Running with the Spirit of the Lord
A couple of years ago, I received a prophetic word from the Lord by a brother in Christ from India. Without going into the details of what he said, I will tell you that he was very accurate about past and present events in my life, and future events confirmed other prophetic words given to me in the past, as well as the Holy Spirit's direct guidance during times I have spent with Him in prayer. I will share one thing this brother told me, though, because it is relevant to this message. He began quoting Isaiah 40:31, telling me that there would come a time when I would run and not be weary, and I would have supernatural energy from the Lord for what He was calling me to do.
He did not know that I have a tattoo on the back of my right shoulder of an eagle with the scriptural reference of Isaiah 40:31: “Yet those who wait for the LORD Will gain new strength; They will mount up with wings like eagles, They will run and not get tired, They will walk and not become weary.” He also did not know that I had received that tattoo many years ago when I was a young Navy SEAL, running from the Lord. In fact, he knew nothing about me at all as we stood there, facing one another. Moving to my right side, he placed his right hand directly over the tattoo under my shirt and began quoting this scripture to me. This was the Lord’s way of telling me to pay attention and listen to everything this brother was going to say to me because it was from Him.
I have always been athletic, and during my life, I have spent countless hours running competitively while maintaining a very high level of fitness. About five years ago, however, I had an accident that required surgery to repair my cervical spine. Since the surgery, I have struggled to regain the level of athleticism I have been blessed with for most of my life, and at 57, I have even found it a challenge to recover or maintain any respectable level of fitness that one might expect from someone who once served as a Navy SEAL. As a youth, I have even competed at the highest levels in sport as a Division I college athlete. I do not say these things to brag but rather to make a point. When I received this prophetic word from the Lord about running and not being weary, I had my doubts.
Initially, I believed he must have only been speaking about my spirit. Still, I decided to go to the Lord with my doubt and asked Him to increase my belief and trust in Him, believing that this would not be possible by my own strength or power, but would require an act of God. Over the next couple of years, I decided to focus on my spiritual growth and my relationship with Christ, wait on Him to do this physical thing in me, and spend time seeking and pursuing Him for the Father’s will and timing in my life. I still tried to stay somewhat physically active, but my primary focus was on the growth of my spirit. It was during this time of seeking God that the Lord spoke to me.
One day, while I was in prayer, I clearly heard Him in my spirit share something that clarified His plan for me regarding the prophetic word this Indian brother had given me. He told me the word was a timely picture of His plan for my future, but not the plan itself. If these words were only a picture or snapshot in time, was He asking me to participate in bringing them into fruition, or was He asking me to wait for Him to carry me into this place on His own? He told me, “I want you to run into where I have called you.”
A friend of mine recently asked me if I would be interested in training with him for an ultramarathon scheduled sometime next year. The person I once was would have taken up the challenge in a heartbeat, but since giving my life to the Lord, I have come to think of these types of things as mostly a waste of time. I had this thought, though, that maybe the Lord wanted me to spend some time with this friend, so I agreed to give it the old college try and see what might happen. With a step of faith, like Abraham, I began running.
Amazingly, after I took that first step, the Lord began to show me that there was more to this journey than simply recovering my lost athleticism. I started to realize the Lord might be asking me to resume my physical training because He wanted me to join Him on this journey described in Isaiah 40:31, rather than sitting idly by waiting for Him to do everything for me. He wanted me to physically run into the picture He had shown my Indian brother and to expect Him to meet me there, and He was giving me the strength and energy to do it.
The prophetic word had much more to do with spiritual growth than with the flesh; however, I believe that the picture was of a time when God would move in my spirit in a way that only He could. This time, it was not only about getting in shape or regaining my competitive physique. This time, I was running to the place where the Lord was calling me, to a position or place in time and space where He would do wondrous things in my life. The Lord began to use this time with Him to speak to me and to share mysteries about His plans and where they would ultimately take us.
One day, as I was out running with the Lord, He shared with me something about His relationship with King David to help me better understand His relationship with me. He also showed me how this revelation might be heard and understood by others whom He has similarly called. Over the past few years, the Lord has been showing me things about King David’s life and how His calling on him as the anointed King of Israel might be relevant for those who are currently walking under His anointing but haven’t yet been placed in their positions of authority. It is to this end that I share with you what the Lord showed me.
