Surely, Lord, you bless the righteous; you surround them with your favor as with a shield. – (Psalm 5:12)

Every one of you reading this wants to have favor.  We want to have favor with our spouses, our children, our grandchildren, we want to have favor on the job, with friends and even our neighbors.  We just need favor!  So, what can get us into the favor of God, favor with people, favor with relatives, and favor with our neighbors?

When I looked at Jesus’ life and how He grew in wisdom and favor with God and man, I noticed it came after he submitted to his parents.  Had you ever seen it that way?  I hadn’t either!  But you know how you read the Bible and you think, “Where did that come from?  I never saw that in this light.” That’s because the Bible is Spirit and Life.  It’s not just a book; it has life to it.  It is the Living Word!

Luke 2:51-52 says, Then he went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them.  But his mother treasured all these things in her heart.  And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man.  Jesus increased in wisdom and stature and favor with God and man, but it came after they returned home, and Jesus submitted to His parents and was obedient to them.

You want favor?  Submission brings favor!  It did in Jesus’ life.  So, what makes us think we can do our own thing and still have favor?  No.  It’s submission that can give you favor with God and with man.

Jesus, I declare that I can have favor with God and with man.  But it’s not by being lawless and going my own way; it is submission that brings favor.

Fear and trembling have beset me; horror has overwhelmed me.  I said “Oh, that I had the wings of a dove!  I would fly away and be at rest.” – (Psalm 55:5-6)

Countless people today do not seem to believe that God is in control of all things, let alone of all situations in their personal lives.  Just as importantly, they do not believe that God can help them gain control over their own thoughts and feelings.  Many people are content to live with their fears and doubts.  It never dawns on them to confront their fear—many of which manifest in worry and anxiety.  It never dawns on them to seek God for answers that will erase their doubts.  Instead, like the psalmist, they feel trapped, seeing no way out and wishing to flee.

Some people don’t believe that Christians can or should be oppressed if they are walking with God.  Christians, however, can get discouraged just like non-Christians.  Christians can become depressed.  They can have anxiety.  But the key is this:  we don’t have to settle for a life filled with fear and doubt!

When you find yourself feeling discouraged, go immediately to God in prayer.  Get serious about seeking God to discover the reasons for your fears and doubts, and be open to what God speaks to your heart about what you are to believe and do.  Then, ask God to fill you with courage to move beyond fears and doubts, including anxiety.

Jesus, I believe that You want me to be free from the fears and doubts that hold me back from being a witness for You.  Give me the courage to confront my anxiety.  I declare that with God, I will be victorious!

Indeed, we count them blessed who endure.  You have heard of the perseverance of Job and seen the end intended by the Lord—that the Lord is very compassionate and merciful. – (James 5:11 NKJV)

St. Patrick was taken as a slave by the Irish when he was a young man, around 16 years old.  They chained him to a stake, and for six years, he fed pigs with no one to talk to but the Lord.   One night, after six years, the Holy Spirit spoke to him and gave him and gave him a way to get back to England.  But once back in England, he had a dream that two of the tribal leaders in Ireland invited him to come and tell them about Jesus.

He immediately went to the church in England and volunteered to go to Ireland as a missionary.  When Patrick got off the boat, the Irishmen were waiting to kill him.  He said, “Before you kill me, you have to hear my dream.” He told them the dream he had, that he was to come and tell them about Jesus.  They listened to the Gospel, the story of Jesus dying and rising from the dead and how He saved them and could come into their hearts.  These tribal leaders asked if they could bring other tribal leaders to listen, and within 70 years, all of Ireland was saved.

During those six years in slavery, St. Patrick had the patience and perseverance of Job.  He learned to listen in his spirit, and the Holy Spirit connected with him, and he ended up transforming an entire nation.

Jesus, I want Your presence to so fill me that when people see me, they see You; when people hear me, they hear You; when I speak, it is Your Word that fills my mouth.  Christ in me, the hope of glory!

He sent out his word and healed them; he rescued them from the grave. – (Psalm 107:20)

I remember when a couple in our church took a transient into their home because he had no place to go.  When the young man became ill, the couple sent him to the doctor.  To their dismay, tests revealed that the young man had AIDS.  Anger boiled in the heart of the man who had so graciously given a home to an individual who now threatened the health and even the lives of his family.  This man’s first thought was to order his “guest” out of the house.

