1 Samuel 10:8 Wait

 ”Then go down before me to Gilgal. And behold, I am coming down to you to offer burnt offerings and to sacrifice peace offerings. Seven days you shall wait, until I come to you and show you what you shall do.”“ 1 Samuel‬ ‭10‬:‭8‬ ‭ESV‬‬

a. Seven days you shall wait: This was an important command. By the nature of their office, kings do not wait for anybody – others wait for them. But Samuel commanded Saul to wait for him, because the prophet of God had more real authority than this king over Israel. Saul had to show that even though he was a king he was submitted to the LORD and the LORD’s prophet. Failing to wait for Samuel will get Saul into trouble on a future occasion.

Wait

In our world of haste I’m reminded of a verse:

”Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord!“

‭‭Psalm‬ ‭27‬:‭14‬ ‭ESV‬‬

But why should we wait?

”The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him.“

‭‭Lamentations‬ ‭3‬:‭25‬ ‭ESV

Do you take your important decisions, anxieties and troubles to the foot of the cross and wait for an answer?

Blessings 

1 Samuel 10:5-7 Turned Into Another Man!

 ”After that you shall come to Gibeath-elohim, where there is a garrison of the Philistines. And there, as soon as you come to the city, you will meet a group of prophets coming down from the high place with harp, tambourine, flute, and lyre before them, prophesying. Then the Spirit of the Lord will rush upon you, and you will prophesy with them and be turned into another man. Now when these signs meet you, do what your hand finds to do, for God is with you.“

‭‭1 Samuel‬ ‭10‬:‭5‬-‭7‬ ‭ESV‬‬

a. A group of prophets: They were apparently seeking the LORD and worshipping Him at the place of worship (the high place). They will be prophesying isn’t necessarily saying that they were all predicting the future, but that they all spoke under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

i. “Members of prophetic bands were often young (2 Kings 5:22; 9:4); they frequently lived together (2 Kings 6:1-2), ate together (2 Kings 4:38), and were supported by the generosity of their fellow Israelites (2 Kings 4:42-43)…. Samuel provided guidance and direction for the movement in its early stages, as Elijah and Elisha did later.” (Youngblood)

b. Then the Spirit of the LORD will come upon you: This reception of the Holy Spirit was the real anointing. The oil poured out on Saul’s head was just a picture of this. A gallon of oil could go on his head, but if the Spirit of the LORD did not come upon him, it would mean nothing.

i. Poole observed will come upon you is literally “will leap or rush upon thee, to wit [namely], for a season. So, it may be opposed to the Spirit’s resting upon a man, as in Numbers 11:25; Isaiah 11:2.”

c. And you will prophesy with them and be turned into another man: Before this Saul never was a particularly spiritual man. So for him to prophesy – that is, speak as inspired from the LORD, whether predicting the future, exhorting others, or speaking to God – was real evidence that he was turned into another man.

i. For God to use Saul to the fullest, he had to be turned into another man by the filling of the Spirit of the LORD.

d. When these signs come to you: God arranged for each one of these three events to be a sign to Saul. God always confirms His anointing. (Guzik)

Turned into another man!

When we accept Christ as our Lord and Savior we also have the Holy Spirit enter us!

”For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.“

‭‭1 Corinthians‬ ‭12‬:‭13‬ ‭ESV‬‬

”You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.“ Romans‬ ‭8‬:‭9‬ ‭ESV‬‬

It’s a slow process “turned into another man” because we don’t handle change well.

If you knew me before I accepted Christ you would have wondered about the change when you witnessed the fruit of adoption in me, when we adopted our son, Jesus. 

Hey-Suss.

Have you been turned into another man or woman?