The story of King David can be found in 1 and 2 Samuel in the Old Testament of the Bible. God decided to anoint David as the next King of Israel because King Saul had chosen to listen to and obey the people rather than God. The scripture describes David as a man after God’s own heart, and God was looking for such a man to rule over Israel. The prophet Samuel anointed David as the next king, but it was not publicly announced. Only Samuel and David’s immediate family knew of his upcoming coronation. Still, the scripture says in 1 Samuel 16:13-14 that the Spirit of the Lord came upon David mightily and that He was with David from that moment onward. It also says that at the same time, the Spirit of the Lord left Saul, the anointed king, and an evil spirit began to terrorize him.
The scripture says that David was a lowly shepherd when he was anointed, but it also says that he was a skilled musician, a man of valor, and the Lord was with him. When the evil spirit attacked King Saul, David would come from the fields where he was shepherding his father’s sheep to play his harp for King Saul, bringing him peace. David would then return to the fields until he was summoned again by King Saul. During this period of David’s life, the scripture says that King Saul loved him greatly and instructed David’s father, Jesse, to allow David to come to him whenever he called. David was the anointed king, but God had not yet placed him in a position of authority. He was teaching David humility while he learned to wait and trust in God.
David was not just sitting idly by while waiting to become king, however. God was teaching him how to run with the Spirit of the Lord. He killed a lion and a bear by the Spirit of the Lord, fought evil spirits with divine worship as a skilled musician while ministering to King Saul, and spent countless hours in prayer with the Lord, learning how to hear and listen to His voice. He was learning to serve and walk in humility as he shepherded his father’s sheep, protecting them and caring for their needs. This learning process continued until the Philistine army attacked Israel, and God called David up once again to run with Him as a man of valor.
If you do not know the story about David and Goliath, you can read about it in 1 Samuel 17. David’s father, Jesse, called David in from the fields so that he could bring food to his brothers who were in the battle. The scripture says that David ran to his brother’s camp, and when he arrived, he heard Goliath defying Israel and taunting the armies of the living God. Goliath was a giant of a man who stood nearly ten feet tall, and every man of Israel was terrified of him.
The Spirit of the Lord stirred within David, overwhelming him with righteous anger. With supernatural courage, he offered himself to be used by God as a champion for Israel to defeat this blaspheming giant and evil spirit, as he had done with the lion and the bear. God had been preparing David for this exact moment in time while tending to his father’s sheep in the fields. He had learned to trust and run with the Spirit of the Lord in humility. We can see this evidence when he chose to give God glory for his victory over those animal predators rather than claiming it for himself, and he acknowledged that God would be the one to deliver this giant Philistine to him in the same way.
King Saul spoke with David and told him that he would not be able to conquer Goliath because David was but a youth, and Goliath had been a skilled warrior since his youth. After David told King Saul about the lion and the bear, King Saul agreed to let David fight Goliath, but as David left to fight Goliath, King Saul did something very odd. He turned to his number one general and counselor, Abner, and asked, “Whose son is this young man?” Abner responded even more oddly by saying, “By your life, O king, I do not know.” When I read this the other day, I gave King Saul the benefit of the doubt for not remembering or recognizing David or his father’s name, because evil spirits so often plagued his mind. Still, I wondered, why did Abner not know who David was and who his father was?
Remember, 1 Samuel 16:21-22 says, “Then David came to Saul and attended him; and Saul loved him greatly, and he became his armor bearer.” Saul sent to Jesse saying, “Let David now stand before me, for he has found favor in my sight.” King Saul might have been experiencing a moment of memory loss due to the evil spirits, but Abner must have investigated David in the past so that David could enter the chambers of the King of Israel when he played his harp for him. If King Saul loved David so greatly and knew his father well enough to send a message to him, he probably should have known the answer to his own question. Abner, however, should have known the answer because it was his job to know such things as the king’s number one general and counselor. Why then did they not know?