Before the man could say anything, however, the Holy Spirit spoke in his heart, telling him to spend his anger on the disease and not on the young man who was so ill.  Forcefully, and with authority, the man commanded AIDS to leave the house and never return.  Many months and several tests later, there was no sign of AIDS in the young man’s body.  Why?  Because Jesus paid the price for his healing, and one man exercised his authority in Christ!

Psalm 107:20 says that God sent His Word and healed you.  Isn’t Jesus the Word made flesh?  Jesus assuredly paid for your physical body with His own physical body in the work of redemption.  Not only did He carry away your sin but He also carried away your sickness.  Therefore, I know it is the will of God to heal our bodies.  Otherwise, Jesus would not have taken those stripes for our healing.

Jesus, I believe that You paid the full price for my healing.  Therefore, I declare that it is my right to be healed!  I command sickness and disease out of my body and receive Your healing today.

Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts, And in the hidden part You will make me to know wisdom. – (Psalm 51:6 NKJV)

I was raised in Texas, and in the summertime, my mother would can peaches.  My brother and I had to help by peeling the peaches and sterilizing the jars.  We griped and complained.  (If you have ever been to Texas in the summer, you know how hot and uncomfortable it can be!) But you better believe we never griped in the winter when my mother opened a jar of home-canned peaches.  They were so wonderful.

God revealed to me that reading the Bible is like canning peaches.  He said, “When you read through the Bible, sometimes it’s tedious.  You feel like you’re not getting anything.  But you’re canning truth!  And in the wintertime of your life, I’ll take the truth you put in your heart and make it wisdom in your mind.”

As you read the Bible, you are putting truth inside you, and God can take that truth and make wisdom out of it.

You might be thinking, “Marilyn, are you saying no truth in my heart, no wisdom in my mind?” Well, you said it!  The more truth you put in your heart; the more wisdom can come from the revelation of the Holy Spirit.

Dear Heavenly Father, You see the end from the beginning and You know that the more we study Your Word, the more it will help us tomorrow.  Put the desire in our hearts to want the truth inside of us today.

But Rehoboam rejected the advice the elders gave him and consulted the you men who had grown up with him and were serving him. – (2 Chronicles 10:8)

After Rehoboam became king, he called for his elders to advise him.  First Rehoboam calls in the older, experienced counselors who had served his father, Solomon, during his kingship.  They said to him, “Don’t be cruel to the people.  Establish a relationship with them, because rules without relationship bring rebellion.  Build a relationship and they will always serve you.”

But immature Rehoboam doesn’t like this advice.  So he called in his friends who he’d grown up with and who were equally as inexperienced as Rehoboam himself, and they said, “You need to tax the people.  You need to let them know who is king.  If they think Solomon was hard on them, you’re going to be to times harder!”

Rehoboam chooses the “wisdom” of the younger men.  I say wisdom lightly because these you men clearly were not following men.  They didn’t have what they needed in the way of wisdom—spiritual wisdom—to share with Rehoboam.  So, Rehoboam takes the young men’s counsel, and when he does, the kingdom splits.

Jesus provides us with a better example.  In Luke 2:46, His parents find Him in the temple, listening to and asking questions of the teachers there.  When you want to hear from God and feel led to seek the advice of others, make sure you are listening to people who are experienced in their walk with God, who know the Word, and who will counsel you with spiritual wisdom.

Jesus, there are things I want to hear from You and lessons from others’ lives that I want to learn.  Help me to discern who I should look to for good, Godly advice!

So, he went down and dipped himself in the Jordan seven times, as the man of God had told him, and his flesh was restored and became clean like that of a young boy.  – (2 Kings 5:14)

One of the most unique healings in the Old Testament is that of Naaman, the captain of the Syrian army.  Second Kings chapter 5 describes Naaman as “a mighty man of valor, but a leper” (see v. 1 NKJV).

Through his young Israelite slave girl, Naaman learned of the prophet Elisha who could heal Naaman’s leprous body.  The captain lost no time in getting to Israel and the prophet Elisha, who sent word to Naaman to dip in the Jordan River seven times.  After struggling with his pride, Naaman obeyed and was healed on the seventh dip.

