Guest Speaker Trevor McMahan: The 10 Spiritual "Tribes" Every Believer Must Overcome

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Trevor McMahan returns for part two of his illuminating exploration of 1 Samuel 8, where Israel's fateful decision to demand a king reveals profound spiritual lessons for today's believers.

McMahan masterfully decodes the spiritual significance behind Israel's request to "be like the nations around us," unveiling how this seemingly simple desire represents a failure to overcome the spirit of covetousness. Drawing from Genesis 15, he identifies ten spiritual "tribes" every believer must conquer – from fabricated accusations and religious traditions to fear of failure and victim mentality. These aren't merely ancient challenges; they're the very battles we face in our modern spiritual journeys.

What makes this teaching particularly powerful is McMahan's revelation about God's timing. Israel wasn't wrong to want a king – God had actually promised them one through David's lineage, which was already being established. Their failure was in rushing ahead of divine timing, settling for Saul instead of waiting for God's perfect kairos moment to raise up David. "When God orchestrates things and sets things into His place, into His timing, He has set the provision for the vision," McMahan explains, offering hope to listeners navigating their own seasons of waiting.

The message culminates in a liberating truth: believers don't need earthly authorities to rule over them because they already have access to the greatest King – Jesus Christ. By keeping our eyes fixed on Him rather than coveting what others have, we position ourselves to overcome every spiritual battle with divine assistance.

Have you been rushing ahead of God's timing or comparing yourself to others? This episode might be exactly what you need to realign with divine purpose. Reach out to us at [e-mail] with your thoughts and questions as you apply these timeless principles to your spiritual walk.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right folks, I want to welcome you back to part
two of Trevor McMahan.
Thank you, Trevor McMahan,who's our guest today, bringing
to us part two from the book of1 Samuel, chapter eight.
Once again, trevor, it's apleasure.

(00:22):
Have at it, brother, amen.
Thank you again, trevor, it's apleasure.

Speaker 2 (00:24):
Have at it, brother.
Amen.
Thank you again, brother.
So we left off and we had readthrough 1 Samuel, chapter 3, and
we were discussing about Eli'ssons and how that Samuel had
learned from Eli the negativeside of that and raised his sons
in apathy, essentially, andallowed them to go about doing

(00:48):
things that were atrocities inthe Lord's sight.
Well, israel had actuallywitnessed all of this going on
and were actually bringing thisbefore Samuel and honestly
believed that this is one of themain reasons that they were
petitioning Samuel to go beforethe Lord to ask them for a king,
or one of the reasons.

(01:09):
So let's pick up.
In 1 Samuel, chapter 8, verse 20, and I want to discuss this a
little bit so it says we want tobe like the nations around us.
Our king will judge us and leadus into battle.
This is extremely important.
I'm going to try to break thisdown in a way that really opens

(01:32):
our eyes to what it's like andthe harm of looking around us
and envying what they have goingon.
I want to take us all the wayback to Abraham whenever he made
that covenant, because, like Isaid before, I like to examine
the origins of things to be ableto get a deeper grasp of what's

(01:53):
going on here, and in Genesis15, 18 through 20, or 18 through
21,.
Whenever God makes the originalcovenant with Abraham, he lists
10 tribes that he's going tohave to overcome in the land,
and those 10 tribes,incidentally, have names and

(02:15):
those names have meanings.
And what opened my eyes waswhenever I was going through
this, god had actually shown methat every church is going to
have to defeat all of thesetribes also, and so,
individually or maybecorporately, you may be going
through this exact same battle.
And so as I list these names,you can probably check mark

(02:37):
different battles that you'vegone through in your own life or
that you're going through today.
So I'll start off with the firstone.
It's called Kenites, and theKenites name means fabricator,
or lies or accusations.
So there's going to be peoplethat come against you
Fabricating false lies andaccusations to tear you down.

(03:00):
Then there's the KenitesKenizzites it means possessor or
spirit thrower, essentiallycovetous then.
So the spirit is going to comeon you and try to get you to
long to have what other peopleshave.
Then there's the kabbanites itmeans ancient way.

