Q & A to Matthew 1 1 : 1 2

This is a Question and Answer to the last article posted, "Matthew 11.12". One reader has asked the question: What was meant (in reference to David) by "spiritually inbred identity that produced vision unto victory"? That sounds like a good question so I'll answer it by posting and sharing it with everyone.
As we all know, we human beings have a spirit that can be trained and developed just as we have a physical body---the outer man. Our physical appearance, demeanor, and well-being (health) is basically constituted and represented by what we eat or fuel that body with and how we exercise it. So it is with our spiritual man---the inner man.

David, the youngest of eight brothers, was a shepherd. In other words, he tended his flocks / herds in the neighboring hills surrounding his homeland. Those days, alone, with God, were a great influence upon him (as evidenced by his actions and writings-how many young boys do you know that have single-handedly killed a lion and a bear?). No one can spend quality time, especially long, solitary hours with God, the most influential presence and all-encompassing, omniscient and omnipotent being in our world ( and universe), and not come away changed---profoundly affected. This is good breeding. Something had to have happened to David as a young man in those solitary hills to cause him to have the reaction (to Goliath) and subsequent actions that he did. David was offended that Goliath would rail against the army of the living God and not be dealt with. Something caused him not to fear but stand face to face with the giant. Why did he, basically a mere sheepherder and musician, see things in a totally different light, understanding, and perspective than all the others? What was in him, spiritually inbred in him, that enabled him to break free from and rise above the fear that gripped, paralyzed, and neutralized all the rest? And not just talk---but purposed, focused, single-minded, unrehearsed, straightforward, deliberate action. David had within him a disposition and capability enabled by an abiding presence greater than himself.....One that defined his very own identity.....An identity, more than his mere self, that produced a vision that others didn't have; one that saw the victory, without question, before it happened and produced corresponding actions that resulted in success---according to God's will and by His hand.

Good breeding doesn't necessarily have to happen when one is young. Look at Paul. Paul was not exactly in his budding youth (as David) when he met the Lord via a blinding light on the road to Damascus. He had already been higher-educated and was earning position and status in his society. However, he was arrested. Arrested for higher-breeding. After his initial conversion, Spirit baptism and introduction into a cautious (to accept him) Christian community, we see him disappear for about 12-14 years. When he emerged, after those silent years, he became a respected leader and voice wherever he went--to Gentile or Jew. Something had happened to him during those years. Something was bred into him that changed his nature, redefined his identity and prepared him for the historic and revolutionary apostolic mission that lay ahead.
It was something so deep and consuming that was a relative follow-up to his blinding light conversion that enabled him to impart revelations (the predominant contributor to the New Testament) as well as endure years of faithful service, hard travels, multiple confrontations, brutal persecutions, long unjust imprisonments and ultimately death.

Imprisonments. Joseph would never have become the second most powerful man in Egypt if it hadn't have been for his imprisonments. But only because he handled them right. Joseph was first thrown into a pit by his own brothers (first imprisonment) and then sold to the Ishmaelites (second imprisonment). He, then, became a slave to Potiphar (third imprisonment) where he responded favorably even though falsely accused and thrown into the king's prison (last imprisonment). Josephs' faith was made known in prison and he was ultimately exalted in due season. It was, however, those years of imprisonment and endurance that produced a man that would one day rule the powerful Egyptian nation. We know Joseph had Godly breeding (Jacob, his father). But his faith was tested and refined to produce an identity that was unknown in the alien land he was destined to govern. There are many people today who feel that they, too, have been imprisoned---held back or limited by circumstances or even God---unable to breakthrough, deferred to a menial or lesser role in God's kingdom. These same people must realize that we are in a season of change, a period of transition, a time of breeding, development, breakthrough and positioning.
We are speaking of God's positioning---not mans'; we are speaking of identity with God and the heart and purpose of God in this hour. Moses was a man who had a lofty position and identity in the family of Pharaoh as the adopted son of the kings' daughter. However, it took 40 years on the back side of the desert, the quiet years, after his opulent, favored upbringing, to produce a different identity and vision....One that would lead to a nation of people being set free from bondage by the miraculous hand of God after 400 years!

Lastly, Jesus, whom we know to have been bred both physically and spiritually by the Holy Spirit, was known to separate himself from others to be alone with and renewed by his Source of identity. He did this all the way to the garden of Gethsemane where he maintained the vision, and, as we all know, produced the greatest victory ever.