“You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;
You anoint my head with oil;
My cup runs over.”
Psalm 23:5

Have you ever heard someone speak and their words carried weight to them? They may have said something simple, yet it came with such depth. Or have you heard someone sing and felt like you were brought into a whole realm of emotion in a moment? Their singing had more than a sound, it had a substance. In the realm of the kingdom, that substance points to the depth of one’s devotion to God and the anointing they carry. God wants to raise up people who carry weight. If you want to be that kind of person, keep reading.

As I was praying recently, I had a picture come to mind of an old book turn, and the page read “To feast.” I felt like the Lord was saying this season was a season of feasting on the Lord. On the table where the book was, there was a cup of wine and a loaf of bread; a picture of the Lord’s Supper, or communion. Not only was the focus to be on Jesus but also on His finished work at the cross—where He shed His blood and His body was broken for us.

Around the same time, I had a dream. In the dream, I was preaching somewhere and there were so many distractions. The worship singing was bad, people were talking during the message, someone came up in the middle of the sermon and wanted to celebrate a birthday, the sound system turned off and my mic cut out.

The weird part was that I still felt God flowing. It was just that the people weren’t receiving. There were too many things in the way; too many distractions.

What David said in Psalm 23:5 is a perfect summation of what I feel the Lord was showing me:
“You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.”

We could swap the word “enemies” with “distractions” because that’s what the enemy wants to do to us: get us distracted from feasting on Jesus.

God wants us to feast on Jesus! To meditate on who He is and what He’s done; to behold Him in Scripture and sing of Him in song; to give Him our attention and devotion; to receive from His personhood. He is the Bread of Life! He is our sustenance. Our relationship with Him nourishes our souls. But the enemy wants to distract us from the table of the Lord. He wants to get us to focus on anything but Jesus because he knows that is where life and strength come from.

The mission is to stay fixed on Jesus, regardless of what enemies are around.
In doing so, you develop weight in the spirit.

In light of this, I want to look at the life of Daniel in Scripture and draw helpful applications from it.

1. Consistent devotion

Daniel and his friends were living in Babylon. You could say they were living in the world, but not of the world. The same goes for us.

When the king’s attendant was instructed to find some Hebrews who could serve the king, he found Daniel and his friends. They tried to assimilate them into the Babylonian culture by doing four things:

• Teach them their language

• Teach them their literature

• Give them a diet

• Change their names

(See Daniel 1)

Isn’t that what the world wants to do to us? Change the way we speak, change the way we think, change our intake, and change the way we identify ourselves.

Yet Daniel stayed devoted to God. He kept His relationship with God alive and refused to take on the culture of Babylon as his own.

Let me say it like this:
He frequented the table of the Lord and resisted the table of the world!

The world’s table wants to distract you and draw you into its sway of immorality, greed, lust, hatred, bitterness, offense, backbiting, dishonesty, occultism…essentially everything contrary to God.

1 John 5:19 tells us, “...the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one.”

Ephesians 2:2 says, “...the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience.”

Many of us want to change the world for Jesus, but we also have to realize there is a current in the world that is doing everything it can to get us to go the opposite of God’s ways. If we aren’t anchored in devotion to God, we may get tossed around by the waves of opposition.

Daniel’s strength to resist came from his devotion to God. Our devotion to God anchors us in a greater reality. When we position ourselves in God’s Presence, we see the world for what it is—empty and inadequate. Devotion to God gives us strength to stand in a world that is contrary to Him. Many Old Testament kings fell into idolatry when they stopped seeking God.

Imagine being immersed in a pagan culture and being the head over all the astrologers and magicians in Babylon. Daniel was around occult practices and all kinds of behavior that was contrary to God’s ways. Yet, look at what Scripture said about him:

“...he knelt down on his knees three times that day, and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as was his custom since early days.”
Daniel 6:10

He was rooted in devotion to God. He kept drawing life from His God. Instead of immersing himself in the world’s culture that was around him, he met with the Lord daily, and drew life from the Most High God. Consistent devotion is the secret to standing against the current of the world.

