Now, David and Saul have kinda patched up their relationship at this point, and David is, kind of, trying to make it through as best he could. Saul has tried to kill him. David has had to run. David has found himself to be mad. He’s hidden out in a cave. He’s acting like he’s foaming at the mouth, trying to escape all of the things that Saul did to him, and yet David respects Saul because Saul is God’s anointed, and until the time of David’s appointment David still respects Saul’s position. Now, David has had to come to the cave of Adullam and picked together 600 men. He didn’t have fancy soldiers like Saul did. He had rough-neck soldiers. He had Cool Joe and Snoop Dogg and Freddie Boy. They weren’t highly skilled or highly trained. They were just wild and rough guys that he had banded together and made him a little army and went about his business and went into battle and started fighting and fighting and fighting and doing what he could.
They’ve gone to fight the Philistines. Say, “They’ve gone to fight Philistines”. Oh, you say it like you’ve got leukemia. Say, “They’ve gone to fight the Philistines”. Yeah, you’re gonna get there in a minute. If you ride with me, you got to pick it up, baby. Now, they’ve gone to fight the Philistines, and they’re going out to battle. And while they’re gone to fight the Philistines and get the victory over there and shed blood over there and kill everything that’s got to be killed over there, when they come back to Ziklag waiting for the women to sing and receive them, they find that there are no women singing. There is no bread baking, there is no porridge being cooked, there are no children playing in the streets, the camp is deserted, every tent is empty, and they see the sign that the Amalekites had been there.
Do not expect a crown until you have been to Ziklag. Don’t expect to get it for nothing. Nothing comes easy. Nothing comes without struggle. Nothing comes without conflict. But by the same token, if you’re going through hell in Ziklag, I came to tell you God’s gonna get some glory. I know Ziklag. Now, you must understand we talk about a fight, but until you’ve been in a fight you don’t understand that fighting is exhausting. Fighting is exhausting. Even if you win, it’s exhausting. Even if you win, you will incur some damage, some black eye, some knocked-out teeth, some broken leg, some people, hey, hopping back home. You got the victory, and we beat ’em, but my knee is still bleeding, and I’m stabbed in the side. Don’t you think that victory is always pretty. Sometimes you can be a winner and still be wounded. He comes back from Ziklag. You can win and be tired. You can survive and be weary. You can get the house back and just be tired from the battle. You can get the job back and still be tired. You can survive the bankruptcy and still be worn-out. You can overcome the divorce and just be exhausted. Yeah, you showed him, didn’t you? You made it anyway, but in the middle of the night you’re lying in the bed saying, “I’m so tired. If one more thing comes on me, I won’t be able to stand”.
See, everybody can’t deal with a mighty warrior because they are so impressed with the armor, that they don’t see the pain that lies beneath the armor, but winning will cost you something. At least when you lose it’s fatal, it’s over. But when you win, you come back with the spoils, but sometimes you can’t enjoy the spoils that you have because it cost you so much to get it. And David comes back from the battle looking for comfort and runs into conflict. Have you ever look for comfort and ran into conflict? Looked for comfort and ran into conflict. Looked for comfort and ran into conflict. If you’re not careful, you’ll get to the point that you stop even looking for comfort because you get so used to conflict, that you no longer expect anything to ever get better anymore. And he comes home to conflict, and he gets back, you must understand. I want you to see this. When his men who came back from battle and saw their wives were gone and their kids were gone, they get mad at David and wanted to kill him. So, he has fought the Philistines and then he’s been ravaged by the Amalekites and now his own people have turned against him.
They’ve taken his wife, they’ve taken his children, and now they’ve taken away their belief in him, and David sat down in despair and almost gave up. I just wanna ask you a question just between me and you. Have you ever come to a point in your life that you almost gave up? Isn’t it funny that when you’ve had good teaching and you run out of strength and you run out of energy, good teaching will come in and make you stand when you think you can’t stand? At the point that he was ready to die and collapse on the floor, and he said to himself, “I can’t do this no more. I’m sick, and I’m tired, and even those who are with me don’t believe in me anymore. And I thought that we will stick together, and they didn’t stick together with me,” and then he needed to have, nobody but himself. The Bible says that David encouraged himself. Have you ever had to encourage yourself? Your kids didn’t do it. Your husband didn’t do it. Your wife didn’t do it. Hell was coming in for the kill. Satan said, “I got her this time,” but weeping may endure for a night.
