Christian Life Management

When the Philistines heard that David had been anointed king over Israel, they went up in full force to search for him, but David heard about it and went down to the stronghold. Now the Philistines had come and spread out in the Valley of Rephaim; so David inquired of the LORD, “Shall I go and attack the Philistines? Will you hand them over to me?”

The LORD answered him, “Go, for I will surely hand the Philistines over to you.”

So David went to Baal Perazim, and there he defeated them. He said, “As waters break out, the LORD has broken out against my enemies before me.” So that place was called Baal Perazim. The Philistines abandoned their idols there, and David and his men carried them off.

Once more the Philistines came up and spread out in the Valley of Rephaim; so David inquired of the LORD, and he answered, “Do not go straight up, but circle round behind them and attack them in front of the balsam trees. As soon as you hear the sound of marching in the tops of the balsam trees, move quickly, because that will mean the LORD has gone out in front of you to strike the Philistine army.” So David did as the LORD commanded him, and he struck down the Philistines all the way from Gibeon to Gezer.

2 Kings 5:17-25

Many of us have heard of time management, but have you ever heard of Christian life management? Christian life management simply means that God runs your life. It means that you are led by the Spirit of God and the word of God.

A life lived under Christian life management is the exact opposite of the life of King Saul, the first king of Israel. It is interesting to note when we study Saul’s life that Saul never really prayed or sought God. His life was not regulated or managed by God. A self-centered man, Saul lived for his own glory and consistently refused to follow God. In fact, the Bible tells us that God rejected Saul because Saul had so clearly rejected God’s management of his life.

In the history of Israel, the human king of Israel was supposed to be a servant of the invisible God of Israel. This understanding is at the very heart of covenant theology. The kingdom was ruled by the King of kings and, under him, by his deputy human king, who was supposed to listen to God, pray to him and obey him. This is a description of Christian life management. In Romans 8:14 we read, “Those who are led by the Spirit are sons of God.” In Romans 8:4 we read they “do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.” Many who call themselves Christians should wonder if they are, if God is not managing their lives in this way.

As we examine the life of Saul, especially as recorded in 1 Samuel 13 and 15, we will see that Saul was a rebel. Because of Saul’s disobedience, God abandoned Saul, taking his word and his Holy Spirit from him. God waited to establish a new king until Saul was killed on the mountain of Gilboa, just like God waited in the wilderness until every last person who murmured died.

What a tragedy it is to be abandoned by God as Saul was! Of course, you will be living your life-you are going and coming, buying and selling, planting and harvesting, marrying and giving in marriage. You are doing all sorts of things, but none of them has anything to do with God managing your life.

After Saul and his sons were killed, God said, “David, it is time now to go to Hebron and rule.” When you study the life of David, the first thing you notice is that, unlike Saul, David is a regenerate person. David was a person who prayed, who obeyed, who praised God, and who was led by the Spirit of God. David practiced Christian life management. My prayer is that as we study this passage we will all surrender our lives to be managed by God as David’s was.

Chosen by God

The first thing we notice about King David is that God chose him. In 1 Samuel 16:13 we read that when Samuel anointed David on God’s behalf to be the king of Israel, the Holy Spirit came upon David. In 2 Samuel 2:14 we read that the people of Judah recognized this divine anointing which David had received many years prior and anointed David a second time, publicly acknowledging that he was their king. Later, in 2 Samuel 5:13 we read that all Israel came and anointed him, again recognizing that David was the king appointed by God to lead them.

If God decrees something, he also has the ability to control the course of history so that his purpose comes to pass. I believe in a sovereign God who controls everything. Some people do not like that idea and live their lives in anxiety and confusion. But I live in the comfort of the knowledge that our God is the One who created all things, maintains all things, and governs all things. As the Lord of history, he will bring history to completion which he himself decreed for his glory.

All Israel recognized that David was anointed by God to be king of Israel. So in 2 Samuel 3 we read that the war between the house of Saul and the house of David lasted a long time, but “David grew stronger and stronger, while the house of Saul grew weaker and weaker” (v. 1).

Led by God

The second thing we notice about David is that he was led by the Spirit of God. Do you want to know what it means to practice Christian life management? Then you must learn to be led by the Spirit of the living God.

A Christian is not a person who did a favor for God when he trusted in Christ; rather, a Christian is one to whom God has done the biggest favor possible by seeking and saving him and by taking him out of the kingdom of slavery to Satan and placing him in the kingdom of his dear Son.

