Life lessons from a Strange Occurance

1 Samuel 19:18-24
18 When David had fled and made his escape, he went to Samuel at Ramah and told him all that Saul had done to him. Then he and Samuel went to Naioth and stayed there. 19 Word came to Saul: “David is in Naioth at Ramah”; 20 so he sent men to capture him. But when they saw a group of prophets prophesying, with Samuel standing there as their leader, the Spirit of God came on Saul’s men, and they also prophesied. 21 Saul was told about it, and he sent more men, and they prophesied too. Saul sent men a third time, and they also prophesied. 22 Finally, he himself left for Ramah and went to the great cistern at Seku. And he asked, “Where are Samuel and David?” “Over in Naioth at Ramah,” they said. 23 So Saul went to Naioth at Ramah. But the Spirit of God came even on him, and he walked along prophesying until he came to Naioth. 24 He stripped off his garments, and he too prophesied in Samuel’s presence. He lay naked all that day and all that night. This is why people say, “Is Saul also among the prophets?”
Never underestimate the power of God! The funny thing to me is we in Christendom in the US believe, by and large, that one has to be filled with the Holy Spirit to prophesy. I know that God tended to do things differently back then, but it also serves to underline that God will do whatever God wants to display His Glory and Goodness. We have a hard time with this concept because we tend to view it through the lens how humans behave with this kind of behavior. When we show off, or want glory, it is always through the lens of selfishness. While God always does it through the lens of God; a perfect being trying to draw all men to Himself for OUR betterment. We find Saul, after trying to kill David many times, just mad. He's tried to spear him multiple times, he's put David into battles where he was completely outnumbered by Philistines. However, every time David went into one of those situations, God protected him. ...Selah... In this, though what I feel like God is trying to get me to explain, and know myself, is that the perspective we choose to use when we are expecting God's power to be displayed is wrong. The moment we choose to put God's response to our needs into a perspective, or our preferred course of response, we are setting ourselves up for disappointment and I would argue that we hamstring our response back to Him. What I mean is this. If we pray for financial blessing and we expect God to send us a check in the mail, or provide a better paying job, or give us some crazy winning lottery ticket that just happened to be in our mailbox we are putting emotional boundaries and gaits on how WE WILL RESPOND to God's answer. That said, God then asks us to give every penny we have and sell our car and our house. How would you respond to God's request if you had been expecting a better paying job? I know I would be confused at the least, and mad/sad at God at the most.

what happens if we just obey?

Now to speculate, what if God wants you to sell everything because he's going to move you to a place where you have no need of any of it and it would only distract/confuse what your purpose is. While that is speculation on my part, God works much more like that than you expect! Look at this story. Saul wanted to kill David, so Saul sends men to kill David. And of all the things to happen, Saul's men end up prophesying! God doesn't kill them, Samuel doesn't put them into a blind stupor, no they get so incredibly overwhelmed by the presence that it wrecks them.

IT WRECKS THEM

Saul sends another batch, it happens to them too! Then another, and finally he goes himself to check it out and what happens? GOD WRECKS HIM TOO! to the extent that people start talking about it (v.24). When we do not hinder God's hand by our expectations of Him, God's spirit changes the lives of everyone involved forever. In the case of the men going to kill David, their simple act of obey Saul meant that they got to see the power of God fully manifest in them. Lessons from this one: Put no expectations on God's response other than that HE WILL RESPOND and simple acts of obedience always make God smile.

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