But David didn't take the spoil for himself, and this is a lesson for us too. He responds perfectly.
The interpretation for today is that the members of the prayer meeting are absolutely equal in every way to the men in the pulpits. That is the principle that was taught even from the time of David. There is no difference at all. We are all one in this, because it is the Lord's work.
Those churches – and there are some mega churches, mainly in America – that greatly over-reward their pastors, and their pastors have millionaire homes, and sometimes even multiple homes, and they are fantastically over-rewarded: where is this spirit of David in this? It is the Lord’s spoil; it is what the Lord has given us. If the Lord builds the church, it is the work of the Holy Spirit of the living God. We always bear that in mind. We keep ourselves down to size. We don't laud and applaud preachers or figureheads. We give all the glory to the Lord, and that should always be our grand principal, and you see it right here. It is the Lord’s spoil. ‘Then said David, Ye shall not do so, my brethren, with that which the Lord hath given us, who hath preserved us and delivered the company that came against us into our hands.’ And that should be our kind of language. Everything that we are enabled to accomplish for the Lord: he has done it, not us. It is his arrows of conviction that enter hearts and cause people to profess Christ. It is not us. We do the work, but he blesses it and he makes it possible.