5 Smooth Stones

own heart, and therefore many of the desires of his heart were the desires of God’s heart. 1 John 3:8 tells us that the Son of God came with the purpose of destroying all the works of the devil. Likewise, when David went toward the giant in the ba tt le, his determination was such to even go past the giant and kill other giants. Goliath, we are told, had four relatives, and, it may be symbolic, but David had fi ve smooth stones to kill fi ve enemy giants.

2 Samuel 21:22 “These four were born to the giant in Gath, and fell by the

hand of David and by the hand of his servants.”

It is interesting that although David may have had the heart to go after all of the giants, in reality he only personally killed the fi rst one of them. The rest were all killed by his trained servants 1 , his spiritual progeny. He understood that as a true leader he must have not only the a tt itude to win the ba tt le, but the war. And if he was to win the war he must raise up others and win through their triumphs as well as his own.

This generational thinking was seen in the ministry of the prophet

Elijah who was given certain mandates from the Lord.

1 Kings 19:15 “Then the LORD said to him: "Go, return on your way to the Wilderness of Damascus; and when you arrive, anoint Hazael as king over Syria. 16 "Also you shall anoint Jehu the son of Nimshi as king over Israel. And Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel Meholah you shall anoint as prophet in your place. 17 "It shall be that whoever escapes the sword of Hazael, Jehu will kill; and whoever escapes the sword of Jehu, Elisha will kill.” Now the scripture only records that Elijah actually carried out the ordination of one of these, Elisha. Because of this some people come to the incorrect conclusion that Elijah did not ful fi l his ministry, or that he was in some way disobedient to God. We need to understand that the spirit of Elijah was a spirit of spiritual fatherhood, and was able to accomplish the will of the Lord by acting generationally. Malachi 4:5 “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet Before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD. 6 And he will turn The hearts of the fathers to the children, And the hearts of the children to their fathers.” There is an old saying that you can accomplish almost anything as long as you are not concerned about who gets the credit. Elijah wanted to see that the will of the Lord was accomplished, both in whom he was to anoint as king and prophet, but also in raising up sons as a father. Elijah had the spirit of fatherhood with a heart towards turning fathers and sons 8