Maybe this is your journey. Here’s the scene: You’re in a battle with sickness, oppression or some similar need. However, you seek God and, in some way, the grace of God touches your life. Your victory may have come through God’s Word or prayer or some other encouragement, but you absolutely know the Lord delivered you. Using the five smooth stones of divine grace, you defeated your Goliath.
But then, a few weeks or months later (or perhaps, years), suddenly all the old symptoms return with a vengeance. If you were struggling with an illness, it manifests now worse than ever; if your battle was regarding a relationship, it seems like all progress has been lost and you are back to square one.
Have you ever been there? These negative experiences can drain the faith from your heart to such a degree that you feel you’ll never recover the anticipation of faith again. A spiritual paralysis immobilizes your soul. You may still attend church, but your faith is unresponsive; when others testify of a healing or deliverance, you secretly wait, measuring the time until they, too, lose their healing.
For many, the result is one of severe disillusionment. The scripture says, “Hope deferred makes the heart sick” (Prov 13:12). How can you trust God when it seems like He let you down? You wonder: Did I lose my breakthrough or was I only deceiving myself and never really had it?
But it is very possible that what you are experiencing is an entirely new spiritual battle, not a loss of God’s blessing. This new war is a very clever and effective deception that Satan uses to try and worm his way back into the lives of those delivered by God.
I had been praying about this very thing, this returning battle, when the Holy Spirit spoke to my heart, “Goliath had a brother.” I was immediately reminded of David’s war against the Philistine giant. We all know that David became a great hero by trusting God and defeating Goliath. However, later in his life other giants showed up to war against the Lord’s servant. Amazingly, all of them were related to Goliath! Three of these giants were Goliath’s actual children; one, was Goliath’s brother (See 1 Chr 20.). So, after defeating a giant once, David suddenly had to face another giant.
Get this point: Goliath had a brother that looked like him. We can imagine that the giant talked like Goliath, fought like him, and probably even smelled like him. Other than saying David was weary, the Bible is silent as to what might have been going through the king’s mind. Perhaps he wondered, “I thought I killed you. What are you doing back?” But, Goliath hadn’t come back. It was the giant’s brother and children that returned; it just looked like the same battle! The truth was, Goliath was dead.
Likewise, you also have had many successful victories.
JUST BECAUSE THE CURRENT GIANT YOU ARE FACING LOOKS LIKE ONE YOU DEFEATED IN THE PAST, DON’T BUY THE LIE THAT YOU NEVER REALLY WON THE FIRST BATTLE!
By the strength of God’s grace, you trusted the Almighty and conquered your Goliath. The first giant is dead. Satan is masquerading as your former enemy so he can slip past your faith and regain entrance into your life. Resist him. Stand in faith (Eph 6). Don’t accept the lie that you were never delivered. The victory that overcomes the world is our faith (1 John 5:4). The Living God who helped you conquer Goliath will empower you to overcome his brother as well.
Father,
I bring to You Your servants. Lord, some have fought battles that seem to have reoccurred. Like David, they have become weary with fighting this enemy. By the power of Your Holy Spirit, I expose the lie that they had not previously conquered this enemy. In Jesus’ name, I rebuke the enemy. I ask You Lord to send angels to strengthen supernaturally Your people, just as angels often strengthened Jesus. In the name of the Lord.
Amen!
