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Making men MEN again. The David Alliance will help you slay your giants.
Episodes
46 minutes ago
46 minutes ago
7 min
The David Alliance
Garth Heckman
10 Ways the Accuser Attacks Faith
1. Rehearsing Your Past
He whispers your worst moment on repeat — the affair, the addiction, the abortion, the thing you did at 19 — long after God has already forgiven it, hoping shame will convince you that grace has an expiration date. (Revelation 12:10 — he accuses "day and night")
2. Redefining God's Character
"Did God really say...?" He doesn't usually deny God exists — he reframes who God is: distant, disappointed, keeping score. (Genesis 3:1)
3. Comparison
He points you at someone else's marriage, ministry, body, or blessing, and lets envy do the rest of the work — convincing you God has been unfair specifically to you.
4. Isolation Disguised as Privacy
He convinces you that no one can know the real struggle — that if your small group or spouse knew, they'd walk away. Isolation is where accusation grows unchecked, because it's never tested against truth spoken by someone else.
5. Weaponizing Other Believers' Words
He takes a real hurt — something someone at church actually said or did — and repeats it in your mind until it becomes "this is who the church really is" or "this is who God really is."
6. Delayed Answers as Proof of Abandonment
When prayer isn't answered on your timeline, he suggests silence means absence — that unanswered prayer is proof you're not really heard, rather than proof you're being asked to trust. (Compare Job's friends' theology vs. God's actual response in Job 38-42)
7. Perfectionism Disguised as Conviction
Real conviction from the Spirit is specific and leads to repentance and freedom (2 Corinthians 7:10). Accusation is vague, global, and leads to paralysis — "you'll never get this right," "you're always like this." One brings you to the cross; the other just buries you.
8. Identity Theft
He tries to get you to answer to a label — addict, failure, fraud, unworthy — instead of the one Scripture actually gives you: forgiven, adopted, righteous in Christ (Romans 8:1, Ephesians 1:5). Whoever answers the accusation has already accepted the label.
9. Success as a Trapdoor
Ironically, he accuses through pride too — convincing gifted, "successful" believers (especially leaders) that their platform, growth, or following is proof of their own righteousness, setting up a fall through self-sufficiency rather than obvious sin. (1 Timothy 3:6 — the danger of being "puffed up with conceit")
10. Truth Without Grace
This might be the subtlest one: he loves using real Scripture, real truth, real standards — just stripped of the gospel's grace and hope, so truth becomes crushing weight instead of a path to freedom. (This is actually what he tried on Jesus in the wilderness — quoting real Scripture, Matthew 4:6, but twisting its application.)
2 days ago
2 days ago
7 min
The David Alliance
Garth Heckman
Accuser
Do you inhale or exhale when you putt?
THE ACCUSER - THE RATT
START WITH A WARNING…
**If you do not understand how the accuser works you will be used by him and for his purpose without even knowing it.
Here is how it works:
People play the VICTIM - Why me, me oh my, waaa waaa waaa, poor me.
Then they turn into the VILLIAN - They attack people who they feel have it made, had it easy, they think they are arrogant simply because they are successful in some area of life.
They they become Victors and they fight on behalf of the other “VICTIMS”… Jeff Karow “I shudder thinking about the 11 year old little girl who could not get an abortion after being brutally raped.
The worst thing about being deceived is you do not know you are deceived. You operate in the mindset of fact, but its not fact at all. Remember when cigarettes did not cause cancer.
John 8
Jesus returned to the Mount of Olives, 2 but early the next morning he was back again at the Temple. A crowd soon gathered, and he sat down and taught them. 3 As he was speaking, the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery. They put her in front of the crowd.
4 “Teacher,” they said to Jesus, “this woman was caught in the act of adultery. 5 The law of Moses says to stone her. What do you say?”
6 They were trying to trap him into saying something they could use against him, but Jesus stooped down and wrote in the dust with his finger. 7 They kept demanding an answer, so he stood up again and said, “All right, but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone!” 8 Then he stooped down again and wrote in the dust.
