“And the Philistine said to David, “Come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and the beasts of the field!” Then David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword, with a spear, and with a javelin. 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 the LORD will deliver you into my hand;” ( I Samuel 17:44-46 to 1st; and 47, New King James Bible Version). “So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone, and struck the Philistine and killed him. But there was no sword in the hand of David.” (I Samuel 17:50, New King James Bible Version).. “…Thus says the LORD to you: ‘Do not be afraid nor dismayed because of this great multitude, for the battle is not yours, but God’s.” (2 Chronicles 20:15, New King James Bible.) “You will not need to fight in this battle. Position yourselves, stand still and see the salvation of the LORD, who is with you,” (2 Chronicles 20:17 to 1st comma; New King James Bible Version).
Many of us were small children when we first heard the exciting tale of David and Goliath from the Bible. It brought so much joy to hear that a mere shepherd boy was able to defeat, in battle, a giant warrior that even the army of Israel was scared to approach-and David did it with a child's weapon: a mere sling—shot and a small stone. To take down this giant-sized threat to a whole nation was a tremendous feat for a boy to accomplish. Yet, David had one more weapon that was the key to calling God's power into the human scene. David had the weapon of absolute faith that God was with him, and loved him, no matter what seemed to be going on in the outer world of material form. In other words, David's faith in God's invisible Presence, and ultimate Authority over all Its children, was the real weapon that Goliath could not defeat. Let me repeat that: David's faith in God's invisible Presence, and ultimate Authority over all Its children, was the real weapon that Goliath could not defeat. Why? Because we live in a spiritual universe, not a material one. The reality of spiritual law over material-seeming law is something that can be demonstrated by anyone and everyone. It takes, however, at least one individual who perceives the truth of God's (Spirit's) omnipresence and omnipotence—and who mentally stands in this required faith, knowing that God is truly the only Power that exists anywhere and anytime, on any level of conscious existence. This mental state of faith is what causes the material scene to adjust into harmony and healing. This is the importance of the mental state of faith. Like so many biblical stories that have survived the ages, the tale of David and Goliath is rich with symbolism. Goliath represents the giant-sized problems that threaten us all, in this human experience where we seem to be souls trapped in mortal, material body forms. These problems boast power over God's own spiritual children and make us feel weak and abandoned. Material so-called law makes us victims, in some way, every day. Yet, David shows us that human age makes no difference; we are all the significant children of God. Even a child can be made the deliverer from whatever tries to oppress us or defeat us. Why? Because the infinite Intelligence that is with us (within our Christ Consciousness) is well able to handle the battle before us. We have only to trust God with the answer to all our battles, and take whatever (if any) human steps we feel led to take and leave the rest to the Almighty. Divine Spirit is with us and within our true consciousness forever, to protect, guide, and defeat whatever would harm us. The bible tells us that when we stand in faith with God, "No weapon formed against you shall prosper," (Isaiah 54:17 to 1st Comma; New King James Bible Version) The spiritual truth is that in this material sense of reality, it is our consciousness that is the agent of change. What we deeply believe, we call forth into material form, of some type, be it health or disease, poverty or abundance, peace or conflict. Christ Jesus once said to a centurion: "Go your way; and as you have believed, so let it be done for you." (Matthew 8:13; New King James Bible Version). In this material sense of reality, it is clearly apparent that our physical senses bear witness to plenty of evil (lack of some good). Everything in this false sense of materiality seems to have power for good and evil. This belief in two powers often denies God in favor of a devil, or evil entity of some type, as having power to override the everlasting presence and power of God. To believe in a dualistic reality of good and evil is like walking out your front door and trying to go east and west at the same time. It can't be done. Double-mindedness is a conflicted state of mind and reality, for God has no equal opponent. God's invisibly-present, spiritual creation has no enemies—not even a super-natural being called a devil.. In order to call the spiritual law of God into our human experience, one must have a conscious awareness of the invisible, spiritual reality, which underlies the appearance of a physical reality. Our physical senses do not bear witness to the invisible kingdom of God; yet, it is still present, with all its eternal harmony, peace, and love for all. This is our innate spiritual sense within our deeper consciousness, our universal Christ Consciousness, which accesses this everlasting knowledge of the spiritual kingdom of God, and our own place in it. This higher, more