Bringing Down Your Foundational Goliath

1 Samuel 17:26-27, 40-51*

1 Samuel 17:26 (KJV) says: “And David spake to the men that stood by him, saying, What shall be done to the man that killeth this Philistine, and taketh away the reproach from Israel? for who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?”

Goliath is an agent of reproach.

Goliath defied the army of the living God. They try to defy your prayers.

1 Samuel 17:27 (KJV) says: “And the people answered him after this manner, saying, So shall it be done to the man that killeth him.”

1 Samuel 17:40-42 (KJV) says: “And he took his staff in his hand, and chose him five smooth stones out of the brook, and put them in a shepherd’s bag which he had, even in a scrip; and his sling was in his hand: and he drew near to the Philistine. And the Philistine came on and drew near unto David; and the man that bare the shield went before him. And when the Philistine looked about, and saw David, he disdained him: for he was but a youth, and ruddy, and of a fair countenance.”

Goliath is an enemy of mockery, an enemy that mocks you.

1 Samuel 17:41-43 (KJV) says: “And the Philistine came on and drew near unto David; and the man that bare the shield went before him. And when the Philistine looked about, and saw David, he disdained him: for he was but a youth, and ruddy, and of a fair countenance. And the Philistine said unto David, Am I a dog, that thou comest to me with staves? And the Philistine cursed David by his gods.”

 

Goliath Is A  Cursing Enemy.

1 Samuel 17:44-48 (KJV) says: “And the Philistine said to David, Come to me, and I will give thy flesh unto the fowls of the air, and to the beasts of the field. Then said David to the Philistine, Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield: but I come to thee in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied. This day will the LORD deliver thee into mine hand; and I will smite thee, and take thine head from thee; and I will give the carcases of the host of the Philistines this day unto the fowls of the air, and to the wild beasts of the earth; that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. And all this assembly shall know that the LORD saveth not with sword and spear: for the battle is the LORD’S, and he will give you into our hands. And it came to pass, when the Philistine arose, and came and drew nigh to meet David, that David hasted, and ran toward the army to meet the Philistine.”

This was the first time in the life of Goliath that somebody was not running away from him but running towards him.

I decree upon the life of somebody here today: You shall pursue your pursuers, in the name of Jesus.

1 Samuel 17:49-51 (KJV) says: “And David put his hand in his bag, and took thence a stone, and slang it, and smote the Philistine in his forehead, that the stone sunk into his forehead; and he fell upon his face to the earth. So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone, and smote the Philistine, and slew him; but there was no sword in the hand of David. Therefore David ran, and stood upon the Philistine, and took his sword, and drew it out of the sheath thereof, and slew him, and cut off his head therewith. And when the Philistines saw their champion was dead, they fled.”

The sword that Goliath prepared for David was now used to slay Goliath.

Every weapon prepared by your enemies against you shall destroy your enemies in the name of Jesus. Their weapons shall backfire, in the name of Jesus.

We have introduced Goliath. Let us now introduce “foundation”. Foundation is:

What begins everything.

The starting point of your life.

What has been laid up for your future.

Your source.

The grassroots of your life.

The building block of your life.

Your baseline.

The things that happened at the beginning of your life. Some have been battling since they were in their mother’s womb.

They are still battling now, and unless they engage in the ministry of conflict and employ the ministry of prayers, such people go from the cradle to the grave as defeated people.

 

Your personal Genesis.

 

Your background.

 

Your origin.

 

Where you have been drawn from.

Your lineage.

The platform prepared for you by your ancestors.

The beginning of your history.

Your parentage. Many people did not commit any offence, but they entered into bondage because their parents entered into bondage.

 

Your parentage will determine the kind of enemies that you fight.

 

Your ancestry.

 

Your heritage.

 

Your cornerstone.

 

The beginning of your speed.

 

Your root.

 

Foundation is generally unseen because it is under the ground, but it exists. It is very costly yet mysterious.

 

When you have a Goliath in the foundation of your life, it is a serious matter indeed.

