JUNE 02

How to Defeat the Giants!

With Your Faith!

By Riqui Ricon*

And David spoke to the men that stood by him, saying, What shall be done to the man that kills
this Philistine, and takes away the reproach from Israel? for who is this uncircumcised Philistine,
that he should defy the armies of the living God? (1 Samuel 17:26 KJ2000)

When God instructed Samuel to anoint David as king of Israel, He said to him, “I have found David
the son of Jesse, a man after my own heart, who shall fulfill all my will” (Acts 13:22 KJ2000).

Having a heart that conforms to God’s own heart and obeying His Word are the most distinctive
characteristics of God’s Born-Again Children. Indeed, these traits are the essence of what it
means to have been made Anew.

And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within them; and I will take the stony
heart out of their flesh, and will give them a heart of flesh. (Ezekiel 11:19 KJ2000)

Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation: old things are passed away; behold, all
things are become new. (2 Corinthians 5:17 KJ2000)

The interesting thing here is to understand that you—yes, you—also have that same attribute.
The only thing we need to know is that “without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that
comes to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek
him” (Hebrews 11:6 KJ2000).

The simple fact that you are reading this devotional is irrefutable proof that you have faith (or
that you are seeking it).

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. (Hebrews
11:1 KJ2000)

The simplest way I’ve found to explain this verse is this: faith is to believe God by believing His
Word. For, if God said it, He will keep to it; if He spoke it, He will execute it.

God is not a man, so he does not lie. He is not human, so he does not change his mind. Has he
ever spoken and failed to act? Has he ever promised and not carried it through? Listen, I
received a command to bless; God has blessed, and I cannot reverse it! (Numbers 23:19–20 NLT)
David did not defeat Goliath with sling and stone. He won the battle against him with his faith in
God, by declaring to all the people of Israel—including King Saul himself—that Goliath was an
uncircumcised heathen. ¿What was David implying with that statement? He was establishing
his victory: That swaggering giant doesn’t have a covenant with God; but I do! David’s
experience confronting lions and bears wasn’t what gave him courage.

In fact, what allowed him to confront lions and bears was the knowledge of his covenant with
God, his awareness of the fact that God always keeps His Word.

When Goliath followed his tactics of fear by insulting David on account of his gods, David did
not feel frightened. Neither did he pay any attention to the insults that Goliath showered him
with, or to the giant’s height and musculature. Instead, David was strengthened in the Lord and
in the power of His strength, as he set his eyes, his mind, and his heart in God’s Word. David
made haste and ran to the line of battle against the Philistine, declaring in an audible voice: You
come to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield: but I come to you in the name of
the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day will the
LORD deliver you into my hand; and I will strike you, and take your head from you; and I will
give the carcasses of the host of the Philistines this day unto the fowls of the air, and to the wild
beasts of the earth; that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. And all this
assembly shall know that the LORD saves not with sword and spear: for the battle is the LORD'S,
and he will give you into our hands. (1 Samuel 17:45–47 KJ2000)

Do you realize what this means? David did not defeat Goliath with sling and stone. He won the
battle against him with his faith and by keeping the Word of God in his mouth.

Those were the precise instructions that God gave Joshua, so he could enter and take
possession of the promised land.

This book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth; but you shall meditate therein day and
night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then you shall
make your way prosperous, and then you shall have good success. (Joshua 1:8 KJ2000)

Today, God is telling you the same thing: make the Bible the highest norm of your existence. Keep
it in your mind, and in your mouth, and in your heart, because THEN (neither before, nor after,
nor in any other way), you will make your path prosperous and you will have good success.

Like Joshua and David, you can confront your giants with the certainty that you will defeat them
simply because God said so in His Word.

Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. (Romans
8:37 KJ2000)

How could this not be true, if the Love God feels for you is so great that He chose to give His
own Son to pay for all your sins rather than lose you?
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him
should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn
the world; but that the world through him might be saved. (John 3:16–17 KJ2000)

How could this not be true, if, according to God’s Word, He did it expressly to justify and forgive
you, and, in so doing, establish you as His own Child?

For you have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but you have received the Spirit of
adoption, by which we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit, that
we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint - heirs with Christ.
(Romans 8:15–17 KJ2000)

God has not left you, nor will he ever leave you. You are more special to God than even David
was, because, through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, you are now a rightful
beneficiary of the New Covenant in the Blood of Jesus: none other than one of God’s
Born-Again Children.

And since it was not without an oath he was made priest [. . .] by so much was Jesus made a
surety of a better covenant. (Hebrews 7:20–22 KJ2000)

But now has he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a
better covenant, which was established upon better promises. (Hebrews 8:6 KJ2000)

This, the New Covenant, is a better covenant—one established upon better promises. It has a
guarantor and a guarantee.

