God's Call!

Fulfilling God’s Call in Hard and Difficult Times!

David's Example! 

Every true born again Christian has a call on their lives to serve Him, witness and testify of Him, and faithfully live by His Word. David had the call, and he was able through his close relationship to the Lord to endure and follow the Lord’s will for his life. Yes, he did fail at times, but he always went back to his only source in life - the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. We need to do the same when adversity comes out way!

But it was not an easy path for David because at times he stumbled and failed. Allow me to repeat again, it was not an easy walk for David serving the Lord as a Shepherd, King, and Warrior as reflected in the many Psalms he composed about his life. Let us not take the Christian walk as a sweet walk in the park for as the Hebrew writer penned:

It is a terrible

(fearful, dreadful)

thing to fall into the

 hands of the living God.

Hebrews 10:31 (NLT)

 David Paid a Great Price!

There are many today who are serving Christ with all their heart, mind, and soul and are suffering greatly for their faithfulness to Christ and His Cross. They are sacrificing everything for Christ and His Kingdom. As a result, they encounter Satan’s darts and become primary target for attack to bring them down or make them fall from their divine call.

David paid a great price for his faithfulness to the Lord and the price he paid we can observe in Psalm 69 which he composed and which many today are experiencing in the upside down world we are living in. 

The "Called Out Ones!"

Therefore, let us observe from Psalm 69 what is below and realize that it can be hard, difficult, and demanding to fulfill the call of the Lord for the serious and committed followers of Christ. The “called-out ones” (the followers of Christ) - the ones who deny the self life and pick up His Cross (Luke 9:23) and allow it to crucify their flesh must be ready to serve no matter what the conditions or battles which come. 

When the heat of the battles take place, the “called-out ones” press into the Lord and cry out to Him.  Their worship and praise of the Lord is greatly intensified and their recognition of the greatness and magnificence of the Lord is daily proclaimed. 

Their dependence on the Lord takes on a whole new meaning for He becomes everything to them – their rock, their fortress, their strength, their refuge, and their salvation.  They look to no one else but to the Lord.  They know the Lord has the answers for what they are facing. Here are the conditions David endured with his walk with the Lord.

David's Physical, Mental, and Spiritual Condition!

DAVID 

(Today - we can also face extremely difficult times because of our witness and testimony.

(These characteristics also describe what Christ endured)

·        He is weary with crying.

·        He has a parched throat.

·        He is taunted and is shown reproached.

·        He experiences confusion and shame which covers his face.

·        He is insulted by others.

·        He is a stranger to the brethren.

·        He is jeered at and humiliated.

·        He weeps and humbles himself by fasting.

·        He is an object of scorn among the people.

·        He is an alien to his mother’s children.

·        He is a song of the drunkards.

·        He is talked about in the city.

·        He is hated by others.

·        He bears dishonor.

·        He is insulted.

·        He has a broken heart. 

·        He is full of heaviness.

·        He is distressingly sick.

·        He is persecuted.

·        He is gossiped about.

·        He is poor, sorrowful, and in pain.

·        He is threatened.

·        He is in deep water.

·        He is overwhelmed by trouble on all sides.

·        He is in fear of being killed.

·        He is in sackcloth for dress which demonstrates repentance, humility, and contrition.

He was called from the fields of taking care of sheep and the killing the Philistine giant - Goliath with a slingshot and a rock. He was an aide or servant in the court of King Saul who wanted to kill him.

But despite of these things, David was called to be King of Israel and anointed by the Holy Spirit. He united all the tribes of Israel under his leadership for he possessed a heart for God.  God said, “David is a man after My own heart.”

 David faced tremendous obstacles which would have done in anyone else.  But he found solace, deliverance, strength, and direction in calling on the Lord. He was in a life-or-death situation for many years of his life. 

He knew he needed the Lord 24/7, or he would perish.  So, he calls out to the Lord in prayer and intercession with all his being as we observe below in Psalm 69.

