Morning Light – May 18th, 2015: God's Timing, Placement and Promotion

Morning Light – May 18th, 2015
Today: [1 Samuel Chapter Sixteen]: God’s Timing, Placement and Promotion. God instructs Samuel to anoint young David to be king. Samuel obeys and returns to his home in Ramah. He doesn’t try to bring the word to pass. Prophets who tamper with prophetic words they give over people get in trouble. David himself goes about his business as a shepherd but in due course King Saul himself makes David his armor-bearer. David through no manipulation of his own becomes personal body guard to the very king he is anointed to replace.
Saul is rejected and God will choose another king to rule over Israel. He continues the office of the king even though it wasn’t his first choice and even though the king chosen has now shown himself unworthy. We can learn here something of the ways of God. He doesn’t go back to the time before the kings. He doesn’t say “see I told you this will never work…” He has made a covenant with the people to give them a king even though in choosing a king they have reject God Himself to rule over them. Against His own counsel He continues the kingship even to the point of bring Jesus through the blood line of the very royal house that by its existence constitutes the rejection of His own rule by the people.
God is ready to move on but Samuel is in morning for Saul. Most modern day prophets would be giddy to see the consequences they prophesied on people come to pass. They speak repudiation and correction and then sit back with a smile on their face when people begin to suffer. This was not the heart of Samuel. He loved Saul as a son. He regretted to see Saul suffer. He didn’t consider the failure of Saul to be one more notch in his prophetic belt. He has the mind of God AND the heart of God. We need to mark those prophets who are otherwise and have nothing to do with them until they either repent or mature.
God is a God of change. There are people and situations that God will bring into your life that at some point will no longer be there. Be prepared to “fill your horn with oil” and move on. Forgive. Release. Bless. Move on. Don’t carry regrets of the past or the wounds of the past. You cannot live in the past and hope to be a part of what God is doing in the future. Yesterday’s Manna always breeds worms. You have to hold everything loosely and learn to move on without distraction.
Samuel is worried that Saul will kill him. Those entrenched in what God did yesterday will always resist what God is doing today. The previous move of God historically will always persecute the next move of God. Get ready to be criticized. Get ready to be resisted. Bear in mind they won’t rail against you or talk behind your back saying “I hate them – they are so godly….” No, they will bring up past failures, supposed disqualifications, and outright lies and distortions. They will bring up things in your life that if you were one of them they would gloss over and sweep under the rug – but now that you are attempting to move on with God they will persecute you. God doesn’t even answer Samuel on this point. He just says – get your gear and go.
4 And Samuel did that which the LORD spake, and came to Bethlehem. And the elders of the town trembled at his coming, and said, Comest thou peaceably? 5 And he said, Peaceably: I am come to sacrifice unto the LORD: sanctify yourselves, and come with me to the sacrifice. And he sanctified Jesse and his sons, and called them to the sacrifice. 6 And it came to pass, when they were come, that he looked on Eliab, and said, Surely the LORD’S anointed [is] before him. 7 But the LORD said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for [the LORD seeth] not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart.
Samue comes to Bethlehem and the elders tremble at Samuel’s arrive. Compare this with modern attitudes about the people of God. We look at the secularization of our culture and tend too accept their benign attitude toward the things of God. Things will not always be this way. There will come a day in the earth when the cities of the land will once again tremble at the things that God is doing.
Samuel calls Jesse and his sons and offers a sacrifice. This was the same with Saul when he met him. He offered a sacrifice and then God spoke. The sacrifice was not just for himself but for those that came out to hear what God was saying. That sacrifice represents Jesus Himself. You cannot leave Jesus out of the prophetic environment you create. To leave Jesus out you leave only a spiritual but not necessarily godly setting of the prophetic that has more in common with a clairvoyant or psychic reading. You must as a prophet or prophetic person always put Jesus as the center focus of all that you do.