 

~~ There are many spirits people can have in the foundation of their lives. Goliath is just one of them.

 

If you have the spirit of Cain in your foundation, it represents household wickedness bent on killing kids for destruction; it represents envious household witchcraft.

 

This could be in a person’s foundation.

 

There could be the spirit of Pisgah in a person’s foundation, which is the spirit of “almost there.”

 

There could be the spirit of Herod in a person’s foundation, which is the power that kills things at infancy, the amputating power.

 

There could be the spirit of Pharaoh in a person’s foundation, which represents stubborn pursuers; the powers that pursued parents want to pursue children too.

 

I am praying for somebody here today: if there is any Pharaoh in your foundation that refused to let your parents go, and has decided now to make pursuing you a full-time assignment, with a tenfold amen, bury them now, in the name of Jesus.

 

There could be the spirit of Haman in a person’s foundation; that is, the spirit plotting to kill you before your time.

 

There could be the spirit of Balaam in a person’s foundation, which represents cursers hired to bring you down with evil utterances.

 

There could be the spirit of Gehazi in a person’s foundation, which is the spirit of covetousness.

 

There could be the spirit of Jezebel in a person’s foundation, which will bring the person down if you do not contest with it.

 

There could be the spirit of Saul in a person’s foundation.

 

There could also be the spirit of Judas in a person’s foundation.

 

At the same time,

There could be the spirit of Goliath in the foundation of somebody. Goliath was facing the children of Israel. He ridiculed Israel for 40 days. He was coming to mock them twice a day. That is 80 times. David came at the 81st time. Goliath said, “Choose you a man for you and let him come down to me. If he be able to fight with me and to kill me, then we will be your servants; but if I prevail against him and kill him, then shall ye be our servants, and serve us.” The armies of Israel were gathered there, shouting war cries, but God’s presence had been withdrawn. Saul was tall, but not tall enough to go against Goliath.

 

Parading in nice military uniform is very easy. Going to Bible college is very easy. Calling yourself a pastor or bishop is very easy. Calling yourself a professor is very easy. The reason they are calling you professor is because there is no Goliath. By the time Goliath comes to the warfront, we will know who the professors are. By the time Goliath came to the warfront, it was then that we knew who the true soldiers were. It was easy to be shouting, “Left, right, attention!” But defeating Goliath was a serious problem. This is a very serious situation.

 

Years back, a professor of Philosophy came to my office and said, “Dr. Olukoya, I have a question for you. Is there anything wrong if I marry one extra wife? Because the one at home now is old-fashioned. I need a modern wife.” I said, “No professor, do not do such.” He said again, “Can I ask you a question?” I replied, “Yes.” He asked, “How many wives does Solomon have?” I said “700.” He asked again, “Is he not the wisest man that lived?” I replied, “Yes, that is what the Bible said.” He said yet again. “I am not asking for two or three, just one.” I said again, “Professor, do not do so.”

 

He still did not listen. He went to marry this strange woman. I do not know what prayer the woman at home prayed, but a week before the wedding, the strange woman died. You would have thought that since that woman had died, that would be the end of everything. But the family of the strange woman said to him, “Since your wedding is on Friday and your wife is already dead, we have to go ahead with the wedding.”. The man asked, “How?” They said, “We will wed you with the corpse.” He protested, saying, “That is not good.” They maintained, “You have to do it.”

 

And as if drugged, the professor went with them to the cemetery, and there they wedded the living with the dead. And from that day, anywhere the professor went, he would be seeing the dead woman. In the lecture room, he would be shouting, “Get out of the room; you are dead.” His students would say, “Where? There is nobody here.” He said, “Can you not see her?” Then they grabbed the professor and took him to the psychiatric hospital, and started giving him drugs. What the drugs did was to multiply the woman to three. He used to see just one of her, but after the drugs, they became three.

