Some of us are fighters. And that is a good thing. Because there are battles you and I have been called to fight.

But I don’t want us to be a generation of people who are out there boldly fighting the wrong battles. 

The enemy of our souls hopes we’re too distracted fighting lesser battles so that we are not the sister, the brother, the parent, the coach, the voice of encouragement, the light in our school, the light in our workplace.

The enemy hopes we’re too distracted that we’re not fighting the battles God has called us to fight.

But you and I can choose today to instead reclaim our focus. Remember who we are and what we’ve been put on this earth to do.

We know the story of David and Goliath. There’s this story of this young boy who fought against a very, very tall soldier and he took that giant Goliath down. 

But there was a moment before David went onto the battlefield he was called to, where he had the opportunity to stop and fight a lesser battle. And he could have missed what God was calling him to.

4 lies that will stop you from living out your purpose

In this passage, we’re going to see what Eliab said to David that had the potential to distract David from the battle he was called to fight.

And how you and I, if we’re not careful, can be distracted too. 

Eliab: “Why have you come down here? Who is watching your tiny flock in the wilderness? I’m your brother, and I know you — you’re arrogant, and your heart is evil.

You’ve come to watch the battle as if it were just entertainment.” – 1 Samuel 17:28 (VOICE)

I propose that within this statement from Eliab to David, there are four lies. Four lies that Eliab was saying to David that had the potential to stop him from living the life he was called to.

As I share these four lies, I want you to think about if you’ve ever heard one of these lies, if maybe one of these lies has ever distracted you before. 

Lie #1 — You’re not enough

The very first thing Eliab says to David is “Why have you come down here?” The first lie is — you are not enough.

Eliab is saying to David: Why have you come down here? Who do you think you are that you can fight the important battle that we’re all called to fight? You’re not enough. You don’t have what it takes.

Have you ever felt like God has put something on your heart that you just don’t have the skills for? You don’t have the right story, you don’t have the right community around you, you don’t have the right resources?

Growing up, I was the only Asian kid in my class. And I never felt like I was enough. I hated being different. And I wanted to change who I was in order to be more accepted. 

When I got older, I wanted to change myself to be more effective. In America, the first Chinese woman I ever saw preach was me. I noticed very early when I was sharing at events that I didn’t look like everyone on stage back at home.

Not everyone had my dad’s background. Not everyone came from a broken family the way that I had come from a broken family. Not everyone had done the things that I did growing up.

I realised that I was so very different that I wanted to change who I was in order to be more effective in the places and spaces I felt called to.

So when I was trying to share about Jesus, I tried to leave the details of my story out. I tried to leave them out thinking that maybe then I could be enough.

The enemy knows how loved you are. He doesn’t want you to start living like you’re loved.

I am so sorry for the ways that you have been lied to, that you have to look like other people or have a lifestyle like other people in order to be valuable.

I want you to know that the enemy knows how valuable your life is and how powerful your choices are. So he’s on this whole mission to make sure you don’t find out too.

The enemy’s greatest threat is children of God knowing who they really are and how valuable their life is, and how God handmade and designed you exactly the way you are for an important purpose.

The enemy knows how loved you are. He doesn’t want you to start living like you’re loved. The enemy knows how chosen you are. He doesn’t want you to start living like you’re chosen. 

If you’ve ever heard the lie that you are not enough, know that that is a lie from the enemy to stop you from living out your purpose because you are the enemy’s greatest threat. 

Lie #2 – You’re not doing enough

Here’s the second thing Eliab said to David: “Who is watching your tiny flock in the wilderness?” The second lie that Elliot is saying to David is — you are not doing enough.

Eliab was teasing David. He said: How’s that small thing going, that small thing you do at home that nobody sees, while we’re doing all the public cool stuff that everyone likes and everyone’s talking about?

The enemy wants you to believe the lie that you’re not doing enough.

David was just being faithful in the place that God had put him. It didn’t matter to David if Eliab thought it was enough. David wasn’t living to please Eliab, David was living to please God.

The enemy hopes you and I believe the lie that we are not doing enough, so that you and I dismiss the value of the faithful ways we’ve already been showing up for the people in our lives.

The faithful ways we’ve already been showing up trying to take care of our own soul and taking steps of faith.

The enemy hopes that you believe the lie that you’re not doing enough so that you kill yourself trying to do more to prove to other people that you have a greater capacity than you do.

You don’t need the applause of man to have the approval of God. When you are faithful in the places and spaces God has put you, nobody else needs to see it. God sees it. 