9 When the accusers heard this, they slipped away one by one, beginning with the oldest, until only Jesus was left in the middle of the crowd with the woman. 10 Then Jesus stood up again and said to the woman, “Where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?”
11 “No, Lord,” she said.
And Jesus said, “Neither do I. Go and sin no more.”
The historical background of this passage—traditionally known as the Pericope Adulterae—is shaped by a clever political trap, a clash between competing legal systems, and a fascinating journey through ancient manuscripts. [1, 2, 3, 4]
peh-RIK-oh-pee - It’s from Greek, meaning "a cutting out" or "a selected passage,”
Adulterae = ah-dul-TAIR-eye
1. The Legal Trap: Roman Law vs. Jewish Law
The religious leaders weren't just asking Jesus for a theological opinion; they were trying to force Him into a dangerous political and legal corner: [3, 5]
- The Roman Constraint: Under Roman occupation, the Jewish authorities (the Sanhedrin) were stripped of their power to officially execute anyone. If Jesus agreed that the woman should be stoned to death, He would be encouraging an illegal vigilante execution, breaking Roman law and setting Himself up as a rebel leader against Rome.
- The Mosaic Constraint: If Jesus said she should go free, He would appear to be breaking the Law of Moses(Leviticus 20:10), which prescribed the death penalty for adultery. This would instantly ruin His credibility as a Rabbi among the Jewish people.
What is really going on here?
Judging Jesus response - while they themselves do not hold themselves accountable to the same standard.
*they are not willing to make a call on this - but judging Jesus on his response.
People will call you out - all the while never talk about their own lack of character in the same manner.
- Where was the man? The Mosaic law explicitly stated that both the man and the woman caught in adultery were to be put to death.
**Missing information: Accusers will never share the whole story.
2. The Location: The Temple Courts
The text explicitly states this encounter took place in the Temple courts (John 8:2).
- The sprawling courts of Herod’s Temple were not dirt roads or sandy paths; they were grand, public plazas paved with massive, polished stone tiles.
- If there was loose dust blown onto the stones, Jesus could have been writing in the dirt. However, if He was pressing His finger directly against the smooth, hard flagstones of the Temple floor, a mere human finger would leave no mark. For Him to "engrave" or "write" a visible record there would require a miracle. [7, 8]
3. The Theological Parallel: The Finger of God
By highlighting that Jesus wrote "with his finger," John uses a very rare phrasing that immediately points a Jewish reader back to the Old Testament. [7, 9]
- In the entire Bible, there are only a few times where God is described as physically writing something. The most famous is Exodus 31:18: "He gave Moses the two tablets of the Testimony, tablets of stone, written with the finger of God."
Jesus was silently saying: "You are trying to lecture Me on the Law? I am the one who carved it in stone in the first place." [1, 10]
OOOOOOO
The phrase "the finger of God" appears only a handful of times in the entire Bible. Each instance represents an irresistible, sovereign display of divine authority and judgment on those who try to play God.
When you connect these other passages to Jesus in the Temple courts, they paint a staggering picture of who He was claiming to be.
1. The Plagues of Egypt (Exodus 8:19)
- The Context: During the ten plagues, Pharaoh's court sorcerers try to replicate the miracles Moses performs. When God turns the dust of the earth into swarms of gnats, the magicians fail to copy it. Terrified, they tell Pharaoh: "This is the finger of God."
2. The Ten Commandments (Exodus 31:18 & Deuteronomy 9:10)
- The Context: God delivers the moral law to humanity not by dictating it to Moses, but by physically carving it Himself. The text notes the tablets were "written with the finger of God" on stone.
3. The Writing on the Wall (Daniel 5:5)
- The Context: King Belshazzar of Babylon throws a blasphemous feast, drinking out of the sacred gold cups stolen from God’s Temple. Suddenly, the fingers of a human hand appear and scratch a mysterious message into the plaster of the wall (Mene, Mene, Tekel, Parsin). Daniel interprets the writing: God has weighed the king's deeds, found him wanting, and his kingdom is finished.
4. Jesus Driving Out Demons (Luke 11:20)
- The Context: Jesus is accused by His critics of using the power of Satan to cast out demons. He fires back: "But if I drive out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you."