Blessings 

https://www.gotquestions.org/receive-Holy-Spirit.html

1 Samuel 10:3-4 Gifts

 ”Then you shall go on from there farther and come to the oak of Tabor. Three men going up to God at Bethel will meet you there, one carrying three young goats, another carrying three loaves of bread, and another carrying a skin of wine. And they will greet you and give you two loaves of bread, which you shall accept from their hand.“ 1 Samuel‬ ‭10‬:‭3‬-‭4‬ ‭ESV‬‬

(Guzik)

a. The terebinth tree of Tabor…. Three men…three young goats…three loaves of bread…a skin of wine…. they will greet you and give you. Again, Samuel gave Saul specific predictions, so they could be exactly verified. God may have a place for vague, broad words (such as saying to an audience of 500 people, “There is someone here with a headache”), but they are not remarkable evidence of prophecy.

b. Which you shall receive: It would be unusual for men to simply give a stranger like Saul loaves of bread. But as king, Saul will often receive gifts, so this was a good way to confirm his anointing as king.

i. Three loaves of bread were a strange present, but “The more strange the present was, the more fit it was for a sign of God’s extraordinary providence in Saul’s affairs.” (Poole) 

Gifts

I am reminded of this verse, ”Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.“ James‬ ‭1‬:‭17‬ ‭ESV‬‬

Can you list your physical and spiritual gifts that you received from God?

Blessings 

1 Samuel 10:2 Prophetic Word!

 ”When you depart from me today, you will meet two men by Rachel’s tomb in the territory of Benjamin at Zelzah, and they will say to you, ‘The donkeys that you went to seek are found, and now your father has ceased to care about the donkeys and is anxious about you, saying, “What shall I do about my son?”’“

‭‭1 Samuel‬ ‭10‬:‭2‬ ‭ESV‬‬

a. You will find two men by Rachel’s tomb: Samuel gave Saul a specific prophetic word, by which Saul could have confidence that his anointing was really from God. If there were no men by Rachel’s tomb, or if there was only one man and not two, then Saul would know that Samuel did not really speak from God.

i. However, speaking purely theoretically, there could have been three men by Rachel’s tomb and the prophecy would still be exactly correct. You can say there are two men if there are three or four or five, but you cannot say there are two men if there is only one. When a word is from God, it is always fulfilled exactly as God says, but not always exactly as we expect.

b. They will say to you: If the men by Rachel’s tomb didn’t tell Saul about finding the donkeys, Saul would know Samuel was not a true prophet. God gave Saul this sign to build confidence in the work of the LORD.

i. We need to trust God’s confirmation along the way. God did not want Saul to doubt his calling later, so He gave him a lot of confirmation. (Guzik)

Prophetic Word

You will know prophecy is true if it comes true, which is what pastor Robert always preached. 

Once after church I had a man that I didn’t know, come up to me and said he had a message for me from God. He said, the Lord sees my pain and that my marriage would be restored. We had been going through a rough spot. 

Most importantly, his prophetic word came true just as he said!

I believe we won’t see how much the Lord has intervened in our lives until we meet Him face to face.

I can’t wait until that day, can you?

Blessings 

1 Samuel 10:1 Anointing

”Then Samuel took a flask of oil and poured it on his head and kissed him and said, “Has not the Lord anointed you to be prince over his people Israel? And you shall reign over the people of the Lord and you will save them from the hand of their surrounding enemies. And this shall be the sign to you that the Lord has anointed you to be prince over his heritage.“ 1 Samuel‬ ‭10‬:‭1‬ ‭ESV‬‬

a. Samuel took a flask of oil and poured it on his head: This was a literal anointing of Saul. The word “anoint” means to rub or sprinkle on; apply an ointment or oily liquid to. When Samuel poured it on his head, Saul was anointed with oil.

i. But the idea of anointing is much bigger. What happened to Saul’s head and body was a picture of what God did in him spiritually. The Holy Spirit was poured out on him, equipping him for the job of ruling as king over Israel.

ii. As Christians under the New Covenant we also have an anointing: But you have an anointing from the Holy One (1 John 2:20). In the New Testament sense, anointing has the idea of being filled with and blessed by the Holy Spirit. This is something that is the common property of all Christians, but something we can and should become more submitted and responsive to.

b. And kissed him: This was not only a greeting; it was also a sign of Samuel’s personal support of Saul. It was important that the king of Israel felt the support of the man of God.

c. Is it not because the LORD has anointed you: God anointed Saul and there were many aspects to this anointing which were especially memorable to Saul.

i. It was a secret anointing because it was not yet time to reveal Saul as king to the nation. As Christians, our anointing often comes in just such a private way, not in a flashy or public ceremony.