Lie #3 – Someone else can define you

The third lie that Eliab says to David is “I am your brother, and I know you”. The third lie is that someone else can define you.

Some of us have Eliabs in our lives, people that have taken the power from us and try to tell us how important we are. 

But some of us don’t have Eliabs that took the power. Some of us have given the power away. And we’ve started to live in fear of what people think about us. 

We’ve started to look to the approval of people instead of the approval of God.

We are obsessed with what people think about us, obsessed if we fit into the mould of what the world’s telling us to do, obsessed if we’re living the same lives as the friends around us — instead of the life God has called us to live. 

No one has the power to define you but the One who created you.

Don’t live your life looking at yourself through the broken lens of other people. Start to see yourself through the lens of God.

Lie #4 – Your past disqualifies you

Eliab says to David: “I’m your brother, and I know you — you’re arrogant and your heart is evil. You’ve come to watch the battle as if it were just entertainment.” 

The easy thing to say would be that Eliab is lying, that David’s never done anything wrong, that David was perfect.

But David was not perfect. And in the story, David is a teenager.

So it’s possible that his brother has seen him do some prideful things. It’s possible that his brother has seen him trying to be annoying to his other brothers. It’s possible that Eliab has seen David make some mistakes. 

The lie is not that David had ever done anything wrong. The lie is that because of something David did in his past, it disqualified him from being used by God right now.

The enemy hopes you believe that because of something you did that you shouldn’t have done, or something that you said that you shouldn’t have said, you are now disqualified from ever being used by God.

We’ve taken ourselves out, because we think we’re not good enough. And I want you to know, it may be true. 

There may have been some better choices you could have made. That is half the truth. 

The full truth is that because of a choice that Jesus once made to set you free from your sin and to set you free from your guilt, once you give your life to Jesus for real and you hand it over to Jesus, He forgives you. He covers you.

You’re no longer defined by what you did. You’re defined by what Jesus did for you.

Your past does not have the power to roadblock what God wants to do in and through your life. 

The right response 

Have you ever heard the lie that you’re not enough, that you’re not doing enough, that someone else can define you or that your past disqualifies you?

David heard the same lie and this was David’s response.

“Now what have I done?” said David. “Can’t I even speak?”  He then turned away…” 1 Samuel 17:29-30

This is what David does. He goes to the king and says, “I’ll fight Goliath.” And then he does. He goes on to the battlefield and he takes that giant down. 

It’s a good thing that David did not stop to fight his brother. It’s a good thing David did not turn his back on the battlefield he was called to and choose instead to fight against Eliab. 

We’re too busy fighting each other that we’re not fighting the battles God has actually called us to fight.

This is how the enemy loves to do it sometimes. He loves to put brothers against brothers, sisters against sisters, family members against family members, and Christ followers against Christ followers.

We’re too busy fighting each other that we’re not fighting the battles God has actually called us to fight.

But there are real giants in our world.

There are giants in our own families, people that we love that still don’t know how much God loves them, people who are battling loneliness, anxiety, heartbreak and fear. Who’s going to take the real giants down?

It’s not going to be those of us who are distracted fighting lesser battles.

Fight the God battles

You will know what battles to fight when you first fight to spend time alone with God. 

When you fight to spend alone one on one real conversational time with God, to get real with him about what you’re going through, to read His word and see what God actually says about you — God will start to direct you and show you what battles to fight. 

A woman that I met on the other side of the world on her way to Indonesia said to me this: “Trials have the power to transform you from who you are into who you long to be. But somewhere along the way, we learned the lie that we can be heroes without ever engaging in a battle.”

That was where I was. I wanted to have a faith-filled life, to live out my purpose and to live the life I was created to live.

But I didn’t want to fight for my focus. I didn’t want to fight for time in the Word of God. I didn’t want to fight for a real relationship with God. 

I thought faking it till I made it was enough.

You will know what battles to fight when you first fight to spend time alone with God. 

When you fight to spend alone time with God, when you get real with God, pray to God, talk to Him about what you’re really going through and surrender, He starts to heal those tender places. 

You will discover that God has some other names for you. God has some other things He would like to say to you.

So out of that season, I started to fight for my focus and fight to know who I was. And it’s a fight I hope you choose too today. 

Missed Impossible Conference 2022? You can catch up on the night sessions over at their YouTube page.

Hosanna also performed her original spoken word piece “I Have a New Name” at the conference.