The scripture speaks of only one person who seemed to recognize David when he arrived at the battle, and that was David’s older brother, Eliab. Eliab became angry when he heard David asking about Goliath and made a comment intended to humiliate David. Why would he make fun of his younger brother, who was simply there to hear about their well-being and bring them food to eat?
It is quite possible that Eliab was jealous of David’s anointing, having been rejected himself by God earlier when Samuel came to his family to anoint a new king. It says in 1 Samuel 16:7 regarding Eliab, “But the Lord said to Samuel, 'Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for God sees not as a man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.’” Eliab was the oldest son and must have felt slighted when his younger brother was anointed king over him. He probably thought that by bullying David, he might make him leave and return home.
Eliab might not have appreciated Samuel’s news about David’s anointing, but this does not mean that he didn’t believe it would happen. He might have thought this was the moment when David would be made king, and Eliab was not ready for it. Regardless of the reason for his unloving behavior, Eliab was the only person who seemed to recognize David when he arrived on the scene. Therefore, it makes sense that he might have been the only one who knew that David had slain Goliath, or at least until David told Abner who he was. Not even King Saul, who loved David greatly and had made David his personal armor bearer, knew exactly who this “young man” was. Again, how could this be possible?
In our last posting, “Spiritual Warfare,” we addressed the difference between concealment and cover and how they relate to warring in the spirit. We looked at different ways of praying to God to hide us from our enemies. We can see how God might have concealed David from the eyes of those who were not meant to know who he was before he stepped out onto that battlefield. David was the anointed king of Israel, but God was not yet ready to place him in that position of authority. He kept his kingly anointing hidden, even after he killed Goliath.
God wanted to use David for His glory while teaching those around him a lesson. What lesson, you might ask? The lesson that God looks at the heart of a man and not their outward appearance. Both Eliab and King Saul might have appeared to others to be better choices for king, but God wanted Israel to know that He was looking for a humble heart who loved Him and would obey Him no matter the cost. Every soldier on that battlefield might have had more experience in war than David, but David had more experience running with the Spirit of the Lord.
When King Saul learned that David, Jesse’s son, had slain Goliath, the scripture says that he took David and did not let him return to his father. It also says that Jonathon, King Saul’s firstborn son, learning that it was David, became knit to him and loved him as himself. Were they attracted to David or to the Spirit of the Lord and the anointing that was on him? King Saul could see that God was with David because David prospered everywhere Saul sent him. He must have recognized the Spirit of the Lord on David because it once rested on him as well. He even set him over his men of valor, a most honored position, but when David began to win over the hearts of the people, King Saul became jealous and looked upon David with suspicion. Saul knew that God had rejected him, but he didn’t begin to mistrust David until Saul lost the people's respect.
King Saul allowed this jealousy to open the door for an evil spirit to mightily overwhelm him, leading him to try to kill David on multiple occasions, but God always made a way of escape for David. We are told that King Saul began to fear David because the Lord had joined Himself to David and had left Saul. Saul must have realized that there was no longer any hope of retaining his authority as the king of Israel. He might have even realized that his firstborn son, Jonathon, had no way to the throne. What we know is that he thought he could control the situation by having David killed, but God had other plans.
God continued to protect David, but He was still not ready to place him in the position of authority as king. He even used Saul’s own son, Jonathon, who had formed a bond of brotherhood with David, to guard David’s life from his enemies. Jonathon was the apparent heir to the throne in the eyes of man, but Jonathon must have seen with his spiritual eyes that God was with David and that His anointing rested on David as king, not him. Unlike his father Saul, Jonathon recognized God’s presence in David’s life as a sign of God’s plan for him and was willing to support David as a brother rather than be jealous of his anointing.
There is much more to this story than we have time to cover at this time, but when God decided to place David into the fullness of his anointing, it was not by David’s hand. David had a chance to take Saul’s life but refused because he knew that it was neither God’s time nor God's way of placing David on the throne. Instead, David was willing to support Saul as king to the extent that Saul was willing to allow it. King Saul eventually took his own life, opening a door for David to stand in the place of authority that God had planned for him. Jonathon was also killed in the same battle as his father, King Saul, and upon their two deaths, David took the throne. God had shown mercy to King Saul and his family by not placing David on the throne until David was ready. God gave every opportunity for Saul to repent of his evil heart, but Saul chose his own path rather than God’s.