Just got back from fighting the Philistines, comes home and has to fight with his own men, now he’s got to go out and fight the Amalekites, and he went back out to fight the Amalekites. He was so tired, that half of his army collapsed on the way to the battle, and they said, “We can’t go any farther”. They stopped, but because David was the kind of man that encouraged himself, when other people collapsed he kept on going, because he had something on the inside of him that renewed him in the time of battle. See, some people get beaten by the battle and some of us get better in the battle. Attack me. Hit me, I dare. If the devil was smart, he’d have never jumped on you, ’cause there is something about jumping on you that ignites your flame all over. You say, “I was gonna quit, but wait. I feel..”.. Half of his men collapsed. Pastor Lawrence, they collapsed on the side of the river by the bridge. And David said, “Stay here. We’re going on”.
Encourage yourself. Touch three people and tell ’em, “Something is about to happen. Something is about to happen. Something is about to happen. Something is about to happen. Something is about to happen in your life”. If you’ve been through battle after battle after battle after battle, something is about to happen in your life. If you faced disappointment and fear and adversity and trauma, something is about to happen in your life. If in a short period of time you had a long period of trouble, something is about to happen in your life. Ask any pregnant woman. She’ll tell you the faster the pains come, the quicker the baby is about to be delivered, and when you get to Ziklag you are going through one thing after another after another after another after another. And I don’t know who I’m preaching to, but the Lord said if I would preach it. Somebody has been in Ziklag. You’ve been through hell and high water and this thing and that thing and the other thing and he goes. He fights the Amalekites, destroys all of them, except 200 of them. He totally demolished them with less help than he had when he fought against the Philistines.
Word up for somebody. God says you’ve got less help than you had before, but you’re gonna do more with it than you ever did before. I don’t know who I’m preaching to, I don’t know what you’re up against, but the Lord said the odds are against you, but if he be for you, he’s more than the world against you. Whoever that’s for, take 20 seconds and give him a crazy praise. Touch three people and say, “Use what you got left. Use what you got left. Use what you got left. Use what you got left”. Take what you got left. Take the little bit you got left. Take two fish and five loaves of bread. Take a pot of oil. Take a bag of manna. Take what you got left. Be glad you got something left. God’s gonna use what you’ve got left to get the victory. I wish I could get a victory. Tell your neighbor, “This is your year to take less and do more with it”. Praise him for more. Praise him for more, more grace, more power, more enablement, more victory. “Got less to work with, less friends, less support, less money, but God take these fish and five loaves of bread and multiply it for increase”. Shout, “Yes”. Shout, “Yes”. Shout, “Yes”. Shout, “Yes”. Shout, “Yes”.
So, he beat the Amalekites, and he’s coming back from the battle with the Amalekites, and he’s just been at home about two days in Ziklag when it gets worse. Somebody, your time is up in Ziklag. You’ve been through hell and high water, trouble after trouble, but this is your shifting year. Touch your neighbor and say, “Time is up. I’m coming out of this. I’m coming out of this. It was a stage in my life, but I’m coming out of it in the name of Jesus, in the name of Jesus, in the name of Jesus. I’m gonna come out of it with more, more faith, more power, more tenacity, more commitment”. Yes! Yes! Yeah, David stands in the door. He gets a knock at the door, and they tell him, “Saul is dead, and Jonathan is dead”. David said, “How you know they’re dead”? ’cause he learned not to trust the first voice you hear. And the guy says, “I was there. When I found Saul, he had fallen on his sword, and he was too weak to fight, and the Philistines were coming on him”. And he said, “Saul asked me, ‘To put me out of my misery. I don’t want the Philistines to say they killed me.'” Said, “Who are you”? He said, “I’m an Amalekite”. He said, “Well, take my sword and finish me off”. And so, he said, “I finished Saul off, and I took his bracelet off of his wrist, and I took his crown off of his head, and I brought it to Ziklag”.
David says, “You mean God had me in Ziklag, going through all of this hell and all of this trouble? He delayed me. He detained me. He held me back. I was stuck in Ziklag. I felt like giving up, I felt like quitting, but I had to stay in Ziklag because something was about to happen”. And I came to encourage somebody. Don’t move. Don’t jump. Don’t quit. Stand right there. The crown is coming to Ziklag and if you hold on, hold on, hold on, everything God promised you will meet you in the place of your pain. Show me the place of your greatest pain, and I’ll show you the place of your greatest promotion. Show me the place that tried you to the breaking point, and I’ll show you the place of your prophetic destiny. But the Lord told me to tell you, you don’t have to go to the crown. The crown is coming to you, so, my brothers and sisters, the Word of the Lord is stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. You don’t have to go to it. It’s about to come to you. Somebody open your mouth and holler and say, “Come here. Come here. Come here”. That’s right. Call every promise. Call every prophecy. Call every blessing. God said, “This is the place that the crown will come to Ziklag”.