“I Am Going To Bend Your Bow!” – 01-01-15
Today the Lord spoke to my heart, and said,“I am going to bend your bow!” I thought to myself, “bend my bow?” I went to my computer and looked up several scriptures regarding bending bows and the use of bows. The Lord loves to speak in pictures and parables to illustrate truths to us, to help us understand the journey ahead of us.
2 Samuel 22 and Psalms 18 reveal powerful illustrations of the ways in which God will train us for war and for victory. For the sake of time, I will post the shorter version below: But study the whole chapters for they reveal much for the coming years ahead of us. We have much to recover, to redeem, and to apprehend for the Kingdom.
2 Samuel 22:29 For You, O Lord, are my Lamp; the Lord lightens my darkness. 30 For by You I run through a troop; by my God I leap over a wall. 31 As for God, His way is perfect; the word of the Lord is tried. He is a Shield to all those who trust and take refuge in Him. 32 For who is God but the Lord? And who is a Rock except our God? 33 God is my strong Fortress; He guides the blameless in His way and sets him free. 34 He makes my feet like the hinds’ [firm and able]; He sets me secure andconfident upon the heights. 35 He trains my hands for war, so that my arms can bend a bow of bronze. 36 You have also given me the shield of Your salvation; and Your condescension andgentleness have made me great. 37 You have enlarged my steps under me, so that my feet have not slipped. 38 I have pursued my enemies and destroyed them; and I did not turn back until they were consumed.
Psalms 18:33 He makes my feet like hinds’ feet [able to stand firmly or make progress on the dangerous heights of testing and trouble]; He sets me securely upon my high places.
We personally grow and spiritually advance the most under times of extreme testing and intense trials. Our very thoughts/words will determine whether we fail or succeed in the allotted time that we are given for the assignment. These are opportunities for us to achieve tremendous victories in the earth and in the realm of the Spirit.
The Bow: the tongue.
The Arrows: the words that are spoken forth. (Good or bad)
The Arrows: the words that are spoken forth. (Good or bad)
Jeremiah 9:3 And they bend their tongue, [which is] their bow for the lies [they shoot]. And not according to faithfulness do they rule and become strong in the land; for they proceed from evil to evil, and they do not know and understand and acknowledge Me, says the Lord.
The revelatory word is to be within our minds, our hearts, and in our mouths at all times. The Lord will inspire us to speak as His very oracles, to declare forth His arrows to pierce the enemy and to destroy his works.
Deuteronomy 18:18 I will raise up for them a prophet (Prophet) from among their brethren like you, and will put My words in his mouth; and he shall speak to them all that I command him.
Deuteronomy 30:14 But the word is very near you, inyour mouth and in your mind and in your heart, so that you can do it.
Isaiah 55:11 So shall My word be that goes forth out of My mouth: it shall not return to Me void [without producing any effect, useless], but it shall accomplish that which I please and purpose, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.
As we speak under the authority of the Lord, our bow (tongue) releases the arrows (the words) outward into the atmosphere around us to accomplish the Lord’s purposes. Our obedience is very important to the Lord.
