“...when David and his men were come to Ziklag on the third day, that the Amalekites had invaded the south, and Ziklag, and smitten Ziklag, and burned it with fire;” (1 Samuel 30:1)
While David and his men were away, the Amalekites invaded their city and carried off the women and children. David and his men were fearless warriors, renowned for their prowess on the battlefield. Had they been present, the Amalekites might not have succeeded. They were men of strength, but their absence led to captivity.
Women like Deborah and Jael fought in Scripture (see Judges 4). David was a fearless warrior even as a boy. So fighting was not for men alone. The deeper issue is that David and his men had not taught their wives and children to fight. They failed to transfer strength - and that failure backfired in their absence.
It is not enough to be a person of strength. God says: transfer our strength to those around you. This is the heart of Foundations 4 Living: making disciples who make other disciples. Transfer your faith, knowledge, wisdom, abilities, skills, and ministry to the people connected to you - not merely so they can admire you, but so they can stand, serve, and reproduce what they have received.
If your relationship with God is deep, and if you are strong in prayer and in the Word, teach those around you to follow suit. Teach subordinates how to get the job done. For every ability and strength God has planted in you, plant it in others also.
Disciple-making is not complete when people merely receive from you; it is complete when they can stand in your absence and disciple others.
If the women and children in David's camp had been trained to fight, they could have defended themselves - and maybe there would have been no need for David and his men to fight and rescue them.
Failure to transfer your strength may come back to haunt you someday. If you do not transfer your strength, you will keep doing what you could have empowered others to do. You will remain the only one who can fight, pray, lead, or solve - and the work will always wait for you. Transferring your strength won’t reduce you; it will make life easier for you and better for those connected to you. It is how disciples are made - and how disciples make other disciples.
Pray With Me: Lord, give me wisdom and grace to transfer the strength I have in me, so that those I disciple may stand and disciple others, in Jesus’ name!