8 Then Jesse called Abinadab, and made him pass before Samuel. And he said, Neither hath the LORD chosen this. 9 Then Jesse made Shammah to pass by. And he said, Neither hath the LORD chosen this. 10 Again, Jesse made seven of his sons to pass before Samuel. And Samuel said unto Jesse, The LORD hath not chosen these. 11 And Samuel said unto Jesse, Are here all [thy] children? And he said, There remaineth yet the youngest, and, behold, he keepeth the sheep. And Samuel said unto Jesse, Send and fetch him: for we will not sit down till he come hither. 12 And he sent, and brought him in. Now he [was] ruddy, [and] withal of a beautiful countenance, and goodly to look to. And the LORD said, Arise, anoint him: for this [is] he. 13 Then Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the midst of his brethren: and the Spirit of the LORD came upon David from that day forward. So Samuel rose up, and went to Ramah.
Samuel walked in a seer anointing. He kept looking at each son in turn but wasn’t getting confirmation over which one was chosen. Finally God tells Samuel not to look on the appearance of the man because this was a choice that unlike Saul would not deal with externals but with the heart. We also must exercise this kind of discernment. The cult of celebrity has influenced Christian culture to a great degree. We see leaders and Christian entertainers consisting only of the youthful and attractive. We only invest out confidence in those that have established histories of accomplishment. Yet sometimes the hand of God doesn’t choose according to what makes sense to us. Sometimes the hand of God falls on a little known person, obscure, unimpressive even to his own parents.
The Lord instructs Samuel to anoint David and then Samuel returns to his home in Ramah. Can you imagine the aftermath of Samuel’s departure? The house of Jesse and David himself probably thought “wait a minute! You just put our house in the crosshairs of King Saul! How dare you stir things up like this and then just disappear!” This is the nature of the prophetic. Prophets who hang around trying to make their prophecies come to pass get in trouble. Give what God gives you and move on. Don’t try to explain, or clarify or to arrange people and situations in such a way that your prophetic words come to pass. Be wary of the prophet who tries to tells you what a prophetic word means, or what you must do with the prophetic word that is given to you. Receive the word and go to God. God will lead you and guide you into all things.
14 But the Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the LORD troubled him. 15 And Saul’s servants said unto him, Behold now, an evil spirit from God troubleth thee. 16 Let our lord now command thy servants, [which are] before thee, to seek out a man, [who is] a cunning player on an harp: and it shall come to pass, when the evil spirit from God is upon thee, that he shall play with his hand, and thou shalt be well. 17 And Saul said unto his servants, Provide me now a man that can play well, and bring [him] to me. 18 Then answered one of the servants, and said, Behold, I have seen a son of Jesse the Bethlehemite, [that is] cunning in playing, and a mighty valiant man, and a man of war, and prudent in matters, and a comely person, and the LORD [is] with him. 19 Wherefore Saul sent messengers unto Jesse, and said, Send me David thy son, which [is] with the sheep.
When David was anointed by Samuel the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul. There may be a time in your life that you see this happen regarding the leadership over you. Be discerning enough to know what is going on. There were consequences for those who refused to acknowledge what was going on between God, Saul and David. You don’t want to fall out on the wrong side of something that God is doing and become a casualty of your own inability to use discernment and keep seeking the kingdom.
Saul is exceedingly troubled by a demonic spirit. He is reaping the result in his own person of his continual disobedience to God. Apparently music eases his suffering. One of his servants tells him about a young man who turns out to be David himself. David – anointed to be king is brought to the royal house by the very king he is anointed to replace.
20 And Jesse took an ass [laden] with bread, and a bottle of wine, and a kid, and sent [them] by David his son unto Saul. 21 And David came to Saul, and stood before him: and he loved him greatly; and he became his armourbearer. 22 And Saul sent to Jesse, saying, Let David, I pray thee, stand before me; for he hath found favour in my sight. 23 And it came to pass, when the [evil] spirit from God was upon Saul, that David took an harp, and played with his hand: so Saul was refreshed, and was well, and the evil spirit departed from him.
David is yet so young that his father makes preparation for him to go to king Saul. As Samuel loved Saul so know Saul loves David. David stands before Saul and becomes armor-bearer of the very king God has anointed him to replace. It isn’t necessary for David to get involved in palace intrigue or try to make things come to pass. Sometimes see a word come to pass is simply about being willing to be placed by God in the right time and the right place and see things come together. Though Saul will persecute David – David still remained faithful to wait on God and not take matters into His own hands.