DAVID

(He calls on the Lord for help!)

(Today - we need to be continually calling out to the Lord).

·     He calls on the Lord to save him.

·     He prays to the Lord at an acceptable time.

·     He asks the Lord to hear him.

·     He asks the Lord to answer him because the Lord is merciful and loving.

·     He asks the Lord to not let him sink down in the mire of the hate of others.

·     He asks the Lord to deliver him.

·     He asks the Lord to rescue him.

·     He asks the Lord to not allow the venom of others to overwhelm him.

·     He asks the Lord to draw close to Him.

·     He asks the Lord to speedily answer him.

·     He asks the Lord not to hide His face from him.

·     He asks the Lord to turn to him.  

·     He praises the name of God with a song.

·     He magnifies God with thanksgiving.

·     He tells others to be glad and seek God and let their hearts be revived.

·     He wants to please the Lord.

·     He tells of the Lord not despising prisoners, the needy, the despised, the miserable, and the wounded.  He hears them.

·     He says heaven and earth praise Him as well as the seas and everything in them.

·     He says God will save Zion and the cities of Judah and have it as a possession of the people.  They will inherit it.

David’s enemies and some of his close friends were ruthless, cruel, evil, turncoats, and demeaning.  They would have killed him if he did not have the anointing and protection of the Lord.

David not only called for help from the Lord but called on the Lord to take vengeance on his enemies.  We need to constantly call on the Lord like David.  We need to ask the Lord to protect us from our enemies of the flesh and of the spiritual dark entities of the Satanic kingdom.

DAVID

  (He calls on the Lord to deal with his enemies)).

(Today - we also must call on the Lord to deal with those who oppose us, persecute us, and demean us for our witness and testimony of Christ and His Cross).

·        He asks the Lord to put his enemies to shame.

·        He asks the Lord to confuse and dishonor his enemies.

·        He asks the Lord to let the abundance and luxury of their tables be a snare to them.

·        He asks the Lord that the peace of the enemy would be a trap to them.

·        He asks the Lord to darken their eyes so they cannot see and make their lions tremble continually.

·        He asks the Lord to pour out His indignation upon his enemies.

·        He asks the Lord to let the fierceness of His anger burn up them.

·        He asks the Lord that their habitation and encampment be a desolation, and no one dwells in their tents.

·        He asks the Lord to allow perverseness and inquiry to accumulate upon them.

·        He asks the Lord not to let His righteousness come upon them or allow them to be justified and acquitted.

·        He asks the Lord that his enemies be blotted out of the book of the living and the book of life and not be enrolled among the righteousness or those who are upright.

My reflections on the above.

(1) The followers of Christ will experience hard, difficult, and tough times to test their faithfulness and perseverance. They will be tested every day.  Apostle Paul declares: 

For you have been granted

[the privilege]

for Christ’s sake

not only to believe in Him

(adhere to, rely on, and trust in)

Him,

but also

to suffer in His behalf.

My comment: to suffer meaning to undergo afflictions, evils, pain, hardships, sufferings, etc.)

Philippians 1:29 (AMP)

(2) The followers of Christ like David can call on the Lord for endurance, strength, and deliverance.  The Lord can choose to take one through the trials and tribulations or extract one from these things.  He took David through many hardships and delivered Him from those who who spoke against Him and wanted to destroy him.

(3) We learn and grow up in Christ many times through the tribulations, sorrows, sufferings, distresses, adversities, and troubles we experience for we remember their lessons more than the lessons from the easy and comfortable times of blessings.

David wrote many other Psalms like Psalm 69 which should also be read to observe how David navigated or managed his life with the help of the Lord in hard and difficult times.

Let us end on this powerful Scripture and declare and decree it daily in our walk with the Lord.

Rich Arnold

Servant of the Lord

311 Adelaide Ave SW

Hartville, Ohio 44632

330-704-9306

richarnold3@gmail.com