A true Christian is owned by Jesus Christ. “You are not your own; you were bought with a price,” Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20. Therefore, we must forget about the modern idea that we are doing God a favor by becoming Christians. In the Great Commission Jesus told his disciples, “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.”

Never say you did God a favor by becoming a Christian. Don’t try to impress God with your degrees or monies or anything else. A Christian is one who is owned by Jesus Christ and whose life is managed day by day by Jesus Christ. A Christian is a servant of Jesus Christ, one who says with the apostle Paul, “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain” (Phil. 1:21). In 2 Corinthians 5:15 Paul wrote, “And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for him who died for them and was raised again.”

We believe in the Holy Spirit, and a life managed by God is a life led by the Spirit of the living God. We read about this in Numbers 9:15-23. Notice the repetitious language in this passage. The Holy Spirit is trying to impress on us that we are not our own.

This passage speaks about how God manages his people. Moses speaks about a cloud, which symbolizes God. We read further, “That is how it continued to be; the cloud covered it, and at night it looked like fire. Whenever the cloud lifted from above the Tent, the Israelites set out; wherever the cloud settled, the Israelites encamped.” And if we continue to read this passage, it will teach us the dynamics of a God-managed life. When the cloud lifts, you set out. When the cloud settles, you settle down. At his command you go; at his command you settle down. This is the Pentecostal, Spirit-led, God-managed life.

That is why I don’t like to see people acting as if they are doing God a favor when they obey his word. If we are Christians, God has already done the biggest favor possible for us; therefore, we should want to live all of life for his glory. A person who realizes the truth of this will be very eager to redeem the time and do good works. Such a person will sow to the Spirit continuously and not become weary in well-doing. As a regenerate person, he will read the word of God diligently so that he can find out what pleases God. He will delight in the law of the Lord and demonstrate his faith in it by doing it. Such a person will pray earnestly and continuously. Saul never prayed, but David prayed regularly. As we read in Proverbs 4:18, “The path of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn, shining ever brighter till the full light of day.” Notice, there is light, more light, and fullness of light. As the word of God comes to him and he receives and obeys it, he will get greater and greater light of God. His life becomes meaningful as he walks in the way of God and he will have no regrets.

A God-managed person will not turn away from the path of light. He is no longer a nocturnal creature who loves the darkness, but a child of light who loves light.

Walking in the Light

This incident in the life of King David is a demonstration of walking in the light. David had been anointed by God and all Israel came in unity to acknowledge him as their king. In 2 Samuel 5:17 we read, “When the Philistines heard that David had been anointed king over Israel, they went up in full force to search for him.” Were the Philistines looking for David so that they could give him a gift or congratulate him on his ascendancy to the throne? No. David and the people of Israel were experiencing great revival and commitment to God. The Philistines did not like revival and so they came against David.

Satan does not worry when we are defeated, disunited, and defiled by sin. In fact, he leaves us alone at those times. But he gets very upset when we start experiencing any revival. Satan hates it when a person wants to love God, read the word of God, pray, repent of sins, and ask God, “O God, manage my life from this day forward! I surrender my life to you. I want you to be king of my life.” When we do these things, all of a sudden the devil takes notice and comes against us in full force. The enemy of our souls will not tolerate a united Israel or a united church.

We have seen this so often in our own lives. Go ahead, start praying. Start getting up in the morning to pray and seek God. All of a sudden hell will break loose against you. That is the way it is, whether in the home, the church, or the nation. When people are interested in God, Satan comes in full force to oppose God’s people.

So we read that the Philistines came in full force to fight against the Israelites in the Valley of Rephaim, which is a few miles southwest of Jerusalem, beginning near Bethlehem and going south. The vast Philistine army came out on a search-and-destroy mission. That is what the devil always does, as Jesus said in John 10:10, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”

I am sure David remembered how, during a previous conflict in the Valley of Jezreel, the Philistines came and defeated the army of Israel, killing Saul and his sons. These things happened because God was not with Saul. In fact, God had abandoned Saul and brought the Philistines against him. Our God is a holy God who opposes sin, especially in the church. We must never get confused when God chastises us severely.

