Raising individual standards

God is seeking for women/men He will raise as standards

Introduction

In the introductory articles (real problem of man, God's standard, and Christians are called to be a standard) we stated that a standard can be a series of events, a spark of wisdom through selected men/women to thwart the works of the enemy. God also raises men and women as standards. But more interestingly, God begins the process of raising these standards many years before the devil shows up – why? Because God is never caught unawares, He is never overwhelmed and never plays catchup. He knows when the Devil will strike and prepares ahead of time so that when the enemy rises, God's children are ultimately 'ready standards' to withstand against the wiles of the enemy.

In this piece we shall study two instances where God raised men as standards.

David

God knew the devil would rise as a flood through waves of wars. David famously had series of victories against the philistines starting with the defeat of Goliath (1 Sam. 17; 18:13 – 27, 19:8, 23:1 - 5, 19 - 28; 31, 2 Sam. 5:17 - 21, 23:13 – 16, 2 Sam. 5:22 - 25, 21:15 - 20, 23:9 - 12). More battles are stated in 1 Chronicles 18. Some sources claim he fought 66 battles over a 53-year period.

As David walked with God before these battles (and even during these battles), God gave him victory. But beyond the victories, God prepared a standard in David long before the battles.

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God used trials to raise David as a standard

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The faith built by David while tending of Sheep in the wilderness, creating God’s presence with music and the 13-year exile in caves while chased by Saul were the events God used to raise David as a standard. He became a man of war without the luxury of royalty, the anointed King on the run, without the poshness of a palace. He was built for war. The emphasis really is on the fact that David walked with God before the defeat of Goliath and for 13 years after the Goliath victory. The 13 years is critical because during that time, he built a core army base and refused to kill Saul even when he had the chance. It's worth noting that killing Saul would have been a premature interruption of God’s training process for him to become God's standard. And so God is able to lead us through the straight path of His will and if we give Him enough room would make a standard out of our lives.

Jesus

Let’s select just 3 instances where the Devil rose like a flood against Jesus

• The great temptation of Matthew 4, Luke 4 and Mk 1:12-13

• The many traps/deceptions of the scribes and teachers of the law

• The betrayal of Judas leading to crucifixion

These three were unpleasant scenarios Jesus faced and each were well crafted to immobilise Jesus. But as Jesus walked with God through the leading of the Holy Spirit, God prepared Him for each uprising ahead of time.

I love how the Mark 1:12 describes the 40 days fasting of Jesus - "And immediately the Spirit driveth him into the wilderness....." The fast was the event (standard) God set to ready Jesus for the temptation to come and Jesus prevailed over the enemy.

At 12 Jesus knew he had to know Torah and understand it to the fullest – not just for knowledge-sake but also to understand His life’s purpose from scriptures. This crave for knowledge as led by God helped him when the Pharisees came with torrents of questions about the law and prophets. These were not planned debates as we have in today’s world where you have weeks/months to prepare for, the temptations of the scribes were unsolicited and unexpected confrontations from the elites in the temple, but Jesus was knowledgeable enough to answer them and by the inspiration of God silenced them permanently (Mtt. 22:46).

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The spirit of God raised a standard by leading Jesus to Gethsemane

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And finally, the betrayal of a trusted friend Judas was imminent, and Jesus was to go through the most humiliating torture of brutality – the devil was prepping to rise like a flood but the Spirit of God raised a standard by leading Jesus to Gethsemane to pray. In Gethsemane, He was strengthened by God (Luke 22:43) and went through the cross with grace paying an acceptable sacrifice. He prevailed because the 'standard of Gethsemane' was there.

Effects of a standard

In the books of 1st and 2nd Kings, God considers David as a prototype of a good King. David became the anvil upon which every other king was tested upon. Of the 40 monarchs of Israel, only Asa (1 Kgs 15:11), Hezekiah (2 Kgs 18:3) and Josiah (2 Kings 22:2) are compared to David, with the other evil or ‘not-so-good' Kings compare with Jeroboam or Ahab.

Jesus has also become our example for us to walk in his steps – He has become our standard so much so that every Christian's creed must be to ‘become like Jesus’ (Eph. 5:1-2, 1 Cor. 11:1).

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God wants you to be a standard for our generation

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God wants us to walk with Him so that He uses us as a standard to our generation. He wants to give the testimony of Job (Job 1:8; 2:3-5), “Have you noticed my servant, Job? There is no one on earth like him, blameless and upright, fearing God and avoiding evil.” Or better still the testimony of Jesus (Matthew 17:5,Mark 9:7,Luke 9:35), “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.”

May we walk with God until he raises us as standards against the enemy. What is God's testimony about you?