This is a great teaching device — pastors use this "voice of the accuser" framing often to expose the enemy's tactics. Here's a biblically-grounded list, treating it as an exposé of strategy rather than actually voicing that persona.
3 days ago
3 days ago
7 min
The David Alliance
Garth Heckman
Accuser
Do you inhale or exhale when you putt?
THE ACCUSER - THE RATT
START WITH A WARNING…
**If you do not understand how the accuser works you will be used by him and for his purpose without even knowing it.
Here is how it works:
People play the VICTIM - Why me, me oh my, waaa waaa waaa, poor me.
Then they turn into the VILLIAN - They attack people who they feel have it made, had it easy, they think they are arrogant simply because they are successful in some area of life.
They they become Victors and they fight on behalf of the other “VICTIMS”… Jeff Karow “I shudder thinking about the 11 year old little girl who could not get an abortion after being brutally raped.
The worst thing about being deceived is you do not know you are deceived. You operate in the mindset of fact, but its not fact at all. Remember when cigarettes did not cause cancer.
6 days ago
7 days ago
7 days ago
7 min
The David Alliance
Garth Heckman
ASK
John F. Kennedy - ask not what your country can do for you, but rather what can you do for your country…. Great line, too bad it wasn’t his… but it still screams the idea of asking….
JFK’s head schoolmaster in catholic chapel actually came up with that line… and JFK modified it.
Title Idea: "The Divine Exchange: What Asking Reveals”
Im going somewhere with this question…
A simple question: What is your theology?
Simple answer: I believe in Jesus as the son of God. I believe he died for my sins. I believe He rose again. I believe I am a sinner, I have asked him to forgive me of my sins, and I have chosen to live my life for him.
My Basic theology: Right?
NOT EXACTLY what your theology is based on…. ITS IN THE QUESTIONS YOU ASK AND THE QUESTIONS YOU ANSWER?
The tension in scripture is in the questions: BUT NOT IN WHAT YOU ask, BUT IN HOW YOU ACT!
QUESTIONS - “ASK” - DEMAND BEHAVIOR!
Gods questions to us demand alliance
Our Questions to God reveal compliance
How far is too far… ahhhh that question reveals your lack of compliance and your lack of heart for alliance.
The real question is “What is the best way to honor this person in you and in their future marriage?”
CFNI - PINK ELEPHANTS
Special speaker - asks again and again =who is in rebellion, refusing to repent and be used by God.
We wait…..
Finally a man in his 30’s stands up - its me.
We pray for him.
The speaker says you have a word for someone -
The man says yes - someone here is afraid of pink elephants
We wait….
A young man bursts out of his seat.. it’s me, it’s me
IT WAS…
A SERIES OF UNCOMFORTABLE QUESTIONS!
Jesus asks impossible things ("you feed them"),
- and people ask Him impossible things (water-walking).
Jesus asks us uncomfortable questions (Why give to the dogs what was meant for the children)
- We ask him questions we can rationalize (God I know you understand, I know you are a forgiving God)
Jesus asks improbable questions: (Why would you call me good?, do you want to get well?)
- We ask self serving questions (Isn’t everybody doing it? But isn’t it just easier this way)
Pose the question: What if the way we ask, and the way we respond to being asked, exposes our actual theology—not our stated one?
Because it does.
THOUGHT: Jesus's Questions Expose What We Believe, Not What We Know
LUKE 5 Jesus first ask of a disciple - makes no sense.
Peter objects but obliges.
**What Jesus exemplified - He stood in the boat and preached, and it drew a multitude of fish to him.
APPLICATION: Jesus: “Follow my ask and watch what I can do.”
5 YEARS AGO I WAS FILLING OUT PAPER WORK FOR PATENTS… GOD SAID GO FOR IT.
Now understand everything that I want to go after will cost me a lot of money. I was explaining to God why this is a dumb idea - I don’t have the money… but he said “be greedy, go for it”.
I objected, but obliged… it paid off!
12,000 HAPPY MEALS
Text: Matthew 14:16 — "You give them something to eat.”
