See the problem, the others had nothing in their inner world. Saul was defeated. He had no presence over his life, he had no anointing, no faith. He was defeated. He never walked in the word of God. He actually reacted to the word of God, and now here's a young boy turns up, and here he is, 17 years old, and he says listen, you come against me with a shield and a spear, I come against you in the name of the Lord God of Israel, who's armies you have defied, and this is how the battle is going to go today. I will lay you out on the ground. I'll use your sword, and take off your head, and then the birds will eat you, then the rest of your army will be put to flight. That's how it's going to be.
But you understand, he has already formed and built his inner world. When they said you can't do that, he said listen, I've got a proven track record. I'll do it. You watch me, and it says he ran to the giant - zonk! And Goliath got the biggest headache he's ever had in his whole life. While he's lying on the ground complaining about that migraine, he lost his head completely! See now you've got to think about this. See David first shaped his inner world, then shaped his outer world, and every one of those things, shaping your inner world, shaping your relationships, shaping your spiritual atmosphere, shaping the world around you - David did all of those things. He was actually a man of the spirit and word of God, and he's an example you and I can follow.
Father, we just thank you for what you're teaching us about the need to frame our world by the word of God, just as you framed the natural world. You want us to frame the world that we live in as your representatives. Lord, firstly you want us to frame and shape the world within our heart and life and inner man; the thoughts, dreams, desires, passions, the way we think, our perspective and Lord, you want us to shape what's around us. You want us to shape the world around us, the spiritual atmosphere, so instead of depression and heaviness the spirit of God is there to bring hope and help and life. Lord, you want us to shape the environment, the relationships around us. You want us to shape the environment. I'm asking Lord over these next weeks, a spirit of faith will begin to arise among every believer here, a spirit of faith, an ability to believe that the word of God embraced in the heart, and spoken with the mouth, and acted on in the life, will release change into lives in 2008. Lord, we thank you that every generation you have men and women who dared to believed.