I’m reading through 1 Samuel again and the accounts of Saul and David.  As you recall, Saul was the first king of Israel.  He was anointed to be king by Samuel and in the beginning seemed promising.  He appeared to be humble but the humility turned out to be massive insecurity and fear.  His reign was marked by moments of disobedience to God’s clear commands while always rationalizing why he had no options but to violate the commands.

In 1 Samuel 15, a revealing incident takes place. The Lord commands Saul to attack the Amalekites and totally destroy them for what they had done to Israel as they came from Egypt.  We are told that Saul attacked the Amalekites and killed most of them.  However, he took their king Agag prisoner and saved the best of their sheep and cattle. After the battle he encountered Samuel and said, “The Lord bless you! I have carried out the Lord’sinstructions.” But Samuel said, “What then is this bleating of sheep in my ears? What is this lowing of cattle that I hear?” Saul answered, “The soldiers brought them from the Amalekites; they spared the best of the sheep and cattle to sacrifice to the Lord your God, but we totally destroyed the rest.” “Stop!” Samuel said to Saul. “Let me tell you what the Lord said to me last night.” “Tell me,” Saul replied.  Samuel said, “Although you were once small in your own eyes, did you not become the head of the tribes of Israel? The Lord anointed you king over Israel. And he sent you on a mission, saying, ‘Go and completely destroy those wicked people, the Amalekites; make war on them until you have wiped them out.’ Why did you not obey the Lord? Why did you pounce on the plunder and do evil in the eyes of the Lord?” “But I did obey the Lord,” Saul said. “I went on the mission the Lord assigned me. I completely destroyed the Amalekites and brought back Agag their king. The soldiers took sheep and cattle from the plunder, the best of what was devoted to God, in order to sacrifice them to the Lord your God at Gilgal.” (1 Sam. 15:13-21)

Saul’s character is revealed here and, to some degree, his view of God.  Saul seemed to think that if he generally did the will of God, he had done all that God had commanded.  He took the commands of God and then modified them to fit his situation, but then insisted that he had been fully obedient.  How many times do we obey God in some areas, but then find reasons to justify the part where we disobey while convincing ourselves that we are fully surrendered to God?

Over the years, I have known believers who were involved in immoral relationships but somehow decided that since they “loved one another” and were “faithful” to their lover that God was okay with what they were doing.   Others have embezzled money from their  company to “meet the needs of their family” and because the company owed them that money for all the years and hours they had put in without a raise or promotion.  Somehow, they were able to justify themselves because they “had to provide for their family” and because they were correcting their company’s injustice. I know others who have forgiven some, but have assigned others a special status where unforgiveness was justified because of how great the betrayal had been.  I have also known church leaders who excused their porn addictions because their wife wasn’t meeting their sexual needs and they were not having an actual affair. In all these instances, like Saul, they believed that because they were obedient in some things, they were obedient in all things.  Satan can blind us to the realities of our life and our disobedience to God.  If you had asked these individuals if they were submitted Christians who walked in obedience to God, they would have assured you that they were. 

Before we feel smug, I am pretty certain that we all have blind spots like these that we do not count as disobedience because we are obedient in many other areas and we find “reasons” why our disobedience should be acceptable due to “extenuating circumstances.”  Perhaps, we don’t give to the Lord or give to the poor as we should because we have other financial obligations – our boat payment, the big house we just purchased, the top-of-the-line pickup we really needed, the European vacation we had promised our spouse, etc.   Perhaps, we don’t serve at church because we are too busy with career, kid’s sports, our favorite recreational activities, etc.  Often, when we are financially blessed, we give money but not our time and so feel our money makes up for our time we don’t give the Lord because we are busy enjoying all the things money can provide.  None of these things are wrong in themselves except when they keep us from obedience.  Then, when we ignore or rationalize our disobedience, we have become like Saul. We fall into the view that God is pleased with “close enough.

