Mephibosheth: Shame No More!

Darcy Downing
Sep 26, 2020
11 min read

Updated: Sep 27, 2020

Forgive me for being gone for so long. I have been studying the word and going through a deep time of healing with the Father. You see, when the Father gives me a word like the one you are about to read, he begins with me. I have spent the month of September facing the Sons of Saul and the Sons of David from my own life. I turned 50 years old on September 21st and was compelled to pray and seek the Father. I humbly offer this word as I stand on 1 Samuel 15:22.

The field of sword-edges

I hear the Father say, "You want me to discuss the war. You wonder if I remember. Time is still time; I am there still holding the hand of the fallen soldier. I am there walking with the widow. I am there weeping in my chambers while Noah asks, Why God, Why? I remember too well the question of, Why God? Why?

I want to come home too Beloved. I want to return and embrace my Beloved Bride. I want the War over. I want Love to reign and not war. I hear you ask Me, Why God? Why?

How will you respond when the war is finally over? When you comprehend that the battle has already been won. You must respond differently. I am sending relatives into the leadership arena to undergird the authority that I have placed upon my anointed ones. You call for encouragement, you have it. You cry out for direction, you have that too. Everything you ask, I will bring to you. It is not unprecedented for a leader to ask that his family help him to lead."

"Teach me to do your will, for you are my God;

may your good Spirit lead me on level ground."

Ps 143:10

I hear the warrior angels strongly declare, When the criminal is made the hero a nation will reap the consequences, but when the righteous pray, a nation will reap the victory. David prayed. David's heart was moved toward the Father, but at times his own heart mislead him, but God was there to always send in reinforcements and he was there to defend him.

We are in the middle of a battle where the sons of Saul and the sons of David have raised a battle cry. In 2 Samual 2, we see the battle between the sons of David and the sons of Saul. The leaders who operate out of the soul and who rely on their own strength will become more evident as the Hebraic year unfolds. These sons of Saul have inherited and even embraced Saul's war. They have put on Saul's armor and justified it by arguing, "Their right to be right". These leaders will be known for faith shaming, even using the name of God to justify their actions, they will mock miracles and signs and wonders, but to their own demise.

A key scripture to pray through right now comes from 2 Samuel 2:36-37

Abner called out to Joab, “Must the sword devour forever?

Don’t you realize that this will end in bitterness? How long before you order your men to stop pursuing their fellow Israelites?”

Joab answered, “As surely as God lives, if you had not spoken, the men would have continued pursuing them until morning.”

We are in the middle of a time in history where the sons of Saul and the sons of David are going into battle. In 2 Samual 2, we see the battle between the sons of David and the sons of Saul, but it WASN'T the sons, it was the leaders who had influence over them.

Abner son of Ner, together with the men of Ish-Bosheth son of Saul, left Mahanaim and went to Gibeon. Joab son of Zeruiah and David’s men went out and met them at the pool of Gibeon. One group sat down on one side of the pool and one group on the other side.

14 Then Abner said to Joab, “Let’s have some of the young men get up and fight hand to hand in front of us.”

“All right, let them do it,” Joab said. 2 Samuel 2:12-14

Abner was the commander of Saul's army and made Saul's son, Ish-Bosheth, king.

Joab was David's uncle. In some commentary, he has been described as a meddling uncle.

The hand to hand turned into a blood bath and twelve men from each side were killed.

This place came to be known as Helkath Hazzurim which means "field of daggers or field of hostilities."

In America, we are witnessing a battle much like the one played out between the sons of Saul and the sons of David. There are those who like the sons of Saul are mobilizing to overcome the Kingdom of God, but the battle belongs to the Lord. The sons of David are mobilizing too, there is a desire for war on both sides but it will be compassion that will win the war of civil unrest.

In order to understand what is happening in America right now, we need to take a look at 2 Samuel 2 and the chronology of events that led to the recovery from war and the recovery from drought.

David's bitterness of losing his best friend, Johnathan was replaced by compassion- not just any compassion but authority-driven compassion. David's heart was moved to honor Saul, even though Saul had the full intention of killing him, David relentlessly honored him. This feud of rulership played out in the children of Saul and David and in the family lines.

