Destroy Satan’s Fortresses in Your Mind

When David sees Goliath threatening Israel, notice his intense concern for the glory of God’s name and the honour of God’s people: “Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should taunt the armies of the living God?” (1 Sam 17:26). While the Israelites were all as unbelieving as their forefathers who had wandered for 40 years in the wilderness, David knew what God had done to the Canaanite giants through Joshua and Caleb. And so, he offered to go and fight Goliath.

When Saul laughed at David saying he was just a youth (David was probably about 17 years old now), David told Saul about some incidents in his private life, which he had never told anyone about before – not even his parents. He told Saul, “When I was tending my father’s flock, sometimes a lion or a bear would come and take a lamb from the flock. I would go after the wild animal, rescue the lamb from its mouth and kill the wild animal. I have killed both the lion and the bear.” (17:34-36). David had known what Samson did when the Spirit came upon him. So after Samuel had anointed him, David felt that God would help him too, just like God helped Samson. And God did.

How many shepherds in Israel would go after a lion just to save the life of a wee, tiny lamb? When God saw this care that David had for the littlest lamb in his flock, He decided that David was fit to shepherd Israel. When Satan gets hold of a weak brother, it is the shepherd’s duty to go after Satan in spiritual warfare and to rescue that brother from Satan’s grip. That’s the type of shepherd God is looking for today.

This story also teaches us that we have to slay the enemies in our private life first, before we can face Goliath publicly. If you have not overcome the lion and the bear in your private life, don’t imagine that God will call you to face Goliath in public. Many would like to have a public ministry that demolishes Satan’s fortresses. But they must start with destroying Satan’s fortresses in their own mind first. They must show a concern for God’s name and for the little lambs in private first.

Saul then told David to at least put on his (Saul’s) armour. That would offer some protection against Goliath. Was David to trust in Saul’s armour or in God? Finally David took it all off and went forth trusting in God alone. He told Goliath, “You have come to me with sword, spear, and javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord” (v.45). Thus he killed Goliath with a single stone and used Goliath’s own sword to chop off his head.

This is how we are to go against Satan today. And God uses Satan’s own weapons (Goliath’s own sword) to destroy him. “Through death, He destroyed him who had the power of death” (Heb.2:14). Once Goliath was killed, the other Philistines ran away (1 Sam.17:51). This teaches us that once we kill the giant sin in our life (“the sin that so easily entangles us” – Heb.12:1), we will find that many other sins in our lives are conquered too.