(03:20):
So essentially it's it's thereligious spirit or tradition
spirit that causes you to comein to be like, well, they've
always done it this way, so thelights in the building, they're
a hundred years old, so theystill work, so we can't change
them because they've been herealways like this.

(03:41):
That's a religious spirit thatcomes over you, the Hittites.
The name means terror or fearof failure, so I mean that's a
huge one in ministry.
Well, you know we don't want toreach out and break new ground
because you know it might bemore expensive or the economy is
looking kind of dressed, sowe're not going to go and break

(04:02):
new ground.
Or you know we're not going togo downtown in that area.
Or you know we're not going togo downtown in that area because
you know it's a little scary,that spirit of terror or fear of
failure.
Then there's number five, theparasites, which means squatter
or apathy.
They will take over becauseyour apathy didn't drive them
out.
This is a pretty interestingone, because in Texas they have

(04:26):
a law that if you actually liveon someone's property for seven
years, you can actually claimthat property as yours.
And it's the same thing withsin.
Jesus said a little leavenleavens the whole lump, and so
essentially, to allow sin tojust sit in your presence and
not address it.
Or, like Eli and Samuel, theyjust did not address the

(04:50):
atrocities of their sons andapathy took in this spirit of
parasites.
Number six is the raphaim, whichessentially means giants, and
they cause you to flee and runaway.
There's the amorites, whichmeans sayer.
It means always speaking aboutyou in a negative sense.

(05:13):
So essentially you would walkup into a crowd and they would
just stop talking as soon as youwalk up and that spirit would
tell you they're talking aboutyour clothes.
You're dressed funny, you smellbad or they don't like you.
That's that spirit of Amorites.
Then there's the Canaanitespirit.
It means zealous, it means tomove quickly before God's timing

(05:35):
.
That's a big one.
There's the Girgashites.
It means stranger.
You will feel out of place.
This one happens in churches.
So like you'll have people inyour church for like 10 or 15
years and then all of a sudden,just they'll be like man, I just
don't feel the spirit here, nomore, I just don't feel right

(05:56):
here and they'll get up andthey'll leave.
Normally they're the ones thatwill not ever participate or
help out with student ministryor children's ministry or with
the trash, or picking up orcleaning the building.
They don't want to carry thewater, and so that's that
Girgashite spirit that they're astranger.

(06:17):
Then there's number 10, theJebusites.
It means downtrodden, itproduces anxiety and depression,
not doing enough mentality orvictim mentality.
So these are the 10 tribes thatGod had told Abraham, the
father of Israel.
God had told Abraham, thefather of Israel, or that Israel
comes down through his line,that Israel would have to

(06:40):
overcome.
And so now we come all the wayback to our story where Samuel
is sitting there in front ofIsrael and Israel's petitioning
him to go before God.
So the tribe that Israel isfacing right now is the
Kenizzites, the possessor, thecovetousness, and they had came

(07:01):
into this place where they didnot defeat that tribe, the
spiritual part of the tribe, andthey were looking to their
neighbors and they're longing tohave a king to rule over them.
And then also they were lookinginto the Canaanite spirit, that
zealous spirit to move beforeGod's timing.
Now, this is extremelyimportant to the Canaanite

(07:22):
spirit because a king wasactually promised to Israel and
whenever I was doing theresearch for this, god really
opened my eyes to it that if youread in Ruth, chapter 4, and it
talks about that Ruth gavebirth to a son.
That son was Obed.
He was the father of Jesse andJesse was the father of David.

(07:48):
And these lineages were in oralive at the time that Samuel
was petitioning God for a king.
So God had already had it inplace in order set up to have
David reign as king.
But the Israelite people weregoing before God, before its

(08:09):
time, petitioning for a king.
So God gave them Saul, which hepronounced would rule over them
, take their children, send themto war, take their crops.
And so they still, even withall of that negative information
, still were like, yes, give usa king to rule over us.

