Mensa Otabil - Building New Competencies
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We are halfway there; this is day number 20 of our 40 Days of Power. We’ve come this far by grace, and all of you who said, «Oh, I’m going to wait,» this is a good time to join, and let’s finish strong to the glory of God. We’re looking at building capacity this week, so we go to 1 Samuel chapter 17, verses 34 and 35. But David said to Saul, «Your servant used to keep his father’s sheep, and when a lion or a bear came and took a lamb out of the flock, I went out after it, struck it, and delivered the lamb from its mouth. And when it arose against me, I caught it by its beard, struck, and killed it.» David is telling Saul the capacity he had built that qualified him to deal with Goliath, thus showing his credentials.
Before we attempt big things, we must build the capacity for them. David was a very simple shepherd boy when he started his life; he was the youngest of his father’s sons. He was not ready for the military, so he was given the lowest job in the family: to take care of the family sheep. A shepherd in those days had a very boring job, and David used the time when he was doing nothing, taking care of the sheep, to write some psalms, sing, become a good musician, and learn how to use the slingshot.
But in the process, he also had to deal with dangers that came against the flock that had been given to his care. Most shepherds, when they had an attack against the flock, would run away and leave the flock at the mercy of the attackers, a lion or a bear. But David was a different person; he went after the enemy and slew it, and that’s how he built capacity to do the great things that God wants us to do.
You know, many times we build capacity at a lower level to solve problems at a higher level, and if you want to solve higher-level problems, then you have to take care of the lower-level problems you have now. If you don’t solve them, you’re not going to be able to solve the problems at the top.
And so David tells us three things he did when a lion or a bear came against his lambs. David says, «I went out after it.» Can you believe it? He says, «I ran after the lion.» If you were a shepherd and a lion came after your lamb, you would run away from the lion. But David ran toward the lion; he was a courageous man. We have to develop the capacity to run to where problems are. Don’t scatter when problems show up; you have to be engaged, you have to be committed to solving the problem-in your job, in your office, at home.
David said, «I ran after it,» and may God give us the capacity to run after problems when they occur, not run from them. Secondly, he said, «I struck it,» and here David is talking about using his sling and stone to hit the lion. He says, «I had developed so much skill that I could strike a lion with a sling and a stone.» He was a skillful person. Then he said, «I delivered it from the mouth of the lion,» which means he literally pried open the mouth of a lion and took a lamb out of it. He had so many lambs he could have said, «This is easy; you can spare it,» but he would not let it go. That attitude was so critical to David that when he faced Goliath, he knew without any shadow of a doubt that he could take the guy down. Why? Because he had reared, he had built capacity, and he had built the ability.
Now, one of the things God is going to do for you, wherever you are now, wherever you work, is building your capacity for something you will do later. If you are lazy now, you’ll be lazy tomorrow. If you run from problems now, you’ll run from problems tomorrow. If you are blaming people now, you will blame people tomorrow. But if you learn to run after problems, you learn to develop your skills. Then at the next level of your life, God will give you opportunities to use the skills you’ve developed now to solve the problems coming.
May God help each one of us to build capacity. So today, as you pray, ask God to give you the capacity not to run away from problems. Let’s pray. Say with me, «Heavenly Father, help me to serve you with all that I have and do my work with full commitment. In Jesus' name, amen and amen.»