When David committed an act of compassion by demanding that Johnathan's son live with him, he made an act of war against his true adversary the Devil. David honored his oath to his friend.

For the believers who live out of their spirit, and who are led by the spirit of God a union with brothers and sisters from all nations will unravel the war between the sons of Saul and the sons of David. As these Pioneers of Peace inquire of the Lord before doing anything; the religious leaders, governmental leaders, and leaders from the seven mountains of influence: Religion, Family, Education, Government, Media, Arts & Entertainment and Business will see a breakdown of division and a building up of new ideas like never before.

We will see a stark division between what is good and what is evil, and on that line that divides the two will be found the Tree of Life. Those who are lead by the spirit of the living God will have access to greater ideas because they have moved beyond the memory of war and into the covenant that Jesus made with all of his people. These individuals will seek the Father's counsel every time. They will do nothing unless they have asked God first. Even now there are those who are being guided by the Holy Spirit to build. Upon the mountain of government will see our president begin to step out into the spirit realm and make greater declarations of healing, power, and authority. The city on a hill will now manifest its true authority as the earth realm and the heavenly realm come down.

The cries of the saints of God will be made manifest as God rends the heavens and comes down into the earth.

Isaiah 64:1

Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains would tremble before you!

In 2 Samuel 2 the battle between the house of Saul and the house of David is described as the War Between the Houses of David and Saul in the NIV, The Battle of Gibeon in the ESV, and Civil War in the Amplified. In America, it has been reported by many that we are close, if not already experiencing another Civil War. But God has an answer for us in the chronology of the battle between the sons of Saul and the sons of David.

And yet this was a small thing in your eyes, O Lord God. You have spoken also of your servant's house for a great while to come, and this is instruction for mankind, O Lord God! 2 Samuel 7:19

The history and the chronology of events in the book of 2 Samuel gives us specific instructions for how we are to respond to Civil War. God is wanting to build a house. He is tearing down the things that have been wrongly established so that His house, the living breathing house of God that is comprised of Living Stones can become the strong presence of God on this earth.

‘I will build you a house.’ Therefore your servant has found courage to pray this prayer to you. 2 sam 7:27 ESV

The Sin that is IN the land:

On January 31, 1865, and ratified on December 6, 1865, the 13th amendment abolished slavery in the United States and provides that "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.".

In America, we are witnessing a battle much like the one played out between the sons of Saul and the sons of David.

In 1921 the Tulsa rade massacre, otherwise known as the Black Wall Street Massacre) happened in Greenwood, Tulsa, Oklahoma, U.S. I first became aware of this event from our history after watching a broadcast on CBS News, Greenwood, 1921: One of the worst race massacres in American history. I was horrified that such an event had occurred on our soil and that it had been unjustly covered up for years. The bodies were never properly buried, businesses and homes were demolished as a result of this act of genocide. The oath to abolish slavery was not withheld by Greenwood, Tulsa, Oklahoma.

The heart of America stopped beating as the bones cried out from the land and ten years later we experienced the Great Dust Bowl.

In 1930, America experienced the results from The Great Dust Bowl. This time of drought decimated the soil and forced the people of the land to migrate to California and other neighboring states. This was the justice extended by the hand of God. In the Panhandle of Oaklahoma and through the "dust bowl states of

Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Nebraska, and Kansas the earth cried out for the injustices and the crimes that were buried in the land.

King David experienced a similar famine. Our answers for healing, recovery, and growth can be found in 2 Samuel 21

During the reign of David, there was a famine for three successive years; so David sought the face of the Lord. The Lord said, “It is on account of Saul and his blood-stained house; it is because he put the Gibeonites to death.”

The king summoned the Gibeonites and spoke to them. (Now the Gibeonites were not a part of Israel but were survivors of the Amorites; the Israelites had sworn to spare them, but Saul in his zeal for Israel and Judah had tried to annihilate them.) David asked the Gibeonites, “What shall I do for you? How shall I make atonement so that you will bless the Lord’s inheritance?”

David's question to the offended:

“What can I do for you [the Gibeonites] to rid ourselves of this guilt and to induce you to ask God to bless us?” [and recover the land from drought.]