In [Christ] you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in
whom also after you believed, you were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, Who is the
guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise
of his glory. (Ephesians 1:13–14 KJ2000)

In the New Covenant, Christ Jesus himself is your guarantor, and the Holy Spirit is your guarantee!

What shall we then say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He that spared
not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all
things? (Romans 8:31–32 KJ2000)

No matter what challenges you may be facing at the present time, you need no sling or stone.
The only thing you need is to know, AND BELIEVE, that God loves you and that He has pledged
His Word through the New Covenant in the Blood of His Son, Jesus. He did this to make of you a
new creature, one of God’s Born-Again Children.

Receive this gift through faith, by believing that this is so merely because it is written in God’s
Word. He has spoken this, about you, and He will keep to it; He has said this, regarding you, and
He will execute it. God does not lie. Now you have Christ Jesus as your guarantor and the
glorious Spirit of God as your guarantee. There's no way you can lose!
Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, says the LORD of hosts. (Zechariah 4:6 KJ2000)

Let’s pray in an audible voice:

Dear Heavenly Father, today, I want to tell you that, no matter what may be going on around
me, I will praise and worship You, because now I know what you have done for me and within
me. Thank you, Lord Jesus, because You are God, and yet, You did not deem recognition of your
divinity as something to cling onto with relentless determination. Instead, You relinquished
Yourself to take the form of a servant, to be made in human likeness, and, having assumed the
human condition, to humble and make Yourself obedient until death—even death on the cross.
All for Your love of me, to make me one of God’s Born-Again Children. Thank You for Your
Blood! With it You washed away all my sins. Thank You for Your resurrection! With it You
defeated death and gave me Eternal Life. Thank You for the New Covenant! I am a Child of God!

Blessed Holy Spirit, what can I say to You? That I love you. That I adore You and that every day I
need you more and more. You are my friend, my counselor, and my helper. Thank You for being
our Father’s promise—the promise that Jesus said would come upon me. Holy Spirit, You are
my guarantee, the pledge of my inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession.
There's no way I can lose! In all things God works for my good! I, _______________ (your name
here), have been called according to the purpose of God, my Father. He predestined me to be
made in the image of His Son, so Jesus would become my older brother. God the Holy Spirit is in
me and with me.

Jesus, what can I say to all of this? If You are for me, who can be against me? Heavenly Father, if
You did not spare even Your own Son, but instead gave Him up for Your love of me, how will
You not also with Him give me all things? If I am chosen by God, who will accuse me? God is the
one who justifies me. Who will condemn me? Christ is the one who died for me. More than
that, He is the one who resurrected for me, the one who is at the right hand of God, the one
who also intercedes for me. Who will separate me from Christ's love? Tribulation, or angst, or
persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written: For your sake I face
death all day long; I am accounted as sheep to be slaughtered. However, I believe and declare
that, rather, in all these things, I, _______________ (your name here) am more than conqueror
through Him who loved me.

Because of this, I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor
powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all
creation, will be able to separate me from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus, my Lord and
Savior. So, Satan, you come against me with problems, diseases, and afflictions; but I come
against you in the name of Jesus, the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you
have defied. God, my Father, will deliver you into my hands, and I will strike you down and cut
your head off. I’m healthy! I’m free! I’m prosperous! I’m joyful! In the name of Jesus. Amen.

Important Note:

How do I become one of God’s Children? How do I establish a relationship with the Almighty?
Just say the following prayer in an audible voice, with all your heart and undivided attention,
and fully aware of what you are saying to God:

Lord Jesus, I believe You are the Son of God. I believe that You came to this world, born of the
Virgin Mary, to pay for all my sins—and I have been a sinner. That is why today I tell You that I
do accept. I do accept Your sacrifice on the cross! I do accept Your Precious Blood, shed to the
last drop for Your love of me! I open up my heart to You, and I invite You to come in because,
Lord Jesus, from today and forever more, I want You to be my one and only Savior, my God, my
King, and my Lord. Thank You, God Almighty, for, with this simple prayer and profession of
faith, I have passed over from death into Life. I have been taken out of the realm of darkness
and moved into Your admirable Light. Today I’ve been Born Again! God, now I Am Your Child!
Now You are my Father! Never again will I be alone! Never again will I live in defeat. In the
name of Jesus. Amen.

* © 2011 Ricardo C. Peredo Jaime

Reading and Meditation of God’s Word

Do these daily readings and, by the end of a year, you will have read the entire Bible.

June 2 Romans 8 / 1 Samuel 17 / Psalm 62