Care For Casualties
Prepare For Adversity
Share The Victory
The fifth reality of HBF is real ministers are drawn to real battles. You can see this truth over and over in the scruipture. From Abraham, Joshua and Caleb, David, Elijah, and the apostles of the New Testament those who have been delivered tend to find themselves in places where people need to be delivered. It is our prayer that HBF will never lose sight of our need to be engaged in real battles. There are so many good things that can occupy the believers time, but the battle for souls, whether they be in your home, community or countries around the world is the work that God has called us to engage in.
Real ministers care for casualties. They don’t want to leave anyone behind in this sin wrecked world. While we cannot make anyone receive the love of Christ we certainly can let them know there is an escape from the ties that bind them to death and hell. This is a simple truth that is sometimes missed in 1 Samuel 17. You see David was confident to deliver others because he understood that God had delivered him from the jaws of death.
1 Samuel 17:34-35
And David said unto Saul, Thy servant kept his father’s sheep, and there came a lion, and a bear, and took a lamb out of the flock: 35 And I went out after him, and smote him, and delivered it out of his mouth: and when he arose against me, I caught him by his beard, and smote him, and slew him.
Young David was a shepherd who cared about the sheep. He didn’t want any of his flock to become a casualty of lions or bears under his watch. Real ministers care about the sheep of God’s fold. It is was David’s experience in facing the adversity of shepherding that prepared him for the battles that he would one day face against Goliath.
While we know David had a lot of things going for him, like being annointed king, that was not what moved him. He was moved by the mission of God. God had made a promise to the nation of Israel that had yet to be fulfilled. They were living on the battle field! They had yet to fully claim the promises delivered them in generations past. The land was already thiers, they simply had not mustered the courage to posses it!
There is something about being delivered which causes a minister of the gospel to go forward in boldness to deliver others. Young David was not only a deliverer of sheep but he recongnized the God had delivered him from danger in the process.
1 Samuel 17:37
David said moreover, The LORD that delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine. And Saul said unto David, Go, and the LORD be with thee.