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. Then David and the people who were with him lifted up their voices and wept, until they had no more power to weep. And David’s two wives, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and Abigail the widow of Nabal the Carmelite, had been taken captive. Now David was greatly distressed, for the people spoke of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was
[a] grieved, every man for his sons and his daughters. But David strengthened himself in the LORD his God. 1 Samuel 30:3-6
Being anointed and called by God does not come with guaranteed life of no problems or setbacks. In some ways, being anointed will put a bull’s eye on you and cause you to face battles the everyday person does not have to fight. David was anointed as King over Israel, then sent back to tend to his father’s sheep. The anointing on his worship was recognized by one of Saul’s men and he was invited to play for Saul when the distressing spirit came upon him. Then David killed Goliath and was promised Saul’s daughter for a wife, and Saul gave her to another man. David finally gets to marry Saul’s younger daughter and is recognized as part of the King’s family until Saul became jealous of David’s anointing and he tried to kill him. Many scholars believe David hid in the wilderness and ran from Saul for about seven years. Just before Saul died in battle with the Philistines, David had tried to side with the Philistines for safety. Achish, one of the princes of the philistines, refused to allow David to fight with them and he told David to go home. David and his 600 men travel three day to Ziklag, ready to spend some time with their families and get some rest. As they get closer to home, the are not greeted by their wives and children, instead they come home to the whole city burned and the women and children were all missing. Can you imagine the grief that struck the tired warriors as they realized their families were gone and everything they had built was destroyed? The Amplified Bible said David and his men raised their voices and wept until they were too exhausted to weep anymore. People who are grieving will often become angry and try to find someone to blame for their loss. David’s men who followed him with great loyalty were embittered and began to blame David, and decided to stone him. Wouldn’t the modern church have a heyday with this? Some would say” He must have sinned.” “He was not really called of God or this would not have happened.” The truth of the matter is that David was busy doing life, trying to avoid Saul and to provide for his family and the 600 men who joined up with him. While David was fighting battles elsewhere, the enemy swooped in and took his two wives, children and all that he had. Mark 3:27 “
No one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man. And then he will plunder his house.” One of the ways the enemy binds the strong man is to distract them or keep them to busy to see what is going on in their homes.
I believe the Church is the strongman for the nation. Jesus asked in Matthew 16 who do the disciples thing He was, and Peter said, “You are the Christ, the son of the living God.” Jesus then told Peter, “and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.” Since Satan cannot defeat the church, he keeps her distracted and renders the church ineffective. I have lived a very sheltered life, and I am amazed at how our nation and culture have seemed to change almost overnight. From defunding the police, BLM and the transgender parades in our American schools, it feels like the light was turned off and all the bugs came crawling out of the wood work. Even though it appears to have happened almost overnight, the enemy has been planning the demise of our Godly foundation and the fall of our nation. The attack started in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. The health of a nation or civilization is based on seven pillars or mountains. For a movement to subdue and control a culture, there are seven areas that must be conquered. The seven mountains are: family, religion, education, media, entertainment, business and government. The divorce rate in 1960’w was 2.2 out of 1000, and the divorce rate today in first-time marriages is 41%. The government is trying to take parental control away from the parents and allowing schools to push transgenderism and even set up appointments for children to have sex changes. The family has definitely been subdued and the culture of the family has changed dramatically in the last 50 years. The family is so broken, that people in the church even sacrifice their children on the altar of abortion. The Judeo-Christian values our nation was founded on has been taken out of many churches. From the seeker friendly movement that has watered down the gospel, taking the Holy Spirit out of the sanctuary and restricting Him to a side room, to the latest blending of Islam and Christianity called Chrislam, that many churches have embraced and teaching that Jesus is not the only way to heaven. Pastors have been bullied into being politically correct and have are afraid to preach the pure unadulterated word of God. The church refuses to stand up to the “Woke” doctrine. Education has also been affected, in the late 1960’s, prayer and Bible reading was a regular part of a child’s daily educational experience. The colleges focused on changing the mindset of the future educators and in 50 years, the learning and standard of excellence has declined so much that they have had to rewrite the ACT and SAT test so the college bound students could pass them. Communism claims it takes three generations to change the complete culture of a nation. I believe we are seeing this in the mainstream education. I have a teaching degree and I know many teachers in our community that love God and are fighting to teach Godly values to their students, and they are diligently working to educate their students. The liberal school boards and universities around our nation have opened a door for the enemy to take over our most precious resource, our children. In the 1980’s there over 300 independent tv stations and now there are only 30. Thirtythree percent of the newspaper in the USA are owned by 25 companies. If you