This isn't a logistics question. Jesus already knew what He was going to do (John 6:6 says as much—He asked "to test" Philip, "for he himself knew what he was going to do"). The command wasn't functional; it was diagnostic. He's not asking the disciples to solve a math problem (5 loaves ÷ 5,000 people); He's asking them to locate their trust.
Theological insight: When God gives an "impossible" instruction, He's rarely asking you to be sufficient. He's asking you to bring what's insufficient to Him. The miracle happens in the disciples' hands, not before them—they distribute what they don't yet have enough of, and it multiplies in the giving, not before it.
Application: Every "you feed them" moment in our lives (a marriage we can't fix, a ministry we can't sustain, a grief we can't carry) is less about capability and more about direction—will we hoard the five loaves in fear, or hand them over in obedience?
A young man comes to Christ. He was a fun, crazy partying teenager, then 20 year old… now 25 and he comes to Christ. He slept around… but now knew if he was going to call him self a Christian he had to practice abstinence… no excuses -
But he was admittedly unsure - to him it seemed impossible. He could do it for a few dates…but then what.
I EXPLAINED TO HIM - you bring your 3% and God will cover the other 97%.
To most people - especially the 15-30 year olds that seems like an impossible ask:
Point 2: "Why So Little Faith?" — The Question That Isn't Really a Question
Text: Matthew 8:26 The storm,
Jesus asks this three times in Matthew, always after the disciples have witnessed power but respond in fear or doubt
Oli-GO-pistos - “you do realize I have the power if you have the faith”.
Application: The question isn't accusatory—it's an invitation to memory. When we're afraid, Jesus isn't asking us to defend our fear; He's asking us to recall what we already know about Him.
HE IS ASKING SO WE REMEMBER!
Point 3: When People Ask Jesus — The Syrophoenician Woman's Bold Request - what about the crumbs!
Text: Mark 7:24–30 / Matthew 15:21–28
- Jesus Is Testing/Drawing Out Her Faith, Not Insulting Her
Her response wins the exchange trusting in his character and goodness with humility and cleverness.
She asks - and does not get the answer she wants.
She asks - again with humility and candor
7 days ago
7 days ago
7 min
The David Alliance
THOUGHT: Jesus's Questions Expose What We Believe, Not What We Know
LUKE 5 Jesus first ask of a disciple - makes no sense.
Peter objects but obliges.
**What Jesus exemplified - He stood in the boat and preached, and it drew a multitude of fish to him.
APPLICATION: Jesus: “Follow my ask and watch what I can do.”
5 YEARS AGO I WAS FILLING OUT PAPER WORK FOR PATENTS… GOD SAID GO FOR IT.
Now understand everything that I want to go after will cost me a lot of money. I was explaining to God why this is a dumb idea - I don’t have the money… but he said “be greedy, go for it”.
I objected, but obliged… it paid off!
12,000 HAPPY MEALS
Text: Matthew 14:16 — "You give them something to eat.”
This isn't a logistics question. Jesus already knew what He was going to do (John 6:6 says as much—He asked "to test" Philip, "for he himself knew what he was going to do"). The command wasn't functional; it was diagnostic. He's not asking the disciples to solve a math problem (5 loaves ÷ 5,000 people); He's asking them to locate their trust.
Theological insight: When God gives an "impossible" instruction, He's rarely asking you to be sufficient. He's asking you to bring what's insufficient to Him. The miracle happens in the disciples' hands, not before them—they distribute what they don't yet have enough of, and it multiplies in the giving, not before it.
Application: Every "you feed them" moment in our lives (a marriage we can't fix, a ministry we can't sustain, a grief we can't carry) is less about capability and more about direction—will we hoard the five loaves in fear, or hand them over in obedience?
A young man comes to Christ. He was a fun, crazy partying teenager, then 20 year old… now 25 and he comes to Christ. He slept around… but now knew if he was going to call him self a Christian he had to practice abstinence… no excuses -
But he was admittedly unsure - to him it seemed impossible. He could do it for a few dates…but then what.
I EXPLAINED TO HIM - you bring your 3% and God will cover the other 97%.