Naaman was a cruel enemy of Israel.  He was an idolater.  Yet God desired to bring Naaman to repentance through His marvelous grace.  Because of his healing, Naaman repented and accepted the God of Israel.

Through the compassion of one little slave girl, Naaman was no longer a leper, and neither was he an idolater.  Naaman went home with healing on the inside as well as healing on the outside.  What a life-changing experience!

Can you imagine the joy of Naaman’s little maid when she saw her master again?  Her compassion and love for this man touches my heart.  She had probably been captured and taken from her home to be this man’s slave, and yet she cared for him.

Many times, in the New Testament we read that Jesus looked upon the people with compassion before He healed them.  Compassion mixed with faith is a powerful combination!

Dear Heavenly Father, thank You for showing Your grace to each and every one of us.  Help us to have compassion on others like Jesus did, for compassion mixed with faith is how we bring people into Your Kingdom!

Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18)

I want to end every day with thanksgiving.  I want to begin every day with thanksgiving.  I want to live in thanksgiving.

I don’t think we appreciate all the miracles that God does.  It could be the simplest little things:  a special dessert that I liked, or time spent with my grandkids.  Or it could be something big.  It’s a miracle that I am accepted by the Muslims and get to travel to places like Iran.  What about an answer t prayer?  We pray continually for something, but then we forget to give thanks when God answers our prayers.

Friend, I’m so shocked at every miracle that God gives me, so I give Him thanks.  It’s when we get into an attitude of entitlement or expectancy, when we think we are in control of the answers to our prayers that we forget to give thanks.  But when we live in thanksgiving, when we live in prayer and rejoicing, thanksgiving will flow from our hearts.

Hold on to how much God loves you.  Believe that He will take you through your circumstances and not leave you there.  Rejoice, pray and give thanks!

Dear Heavenly Father, the men on the road to Emmaus said, “Did our hearts not burn within us?” and I want that same fiery passion inside me to do Your will, to hear Your voice and to overflow with thanksgiving for the daily miracles in my life!  In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer your servant is praying before you day and night for your servants, the people of Israel.  I confess the sins we Israelites, including myself and my father’s family, have committed against you.  – (Nehemiah 1:6)

Nehemiah is one of my favorite books of history.  I know what you’re thinking. “Every gook is your favorite book.”  Let me tell you something.  When people would ask my husband, “What’s Marilyn’s favorite book?” he would say to them, “Whatever book she’s currently reading in the Bible.  That’s her favorite book.” And that’s so true!

Today, we are in Nehemiah, so Nehemiah is my favorite book today!  I love Nehemiah because the name means “comforter.” Who else do we know who is a comforter?  The Holy Spirit!  Jesus said, “But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you” (John 14:26 KVJ).  So, as a comforter, Nehemiah actually gives us a picture of what the Holy Spirit will be like!

But Nehemiah is also a book of prayer.  There are only 13 chapters inn this little book, but nine different prayers!  The wonderful prayers of Nehemiah remind us of the prayer ministry of Jesus and how God is going to have His way no matter how bad or dark the circumstances.

Jesus, I declare that in You there is always victory!  As I pray through difficult circumstances, thank You for sending the Holy Spirit to comfort me.  Amen!

By day you led them with a pillar of cloud, and by night with a pillar of fire to give them light on the way they were to take. – (Nehemiah 9:12)

Do you ever think, “I blew it.  Surely God is tired of me and wants to throw me out”?  It’s not true!  Read what He did with the Israelites in the book of Numbers:  As they wandered through the wilderness they kept messing up, but His presence never left them.  He had His special presence at night—the pillar of fire; and His special presence by day—the pillar of cloud.  It not only showed them His presence, but it also guided and protected them.

Jesus is so in this, because Jesus doesn’t throw us out when we make mistakes!  You might say, “You don’t how bad mine are, Marilyn.” Well let me tell you something, do you remember that the Israelites made a golden calf to worship?  Do you remember they started complaining three days after God had delivered them from their enemies?  But God stuck with them, and He sticks with us.

How do you feel about your children?  Do you want them to fail?  No way!  Do I want my grandchildren to fail?  No way!  You constantly believe God for them.  So, God saw the failures of His children but He didn’t give up on them.  And God sees your failures, but He doesn’t give up on you.

