By Pastor George Lehman

1. By Pastor George Lehman

2. By Pastor George Lehman

3. 1 Samuel 22:1-2 (NIV) 1 David left Gath and escaped to the cave of Adullam. When his brothers and his father’s household heard about it, they went down to him there. 2 All those who were in distress or in debt or discontedted gathered around him, and he became their leader. About four hundred men were with him.

4. 1 Samuel 23: 1-29

5. The irony is that even while David was in the midst of doing God’s will, Saul perceived it to be God’s will to kill him.

6. Why couldn’t God have just revealed everything to David in the beginning?

7. 1. Perhaps it is because accomplishing a mission for God is a walk by faith and not by sight. Faith is what pleases God.

8. 2. It requires an ongoing, consistent relationship with God. It’s about a consistent dedication no matter what the circumstances we face.

9. 3. As we progress in our efforts to fulfill the will and call of God on our lives we will face numerous challenges that God alone knows the answers to.

10. Deuteronomy 29:29 (NIV) The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law.

11. 4. If God revealed every obstacle, every risk and adversity to us in the beginning, I wonder how many of us would have faith enough to even begin the mission?

12. Is it because Saul had his eye on destroying a fellow Israelite that he could not spare time and resources to protect and advance his kingdom?

13. David was only doing what his king should have been doing. David was in the right because he did not listen to men; Saul was in the wrong because he did.

14. Why was his sacrifice of love so unappreciated?

15. 2 Samuel 22:33-37 (NIV) It is God who arms me with strength and makes my way perfect. He makes my feet like the feet of a deer; He enables me to stand on the heights. He trains my hands for battle; my arms can bend a bow of bronze. You give me your shield of victory; You stoop down to make me great. You broaden the path beneath me, so that my ankles do not turn.

16. God was David’s source for everything. God gave him the ability to achieve the many extraordinary things in his life.

17. It was a lifelong training ground that moved him from one plateau to another, often dropping into a ravine of despair and hopelessness.

18. These are God’s ways. They drive us deeper and deeper into the heart of Him who has prepared a way for us.

19. Let God take you to the heights or depths He desires for you. He never promised smooth sailing during the trip, but He did promise to be the captain and companion along the way.

20. How many times have pastors stepped in and fought somebody else’s fight, only to wind up being the brunt of someone’s misguided vengeance?

21. How many times have caring pastor’s and leaders, spent time away from their families to counsel someone else’s, only to eventually be hurt or blamed for their dilemma?

22. What would be the total number of nights and hours spent by pastors at hospitals, at sick beds, prisons, nursing homes, funeral parlors, dealing with marriage problems and countless other places as they ministered to the needs of the people of God?

23. How often have the good deeds of a pastor been forgotten and rewarded only by the wrath and back biting and slander of someone who is angered over a trivial stupid matter?

24. How many pastors have heard their good deeds become evil spoken of?

25. How many pastors have poured their life into someone only to have them leave the ministry and disrespecting you?

26. How many people have lost out with God in spite of the pastor’s best efforts?

27. Ecclesiastes 3:1 (NIV) To everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under the heaven.

28. There are seasons in every leader’s life when adversity, failure and hardships seem to be the only thing we encounter.

29. Here are some words of wisdom regarding losing, failure, adversity and coming out on top.

30. 1. “And once the storm is over, you won’t remember how you made it through, how you made it through, how you managed to survive. You won’t even be sure whether the storm is really over. But one thing is certain, when you come out of the storm, you won’t be the same person who walked in. that’s what this storm’s all about.” Haruki Murakami

31. 2. “You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise form, how you can still come out of it.” Maya Angelou

32. 3. “The most beautiful people I’ve known are those who have known trials, have known struggles, have known loss, and have found their way out of the depths.” Elisabeth Kübler-Ross

33. 4. “Sometimes adversity is what you need to face in order to become successful.” Zig Ziglar

34. 5. “Adversity is like a strong wind. I don’t mean just that it holds us back from places we might otherwise go. It also tears away from us all but the things that cannot be torn, so that afterword we see ourselves as we really are, and not merely as we might like to be.” Arthur Golden

35. 6. “the greater the obstacle the more glory in overcoming it.” Moliere

36. 2 Corinthians 4:15 (Amplified) For all [these] things are (taking place] for your sake, so that the more grace [divine favor and spiritual blessing) extends to more and more people and multiplies through the many, the more thanksgiving may increase [and redound] to the glory of God.

37. 2 Corinthians 4:16 (Amplified) Therefore we do not become discouraged (utterly spiritless, exhausted, and wearied out through fear). Though our outer man is [progressively] decaying and wasting away, yet our inner self is being [progressively] renewed day after day.

38. 2 Corinthians 4:17 (Amplified) For our light, momentary affliction (this slight distress of the passing hour) is ever more and more abundantly preparing and producing and achieving for us an everlasting weight of glory [beyond all measure, excessively surpassing all comparisons and all calculations, a vast and transcendent glory and blessedness never to cease!].

39. 2 Corinthians 4:18 (Amplified) Since we consider and look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen; for the things that are visible are temporal (brief and fleeting), but the things that are invisible are deathless and everlasting.

40. 1 Thessalanians 5:24 (NIV) “Faithful is HE who calls you, and He will bring it to pass.”