watch the news, you should notice that every news program covers the same stories with the same narrative. The social media has been proven to interfering with the 2020 elections. Elon Musk has released Twitter documents stating the FBI told them what they could allow to be shared on their platform, and the President of the United States of America was banned from using it. Entertainment is a mess. We have two granddaughters and there are only a handful of programs they are allowed to watch. Children’s cartoons are full of witchcraft, rebellion and racism. I do not understand the Christians parents who thinks the Harry Potter books are appropriate reading for their children they dedicated to God. Harry Potter is full of actual spells and cantations from the occult. When I taught school 28 years ago, we could not assign homework on Wednesdays because they students went to church. When our children played little league and other sports, the coaches respected Sundays and Wednesday as church time and now if a teenager plays sports, they travel all over the state and play every available minute the leagues can find including Sunday mornings. Many big businesses have bought into the “woke” doctrine, they are punishing people who have conservative values. Several of the mobile phone companies have used censorship. People were forced to take a jab that has not been thoroughly tested to keep their jobs. The businesses that are trying to offer services to people are being robbed blind by shoplifters and the law enforcement agencies have their hands tied. The DA’s are not prosecuting the thieves. In fact, they ae releasing violent offenders from prison that are already convicted. Our government no longer abides by our constitution. They looking for opportunities to restrict our God given rights, from free speech of the conservatives to gun control laws. One party’s platform and message for elections is abortion. The campaigns in the midterm elections were centered on abortion for many of their candidates. The other party has been complacent in the atrocious laws that are being passed by not standing up and fighting for our freedoms. Some of them even sponsored the latest gun control laws. Our money is being “taxed” and is used in wealth redistribution. The government sends billions of dollars over seas that we are borrowing from Chine with interest. We are transporting, housing, and feeding people who are coming into our country illegally. while we have Veterans, who are homeless and cannot get the medical attention they need. Many of those who serve as elected federal offices, make $174,000 a year, yet come out of office as billionaires. Can you see how the One World Government, the World Economic Forum, who shakes their fist at God has systematically taken over our nation in the last fifty years? The WEF, is trying to push in the reign of the antichrist before the church has left. When I was taught about Bible prophecy, the teachers always said the United States is not included in end time prophecy. Bible Prophecy is not one of my strengths, but this makes since why the USA is not in the end time prophecies. After the church is raptured, our nation as we know it will one day be destroyed and the people will be forced to take the mark of the beast and pledge allegiance to the antichrist or be killed.
God is trying to wake the church up. We have been busy and preoccupied with trying to make a living and having church that we have not seen the devastation that is going on around us. I was like that until about three years ago, I did not watch the news or keep up with that is going on in my world. I believe we are like David in 1 Samuel 30, and we are realizing what has all been taken by the enemy. The faithful men and women are God are frightened and looking for someone to blame for the problems. Like David’s men, too many ministries are busy attacking each other instead of fighting the devil. As a church we must remember where our strength comes from. David did not concern himself with what people said, he understood the most important voice he had to hear was the voice of God. In spite of his loss and the hopelessness of the situation, the bible says, “David strengthened himself in the Lord his god.” That statement says it all, David had a vibrant relationship with the Lord his God. David had learned as a child to talk to God and to worship. David inquired of the Lord, “Shall I pursue this troop? Shall I over take them?” The Lord answered, “Pursue, for you shall overtake them and without fail recover all.” So, David went. God has told us over and over in His Word to be courageous and do not fear. He has promised over and over that He will never leave us. I believe it is time that every Christian to ask God where they are to fight in this battle. No, we are not fighting with guns and spears, but fighting on our knees in the Spirit. I believe it is time that we take back the seven mountains. Perhaps you have been in education, you have insight on what needs to be changed in our local, state, and federal education policies. Ask God to give you strategies to make war and take back our education. I heard a preacher say recently, “If the church did their job, we would not need private schools.” I agree, the church and its pastors have to get their head out of the sand and start preaching the unadulterated word of God and teach their congregations how to take a stand and take back these mountains. Money still talks, stop doing business with companies that promote this godless propaganda. Stop allowing entertainment to have more importance than being in the house of God. Disney is suffering financially and starting to rewrite some of their policies (their programs are still evil) because people chose to quit paying for their nonsense. You were born at this season and given talents, abilities and have experiences that God can use to fight in the battle we are in. God does not lose! He is victorious and He wants us to walk in that victory with Him. We are living a period of grace! It is not time yet for the rapture, the gospel still has to go around the world, and we are going to see a great end time harvest. Will you encourage yourself in the Lord your God and go and recover what the enemy has stolen?
Cathy Nesmith