Eliab: Why have you come down here? Who is watching your tiny flock in the wilderness? I’m your brother, and I know you—you’re arrogant, and your heart is evil. You’ve come to watch the battle as if it were just entertainment.

David: What have I done now? I was just asking a question.

David ignored him and asked another soldier the same question, and the people gave him the same answer.
I Samuel 17:28-30 VOICE

 

The first time I read this scripture years ago, it became precious to me because the condemnations of others had wounded me and kept me defeated in a back corner of life.  At least that’s what I thought.

This scripture tells what David’s older brother said to him when David asked a question on the battlefield. I imagine his brother’s words had wounded him many times in the past and had kept him defeated in the back corner of their father’s fields.

Please hear me loud and clear.  Our heavenly Father NEVER speaks to us this way.   And when anyone talks to you this way, their words are not from Father.  It’s imperative that we make that recognition.

Even a person who consistently hears Father’s voice may revert to condemning words and possibly attribute them to Father God.  But you can be sure of this, they are not Father’s words and never will be.

Condemnation always comes from the accuser and always will.  He’s persistently on the lookout for the open door of a still wounded victim who will spew on others.

Love the person, please, love the person, but don’t drink the drink they are presenting to you.  They haven’t accepted their healing from Father yet, so sometimes death still flows from their fountain.  And we must learn to recognize it.

It’s our choice to gulp down fountains of condemnation, retreat to our corner defeated, and possibly, eventually, behave exactly the same.  Or we can identify condemnation, resist it, ignore it, and accept that the accuser has found an open door.

However, don’t assume that being splashed in these fountains is automatically destructive.  Standing in the flow  isn’t the destructive part.  Drinking the kool-aid is the wounded defeat.  It results in retreat to our back corner.

Consider that Adam & Eve drank deeply of condemnation and then went directly to the back corner.  But Father has been using mankind’s back corners to identify condemnation and teach us to stop drinking from that fountain.  He provided another fountain, Jesus’s everlasting blood of healing and Identity.   We never had this in the Garden.

Jesus’s blood transforms us and manifests the perfection of heaven on earth.  It reveals our Identity as undefeated, sons and daughters.

Now going back to the scripture above, notice David’s reaction to his brother.  He doesn’t drink the condemnation his brother offers him, but rather he ignores it and proceeds to question other soldiers.  They also, serve up this toxic beverage, so David keeps asking.

Condemnation had probably been prominently in David’s face for years.  He’d been anointed to be king but I’m sure his older brother didn’t see that Identity.  He saw an ignorant, weak shepherd boy, a stupid, little brother.

And David probably retreated to his back corner wounded and defeated until his Identity started to reveal while he was fighting the lion, and the bear.  Suddenly, he caught a glimpse of Himself the way Father God saw him.  Then he learned to recognize condemnation as the lie it is.

There was a lot going on back there in the corner of his father’s fields.  He wasn’t just watching sheep.  He was in training.

Ironically for all of us, Identity often rises while we are in the middle of our biggest battles, learning to overcome.  We see the enemy face to face.

Also ironically, we often crumble on the floor in fear, praying for the attacks to stop and the enemies to leave.  But they don’t leave because this is the training ground where Identity happens.

David saw his real enemy.  He learned the accuser was a liar who couldn’t see clearly.  And his Identity became so clear and intact in this scripture, that he simply moves from person to person until someone listens to him.  This solid Identity is prerequisite to dealing a final blow to any Goliath.

It’s the same for you and me. Father’s voice is not condemning us but He will use the opportunity to meet us in the back corner and show us our real Identity.

We are made in His image.  We are also anointed to be kings and priests.

So if you’re in the back corner because a mentor became your condemning accuser, let Father reveal your Identity to you there.   Face the battles and slay the bear.  One day you’ll see your crown.

Thank you for sharing this walk with me.  Blessings on your journey.

Faith