Mensa Otabil - Trained for Battle (10/18/2025)
Welcome to day number 19 of our 40 days of power. This week, we are looking at building capacity. God wants us to grow our capacity to do big things for Him, and so we are going to explore the kinds of capacities we must develop. Our prayer will focus on these areas. Today, we look at 1 Chronicles chapter 12, verse 8. It reads: «Some Gaddites joined David at the stronghold in the wilderness, mighty men of valor, men trained for battle, who could handle shield and spear, whose faces were like the faces of lions, and were as swift as gazelles on the mountains.» This is a very colorful description of the people who worked with David.
Now, David was thrown into leadership at a very young age. As a teenager, he brought down the Philistine giant Goliath and was hailed as a national hero. Unfortunately, the king of Israel at the time, Saul, had problems with David, so David was thrown into exile. In this harsh environment, David had to survive. How do you survive in a harsh environment when your king is against you and you have literally been thrown into enemy territory? How do you survive?
David started gathering people, and some of those who came to him were not the best material, but he made the most of them. Here is a description of the kinds of people that came to David, their training, and what they did. Three things I want you to pay attention to are that the people who came to David were men of courage. The Bible describes them as men of valor, another word for bravery—brave people. This season, we expect God to give us the capacity for courage: courage to face things that are difficult, tough, and hard. Because if you don’t have courage, you’re going to run from a battle when it starts. But God has not given us the spirit of fear. We don’t run from the battle; we run into battle. Like the men of David, we have the bravery to face every challenge that comes against us.
The second thing you see about the people who gathered around David is that they had expertise. The passage describes them as people who could handle shield and spear—they were expert warriors. They had skill and the ability to work with different tools and succeed with them. You know, everybody has something they have to work with. For these people, it was shield and spear; for you, it may be a musical instrument, a laptop, an iPod, some equipment you work with, or a welding machine. Whatever tool you have in your hand, you have to be an expert at it. For those recording me, if you use a camera, you need to be expert with it. You can’t have a tool in your hand and underutilize it. We see that David’s men knew how to use the tools in their hands, and I pray that whatever tool you have, God will give you mastery over it and the capacity to use that tool to the greatest advantage.
So today, in your prayer, you will pray for courage. You will pray that God will help you use whatever tool you work with to the greatest advantage, and you will pray that God will give you the ability to move quickly, decisively, and without hesitation-not procrastinating or waiting for things to happen before you take action. We are building that capacity today.
Let’s pray. Say with me, «Heavenly Father, increase my capacity to courageously do great things with the little I have in my hand. In Jesus' name, Amen.»