ii. It was a memorable and evident anointing because Saul’s head was drenched with oil. Psalm 133:2 describes how messy an anointing could be: It is like the precious oil upon the head, running down on the beard…running down on the edge of his garments. As Christians, our filling and empowering of the Holy Spirit should be memorable and evident. Saul could look back on this event and know God called him to something special as the king of Israel.

d. Commander over His inheritance: Samuel reminded Saul that Israel belonged to the LORD, that they were His inheritance. At the same time, Saul had an important job to do, because God placed him as commander over His inheritance. Saul should try to be the best king he could because he had the care of a people who belonged to the LORD God. (Guzik)

Anointing 

When we surrender to Jesus and become a Christian, the Holy Spirit enters us and our body becomes His temple.

”Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own,“ 1 Corinthians‬ ‭6‬:‭19‬ ‭ESV‬‬

”And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us, and who has also put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.” ‭‭2 Corinthians‬ ‭1‬:‭21‬-‭22‬ ‭ESV‬‬

Slowly we begin to change and become more like Jesus. 

If you knew me before Jesus you wouldn’t recognize me. I was the sinner of sinners and did too many things I’m ashamed to mention here. 

Jesus said, 

”A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”“ ‭‭John‬ ‭13‬:‭34‬-‭35‬ ‭ESV‬‬

Are you His disciple?

Blessings 

Father’s Day, Prayers Answered

 For those of you that don’t know, after my wife and I were born again the Lord led us to adoption and we were matched with a ten year old boy named Jesus. Pronounced Hey Suss. It wasn’t easy but the Lord gave us strength and we planted a seed.

So Father’s Day wasn’t anything special to me because I usually didn’t receive or expect anything from it.

We continually pray for our son that the Lord would draw him back to Him, mature him, guide him to be a Godly father, a good provider and to straighten out his paths.

So last night my prayers were answered because I received the following text from my son, 

“Happy Father’s Day dad I love you and thank you for choosing to be my dad and everything you have ever taught me I couldn’t ask God for a better father I love you and I hope you have a great Father’s Day”

”Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.“ Proverbs‬ ‭22‬:‭6‬ ‭ESV

Lord I praise you and thank you for answering my prayers. Please continue to guide our son and draw him closer to You. I ask that Your will be done in his life.

In the name of Jesus Christ I pray, amen.

Blessings 

1 Samuel 9:25-27 I Will Be Good?

 ”And when they came down from the high place into the city, a bed was spread for Saul on the roof, and he lay down to sleep. Then at the break of dawn Samuel called to Saul on the roof, “Up, that I may send you on your way.” So Saul arose, and both he and Samuel went out into the street. As they were going down to the outskirts of the city, Samuel said to Saul, “Tell the servant to pass on before us, and when he has passed on, stop here yourself for a while, that I may make known to you the word of God.”“ ‭‭1 Samuel‬ ‭9‬:‭25‬-‭27‬ ‭ESV‬‬

a. Samuel spoke with Saul on the top of the house: No doubt, Samuel told Saul all about Israel’s desire for a king and how he had to be a good king for Israel.

i. We can imagine Samuel saying: “Look, Saul, you have a lot going for you. You have the image, you are a humble man, and you will have the support of the people. But if you don’t give your heart to serving God, and submit to Him as your king, you will never be a fit king for Israel.”

ii. Queen Victoria reigned over Great Britain for 64 years. When she was 11 years old, her governess showed her a list of the kings and queens of England with her name added at the end. When she understood what it meant she burst into tears. Then she controlled herself and said solemnly, “I will be good.” Here, Samuel gave Saul the opportunity to say with his heart, “I will be good.”

b. That I may announce to you the word of God: Samuel dramatically introduced the official anointing as king he will give to Saul. (Guzik)

I Will Be Good?

We may not be asked to serve as a king or queen but we will be pressed into service of the King! But we too need to say out of humility from our heart, I will be good! If we continually ask the Holy Spirit to lead us, guide our words and thoughts then His ministry and His servant will succeed for His purposes. 

But if we leave the front door cracked open, pride and Satan will enter and we will fail! Then we will wonder, I will be good?

When God leads who can prevail against Him?

But when man leads, it’s only a matter of time before we fall!

Lord, please guide me in your ministry so I will be good in Your service. In the name of Jesus I pray, amen.

Blessings