Walking To JerusalemSample

Return to Gibeah – The City of Re-Equipping

Jonathan became a strategic ally for the future king. He gave two of his personal weapons to David, changing the arsenal from that of a shepherd boy to that of a man of war. These were two different kinds of weapons—one for distance and one for close combat. These two weapons mirror two separate but important weapons in the arsenal of the believer: prayer and the Word.

The arrows represent the power of prayer. Through prayer, we can be a great distance away and still find our target. We can shoot down the attacks of the enemy and throw the opposition into confusion. I can sit in my study in Denver and fire arrows at the enemy waging war at a sister church in Melbourne, Australia. I can sit in my chapel in Denver and drop bombs on the enemy attacking my friends all over the world. Through prayer, I can shoot arrows at the enemy attacking my two sons. I can shoot into the future and reach into the past. I can break generational curses and decree blessings on unborn grandchildren. The arrow is a distance weapon that mostly meets a moving target. In the hands of a gifted archer, it is most deadly, and David developed this weapon as well.

Jonathan also gave David his sword, which, of course, is not a long-distance weapon. It is a weapon used in close quarters. One does not hurl a sword. It stays firmly in the hand of the soldier and is used to attack an enemy who is just an arm’s length away. The sword is made of forged metal, and it is honed to a razor-sharp edge. Throughout the Bible, the sword symbolizes the Word of God. In this, we can see that Jonathan symbolically gave David his personal word—his true covenant.

I pray that in your Gibeah you will meet a Jonathan who will hand you his sword, that word of deliverance that helped him overcome his enemies. The bloody sword of Jonathan was a prize because this sword faced a garrison of Philistines. And true covenant relationships cause us to share the words that helped to bring down the strongholds in our own lives—not the quick-fix statement and trite formulaic pronouncements that pretend to be preaching, but the bloody word of our personal testimony. These are the truest stories of God’s grace in our lives.

I encourage people to share the word that saved their lives with those they are in close covenant with. I don’t mean the neatly packaged testimony that can be shared in a nice sound bite, but the bloodied word of our own testimony. When you give someone that word, you are giving them a weapon they can use to fight their own close-up battles. There are real battles we must face, and only those real words can become the swords in our hands with which we can fight.