 

It was then he remembered that he had come to me. He then came back. I said, “But prof, I warned you.” When there is Goliath, we will know who the true kings, soldiers, and professors are. Goliath looked down on Israel with contempt. But he made a mistake. He did not know that there was another factor to be considered. He was not aware that he was confronting covenant children of God, and David understood this as the covenant mark of the circumcision. So regardless of the strength, knowledge, or intelligence of the opposition, David knew he had an advantage.

 

I am sure Goliath would get up every morning and say to himself in the mirror, “I am going to shake up those Israelites today.” However, David did not see Goliath the way Goliath saw himself. As the giant roared against David, David was not impressed. He said, “Who is this uncircumcised Philistine? Who is this one?” David looked at him from a different perspective, which is how believers should look at the powers of darkness. “Who is this useless coven confronting me?” “Who is this occultic grandmaster talking against me?” As far as David was concerned, the giant was uncircumcised and had no covenant with God.

 

So you could see that David had a very big view of God, and he measured everything by that view. He had seen enough of God to cut everything else down to size. Goliath may be a giant foe, but he must fall before the living God. Unfortunately, many of us see our Goliath before we see God. Many hide before the enemy and expect to defeat the enemy. But David was not impressed. He said, “What kind of rubbish is this? What sort of nonsense is this?” So our greatest need, beloveth is to see the greatness of our God. David said, “This Goliath is small before my God.” David looked to God rather than to man. To recognise that all those forces facing us are nothing before God is a way to start the battle. What is your own uncircumcised philistine today?

 

• I decree by the decree of heaven: it shall fall after the order of Goliath, in the name of Jesus.

 

The book of Zechariah said, “Who are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel, thou shall become a plain.” He queried the mountain. So the spirit of Goliath uses threatenings, weapons, armour, and giant size to harass people. But I have a word of prophecy for somebody today. I do not really know that person.

 

• Your terrifying strongman shall fall down today, in the name of Jesus.

 

One ingredient that you are going to need this morning is holy anger. Holy anger is for when you want to right the wrong, when the enemy has gone beyond his boundary.

 

NOW, WHAT IS THE SPIRIT OF GOLIATH?

The spirit of Goliath represents:

 

∆∆ The confident enemies.

 

∆∆ Armoured enemies, they feel they are protected. They feel they have godfathers and godmothers.

 

∆∆ Unrepentant and stubborn strong man.

 

The loud enemy.

 

Powers that defy our faith and prayers.

Powers mocking our prayers.

 

Enemies with fearful credentials.

 

In one place I worked many years back, they feared one man seriously. One gardener annoyed the man, and I heard the man tell the gardener,

 

“You, this man, you do not know me. The last time I cursed a person, the person was eating raw wood. The last time I cursed another person, the person jumped into fire without knowing. The last time I cursed a person, the person drank poison and died.” He then began to curse this gardener, and the man began to tremble. I then said to the gardener, “Are you a Christian?”

He said, “Yes.” I asked, “And you kept quiet?” He said, “Can you not hear what he is saying?” I said, “That is the voice of Goliath. Go and look for him and offer a response.” David did not keep quiet when Goliath was talking. He responded. The Bible says, “Any tongue that rises against me shall be condemned.” I said, “Go back there and tell the man, You might have cursed people, but my case is different. Every word you have said, I multiply it by seven and send it back to you.” He did so, and the man replied, “You will see.” The next day, this evil man could not come to work. His weapon had backfired.

 

• I am praying that any power boasting against your life, your career, your family, your staff of bread, and your children, with an angry 7-fold amen, I command them to die, in the name of Jesus.

 

Goliath represents:

 

Mocking enemies.

 

Madam, are they mocking you in that place? Brother, are they mocking you?

 

• Those mocking you shall celebrate your breakthroughs, in the name of Jesus.

 

Giant problems.

 

Big problems.

 

Boasting problems.

 

Persistent problems.

 

The Bible said that Goliath was coming every morning and evening to threaten people. He did it 80 times. I want to pray this prayer, and the answer will come to people who can shout the loudest amen they can shout.

 

• I decree that any power that does not want to give you peace: today here is their burial ground, in the name of Jesus.