Nehemiah quotes the book of Numbers to remind his people that they can trust God to guide and protect them, regardless of how far they backslide.  And we too can be inspired by this revelation of God’s love.

Jesus, I declare that You came to set the captives free, and it doesn’t happen by my self-efforts.  It happens by the redemption of the cross!

When the turn came for Esther (the young woman Mordecai had adopted the daughter of his uncle Abihail) to go to the king, she asked for nothing other than what Hegai, the king’s eunuch who was in charge of the harem, suggested.  And Esther won the favor of everyone who saw her. – (Esther 2:15)

The book of Esther opens with a wife who refused to submit to her husband.  Queen Vashti refused to appear before her husband’s male guests, and the king divorced her for it.  Then a “beauty pageant” of sorts is held to find the next queen.  Enter Esther.

Esther had great favor in the sight of all the people who saw her.  But what did she do to earn that favor?  She asked the eunuch who was in charge of all the women what she should wear.  She didn’t dress seductive or assume she knew exactly what the king would like.  She humbled herself and submitted to the instruction of the one who knew the king best.  And when she went in before the king, he took her as his wife.  Wow!

Favor comes to us when we humble ourselves and submit to the Lord’s instructions.  When we are operating out of our carnal man, we can think we know best.  But the Bible never says that arrogance brings favor.  In fact, just the opposite!

In the same way, you who are younger, submit yourselves to your elders.  All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.” Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. I Peter 5:5-6

Jesus, I declare that favor is a gift only You can bestow.  Show me where I need to practice humility and submission in my life so I can bring You glory.

So, I sent messengers to them, saying, “I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down.  Why should the work cease while I leave it and go down to you?” – (Nehemiah 6:3 NKJV)

After returning to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple, Nehemiah immediately met with the harassment of Sanballat and several others.  The root meaning of Sanballat means “satan.” satan will oppose us in anything we are called upon to do for God!

Sanballat continued to harass Nehemiah, even threatening to kill the people while they worked on the walls.  But Nehemiah didn’t give up, and he didn’t allow the people to give up, either.  He simply reorganized the people and had part of them work on the walls while the other part stood with weapons on the ground for protection.

Next the enemy tried spreading false religious claims:  they said that a prophetess had told them that Nehemiah was there to set himself as king.  The enemy did everything possible to get him to come down from the wall so they could harm him, but Nehemiah and his crews worked day and night and they completed the walls in a miraculous 52 days!

Nehemiah boldly says this, and I love it so much: “I am doing a great work.  How can I come down?” It’s not hard to imagine those words coming out of Jesus’ mouth while He hung on the cross.  And God also calls us to do a great work.  How can we come down when satan besieges us, people falsely accuse us, and we are attacked again and again?  We can’t!  We must finish what God has called us to do.

Jesus, I declare that no matter what comes against me, I will keep my eyes on You, the author and finisher of my faith!

My soul, wait silently for God alone, for my expectation is from Him. – (Psalm 62:5 NKJV)

One time as I was sitting on a plane, the stewardess came to me and shared that she was a born-again believer.  Then she asked me my advice: “You know, I have many opportunities to witness on these planes.  Many people open up and tell me their problems, and I’m able to lead them to Christ or pray with them.  But I do it while serving liquor.  Do you think I’m missing God’s will for my life?”

I meditated for a moment, and it seemed that the Lord quickened something to me that I had never thought about in my whole life.  I said, “Nehemiah was a cupbearer to the king, and God used him to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.  Nehemiah had to carry liquor, and God never condemned Nehemiah.  That seems to have been special positions.” (See Nehemiah 1-2).

This was the answer that she needed, but it was not an answer that came from Marilyn Hickey.  It was an answer that came from the throne of grace.  The stewardess had waited on the Lord for an answer, and she was not disappointed.  You won’t be, either.

Dear Heavenly Father, help me to be patient today as I wait on You for answers, knowing that my expectations will be met by You in due time.  In Jesus’ Name, Amen

“Therefore, wisdom and knowledge will be given you.  And I will also give you wealth, possessions and honor; such as no king who was before you ever had and none after you will have.” – (2 Chronicles 1:12).

Solomon was very young, about 20 years old when he became king, but there’s something that David and Bathsheba have put into Solomon to prepare him for this:  wisdom.

