would take the enemy out and take new ground? Not the one who lived under the demands of established culture, but the one who was the Beloved of God!

Be the Beloved of God!

An extract from The Divine Reset and Beyond: Pre-order your copy HERE

I declare that I am the beloved of God. Just as David was called “a man after God’s own heart” (Acts 13:22), I too am pursued, known, and deeply loved by the Lord.

I may be overlooked by others, but I am handpicked by God. “The Lord does not look at the things people look at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7). Like David, I may face battles, rejection, and seasons in the wilderness—but God’s presence never leaves me. His love sustains me, His mercy covers me, and His promises anchor me.

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