If you want out, Jesus needs in. There is a way out of bondage without being condemned.
God had a problem with Solomon and his many women, mainly because whenever Solomon would fall with them, they would turn his heart towards whatever they worshiped. Seduction has an distracting, destructive agenda.
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The path of something is the way to it. Lust is not stationary; if you have it in one part of your life, it will affect you in others. Every path, including lust’s, has a starting point, a midpoint, and a landing point.
Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.
Lust’s landing point is death. Death can even be a way to live if it’s spirit has access to you. Lust begins in seed form; it must be received to be conceived. Once it’s conceived, it brings forth sin, which matures into death. Sin has dimensions, and its effects can continue to graduate and manifest for generations.
This is a generation that asks why we should stay away from sin, waiting for philosophy and sanctification to convince us, even though our answers are already in the Bible.
And it came to pass, after the year was expired, at the time when kings go forth to battle, that David sent Joab, and his servants with him, and all Israel; and they destroyed the children of Ammon, and besieged Rabbah. But David tarried still at Jerusalem. And it came to pass in an eveningtide, that David arose from off his bed, and walked upon the roof of the king’s house: and from the roof he saw a woman washing herself; and the woman was very beautiful to look upon. And David sent and enquired after the woman. And one said, Is not this Bath–sheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite? And David sent messengers, and took her; and she came in unto him, and he lay with her; for she was purified from her uncleanness: and she returned unto her house. And the woman conceived, and sent and told David, and said, I am with child. And David sent to Joab, saying, Send me Uriah the Hittite. And Joab sent Uriah to David. And when Uriah was come unto him, David demanded of him how Joab did, and how the people did, and how the war prospered. And David said to Uriah, Go down to thy house, and wash thy feet. And Uriah departed out of the king’s house, and there followed him a mess of meat from the king. But Uriah slept at the door of the king’s house with all the servants of his lord, and went not down to his house. And when they had told David, saying, Uriah went not down unto his house, David said unto Uriah, Camest thou not from thy journey? why then didst thou not go down unto thine house? And Uriah said unto David, The ark, and Israel, and Judah, abide in tents; and my lord Joab, and the servants of my lord, are encamped in the open fields; shall I then go into mine house, to eat and to drink, and to lie with my wife? as thou livest, and as thy soul liveth, I will not do this thing. And David said to Uriah, Tarry here to day also, and to morrow I will let thee depart. So Uriah abode in Jerusalem that day, and the morrow. And when David had called him, he did eat and drink before him; and he made him drunk: and at even he went out to lie on his bed with the servants of his lord, but went not down to his house. And it came to pass in the morning, that David wrote a letter to Joab, and sent it by the hand of Uriah. And he wrote in the letter, saying, Set ye Uriah in the forefront of the hottest battle, and retire ye from him, that he may be smitten, and die. And it came to pass, when Joab observed the city, that he assigned Uriah unto a place where he knew that valiant men were. And the men of the city went out, and fought with Joab: and there fell some of the people of the servants of David; and Uriah the Hittite died also. And charged the messenger, saying, When thou hast made an end of telling the matters of the war unto the king, Then Joab sent and told David all the things concerning the war; And if so be that the king’s wrath arise, and he say unto thee, Wherefore approached ye so nigh unto the city when ye did fight? knew ye not that they would shoot from the wall? Who smote Abimelech the son of Jerubbesheth? did not a woman cast a piece of a millstone upon him from the wall, that he died in Thebez? why went ye nigh the wall? then say thou, Thy servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also. And the messenger said unto David, Surely the men prevailed against us, and came out unto us into the field, and we were upon them even unto the entering of the gate. So the messenger went, and came and shewed David all that Joab had sent him for. And the shooters shot from off the wall upon thy servants; and some of the king’s servants be dead, and thy servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also. Then David said unto the messenger, Thus shalt thou say unto Joab, Let not this thing displease thee, for the sword devoureth one as well as another: make thy battle more strong against the city, and overthrow it: and encourage thou him. And when the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah her husband was dead, she mourned for her husband. And when the mourning was past, David sent and fetched her to his house, and she became his wife, and bare him a son. But the thing that David had done displeased the LORD.