How do we know they put wisdom in him?  Because Solomon wrote Proverbs, and in the first to chapters, he constantly writes, ‘” My mother and my father taught me the importance of wisdom.” Why?  Because he was going to be the next king, and in order to rule well, he’s going to need the wisdom of God.

After taking over the kingship, Solomon sees God appear to him in the night and says, “Solomon, what shall I give you?” and Solomon says, “Wisdom.” What else would he say?  He’s been taught that all his life.  I think if you had awakened him in the night when he was a child and asked him what he wanted he wouldn’t have said water, he would have said wisdom.  He wanted wisdom and understanding of how to govern God’s people because that was how he’d been raised.

We tend to go after riches and honor and longevity.  But in Matthew 6:33 Jesus says: “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” That’s what Solomon did; he went after Godly wisdom, then riches and honor followed.

Lord, I declare that when I seek Godly wisdom first, You will give me a long life to enjoy all the riches and honor You will bring to me.  Amen!

Foolishness if bound up in the heart of a child; The rod of correction will drive it far from him.  – (Proverbs 22:15 NKJV)

The Bible says, “Eli sons were scoundrels; they had no regard for the Lord” (1 Samuel 2:12).  Eli was a priest and he knew the voice of God, but he didn’t always obey it.  Even when he saw his sons doing evil in the eyes of God, he didn’t discipline them and it led to the downfall of the entire family.  Eli lost his priesthood as well as his sons because he esteemed his sons more than he esteemed God.  Friend, when we esteem our children more than God, it ends up giving them a bucket of trouble!

Our tendency as parents can be to want to shelter our children from all of life’s hurts, including the pain of discipline.  But we have to pray and trust God that He will be with them wherever they go.  God expects us to do our part—to “train up a child in the way he should go” (Proverbs 22:6 KJV)—which includes disciplining them to know right from wrong.

As a young child, Samuel was committed to be a priest in the household of Eli—which everyone knew was an ungodly household.  But Hannah’s commitment kept him under the supernatural guidance of God during those year.

We can’t always protect our children from the ugliness they will encounter in the world, but we can entrust God with our children.

Dear Heavenly Father, I entrust my children to You.  When I need guidance on raising Godly children, I will look to Your Word, Your wisdom, and the way Your Own Son Jesus was raised.  In His Name, Amen.

Get rid of the old yeast, so that you may be a new unleavened batch—as you really are.  For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.  I Corinthians 5:7 NIV

After delivering the Israelites out of Egypt, God instructed them to celebrate seven feasts.  Did you know that these seven feasts actually show us who Jesus is in us?

Passover:  Christ is our Passover Lamb.  Unleavened Bread:  Leaven is a symbol of corruption.  Jesus was without spot and without sin; He had no leaven.  First fruits:  Jesus was the first fruit—He was the first to arise from the dead.  Pentecost:  This feast was marked by the offering of raised bread such as we eat daily.  We are reminded of Jesus coming to be among us, providing us with daily bread from Heaven for our spiritual sustenance.  Trumpets:  This is symbolic of the trumpet that will be blown when Jesus returns.  Day of Atonement:  Jesus is our atonement.  Tabernacles:  During this feast, the people dwelt in tabernacles or booths to celebrate the fact that God had brought them through the wilderness into their own land.  It was a joyous time.  This celebration allows us to look ahead to Jesus’ return.

So, in the Old Testament, they celebrated seven feast days.  Seven is always the number of completions, showing us the complete picture of what Jesus has for us.  Now, when they celebrated these feasts, they actually acted out what Jesus would do in the New Testament—even though they didn’t know Jesus by name!  They look ahead to a Messiah and had a revelation about that, but they didn’t know the fulfillment of that.

Don’t you just love to read both the Old and New Testament and see how they tie together?

Jesus, it is so wonderful to experience the revelations God has for us about You in the Old Testament!  Be real to me.  Intercede for me.  Pray for me.  Live in me.  I want to know Your presence in the most wonderful way!

Moses was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights without eating bread or drinking water.  And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant—the Ten Commandments.  Exodus 34:28 (NIV)

Some of the most spectacular examples of fasting in the Bible are the 40-day fasts of the great lawgiver Moses, the prophet Elijah, and Jesus.