How does this all tie together with the idea of running with the Lord according to His plans and purposes for our lives? What can we take from this story and apply to our own lives if we find ourselves anointed by God but not yet serving in the position of authority that our anointing might carry? What should we do when jealous men despise us or make fun of us because of God’s blessing on our lives? Not everyone is called into precisely the same service for the Lord, and we all bring different anointings and mantels into the battle. We should focus on our own relationship with God until He chooses to call us up for our next mission.
We all have different giftings to build up and edify the Body of Christ until we all come into the fullness of Christ Jesus, as it says in Ephesians 4:13, “And He gave some as apostles, some as prophets, some as evangelists, some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of the ministry, for the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.” The question is, what are we going to do with those anointings and giftings? Are we going to sit back and expect God to do everything, or are we going to partner with Him and meet Him in the moment on the battlefield when He calls us?
God called Abraham to leave his home and family and sojourn in a foreign land, where God would meet him and show him a picture of the fulfillment of His promise as the father of Israel. Abraham would have to physically move to this place because God would not supernaturally transport him there. God wanted to see Abraham’s obedience to His command. He told Abraham what He would do for him in the future, but He did not tell him exactly where or how. He showed Abraham a picture or snapshot in time and asked Abraham to walk into it.
There are many other examples in the scripture where God asked someone to move into their calling or to a future that would occur if the person obeyed and walked into it. The Spirit of God drove Jesus into the wilderness to face His enemy as He did David. The Spirit of the Lord sent the apostle Paul to meet a man after Paul had been blinded on the road to Damascus. God sent Moses back into Egypt to participate in the deliverance of the children of Israel from their captivity of slavery. The list goes on and on. God kept Jesus concealed from the enemy, as David was, for thirty years before He uttered those well-known words at Christ’s baptism in Matthew 3:17; “This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” When the Father was ready, He revealed the Son to the world so that He might walk in the full anointing of His calling.
Many of us have promises we have received from the Lord in the form of prophetic words, dreams, or visions. Often, they are simply snapshots in time or pictures of what the Lord wants us to see in the moment. He might give us a direction where He wants us to go, with a promise to fulfill His promise when we get there. Our part is to obey what He tells us and trust in Him to meet us there. He is always with us and will never forsake us, but the fullness of the reward of that promise is waiting for us in a moment in time and space that He has ordained, where He expects us to be to receive it from Him.
We might also find ourselves arriving at our destination, only to be told to sit and wait or perhaps to run around in circles. When the children of Israel first arrived at the Jordan River on their way to the Promised Land, they refused to cross over into God’s promise because of fear, so God allowed the promise to be given to their children instead. When those children matured, they crossed over into the land God had promised them, but God told them He expected more from them if they wanted to receive the fulfillment of His promise. They were told to silently circle the city of Jericho every day for a week. Because they obeyed His commands exactly as He ordered them, the breakthrough they were expecting fell upon them with a mighty crashing sound. This also happened in the New Testament in the Book of Acts.
Before Jesus ascended to heaven after His resurrection, He told His disciples that He would send the Holy Spirit to join them if they obeyed Him and stayed in Jerusalem. He had spoken to them over the years of a moment in time when they would walk in His power and authority. He painted a picture in their minds, describing what it would look like, so they would know when they had walked into this moment to receive His promise. In John 14:12, Jesus told them, “Truly, truly I say to you, the one who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I am going to the Father.” He also told them in Mark 16:15-18, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. The one who has believed and has been baptized will be saved; but the one who has not believed will be condemned. These signs will accompany those who have believed: in My name they will cast out demons, they will speak with new tongues; they will pick up serpents, and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not harm them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”
Jesus wanted them to “go” into all the world and run with Him into His promise, but to receive the promise of the Holy Spirit in this specific window in time, He wanted them to “wait.” They obeyed the Lord and stayed in Jerusalem, waiting for Him to meet them, but they did not simply wait for the Lord to do everything for them. They ran in circles in prayer and worship while they waited. They circled their Jericho. When the walls finally fell, they received the promise of the Holy Spirit, and they went out into all the world, sharing His gospel while running with the Spirit of the Lord, fulfilling the promises that He had made to them.