spiritually-awakened consciousness awaits a moment when we humanly realize Its presence with us. This is the heavenly kingdom within, where we learn that God is the ONLY Power. Believing in the one power of God obeys the First Commandment that Moses brought down from the Mount: "Thou shalt have no other gods before me." (Exodus 20:3; King James Bible Version). Thus, reality belongs to God alone because God is the only Power and Source of all the good concepts in Its everlasting, spiritual (not material) creation—which exists right where a material universe appears to be reality, but is not. That's why our spiritual home is eternal. If evil, (lack of anything good) were to exist in God's creation, that creation would self-destruct rather than exist forever. Now, that same faith in God as the only Power is required from anyone, be it child or adult, who wants to prove God's absolute Authority over all the evils that claim victory against God's own off-spring. At least one individual must mentally stand, in confidence, that God is the only power, in order to bring the power of Spirit into the human realm. Otherwise, we are accepting the claim that some material 'power', or material 'law', is able to defy the all-power of Spirit. Thus, here in this human experience (where our identities seem to be spiritual souls trapped in finite, material body forms) whatever we hold to be true in our individual consciousness, becomes a 'law' or self-fulfilling prophecy to us. In other words, it will play out for us in the outer world of form—right up to the time that we turn and recognize that God, Spirit, is our Creator, Maintainer, and the only Power that exists anywhere, on any level of thought. Once we actually realize this, we can leave the battles against all material evils to God. After all, it is always the power of the Almighty that is being challenged—not any power of our own, since we have no real power except in God. Whether one is a child, or an adult in this human experience, (where we seem separated from God's presence and the spiritual kingdom of God), our individual consciousness (what we believe to be true) is all important. The good news about this fact is that our own faith in the unseen presence and all-power of God over everything in creation disallows any other source as having dominion over us. No doubt, this realization was at the core of David's faith in the invisible presence, power and love of God for all Its children. This is the real weapon that David held—but David held this weapon in his mind—not his hands. When we develop a trust within ourselves, and our children, of God's invisible-to-the-senses presence and all-power, no material form that evil takes against any of us is successful for very long. Developing trust in the Infinite Intelligence and forever Love of God, for all its children, puts into our memory banks a trust that will deliver us from whatever human threats come at us. Young children are the best at trusting what they cannot see materially. As adults, however, we soon learn NOT to trust anything outside of the seeming power of material law and how things appear to be materially. Since God isn't present 'in the flesh', we have difficulty believing in the infinite invisible presence of our Creator and Source of all good. This is the main reason our earthborn fears take the lead when we seem to face battles, or situations, where we feel powerless against the appearances of our own Goliaths. Without developing our spiritual perception of things, we cannot call forth our spiritual resources nor have the spiritual confidence that David expressed. We simply don't trust what we haven't pursued or developed by practicing some trust, from time to time. Trusting in the invisible presence of the Creator to fight our battles for us, or show us exactly how to win against the great odds that come upon us in modern-day times, seems risky. So, we usually turn to God's protecting presence and power only as a last resort. We make God our last stop, rather than our first. Sadly, in these modern-day times, this sense of God's invisible Presence wasn't always taught to us much as children; thus, this spiritual perception isn't passed along to our own children. It's hard to pass on to children a spiritual sense of God's control over all, when we stay unacquainted with such divine control. Even in David's time, not every young boy would, confidently, believe in the invisible, omnipresence and omnipotence of God, or mentally turn to God and trust divine deliverance from whatever threat was afoot. Yet, despite our obliviousness, God's presence is always available to us, whenever we remember it. There is no magic to it. It is the absolute, spiritual truth that our loving Father/Mother God is invisibly present with us and that we can trust in our divine, unseen Parent's great love for us to deliver us from all earthly threats of harm that we encounter in our daily lives. That's because this human experience is not the reality it seems to be. God's reality, and the invisible kingdom of God, has never left us, and we have never left it. Our true reality is spiritual, and our true identities are our individual identities as the immortal, spiritual children of God. God doesn't believe in the finite, material universe of form. Nothing God has created is mortal, material, nor exists confined within a finite form. This material experience is the Adam dream of life in matter, where