(08:30):
God's timing is so important inour lives.
The Greeks actually realizedthis, and so they gave two
different words for time.
One is chronos and one iskairos.
Chronos is like the circularpattern of time, like on a watch
.
You have one o'clock, twoo'clock, three o'clock, four
o'clock.
It goes in a pattern.

(08:50):
Kairos is like the opportunetime, like today is the day of
salvation, or just at theperfect time Jesus Christ
entered the world, and so Godhas a perfect timing for
everything.
Now I don't know about you, butI've been in that zealous place

(09:11):
before in my life.
I'm actually a victim of doingthat quite often, that I would
get out before God's timing justbeing a doer.
But God has me working on thisplace of sitting back and
relaxing in His rest and waitingfor His opportune time for
things to happen.
Because whenever David took thethrone, god had established

(09:35):
everything in order to work outfor his plan and his purposes.
Saul was a struggle the wholetime, cursed the whole time, and
so whenever God orchestratesthings and sets things into his
place, into his timing, he hasset the provision for the vision

(09:56):
.
Every single time, if we walkin that divine order of God,
things work on our behalf.
So I really want us to learnfrom Israel and these 10 tribes
that God has set before them andI know that every person that
is listening right now isstruggling with at least one of

(10:18):
these battles and so God hadpromised for seven of these that
he would overcome them.
In Deuteronomy it's inDeuteronomy 7.1, if you want to
look it up there's seven tribesthat God had promised Israel
that he would overcome with them.
And so if we rely on God in hisperfect timing, he will handle

(10:44):
these situations for us.
He will handle these situationsfor us.
He will show us the exactmeasure, the exact way, the
exact timing to overcome them.
Man, that's good for me.
I've been going through battlesleft and right.
I feel like the world wascaving in on me, but when God

(11:05):
has shown me that I'm notanybody special, that he is not
a respecter of persons, thatevery person that is created in
this universe has gone throughthese same struggles, and that
he is faithful to bring usthrough them, that he will turn
all these things for his good,because we are called by him and

(11:27):
we love him.
And so I just want to encourageyou today.
I want you to look at this storyof Israel at a time of
desperation, a time when theyhad came into the subjection of
the flesh and they had startedto look around at the pagan
kings around them and had longedto have somebody rule over them
, to have somebody rule overthem.

(11:48):
You don't have to have somebodyrule over you.
Today you can have God,almighty King, jesus, be your
Lord and Savior.
He has so much greater thingsto you, and this podcast is what
my brother David he constantlytalks about is the kingdom of
heaven.
The kingdom of heaven has aking and his name is Jesus, and

(12:15):
we get to be a part of thatkingdom now.
So don't be subjected, don'tlike get caught up in looking to
your left and looking to yourright and longing for what your
brother or sister or thiscountry has.
Keep your eyes fixed on Jesus,the author and finisher of your
faith.
He is a good king and he lovesyou deeply.

Speaker 1 (12:40):
Sir, thank you.
I would say a very loud amen toeverything that's been spoken
and, once again, terry, wouldyou please just say a word of
prayer with us concerning thethings that you just shared.
Absolutely, brother.

Speaker 2 (13:00):
Father, we love you, we love you, we love you, father
.
Father, right now, as I speak,I ask that your Holy Spirit
would just come and emboldeneach person under the sound of
my voice, that the Holy Spiritwould just rise up inside of
them to take their rightfulplace in the kingdom of heaven,

(13:21):
to walk in boldness, authorityand, most importantly, love, and
to trample over the enemy'shead everywhere they go.
And, father, I ask that youwould keep their eyes fixed upon
you.
Father, I speak peace, I speaklove over every person under the

(13:42):
sound of my voice, and I thankyou in Jesus' mighty name.

Speaker 1 (13:46):
Amen, Folks, we love you.
If you have any thoughts,questions, concerns, please feel
free to just fire us an emailat lifearoundthefire at gmailcom
, or you can just type in LifeAround the Fire and look us up
on the web.
We would love to hear from you.
In the meantime, God bless you.

(14:08):
Adios amigos.