Slinging Stones Part 2: A Time for Fields

As we continue to look at intercession from the perspective of David and Goliath, we will explore how David’s preparation for such a battle. In doing so, we will see there is a time for silence and solitude—the fields. (Click here if you missed Part One.)

If you are like me, there have been seasons of life that felt slow—stuck—stagnate. They have left me asking God questions like, “Why am I here, Lord?” “How much longer?” Can you see me, can you even hear me?” I tend to make the worst, most bratty, absolute statements. Such as, “I never get to do what I want!” “You always dump me in the wilderness.” “Just tell me what I’m supposed to learn.” Anyone else?

But those uncomfortable quiet parts of our journey often become our favorites parts—in hindsight, of course. It’s in those places that we learn about ourselves and our Creator, and that prepare us for other types of seasons. As disciples and as intercessors, we need that knowledge. The silence and solitude of the fields are necessary to our identity and our callings in life. In his book An Invitation to a Journey, Robert Mulholland writes,

“This hidden work of God is a nurturing that prepares us for what appears to be a quantum leap forward…part of what has been going on in a long, steady process of grace, working far beyond our knowing and understanding [is bringing] us to that point where we are ready for God to move us into a new level.”

Before David faced Goliath, he went through field training. He was a shepherd. He hung out with sheep all day in the quiet, hidden place of the fields. Each day, David was preparing for different days, different seasons, different sheep. Let’s look at how David became a man after God’s own heart.

Here are 3 necessary things that happen in the fields.

No.1 Unmediated Encounters with God
In the silence and solitude of the fields, we have room to encounter God without other influences. I have found these moments with the Lord to be essential. These are the moments of connection, the place of knowledge. The Hebrew word Yada means “intimate knowledge.” We are called to “know” him. Ruth Barton writes,

“The longing for solitude is the longing for God. It is the longing to experience union with God unmediated by the ways we typically try to relate to God. By “unmediated” I mean a direct experience of God with nothing in between” an encounter with God that is no mediated by words, by theological constructs, by religious activity, by my own or other’s manipulations of my relationship with God…the most essential question in solitude is How have I been wanting to be with God, and how had God been wanting to be with me?” from Sacred Rhythms.

David had been anointed to replace Saul as king because he was after God’s own heart. Where did he learn God’s heart? In the fields. Sometimes we are in seasons of quiet primed and ready for yada knowledge. In other seasons, we have to discipline ourselves to make room for these quiet places of connection.

As intercessors, we are aligning with God’s heart over the matter. We learn his heart in the fields. We learn how to meditate by having unmediated encounters with God. Otherwise, we are just adding to an already noisy subject. If we are interceding with our own will or ideas, we are not connecting people to God’s heart. We miss the whole point.

Unmediated time with the Lord, in and out of season, keeps are hearts connected to his.

No. 2 Love the Sheep
In the silence and solitude of the fields, we learn to love the sheep. When we connect with God’s heart, become men and women after his heart, loving the people around us will be the mark of our lives. Intercession is a place of love and creativity and vision that mediates between what is eternal and temporary. Again, we are connecting people God’s heart.

The shepherd’s staff can represent many things to us as disciples and leaders, identity, authority, etc. But it should never be an instrument of wrath. The wrath of God was satisfied in the blood of Jesus. We are never called to judge and punish as intercessors. In Psalm 23, David says the Lord’s rod and staff comfort him.

The seasons and times of the fields are places where we learn how to use our identity and authority as sons and daughters of God to comfort and defend! Intercession and leadership are not places for us to step on the back of sheep in control or for promotion. I will talk more about this later, but there is a difference between slinging stones and casting stones. Slinging stones at our enemies is an act of offense and defense. It knocks out, silences untruth. Casting stones at people is an act of judgment. It wounds and kills the sheep. We have to learn the art of slinging stones. It involves timing and proper aim.

As we align with the heart of God in silence and solitude, we will learn what love is. Not just in knowledge, but we will be transformed by it. My late husband began to wrestle God’s existence shortly after we were married. He was a prodigal son for 17 of our 19 years of marriage. In the beginning, I tried everything I could think of to get him to change his mind. And I would plead with the Lord for his turn around. But my “intercessions” were not love or transformation based. I was not wanting Jonathan to be transformed by the Gospel. I wanted my life to be easier. I didn’t want to be embarrassed when I went to church alone. I wanted the idol of marriage that I carefully crafted to be on display, not shattered.

When I stopped the noisy resounds of my religion, finally, the Lord was right there to show me love and to teach me how to love. Consider these familiar words of 1 Corinthians 13.

But if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing
Love is patient and kind
Love is not rude
It does not demand its own way
It keeps no record of being wronged
It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices in the truth
Love endures through every circumstance

Do you know that you are loved like this by your Creator? It is our privilege as disciples and intercessors to love others in this same way. This is the love that mediates. This is the power that stands between right and wrong. This is the game-changer that connects others to God. Anything else is noise–noisy noise.

No. 3 Learn to fight
It was David’s track record that convinced the king to let him face Goliath, not his appearance (small and young). David recalled his encounters with lions and bears while tending sheep as he talked to King Saul.

Your servant was tending his father’s sheep. When a lion or bear came and took a lamb from the flock, I went after him and attacked him, and rescued it from his mouth; and when he rose up against me, I seized him by his beard and struck him and killed him. 1 Samuel 17:34-35

Why did David protect the sheep? Because he valued them and they belonged to his father. Where did he learn to protect the sheep? Was it by reading about it in a book? No. Talking about it in a small group? No. Listening to 10 podcasts a week? No. It was in the reality of the field—the silence and solitude. It was learned in the unmediated encounters that happened in the fields.

In Charles Swindoll’s book David, he writes,

“Somehow we’ve gotten this idea that “getting alone with God” is unrealistic, that it’s not the real world. But getting alone with God doesn’t mean you sit in some closet thinking about infinity. No, it means you get alone and discover how to be more responsible and diligent in all those areas of your life, whether that means fighting lions or bears or simply following orders…I’ll be honest with you, I’ve never had God fix a flat tire for me. Or change a baby’s diaper, or confront a giant in my life. Neither did David. He rolled up his sleeves and fought for those sheep…”

Let me step back. There is nothing wrong with reading books and listening to podcasts, nor is there is anything wrong with small groups. I do all those things! I highly encourage them. But they do not replace the things that we can only learn in the fields, the reality of first-hand knowledge. It would be a massive miss for us to forgo the experience and intimate understanding (yada) of the fields because we watched the movie version. David knew how to face the giant because he learned to fight by protecting sheep from lions and bears. Goliath was just another thief threatening his family and heritage.

As a conclusion, let me recap.

• Field seasons prepare us for other seasons.
• Fields are places of unmediated encounters with God. where we learn his heart and about ourselves.
• Fields are where we learn to love what belongs to God, the sheep.
• Fields are where we learn the difference between judgment and protection.
• Fields are where we learn how to protect the sheep from thieves.

The silence and solitude of the fields may feel stuck and stagnant, but they are places of preparation and training. We won’t always be in the fields, but we will never forget what happens there — if we surrender.

Next Post — Part 3: A Time for Mountains

Photo by kailash kumar from Pexels