This is an
imagery story written by my friend Colby Gardner. It is ridiculously powerful
and will change your view of this world! Read it, soak in it, let it transform
and renew your mind, then share it! He describes it beautifully! Are you
ready?!!…..
Psalm 23:
5-6
“You
prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head
with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the
days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”
Picture this:
You are preparing yourself for battle. You clothe yourself in armor, you
sheathe your sword and you even put on a little war paint. As you step from
your tent, immediately you smell blood in the air and hear the clinging of
swords creating sparks against shields. This is not the sound of battle, this
is the intimidation period before battle. The enemy is valiantly rallying and
yelling at the top of their lungs for you to charge your army forward. But you
decided to take the front yourself. You decide to march on foot through your
men, looking in each man’s eyes as you pass. As you trudge through the mud,
your troops spread out and honor you with words of no fear and courage as you
make your way to the battlefront. You finally see the enemy over the shoulders
of your most brave and talented men, the ones that always take a stand for you.
You keep walking and they let you through. You don’t slow down, you continue
walking towards the enemy alone. The clanging of their war tools begins to
slowly silence as they are confused. Only one? Only one, the king (or queen)
has come to stand against us all? “This must be a joke”, they think!
You walk with shoulders back, head held high, a glare that inflicts fear, and
take your seat at a table directly in front of the best that the enemy has to
offer. ‘Slightly confused’ is no longer the subject, ‘What the hell!!?!?’ is
their thought…. They don’t know what to do. They are frozen as they watch you
stuff your face with the most hearty feast that you have ever laid your eyes
on. This feast is all that you ever desired and asked for, all that you ever
needed. Shortly after you take your first bite, the enemy is no longer even the
simplest of an object. As you are anointed with strength and honor in your
taking of the feast, they don’t know what to do, so they try to intimidate you
with their war cries but your ears refuse to hear it. They try stampeding and
shaking the ground with their biggest beasts but they don’t touch you. You
continue to feast in the presence of the Lord. Your eyes, not once, leave your
table. In fact, you don’t hear a thing, you are so engulfed in what God has
placed before you that nothing can touch you, the enemy is no longer an object
of destruction, much less a distraction. You are anointed over and over with
the best of the Lord and your cup never emptied, as long as you remain at the
table. It never goes dry and the goodness of the Lord is ever before you. The
enemy retreats in fear and confusion, only to return with more, but still, they
leave dragging their knuckles because they realize that they can’t touch you
while you are at the table…. Victory is the praise on your lips! Praise is
the response of your soul as you realize that this is what the Lord grants to
His children in the presence of enemies. Goodness and mercy are yours to claim
as you dwell alone. The table is yours to take. …TAKE IT!!!
I hope this
heavenly picture of what battle SHOULD be like has blessed you as much as it
blessed me. Can you picture it?!! Sitting at the banquet table with our eyes
only on what the Lord has provided us…basking in His presence no matter what is
taunting us, stressing us out, striking fear into our hearts or causing us to
worry. If we keep our eyes on the Lord, all else has to bend a knee or flee. They
have no effect on us any longer!!! AMEN!!!!!! Thank you Colby for sharing such
powerful image!! You may not realize it yet…but it’s revolutionary!