Even though David did not break his oath with the Gibeonites, he experienced the ramifications from Saul breaking the covenant. Like David, we are experiencing the ramifications from a broken oath to the African American people. We might not have participated in it, but we are responsible for correcting it.

Our question must be like David's, but perhaps in these words,'

What can we do for you [the African American people] to rid ourselves of this guilt and to induce you to ask God to bless us?

Prayer

Father, forgive us of our guilt. Forgive us for tipping the scale of justice in our favor unjustly, through corruption and manipulation, through our sympathies of the past. Let the criminal be the criminal, and let the innocent be vindicated for their innocence. For just as Abner called out to Joab, “Must the sword devour forever?" We cry out!

We call out to those who like the Sons of Saul and the Sons of David chase after each other out of revenge, anger, hurt, remorse, and vindication- "Must the sword devour forever!? Don't you realize that this will end in bitterness"? You responded out of our sin- you gave us the correction in the dust bowl to point us toward the prayers that were trapped in the prayer bowls secretively used by the saints of God who were enslaved. Father forgive us for dividing our nation. Let the guilty be punished and let the innocent be freed. Remove the spirit that influenced the sons of Saul and the sons of David to pursuit war, for it is war on both sides Father. Let your justice fall as we fall to our knees with the full realization that a greater truth speaks from the ground:

"The blood of the Cross is thicker than the water of the womb."

We covenant with you King Jesus on behalf of our people- all people, on behalf of our city, on behalf of our state, on behalf of our nation and on behalf of our world.

Let those who have been wronged find peace and assurance that you are a God who vindicates the innocent and corrects the wrongs. You expose the injustices and the hidden sins in the land because you love your people. Expose them once again so that the enemy can no longer kill your people, for our enemy is not a people but a demonic force led by a principality hell-bent on convincing your children that they are powerless, that they are each others enemy. Our power source is You, Father and we are all related to each other by and through the blood of Jesus.

Will you restore your people to the truth and turn their faces toward their Maker who declares "There IS NO DISTINCTION AMONG YOU. "

I hear the Father say,

"You can walk the breadth of a land and I will show you where the dead body lies, just look to the sky and you will notice the vultures, but wisdom must go with you. Wisdom is the key to unlocking the chains in the land. Wisdom and history are bedfellows."

The answer to how to we move forward as a nation is found in the meaning of the name Mephibosheth.

He spared Jonathan’s son Mephibosheth,

who was Saul’s grandson,

because of the oath between himself and Jonathan. 2 Sam 21:7

America made an oath to protect her people, just as King David made an oath to Jonathan. The recovery of peace in our nation is found in the meaning of the name Mephibosheth.

The name Mephibosheth: Summary

Meaning: One Who Destroys Shame, End Of Shame Etymology From (1) the verb פאה (pa'a), to cleave or break apart, and (2) the noun בשת (boshet), shame.

"It may very well be that the name Mephibosheth was meant to convey not a destruction of shame (or a shameful idol) but rather the edge of its reach: Shame No More, in commemoration of the end of the persecution of the house of Saul." https://www.abarim-publications.com/Meaning/Mephibosheth.html#.X24LXajYrGA

SHAME NO MORE

You have all become true children of God by the faith of Jesus the Anointed One! It was faith that immersed you into Jesus, the Anointed One, and now you are covered and clothed with his anointing. And we no longer see each other in our former state—Jew or non-Jew, rich or poor, male or female—because we’re all one through our union with Jesus Christ with no distinction between us. Galations 3:26-29

It is not my intention to minimize the significance of inequality; the Father is going through each perspective

Jew or non-Jew

rich or poor

male or female

and demolishing each one so that we no longer see ourselves with limitations or distinctions. Those distinctions destroy like the edge of a sharp sword. He has loosed the African American people and other nations and other tribes into their destiny. The last will be first and the first will be last.

And they sang a new song, saying: “You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased for God persons from every tribe and language and people and nation. Revelation 5:9 NIV

It is time for a new song! For just as Abner called out to Joab, “Must the sword devour forever?" We, as God's people cry out! And we take Joab's answer and we apply it to the unrest that is stirring in the world.