So David remembered the previous battle between the armies of the Philistines and the Israelites in the Valley of Jezreel. He knew that afterwards the Philistines cut off Saul’s head and took it to the temple at Beth Shan. Yes, David had cut off Goliath’s head, but the Philistines had also cut off Saul’s head. Now they were coming again, expecting to cut off the head of King David. But they did not realize that God was with David. He who is in us is greater than he who is in the world. If God is for us, who can be against us?

David Prays to the Lord

What, then, should a child of God do when the Philistines come against him? Pray, as David prayed. Remember, Saul never prayed in his life. But here we see David praying and inquiring of the Lord. Now, someone may say, “David, why do you have to pray? You are the king, aren’t you? You are supposed to go and oppose the enemy. That is your job. You don’t need to pray.”

It is true that the general will of God was for David to oppose the Philistines. But David needed to hear what God’s specific plan of action was for this specific situation. If we are living God-managed lives, we will seek God’s will daily in every situation we face. Western man likes formulaic predictability and control. He is always looking for a mechanical, systematic way of doing things. But God is a living Being who wants us to go to him and inquire of him. Thus, if we claim that God is managing our life, we must pray in every situation. When we do so, he who is infinite wisdom may surprise us with solutions that we could never dream of ourselves. David knew well that people are puny nothings before God, so he prayed and sought the Lord. We read about this type of seeking the Lord in Proverbs 3:5-6. In verse 5 we read, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.” How many times have we leaned on our own understanding instead of God’s? Our puny little mind said, “I know what to do,” and we acted. But how often have such actions resulted in failure? In verse 6 we read, “In all your ways acknowledge him,” meaning we must check with God and surrender everything to him. In Psalm 37 we read, “Commit your ways to the Lord,” which means all of the time, not once in a while when we feel like it. The God-managed life is the life in which the individual commits all his ways to God. Then there is a promise for those who do so: “he will make your paths straight.”

What was David’s prayer? “Shall I go and attack the Philistines?” Why should David ask about something that was his kingly duty to take care of? Because God may say, “Don’t go; I myself will take care of it.” It was true that infinite, almighty God could take care of all the Philistines in the Valley of Rephaim without help from one Israelite soldier. That is why we must go to him to find out what he wants us to do. David asked, “Shall I go?” and God answered, “Go.”

David was not fully satisfied with that answer because he knew that the last time a king of Israel went against the Philistines, that king’s head was cut off. David wanted to make sure of God’s direction for him, so he prayed again, “Will you hand them over to me?” What was the answer? “Certainly!”

There are people who pray at the end, not at the beginning, of a situation. That is foolish. Always make sure that you pray before-before you decide, before you go, before you spend, before you marry that person, before you take that job. Pray seriously, asking, “O God, is this really what you want me to do?”

So David asked God, “Shall I go and attack the Philistines?” What was God’s answer? “Go.” Then David asked, “Will you hand them over to me?” “I will surely hand the Philistines over to you,” God told David. So David obeyed God and went up against the Philistines. It is not enough to pray and receive direction from the word of God. Then we must do exactly what he tells us to do.

When Charles Spurgeon was fifteen years of age, he was wondering whether or not he should go to seminary. One day he was walking about in Cambridge, asking God what to do. God spoke to him, saying, “Don’t do it.” What did Spurgeon do? He didn’t go. Later on he would tell people that had he gone to seminary, he would have been a flunky instead the powerful minister of the gospel he became. David obeyed God’s word and went up against the Philistines.

Submission to the King

The God of Israel is Israel’s true king. He is described in Exodus 15 as the Warrior-King who fights Israel’s battles. Only after he faces the enemy can we go in in God’s strength and under his direction.

In Joshua 5 we read about the great general Joshua who was commissioned to enter Canaan and destroy all the Canaanites, Jebusites, Hittites, Hivites and others. This was a large task for Joshua and when he saw the great city of Jericho, walled and barred, he became anxious, not knowing what to do.

In Joshua 5:13 we read, “Now when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua went up to him and asked, ‘Are you for us or for our enemies?’ ‘Neither,’ he replied. ‘But as the commander of the army of the Lord, I have now come.’ Joshua fell facedown to the ground in reverence and asked him, ‘What message does my Lord have for his servant?'”

This is what happens when we meet our Warrior-King. Remember Saul of Tarsus? He went about breathing out slaughter and threatenings against Jesus Christ and his followers. But when he came to Damascus, he was knocked down into the dust by God. What came out of his mouth at that time? “Who are you, Lord?”