David was a king. A whole king. In the Bible, kings did not send their armies to war without being with them. So the problem starts when David’s army goes to war without him. He was not in what he was purposed to do, so he was positioned to be ensnared by something else. When you’re not actively engaged in trying to be who God’s called you to be, in purpose, you’re positioned to be ensnared by something else. If you’re not in the war you were born for, you’ll be thrown into a war you’re not prepared for. A distracted life is the devil’s playground; you’re already outside of God’s purpose so you’re easy to toy with. A leader only directs his people to do what they have already done, what they’re willing to do. But David was sending his people to fight a fight he was not willing to fight.
Purposeless people are the most dangerous people to befriend. When you’re not engaged in your reason to be alive, you don’t take care of yourself the right way. You don’t manage your relationships or your time; you live destructively. This is why the only thing that has authority over the spirit of death is a reason to live. When you’re dealing with suicide and thoughts of death, remind yourself why you’re alive to begin with and it will break the yoke of the power of death. It worked for Hezekiah. If you know there’s a reason to live, if you’re accountable to it, you won’t want to die.
You have to be careful about relaxing when it’s time for war, about being passive about your purpose. “I know I have a call on my life, but God’s working for me”, excuses like these give dangerous things a road into your life. Prioritize your calling; knowing that you have one isn’t enough to keep you from the powers of hell. In verse 2, David should’ve been on the battlefield for his Lord, but he was out of position, which gave him room to have roaming eyes. If you’re not in your position, concentrated on God’s purpose for your life, your eyes will roam, which is a sign of broken identity. Your eyes can be trained to become the seat of your next actions. If you have enough memories that can bring you back into bondage. If you lose the war over your position, you’ll lose the war over your eyes. The heart goes next. Out of the abundance of the heart does the mouth speak, and David’s mouth sent messengers to get Bathsheba for him. Luke 6:45 can be applied to the stuff in your heart that is demonic. You can tell what’s in a person’s heart based on what comes out of their mouth, even the things they don’t realize they’re saying. When you’re not in position, your eyes roam, then your heart starts doing crazy stuff that your mouth then communicates with.
There was no foreplay to David’s being with Bathsheba. Lust is aggressive. You don’t have to like each other to be together out of lust. But because of lust, Bathsheba conceived. Her pregnancy causes another graduation of lust, because now David starts to lie to try and cover up the results of his sin. If you’re in lust, you’ll eventually have to start lying to conceal it. Lust graduating into a lying spirit is an example of it starting as one thing and becoming another.
Think of a love triangle that went fatal. Love stories gone wrong. It all starts with lust. Somebody slept with somebody, then slept with somebody else, then they started lying, and now you have an angry murderous demon to deal with.
Don’t be bound by the people that went before you. Don’t let family secrets keep you from confronting dysfunction for what it is.
David kept his secrets. He sent for Uriah, Bathsheba’s wife, hoping that he would sleep with her. This is “The Lord is my Shepherd“, “Bless the Lord O my Soul and all that is within me“, anointed, Psalm-writing David. Even he tried to cover up a fall in his flesh. But doesn’t that sound familiar? In 1 Samuel, Jesse tried to cover up David’s debated lineage and keep him out of public view when Samuel came to town looking for the next king. And now, David after the oil, after the throne, is doing what his unsaved daddy did. You can be an anointed prisoner. Be freed from your iniquity. Crucify your nature.
David didn’t consider that Uriah was a man of God too, and that God is not the One to cover up sin. After being brought home, Uriah slept outside with the servants. When David asks why, Uriah tells him that he couldn’t; the presence of God wouldn’t let him. David’s now becoming aware that there will be consequences that won’t be reversed by repentance. “I’m sorry” will get you right with God, but your consequences will be your accountability.
David’s lust graduates into murder. He has things set up so that Uriah would die on the battlefield. Bathsheba was in love with her husband; David used his power to get with her. While she grieved for her husband, David used this same power to marry her. The Lord was displeased with David, because God does not judge us all the same way. We can’t equalize everybody in the Body. But if you walk around talking about your authority and your position, you’ve elevated yourself to a higher position that you can fall from. When you know truth and responsibility and still fall, your consequences will be worse than somebody who was saved twenty minutes ago and fell the same way. Getting out of lust is a process, but it’s possible.