I hear many people say it is impossible to know everything God has planned for us or His perfect will for us. Jesus even told His disciples in Acts 1:7-8, “It is not for you to know periods of time or appointed times which the Father has set by His own authority; but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and Samaria, and as far as the remotest part of the earth.” However, this was in response to a question they had asked Him about what His plans were for Himself. Jesus was telling them that they only needed to concern themselves with what God was doing with them personally. He was telling them not to worry themselves about the greater plans of God the Father because He would take care of those things in His time and in His way.
When we try to concern ourselves with God’s bigger picture, we can miss the snapshot in time where we are supposed to be when He moves by His Spirit in us. We are not God. We are His children, and as children, we are to listen to His voice and “go” to where He is calling us. We must not try to manipulate or control what is happening because we do not have the power or authority outside what God has given us. We should also not expect the Lord to do everything for us, because He is asking us to run with Him. The scripture says that we are coworkers with Christ, and in John 9:4, Jesus says, “We must carry out the works of Him who sent Me as long as it is day; night is coming, when no one can work.”
He is also not calling us to run out of our lanes, however. He is telling us to do only the works the Father has assigned to us personally, because all other work will be burned away. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 3:12-14, “Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, or straw, each one’s work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each one’s work. If anyone’s work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss.” Ultimately, the only work that will stand in the end is the work the Father has willed for us. This is why He shows us pictures in our thoughts and spirit of where we are to run with Him, so we can run according to His will and be aligned with His promises for us.
God wants us to run with Him and meet Him at specific times and places that He has ordained for us, so He can move in us and do His works through us as needed to fulfill His greater plans and purposes in the earth. We should run into those times and places with the Spirit of the Lord who lives in us and goes before us and after us. Jesus said that He is always with us because He lives in those who love Him and obey His word. We should not sit idly by waiting for God to do everything for us, but we should also not try to use our own might or power to do anything. We must trust in the Spirit of the Lord to guide us and be patient with Him as He fulfills His promises in us.
Not everyone will be asked by the Lord to physically run to where He is calling us, but He might ask us to run to our knees in prayer or to spend time fasting with Him. He might ask us to run circles around our Jericho until He causes the walls to fall. What might that look like? Maybe God, through a prophetic word or dream, has painted for us a picture of a time when a lost relationship will be restored, or of a new relationship that will begin with someone else. This might require us to make ourselves more physically available to those whom God has brought into our lives. Rather than only waiting for them to come to us, perhaps we are to take the Lord’s love to them.
Whatever God is showing us, there is always a way for us to actively participate in the process of arriving at that specific moment in time and space where God wants to meet us with His power. We must step up to the call when He asks us to kill our lions or bears, if we desire Him to call us up when it is time to take down a giant. We must run with Him by actively participating in the journey when He calls us if we ever want to reach that place where He can position us in the power and authority that He has waiting for us. We should not worry about what men think of us. Instead, we should focus on our relationship with God, seek His heart, and strive to please Him alone. He will remove any obstacles that stand in the way of His plans for us, but only when it is in His time. He only wants us to ready ourselves to meet Him there. God will keep us concealed in Him if we run with Him according to His perfect will for us, until the time when He desires to use us in a public way.
We must not forget that all victory belongs to the Lord. It is not by our own strength or power that we will win the battle, but by His Spirit, says the Lord. We must move into a position of humility, both physically and spiritually, if we want to be used by our Father as He used David or even His own Son, Jesus. If people despise or make fun of us, we should focus on our relationship with God and His calling on our lives, pray for them, and love them. Jesus said we are to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us for His name's sake, realizing that God will make the time and the way for us to be placed in our position of authority as He sees fit. We should not try to rush the Lord. We must obediently get up and run with Him to the picture of time and space where the Father has called us, so that God can meet us there and fulfill His promises to us.
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