Never try to impress God with anything. He is neither a man nor our servant, but the commander of the army of Israel. So Joshua asked, “Lord, what message do you have for us?” What was the man’s response? “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy.” This is the same command Moses heard in Exodus 3.

Who was the mysterious man who spoke to Joshua? He was the God of Israel, the captain and commander of the army of Israel. He is the invisible one in whom we must believe. He is the one to whom we must pray.

Not only were Joshua and David to follow the great King, but we are to follow him also. In Romans 10:9 we read, “If you confess with your mouth ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” I hope we will stop thinking we are doing God a favor when we trust in him. God has come to do us the greatest favor in the world by sending his Son to save us.

The Lord fought the battle for David and defeated the Philistines. In 2 Samuel 5:20 we read, “So David went to Baal Perazim, and there he defeated them. He said, ‘As waters break out, the Lord has broken out against my enemies before me.’ So that place was called Baal Perazim.” In recognition that the battle was not his but the Lord’s, David praised God and named the place Baal Perazim, meaning “the Lord broke out,” or “the Lord gave the victory.”

Here we see the great difference between David and Saul. Saul would never name a place in honor of the God who helped him. Because he gloried in himself, he was only interested in building monuments to himself. But David loved God. When faced with a situation, he prayed, listened to the word of God, and obeyed it. He entered battle by the direction of God, and when he defeated the enemy, he gave glory to God. That is what a person does whose life is managed by the Lord.

Idols versus God

The Philistines had brought their idols with them into the Valley of Rephaim to ensure victory. What happened to these idols after the Philistines were defeated in battle? In verse 21 we read, “The Philistines abandoned their idols there, and David and his men carried them off.” There is only one true and living God; anyone or anything else we love more than God, including our own ideas, is an idol. But in the final analysis, at the point of our crisis, the idol will not help us, as they did not help the Philistines. Idols can only disappoint us.

Isaiah tells us something about the futility of serving idols in Isaiah 46. There we read, “Bel bows down, Nebo stoops low; their idols are borne by beasts of burden. The images that are carried about are burdensome, a burden for the weary” (v. 1). In Isaiah 2:20 we read that in the day of Lord, “men will throw away to the rodents and bats their idols of silver and idols of gold, which they made to worship.” In the same way, here in 2 Samuel 5 we see the idols of the Philistines abandoned to destruction.

What about you? Do you have any idols in your life? Some people love their children more than God. Some people love their education more than God. Some people love their job more than God. Some people love their parents more than God. When crisis comes, you will find out what your idols are. Be aware, though, that because we are sophisticated people, our idols are sophisticated also. We may not worship snakes or rocks, but what about our worship of science or money or houses or things or children? I warn you, such idols will only disappoint you. That child you loved more than God will turn against you. That money you worked so hard for can be a stumbling block to you and others.

What did the Israelites do with the abandoned idols of the Philistines? In 1 Chronicles 14:12 we read that David commanded his men to gather the idols and burn them. David read the Bible and was directed by it. In Deuteronomy 17 we read that the king of Israel must have a copy of the Bible and read it daily so that he would know how to glorify God. David read in Deuteronomy 7:5 that the idols of the Canaanites should be burned. Because David’s life was managed by God, he paid attention to the word of God and obeyed it.

Our Need to Continually Seek God

Once the Philistines were defeated and their idols burned, could David relax? Oh, no. In verse 22 we read, “Once more the Philistines came up and spread out in the Valley of Rephaim.” After God gives us a great victory, we must never sit around, celebrating and enjoying the victory, and thinking everything is all right. We must never stop reading the word of God and praying. Our enemy Satan will come against us again and again. “Once more. . .” How many times have you experienced victory, but then grew careless so that when Satan came again, you were defeated?

The time we have the greatest victory is also the time of greatest vulnerability. We may grow careless, saying we are too tired to pray, too tired to seek the Lord, too tired to look into the Bible. I heard of a boy who asked his spiritual mentor, “My family is going on vacation. Do I have to read the Bible and pray while we are gone?”

When Satan leaves us, we must be careful because he will come back again when we least expect him. After Satan tempted Jesus, he left, but he came back at a later time. So we read that once more the Philistines came to the Valley of Rephaim. What was David’s response? Did he say, “Well, we don’t have to pray this time because we already know what to do. Isn’t this the same enemy coming against us in the same place? Am I not still the king? If we will just go and fight, as we did before, surely God will deliver us. Why should we pray?”