Zechariah 9:1 The burden or oracle (the thing to be lifted up) of the word of the Lord is against the land of Hadrach [in Syria], and Damascus shall be its resting place, for the Lord has an eye upon mankind as upon all the tribes of Israel, 2 And Hamath also, which borders on [Damascus], Tyre with Sidon, though they are very wise. 3 And Tyre has built herself a stronghold [on an island a half mile from the shore, which seems impregnable], and heaped up silver like dust and fine gold like the mire of the streets. 4 Behold, the Lord will cast her out and dispossess her; He will smite her power in the sea and into it and [Tyre] shall be devoured by fire. 5 [The strong cities of Philistia] shall see it and fear; Ashkelon, Gaza also, and be sorely pained, and Ekron, for her confidence and expectation shall be put to shame, and a king [monarchial government] shall perish from Gaza, and Ashkelon shall not be inhabited. 6 And a mongrel people shall dwell in Ashdod, and I will put an end to the pride of the Philistines. 7 And I will take out of [the Philistines’] mouths and from between their teeth the abominable idolatrous sacrifices eaten with the blood. And they too shall remain and be a remnant for our God, and they shall be like chieftains (the head over a thousand) in Judah, and Ekron shall be like one of the Jebusites [who at last were merged and had lost their identity in Israel]. 8 Then I will encamp about My house as a guard or a garrison so that none shall march back and forth, and no oppressor ordemanding collector shall again overrun them, for now My eyes are upon them. 9 Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O Daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King comes to you; He is [uncompromisingly] just and having salvation [triumphant and victorious], patient, meek, lowly, and riding on a donkey, upon a colt, the foal of a donkey. 10 And I will cut off andexterminate the war chariot from Ephraim and the [war] horse from Jerusalem, and the battle bow shall be cut off; and He shall speak the word and peace shall come to the nations, and His dominion shall be from the [Mediterranean] Sea to [any other] sea, and from the River [Euphrates] to the ends of the earth! 11 As for you also, because of and for the sake of the [covenant of the Lord with His people, which was sealed with sprinkled] covenant blood, I have released and sent forth your imprisoned people out of the waterless pit. 12 Return to the stronghold [of security and prosperity], you prisoners of hope; even today do I declare that I will restore double your former prosperity to you. 13 For I have bent Judah for Myself as My bow, filled the bow with Ephraim as My arrow, and will stir up your sons, O Zion, against your sons, O Greece, and will make you [Israel] as the sword of a mighty man. 14 And the Lord shall be seen over them and His arrow shall go forth as the lightning, and the Lord God will blow the trumpet and will go forth in the windstorms of the south. 15 The Lord of hosts shall defend and protect them; and they shall devour and they shall tread on [their fallen enemies] as on slingstones [that have missed their aim], and they shall drink [of victory] and be noisy and turbulent as from wine and become full like bowls [used to catch the sacrificial blood], like the corners of the [sacrificial] altar. 16 And the Lord their God will save them on that day as the flock of His people, for they shall be as the [precious] jewels of a crown, lifted high over andshining glitteringly upon His land. 17 For how great is God’s goodness and how great is His beauty! And how great [He will make Israel’s] goodliness and [Israel’s] beauty! Grain shall make the young men thrive and fresh wine the maidens.
1 Chronicles 11:11 David’s 30 mighty men, and the 30 captains:
(The age of maturity is 30)
11 And this is the number [thirty, and list] of David’s mighty men: Jashobeam, a Hachmonite, the chief of the Thirty [captains]. He lifted up his spear against 300, whom he slew at one time.
The Lord is not only bringing forth the Mighty men and women of valor into the forefront, but He is also setting them in their new positions, and training them for special duties and assignments ahead of them. Below are some of the key verses for us to look at. Study the whole chapter for more insights into the other weapons they used.
1 Chronicles 12:1 These are the ones who came to David at Ziklag, while he yet concealed himself because of Saul son of Kish; they were among the mighty men, his helpers in war. 2 They were bowmen and could use the right hand or the left to sling stones or shoot arrows from the bow; they were of Saul’s kinsmen of Benjamin. 14 These Gadites were officers of the army. The lesser was equal to and over a hundred, and the greater equal to and over a thousand. 15 These are the men who went over the Jordan in the first month when it had overflowed all its banks, and put to flight all those in the valleys, east and west. 16 There came some of the men of Benjamin and Judah to the stronghold to David. 17 David went out to meet them and said to them, If you have come peaceably to me to help me, my heart shall be knit to you; but if you have come to betray me to my adversaries, although there is no violence or wrong in my hands, may the God of our fathers look upon and rebuke you.18 Then the Spirit came upon Amasai, who was chief of the captains, and he said, Yours we are, David, and on your side, you son of Jesse! Peace, peace be to you, and peace be to your helpers, for your God helps you. Then David received them and made them officers of his troops. 33 Of Zebulun, 50,000 experienced troops, fitted out with all kinds of weapons and instruments of war that could order and set the battle in array, men not of double purpose but stable and trustworthy. 38 All these, being men of war arrayed in battle order, came with a perfect and sincere heart to Hebron to make David king over all Israel; and all the rest also of Israel were of one mind to make David king.
The new emerging leaders will be knit together from their very soul and heart, and they will walk in like vision and in unified purpose. Together, they will be a formidable force, the very army of the Lord. They will rout out and destroy every enemy, and take back that which belongs to the Kingdom of the Lord, and establish His true Habitations in every land.
It's time to bend your bow!