Let’s look at David’s offspring. David and Bathsheba’s first child was killed by God. The baby was struck, and David grieved so much that he even asked God to take him instead of the baby, but God didn’t budge. Now David’s been open up to grief, sadness, depression, regret & co., because of lust. David had sown death, so death is what he reaped,
((TW: abuse, rape))
David’s oldest son reveals the mentality of sexually perverse people. Ammon became physically sick because he was attracted to his sister Tamar, like a drug addict consistently experiencing withdrawal. David had already lost a child, and now he has one with a problem. David was a priest, a prophet, and a worshipper; he should’ve been sensitive to God. But when Tamar comes to tell him that Ammon is sick and wanted her to make him some bread, David waves her off. Parents that are preoccupied in their own pain cannot pay attention to what’s going on in their children. David was distracted because he was grieving a baby, and dealing with Bathsheba’s pain along with his own. So, Tamar goes. Ammon tells his sister to lay on him, but when she says no, he grabs her, rapes her, and literally kicks her out. She told Ammon that him hitting her was worse than the rape, because now she had proof of what he’d done. Because David was on the bed instead of the battlefield, his eyes wandered, his heart did crazy stuff, his mouth did crazy stuff, he slept Bathsheba, he lied, he murdered her husband, he married her {you can’t bring a messy relationship to the Lord thinking the blessing of marriage will cover up the dirt you left at home}, now his oldest son has raped his daughter, opening the gate to incest. Then his other son, Absalom, who watched this entire story play out, takes a problem with his daddy because of what happened to his sister. Absalom went to stand outside of the kingdom, talking trash about David to divide the kingdom’s loyalty. Absalom’s lust was for the throne. This graduation is a greed to get ahead. After Absalom’s plan works, he goes and has Ammon killed. And another one of David’s sons, Adonijah, has that same greed after his father’s throne. Isn’t this a lot to process? This is why we need counseling so that we can get help untangling what we go through. But Solomon, Bathsheba’s son through Uriah, he wasn’t gonna let Adonijah get the throne, so he went and found somebody to kill Adonijah. All of this has happened because one person chose to be out of God’s will for his life.
Nathan was a prophet. David tried to avoid him, but Nathan gave him a story that lead David to repent. Whatever Nathan said was so powerful that David wrote the 51st Psalm, a psalm of repentance. The problem is, iniquity has interest. David’s iniquity was interrupted, but it would’ve continued to get worse until it got to Jesus.
Most people assume that Jesus’ genetic connection to David is through Joseph, but Joseph wasn’t Jesus’ daddy. Had He been a natural descendent of Joseph, that iniquity that started with David would’ve gotten to Him. Luke gives us another genealogy, Mary’s. This is unusual, because genealogy was usually recorded through the father. But Nathan, named after the prophet, born after David had repented, had a son named Heli, who had a daughter named Mary. All of this makes Jesus a product of the repentant David. Mary hadn’t slept with Joseph before Jesus was conceived, and she didn’t until after she had given birth to Jesus, thanks to the Holy Ghost. Mary and Joseph hadn’t become one (see God’s Will For Your Body), so He was kept from Joseph’s connection to David. The cycle had to be broken. To get out of lust, cycles have to be broken. Mary was willing to remain pure, but she was human, so God knew that she would need something powerful to stay that way. He gave her the Holy Ghost to help her. God made sure that He was Jesus’ father. Mary’s “yes, Lord” had power.
Without the shedding of blood, there can be no remission for sin. Because Jesus didn’t have David’s unrepentant blood in Him, He wasn’t prone to David’s sins. Jesus’ blood was pure.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
We can be renewed, but the only way out of our old things is through Christ. When He has us, our history cannot hold us hostage. Jesus is a cycle-breaking Savior; don’t remain a victim to sinful cycles. What you were supposed to be was inevitable, but once He steps in, old things no longer matter. He can make up for what men don’t do and heighten the likelihood of your success over sin with His blood. The power of the Holy Ghost can get and keep you out of your sin. When God blesses you, everything you do, everything you are, is blessed in turn. Generational curses can be removed to make room for generational blessings.
God used Mary’s availability to break generations of sin. It’s hard to surrender to Him, but it’s worth it. Every time you tell the devil no, you say yes to God, and every time you say yes to God, you say no to hell. Strive to always say “yes, Lord”. That yes is protecting the generations to come. Let Him consume you and fill your life with glory, power, and demonstration.
Lust has a path, but the power of the Holy Ghost is greater than this path. Surrender to that power. Jesus came so that we could have abundant life. In Psalm 51, David said that he was born in iniquity, destined to fail. But no matter how you were born, you can be born again. God can close what’s been opened in you. He can reverse what should’ve been a curse.
Vessel in the Valley 