 

• I am praying for somebody again, that the fear of you will fall upon every power of darkness assigned against you, in the name of Jesus.

 

• Receive the anointing to be a terror to the kingdom of darkness in the name of Jesus.

 

I want you to understand this very well.

 

Problems that instill fear into the mind.

 

That thing that is scaring you is the spirit of Goliath.

 

Well-trained enemies. When David went to Saul and said, ‘I want to fight the man,’ Saul said something interesting. He said, “Thou art but a youth, but he is a man of war from his youth.”

 

Well-trained enemies.

 

Enemies who will stand and cook up lies against you.

 

Cursing enemies.

 

Any power cursing you shall receive their curses back on their heads, in the name of Jesus.

 

The threatening enemies.

 

The “I will deal with you” enemies.

 

The proud enemies.

 

Proud competitors

 

Proud opponents.

 

Proud opposition.

 

Proud aggressors.

 

Proud betrayers.

 

Proud contenders.

 

Proud foes.

 

Proud rivals.

 

Proud molesters.

 

Get yourself ready this morning. There are some anti-Goliath prayers to pray this morning. So, if the spirit of Goliath represents all these and it has started to battle you from your foundation, then you need to violently deal with it. This is why this passage opens our eyes very well.

 

There are deep passages to learn from this story. If you study it closely, you will learn that:

With God, you can do the impossible.

 

>You must make use of what you already have. The stones in the hands of David were what he used.

 

You should not underestimate your capabilities. You never know what you can do until you try and put your faith into action.

 

We should be bigger than our fears.

 

You should know that giants are not always as strong or powerful as we think they are. Every Goliath, no matter how big or strong they are, has an unprotected forehead where you can throw your stones. All these lessons are in this passage. You can preach on this passage for one year.

 

No matter how big your giants are, God is bigger.

Just because somebody has not done it before does not mean it cannot be done. Nobody had destroyed Goliath before; David was the first to do it.

 

We should fight our battles in the name of the Lord.

 

You must never underestimate what God can do through you. Fear comes when we take our minds off God. When Peter took his eyes off Jesus, he began to sink.

To have faith, do not rely on your senses. When it comes to the things of God, you cannot measure it by your academic brain. The best of brains cannot cope with the mysteries of God.

 

The battle is not yours; it is the Lord’s. And when God appears at your warfront, your battle is over.

 

You must know your spiritual weapons. If you do not have the book ‘101 Weapons of War,’ go and buy it. David had five stones, and he had calculated that if he missed like four, at least one stone would catch Goliath.

 

Do not talk about how great your battles are; talk about how great your God is.

 

Your enemies are always spiritually prepared against you. So if you are naive and do not understand anything and think because you have not offended anybody, because you are a nice person, therefore you have no enemies, you are a fool. If I slap your face, you are not a wicked person by slapping me back. But when I have not touched you at all and you are slapping me, that is wickedness.

 

You do not need to offend anybody before a war can be declared against you.

 

You do not use the armour of a sword; use your divine protection. All these lessons are in that passage.

you send curses back to the senders. Goliath said he would destroy David. He cursed David by his gods. But David did not keep quiet. He replied, “It is me that will kill you today and feed your flesh to the birds of the air.”

 

You must learn to pronounce the curse of God upon what you do not want in your life.

Goliath died already before he died. Immediately David said, “I come against you in the name of the Lord of hosts whom you defied.” That was the end of the battle.

Last but not the least, a closed mouth is a closed destiny. David did not keep quiet; he fought back.

 

PRAYER POINTS.

 

1. Arrows of envious witchcraft, pointed at me, backfire in the name of Jesus.

 

2. Powers that stopped my parents, you cannot stop me: die, in the name of Jesus.

 

3. Stubborn enemies sitting on my glory, summersault and die, in the name of Jesus.

 

4. Miracles that surpass explanation, manifest in my life in the name of Jesus.

 

5. Goliath in my foundation, hear the Word of the Lord: die, in the name of Jesus.

 

6. Inherited Goliath, you are a liar; die in the name of Jesus.