If you want God to use us, we must walk in holiness, humility, and honor.

1 Samuel 30:1 9, 18, 19 (NKJV):

1. 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. They 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.

4. Then David and the people who were with him lifted up their voices and wept until they had no more power to weep.

5. And David’s two wives, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess and Abigail the widow of Nabal the Carmelite, had been taken captive.

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 daughters. But David strengthened himself in the LORD his God.

7. Then David said to Abiathar the priest, Ahimelech’s son, “Please bring the ephod here to me.” And Abiathar brought the ephod to David.

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.”

9. So David went, he and the six hundred men who were with him, and came to the Brook Besor, where those who stayed behind were left.

18. So David recovered all that the Amalekites had carried away, and David rescued his two wives.

19. Nothing of theirs was lacking, either small or great, sons or daughters, spoil or anything which they had taken from them. David recovered all.

To understand this story, we turn back to chapter 27:

1 Samuel 27:1 (NKJV):

“And David said in his heart, ‘Now I shall perish someday by the hand of Saul. There is nothing better for me than that I should speedily escape to the land of the Philistines, and Saul will despair of me, to seek me no more in any part of Israel. So I shall escape out of his hand.'”

Fear gripped David’s heart. He kept telling himself Saul would kill him. He had been anointed king, but he couldn’t tell it. Saul was yesterday’s man. It was too late for him.

Fear and jealousy were destroying Saul. He had become possessed by the enemy. Jealousy had eaten him up.

Disobedience had destroyed him. He was still king but not for long, prophesying but not for long. He is yesterday’s man. If you’re not walking in holiness, you are yesterday’s man.

Jealousy caused Cain to kill Abel. It caused Joseph to be thrown into prison.

It caused strife between Rachel and Leah. Jealousy caused Moses’ siblings, Miriam and Aaron, to rise up against him. Jealousy is a killer.

Isaiah 51:12 (NKJV):

“I, even I, am He who comforts you. Who are you that you should be afraid of a man who will die, and of the son of a man who will be made like grass?”

David’s fearful heart then opened a portal of compromise. He began to live a double life. He didn’t fit!

He didn’t fit with God’s people, and he didn’t fit with the Philistines. He was leading a double life, telling Achish that he was warring against the villages of Judah when he wasn’t.

He was killing everyone to keep his secret.

There is no middle ground. Maybe you think when you kick God out of one area it becomes secular, but there is no middle ground. When you give up land, it becomes Satan’s land.

When you kick Him out of your schools, it becomes Satan’s land. It becomes a place to indoctrinate your children with the spirit of the antichrist.

In chapter 29, David is rejected by everyone. He’s caught in the middle. David was in a pickle; he now had to go fully at war with God’s people, but God stopped him.

In chapter 30, David found out that his divided, fearful heart was costing him everything. After being rejected, he returned to Ziklag and everything was lost. David was at rock bottom.

His wives and all his possessions were gone. The only light in his life was gone. They wept uncontrollably.

He had left his city unguarded. He lost his people, his children, his wives, and everything. Now, his men turned on him.

Verse 8: David sought the Lord, and God answered, “Go and you shall recover all.”

David smote the Amalekites from twilight to the next evening. You will have to fight, but you shall recover all.

I thank God for the Great Commission, but that’s not all the Church is to be. There’s discipleship. There’s also saving my children out of the hands of those trying to confuse them.

John 10:10:

It would be better for a millstone to be tied around their neck and drowned in the sea than to offend one of those little ones. You’re hiding amongst the stuff.

You’re weak and hiding when we don’t preach the truth and the whole counsel of God.

We will give an account if we don’t rise up now. If we’ve got the boldness, if we’ve got the guts, if we wield the sword of the Spirit, we shall recover all.