Things were not the same in these leaders’ lives after their times of fasting, nor were things the same in the lives of the people who were under their leadership.  For the Israelites, the fast of Moses meant the giving of the Law to them.  They lived under a new order of feasts, rituals, sacrifice, and patterns of worship.  And the fast of Elijah resulted in their having a new wave of righteousness in their land—including powerful miracles at the hand of Elisha, the successor of Elijah.

When Jesus fasted, he stripped the devil of all claims he had made. Jesus laid claim to the authority to act upon God’s Word in ways that brought healing and deliverance to people, and because He did, fully sealing that authority on the cross, Jesus was able to pass on to us the authority to act upon God’s Word in ways that bring healing and deliverance to those in need.

What purpose did God have for those He called to prolonged periods of fasting?  I believe it was a call to confront evil—both evil circumstances that are outside a person, as well as the evil influences of fear and discouragement that form inside a person.

The call of God to a prolonged fast is not for everybody.  It is for those whom God chooses and whom God calls for very specific purposes.

Dear Heavenly Father, thank You for the legacy of these leaders whose faithfulness exacted profound change that would be felt throughout generations.  In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Then he went out to the source of the water, and cast in the salt there, and said, ‘” Thus says the Lord: ‘I have healed this water; from it there shall be no more death or barrenness.’” 2 Kings 2:21

Immediately after Elisha becomes the prophet-in-charge, the people come to him complaining about the terrible tasting water.  Elisha takes their plea to God, and then relates God’s instructions to the people: “Bring me a new bowl and put salt in it” (see v. 20).  The people didn’t say “that’s crazy,” they just obeyed.

God’s instructions seemed kind of silly, but Elisha was believing for a miracle and he was willing to do his part in the natural to produce the supernatural.  Sometimes I think we just sit around asking for a miracle and we don’t get it because we aren’t willing to do our part in the natural.  But when we listen to what God says and do it, we will see the supernatural in our lives!

So, Elisha throws the salt into the bad water.  But he takes it one step further and speaks to it!  He says, “This is what the Lord says…” (v.21).  So, he did the act and he spoke the Word.  And the water has been pure ever since.

How do I know?  Because I’ve been to Jericho!  And when I was there I said, “I want to go to Elisha’s Springs!” So, we went and I drank the water.  And I’m telling you, that water is so sweet!  After more than 2,500 years, the miracle is still working!

I believe that when we look to God, He will tell us an act to do.  And that act of faith will release the power of God to activate the miracle that needs to happen.  But whatever act God calls you to do, remember to speak your faith with it.  Act and speak the Word of God says!

Jesus, I declare that You have the power to purify whatever is cursed in my life.  Show me an act of faith so that I can do my part to activate the supernatural in my life.

Jonathan said to David, “Go in peace, for we have sworn friendship with each other in the name of the Lord…” – (I Samuel 20:42)

As part of the inner circle of the king’s court, David was yoked to King Saul.  As Saul’s son, Jonathan was yoked to his father as well.  But David and Jonathan had a special friendship.  When it became obvious that Saul was jealous of the favor David had with the Lord, the two friends made a covenant with each other—to do the will of God in each other’s lives, regardless of what King Saul might say or do.

It was feast time, and normally David sat down and ate these feast meals with Saul and Jonathan.  But for two days, David’s place was empty.  Saul asked his son about David’s absence, and when Jonathan told him that David had requested permission to be with his family in Bethlehem, Saul recognized that Jonathan had put himself in an alliance with David.  Saul was so angry he threw a javelin at Jonathan—he tried to kill his own son and desired heir!

The yoke that tied David into an alliance with Saul was broken that day.  In significant ways, the yoke that tied Jonathan to the throne of Israel and to his father was also definitively broken that day.

Was David still under God’s anointing to be king of Israel one day?  Absolutely.  Was David allowed to prepare to become king in the logical place of preparation, the king’s court?  No.  Was David set free from the yoke of being part of King Saul’s close inner circle?  Yes.

Was this difficult?  Very.  It meant that David would spend the next years of his life on the run.  It meant He would face challenges and situations he had never dreamed of facing.  But did this yoke need to be broken so that David could grow in his trust of the Lord and in his understanding about how to lead men into peace and not just into battle?  Absolutely!

Jesus, I declare that I trust wherever You have placed me is where You want me to be!