If you are a child of God, you will not do this kind of thing. This response is based on wrong thinking, reflecting a systematic, western way of doing things. But if we are children of God, we must seek him daily. We cannot live today by yesterday’s manna. We have to pray and seek God each day.

A God-Managed Life

What did God say this time when David prayed? “Do not go straight up.” Why did God say that? Couldn’t he give them victory? Of course he could. But, again, God doesn’t want us to get into mechanical, formulaic ways of responding to him. So he told David, “Circle behind them.” That was dangerous, but it was God’s command to David. What else did God say? “When you come to some balsam trees, wait there.” I am sure David said, “Then what do you want me to do?” “Look up straight to the tops of the balsam trees,” God answered. “How long?” David would ask. “As long as I want you,” God would reply. “And while you are waiting there, I will give you a signal: You will hear the sound of the marching of troops in the tops of the balsam trees. Then it will be time to attack.”

This is the essence of a God-managed life. We cannot predict anything. We must seek God to find out what he wants us to do, and we must do it. “Those who are led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God” (Romans 8:14). When the pillar of cloud lifts, we set out; when the pillar of cloud settles, we settle down. Every aspect of our life is regulated by God himself. The Christian life is not mechanical.

I don’t know how long David and his men waited but as they looked up; all of a sudden they heard a rushing, mighty wind. This reminds us of the Day of Pentecost in Acts 2:1-2: “When the Day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of the violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting.” This was the Holy Spirit. This was the heavenly army. This was the chariots and horses of fire. This was the Lord Sabaoth and his invisible, mighty army going ahead of them. God will never let us come in contact with the enemy. God himself goes ahead of us; we are to follow him.

In 2 Samuel 5:24 we read, “As soon as you hear the sound of marching in the tops of the balsam trees, move quickly, because that will mean the Lord has gone out in front of you to strike the Philistine army.” There is a time to wait and a time to act. Waiting is more difficult than acting. We want to do things. We want action. It is easier to act than to wait. But if you are living a God-managed life, when God tells you to wait and pray, you will wait and pray. Then when God tells you to act, you must act! Don’t wait when the Lord has gone out in front of you to strike the Philistine army.

Notice, when the Philistines came again and David prayed, he received a different answer and a different strategy. That is why we need to pray and be led by the Spirit of God and the word of God. What happened when David and his men did that? Once again they were victorious over the Philistines.

The Philistines did not come against David from that time on. Others came, but the Philistines did not. And we are told that as the fame of David spread, God sent shivers into the hearts of the kings of the nations. God does marvelous things when we let him manage our lives.

The Secret to Success

What, then, is the secret of success in the God-managed life? Obedience. In verse 25 we find a wonderful statement: “So David did as the Lord commanded him.” It is interesting to read that because one thing we never find in a description of Saul is that he was obedient. As an unregenerate person, Saul never denied himself, never prayed, and never obeyed God. But in David we see a truly regenerate Christian who did as the Lord told him.

David was not the perfect king of Israel. But there is One came later who is the Son of David and the Lord of David, whose life must inspire us to surrender ourselves to God. In Philippians 2:5-11 we read:

Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death-even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

The secret of success is obedience. When we look at the obedience of Jesus Christ, who was God/man, we see that it led him to humble himself to the death of the cross. Only through this obedience of Christ are we saved.

I pray that we will live lives of total and complete surrender, beginning today. The man who prays is the man who realizes that he is weak and dependent on God. This is the secret to a fully obedient life, a life led by the Holy Spirit. I hope we will be like J.C. Ryle, who said the only thing that mattered was, “What saith the Scripture?” Don’t give me opinions and psychologies and philosophies and cultural norms. Our only question should be: What saith the Scripture? A life managed by God is a life that is peaceful, full of joy, and blessed by God.

What about you? If you are a Saul, I pray that you will repent today and surrender your life to Jesus Christ unconditionally. Don’t do him a favor. If you are a David, I pray that you be led by the Spirit, waiting when God asks you to wait and acting when God asks you to act. Above all, may we all look to Jesus Christ, who is our Lord and Savior and perfect example.

May God help us to live lives that are fruitful, productive, and successful. May we live, not to make money or to make a name for ourselves or to build monuments in our names so that our children will look upon them and be proud; let us live for the glory of God alone. Amen.