God’s Best vs. Almost Right: When Discernment Protects Your Breakthrough

We started 2025 standing with David at Ziklag as we introduced what we’ve been calling SOZO Life - a healed, whole, restored way of living with God. Over the past year, many of us have experienced real change. Freedom. Clarity. Momentum. We’re in a good place.

And that’s exactly when this message matters most.

Because the enemy doesn’t just attack when you’re discouraged or barely holding on. One of his most effective strategies is showing up when you’re doing really well. So well, in fact, that you can’t imagine being taken out.

That’s where David finds himself in 2 Samuel 1.


When “Almost Right” Shows Up
David and his men have gone from fugitives to victorious warriors. God has blessed them abundantly. The Amalekites have been defeated. Strength, provision, and influence are growing.

Then the news arrives: Saul is dead.

On the surface, this looks like the moment David has waited for. Remember the bigger story. David was anointed king in 1 Samuel 16. He defeated Goliath in chapter 17. He became a beloved leader, respected by the people, and feared by enemies in chapter 18. And then…he waited.

Decades passed. Now the crown finally feels close enough to touch.

It’s at this moment an Amalekite approaches David with a story - heroic, dramatic, and perfectly timed.


Asking the Right Questions
The man arrives from Saul’s camp with torn clothes and dirt on his head, a sign of mourning. He bows before David and delivers the news: Saul and Jonathan are dead.

Oddly enough, David doesn’t celebrate. Instead, he asks questions.

“Where have you come from?”

“What happened?”

“How do you know Saul and Jonathan are dead?”

And slowly, the story starts to crack.

The Amalekite claims he killed Saul at Saul’s request and brought the crown to David. It sounds believable. It even sounds helpful. But it isn’t true.

Scripture already told us what really happened in 1 Samuel 31. Saul fell on his own sword. The only pieces of truth in the Amalekite’s story are the location and the outcome.

This is how deception works. The enemy mixes lies with just enough truth, then aims them straight at our desires.

It feels right. It sounds spiritual. But it’s not from God.


The Danger of Good That Isn’t God
The Amalekite was counting on three things: his lie, God’s promise to David, and David’s rightful desire to be king.

The Amalekite’s strategy feels familiar because it mirrors how temptation still works today: deception that uses the language of God’s promise, aimed at a legitimate desire, and pressed forward at the wrong time.

He shows up with something that almost sounds right…
almost lines up…
and almost honors God, but quietly bypasses trust and obedience.

The enemy doesn’t always tempt us with the wrong thing. He tempts us to want the right thing without trusting God to bring it about.


Honor That Breaks the Cycle
David’s response to Saul’s death is surprising.

Instead of celebrating, David and his men tear their clothes, weep, fast, and mourn. Why? Because honor still matters, even when leadership fails.

Saul had taken everything from David. He acted out of jealousy, fear, and control. Yet David refused to take revenge. He separated himself from Saul’s behavior without destroying Saul’s life.

Honor didn’t remove David from danger, but it kept him from becoming Saul. And that’s where God’s protection truly was. David placed justice back in God’s hands and chose to trust His plan.


Removing What Brings Death
David confronts the Amalekite one last time and asks, “Why were you not afraid to kill the Lord’s anointed?”

Before the man can answer (or craft another lie), David instructs one of his soldiers to kill him.

David’s reasoning is clear in 2 Samuel 2:16: “You have condemned yourself…for you yourself confessed that you killed the Lord’s anointed one.”

There are moments in our walk with God when hesitation is not wisdom. When the Holy Spirit reveals life-taking thoughts, deceptive patterns, or twisted motives, we don’t manage them, we remove them.

Freedom often comes when we stop negotiating with what God already told us to cut off.


God’s Timing is Perfect
David would soon become king of Judah, and later king of all Israel, but not because he forced it. God’s promise unfolded according to God’s timing.

Let’s take a lesson from David.

Ask the right questions.
Honor God, even when it’s hard.
Remove what steals life.
Trust His timing completely.

God’s best is worth waiting for.