Sep 7, 2026
Sep 7, 2026
7 min
The David Alliance
Garth Heckman
IT WAS…
A SERIES OF UNCOMFORTABLE QUESTIONS!
Jesus asks impossible things ("you feed them"),
- and people ask Him impossible things (water-walking).
Jesus asks us uncomfortable questions (Why give to the dogs what was meant for the children)
- We ask him questions we can rationalize (God I know you understand, I know you are a forgiving God)
Jesus asks improbable questions: (Why would you call me good?, do you want to get well?)
- We ask self serving questions (Isn’t everybody doing it? But isn’t it just easier this way)
Pose the question: What if the way we ask, and the way we respond to being asked, exposes our actual theology—not our stated one?
Because it does.
THOUGHT: Jesus's Questions Expose What We Believe, Not What We Know
LUKE 5 Jesus first ask of a disciple - makes no sense.
Peter objects but obliges.
**What Jesus exemplified - He stood in the boat and preached, and it drew a multitude of fish to him.
APPLICATION: Jesus: “Follow my ask and watch what I can do.”
Sep 6, 2026
Sep 6, 2026
7 min
The David Alliance
Garth Heckman
ASK
John F. Kennedy - ask not what your country can do for you, but rather what can you do for your country…. Great line, too bad it wasn’t his… but it still screams the idea of asking….
JFK’s head schoolmaster in catholic chapel actually came up with that line… and JFK modified it.
Title Idea: "The Divine Exchange: What Asking Reveals”
Im going somewhere with this question…
A simple question: What is your theology?
Simple answer: I believe in Jesus as the son of God. I believe he died for my sins. I believe He rose again. I believe I am a sinner, I have asked him to forgive me of my sins, and I have chosen to live my life for him.
My Basic theology: Right?
NOT EXACTLY what your theology is based on…. ITS IN THE QUESTIONS YOU ASK AND THE QUESTIONS YOU ANSWER?
The tension in scripture is in the questions: BUT NOT IN WHAT YOU ask, BUT IN HOW YOU ACT!
QUESTIONS - “ASK” - DEMAND BEHAVIOR!
Gods questions to us demand alliance
Our Questions to God reveal compliance
How far is too far… ahhhh that question reveals your lack of compliance and your lack of heart for alliance.
The real question is “What is the best way to honor this person in you and in their future marriage?”
Sep 3, 2026
Sep 2, 2026
Sep 2, 2026
7 min
The David Alliance
Garth Heckman
EVERYONE WANTS TO MAKE THEIR DAD PROUD.
How? By being creative in how we perform.
John 1:3 and Colossians 1:16 both identify Christ as the one through whom all things were created. This connects creative imagination directly to the person of Jesus, not just an abstract "God"
Quit thinking “I’m not creative”. As a follower of Jesus you have THEEEE creator living inside you. Everything that God has created… that force is in YOU.
Every kid who's ever built a blanket fort, drawn a picture of a purple dinosaur riding a skateboard, or invented a game with rules that make sense to absolutely no one but them — is doing something profoundly theological. They're being and acting and operating in exactly who they were made to be.
Point 3: God's Creativity Is Extravagant, Not Efficient
GOD’S MIRACLES WERE ALWAYS ABUNDANT.
Fish and Bread - more
Peter catches the fish in the net - more
Creative Miracles are always MORE!
Psalm 104 is an extended poem celebrating creation, and verse 24 is the summary line: "How many are your works, LORD! In wisdom you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures.”
Here's what's easy to miss: God didn't need this much variety. He could have made one kind of tree, one kind of bird, one kind of fish, and called it "sufficient."
THATS WHY….
there are over 350,000 known species of beetles alone — and that's before you get to everything else crawling, swimming, and flying on this planet. Every snowflake that's ever fallen has had a unique crystalline structure. No two fingerprints on earth are identical. God didn't design creation efficiently. He designed it abundantly.
Here’s a brain drop… he wants your creativity to produce abundance!
GOD DOES NOT ASK US TO CREATE PERFECTLY OR EFFICIENTLY - JUST CREATE AND WATCH HIM MAKE IT ABUNDANT WHEN IT IS TO SHOW OFF HIM!