And David inquired of God, “Shall I go up against the Philistines? Will you give them into my hand?” And the Lord said to him, “Go up, and I will give them into your hand.”…. And when David again inquired of God, God said to him, “You shall not go up after them; go around and come against them opposite the balsam trees. (1 Chronicles 14:10, 14 ESV) I don’t know HOW David inquired of God, but I do know that God answered in way David understood. When we look at this passage here in the Book of 1st Chronicles, we first see that David makes an inquiry to God because his situation allows him a choice. In this case, the choice is to fight or not fight. Then David listens for God’s instruction. Finally, this is the most important part: David follows that instruction. The result is written in verse 17 and basically says, “obeying God made David successful” (my paraphrase). The question then becomes: how do we implement this in our lives? First, the inquiring of God. It’s one thing to believe into existence of God, the Bible says even the demons believe in God’s existence. It’s a totally different thing to believe in God– that is His faithfulness and His being for us. For example, we all believe we have parents. There was a mother whose womb you came into existence by and a father whose genetic donation to your mother fertilized eggs, etc, etc. It is another thing entirely to believe your parents will come through for you. The same is true about believing God. You can believe in the existence of God; but unless you believe He will come through for you, you will never inquire of Him. Secondly, we may inquire, because throwing a prayer these days is as easy as taking a walk in the park, but what’s the point of asking if you don’t listen to the response? We need to stop a minute, take a step back and listen to what God says. Why are we rushing head first without any response from the questions we asked. If David had rushed into attack mode without God’s answer, he may have never won the battle. If you sit back and wait for God to answer, there will be a tangible answer. If you ask God whether you should order tuna or salmon for dinner, God may never answer you; however, ask Him something real and you’ll get an answer if you slow down enough to listen. I bet that answer will be loud and clear, too. Lastly, obedience. This is the most important. Why go through the first two steps if we’re just going to do whatever we want anyways? The thing that made David successful was that he approached his life God’s way. It didn’t matter what he did, he just needed to do it God’s way. Military strategy suggests not going around the natural defenses that are offered to be left defenseless, open on the wrong side of natural cover. Yet, in this case, God’s way was for David to do so and David did. What inquiries are we making of God these days? Do we believe in Him? Are we listening for God in our lives? Are we following His ways?