Daniel exemplified these verses:

“Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”
Romans 12:2 NIV

“You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.”
1 John 4:4

Question: Do you have a custom of devotion to God?

(To be clear, when I speak of consistent devotion to God, I am referring to Christian practices that grow your relationship with God, such as prayer, worship, meditation on the scripture, repentance, surrender, communion, and fellowship. Here are a couple of articles I wrote that will help you form godly habits: 3 simple habits to keep your fire burning and 3 more habits to fuel your fire for God.)

2. Resistance training

Daniel not only had a consistent devotion to God, he had a resistance in his spirit towards the contrary ways of the world. In Daniel 6, the king, convinced by Daniel’s adversaries, made a decree that whoever petitioned anyone except the king would be thrown into the lion’s den. Take a look at Daniel 6:10 again.

“Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went home. And in his upper room, with his windows open toward Jerusalem, he knelt down on his knees three times that day, and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as was his custom since early days.”
Daniel 6:10

He knew full well about the decree, but he was devoted anyway. He resisted the pull of the world that tried to draw him away from his God—even with the threat of the lions’ den!

Your devotion to Jesus is also a resistance to the enemies.

Any weight trainer knows that strength is built by resistance. In fact, strength is measured by how much weight you can resist. In other words, you know how strong you are by how much weight, or pressure, you can resist.

Don’t despise the resistance! What we don’t always realize is that the resistance is actually working for you. Keep resisting the contrary ways of the world, and stay devoted to Jesus. It’s making you stronger in the spirit!

When you stay devoted to Jesus in the midst of all the distractions, you are strengthening yourself in the Lord!

What does this have to do with being weighty?

Devotion and resistance develop within the believer a weight in the spirit. Using weightlifting terms, your devotion is your diet, and your resistance is your workout. We can’t be weak and famished in the spirit if we’re going to impact the world for Jesus. We can’t skip eating and rarely work out and expect to be strong. It’s time to feast and focus on Jesus!

If we want to be the kind of people who’s words and life carry weight, and make kingdom impact, we need consistent devotion and resistance.

What we don’t always realize when we see someone making an impact for Jesus publicly is the sacrifices they’ve made privately. Jesus said it like this:

“But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.”
Matthew 6:6

If you want to make an impact publicly, you need to have a devotion privately.

Here’s a story of a young man named Donald in Hebrides revival who’s words carried weight. Duncan Campbell recounts it:

“On a trip to a neighboring island I found the people were very cold and stiff. Calling for some men to come over and pray, I particular requested that a young man named Donald accompany them. Donald, who was seventeen years old, had been recently saved and baptized in the Holy Spirit about two weeks later on a hillside. As we were in the church that night, Donald was sitting toward the front with tears falling off his face onto the floor.

I knew Donald was in touch with God in a way that I was not. So I stopped preaching and asked him to pray. Donald rose to his feet and prayed, “I seem to be gazing into an open door and see the Lamb in the midst of the throne and the keys of death and hell on his waist.” Then he stopped and began to sob. After he composed himself, he lifted his eyes toward heaven, raised his hands, and said, “God, there is power there. Let it loose!”

And at that moment the power of God fell upon the congregation. On one side of the room, the people threw up their hands, put their heads back and kept them in that position for two hours. It is hard to do this for ten minutes, much less two hours. On the other side, the people were slumped over, crying out for mercy. In a village five miles away, the power of God swept through the town and there was hardly a house in that village that didn’t have someone saved in it that night.”

—The Revival Library

Lord, take us into Your secret place, fill us with Your Spirit, and use us to impact people with the gospel of Jesus Christ!

Questions: Have you experienced people whose words and life carry weight? 

What practices help you stay anchored in devotion to God, even in the midst of distractions? 

How do you distinguish between the world's table and the table of the Lord in your daily choices?

Comment below!