we appear to be separated from God, Spirit, and where Adam re-named everything in God's creation. But Adam never woke up. The collective dream is still going on. Yet, the dream of life in matter is just a dream (delusion over consciousness). It is a collective belief only, for one cannot actually put one's self out of the kingdom of God. Nor are there two dueling powers—the power of good and the power of evil. When we fully awaken from this universal dream of life in matter, and when we realize that Adam never recreated God's harmonious, eternal and spiritual creation at all, we gradually become spiritually enlightened (awakened) to our immortal, spiritual identities and the merely temporary time this human realm is with us. Our true identities, our spiritual identities, though invisible to the physical senses, are still with us. We are still in the kingdom of God, for there's no other place one can ever be. The spiritual truth is that Adam never re-created God's spiritual creation into a finite one…he only dreamed that he did. Those of us here are still mentally accepting this dream as our reality, when it is not. Asleep in the Adam dream, our consciousness is at a lower level than when we are spiritually awake (enlightened). Our perception of things on this lowered level of consciousness is faulty. In this lower level of consciousness, we don't perceive reality as it is. That's the reason trust in God's reality becomes an important issue when our 'good' seems impossible. Only this mental shift in belief can change our materialistic, collective dream from bad to good. Faith in the infinite invisible kingdom of God is crucial in spiritual healing of anything we encounter in this temporary dream-state of materiality. When turning to God, and trusting in God's loving, eternal care for each of us, we, ourselves, turn our dream from a nightmare scenario into a 'healed' scenario. The word is made flesh. We stop believing in a reality, or power, opposed to God. Then, when we've driven out this false belief in a power opposed to God, our human situation changes for the good. Then we are obeying the 1st commandment (which I repeat here) "Thou shalt have no other gods (powers) before me." When in trust, we stop believing in the loss of our heavenly home, this change in consciousness turns the 'bad' in our finite-seeming human experience into spiritual good that is always present. Trust is needed to do this. Why? Because it is only our own belief that permits the bad to stay in our human experience. When we determine that God is absent from Its own creation, and that we have been cast out of our heavenly home, we are denying God's presence and power. That's the delusion over consciousness we contend with every day of this human experience. Materiality as reality is what is called, the carnal mind—as opposed to the Christ Consciousness, which is our innate, spiritual consciousness of divine truth. This higher consciousness is our spiritual sense (rather than material sense) which perceives all spiritual truth. When the collective dream of life in matter is seen as a false sense of existence, we change the materialistic dream. We are 'healed' of what is not true of our spiritual selfhood, or spiritual circumstances in the kingdom of God, and the 'word is made flesh'; that is, our human circumstances change to pattern the divine reality. Then, though we still walk in the flesh, we no longer live as a fleshly identity. We gradually transform into the spiritual beings we always were, and always will be, after our human (material dream-state) is over. Although we can call upon God's presence and heavenly harmony while still in the flesh, we can never call upon the Almighty to harm someone else on our behalf. God's love in universal. But we can move through this human experience (where we seem to be trapped in a material body and environment) and maintain, or mentally stand in our trust in the invisible presence of our spiritual Source. When, through troubled times we begin to trust and prove that God is our deliverer from evil situations, our faith deepens. Like all things we practice, we become better at it. We will continue to suffer afflictions of all sorts in what we believe to be a material reality; until it is proved to us, time and time again, that the kingdom of God has never left us and we have never left it. God's spiritual realm is invisibly present, for us, as available as it was to David, when he defeated that colossal threat to his nation in earlier times. As we grow spirit-ward, turning within to our true mind (the universal Christ Consciousness, which was the same 'mind that was in Christ Jesus) we will begin to face our Goliaths with the same power of God that David knew so long ago—the ever-lasting power of faith. None of life's battles have ever been ours to fight. They are God's battles—for ultimately it is God who is being challenged for control over Its own creation. Yet, because we haven't fully comprehended that, we don't trust the invisible power and presence of God to deliver us from evil. The young David realized it, however, and a whole nation was saved. And just as Israel didn't need an army to fight the threat of the Philistines and Goliath, we don't need human will or might to bring God's deliverance into our human experience. Our only need is to trust that our deliverance and protection is already here.
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