We are all going to fall short in our obedience to God.  But our proper response is confession and repentance rather than rationalization and our insistence that we are submitted followers of Jesus in every area of our life. As we continue to read 1 and 2 Samuel, we see David fall into disobedience as well – the Bathsheba incident.  In many ways, what he did seems to far out rank Saul’s failures as sin.  The difference was that David acknowledged his sin, made no excuses, and threw himself on the mercy of God. Saul consistently denied his disobedience, insisted that circumstances had left him no choice, or blamed others for “forcing” him into his bad decisions.

As a result, God removed the kingdom from Saul and gave it to David.  Samuel declared, “Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices in as much as obeying the Lord? To obey is better than sacrifice.”  May we be aware of our failures to obey, but repent rather than rationalize.  And may our prayer be the same as David’s: “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”

My devotional time this morning took me to familiar passages in 1 Samuel 17. That is the chapter in which David confronts and kills the Philistine champion Goliath.  In that section, David shows unusual courage and seems to declare the death of Goliath prophetically.  You will recall that both the Israeli and Philistine armies had camped across a valley from one another.  Every morning and evening for forty days, Goliath had stepped out and challenged the army of Israel, inviting anyone who had the courage to step up and fight him.  According to scripture, he was nine feet, nine inches tall.

The response each day had been the army of Israel, along with King Saul, cowering as he issued the challenge. David, still a young man, had come to check on his brothers who were camping with Saul and waiting for an actual battle to occur.  As he arrived, he heard the morning challenge from the Philistine and actually took offense.  He was not offended that Goliath had such disdain for Israel or for Saul, but that he would defy the armies of the living God with disdain. David considered God’s name as the one being slandered.  

David then offered to face this “giant” on behalf of his God and Saul took him up on it.  Saul then gave David his armor and his sword with which to face the enemy.   The text says. “’I cannot go in these…because I am not used to them.” So he took them off. Then he took his staff in his hand, chose five smooth stones from the stream, put them in the pouch of his shepherd’s bag and, with his sling in his hand, approached the Philistine. David seemed an unlikely individual to face Israel’s enemy.  He was young, had no armor or weapons other than a shepherd’s sling.  We are unaware if he had any military experience at all. Saul assumed that David would have to emulate him in order to win the day so he dressed him in his own tunic and armor and gave him his tools for war.  If David had accepted Saul’s judgment of him and faced Goliath in Saul’s armor, the story would most likely have had a very different end.

There are times when God calls us to step up in the kingdom and face a situation or a problem for which, at least in our own eyes, we seem to be vastly unqualified.  We assume we must become like someone else we think would be better suited…the pastor, an elder, a more experienced believer, and so we back away from the call.  Maybe others see us in the same way. But sometimes, God chooses the unlikely because the “tried and true” ways of solving the problem will not work for that situation.  Different gifts and different experiences may be just what God is calling for.

David had no experience in war but he had experienced God’s deliverance from a lion and a bear.  He had no armor but he had a shepherd’s sling that he had mastered.  He also had faith and the Spirit of God working in his life.  We are told when Samuel anointed David to be the future king of Israel (I Kings 16:13), “and from that day on, the Spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon David.”  I believe that the Spirit directed him to face Goliath with the experiences and skills he already had and David submitted to those promptings.  When confronted by Goliath who despised this boy – this non-warrior – David replied, “it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves, for the battle is the Lord’s’ (1 Sam. 17:47). With that in his heart, David charged the Philistine and killed him with a single stone…undoubtedly directed by the Lord.

Here is the lesson.  When God calls us to step up to lead a ministry, share the gospel, pray for someone’s healing, confront an injustice, etc. we do not have to become like someone else.  God called us, not the other person and we already have the experiences and gifts needed for the moment.  After all, the victory doesn’t come through our greatness but through the greatness of God.  The more unlikely we are, the more glory God receives.  The greatness of David was not in his abilities but in his faith in the ability of God.  When the moment comes and the Spirit is prompting us to step up, remember David and his “unlikely” victory over the “giant” from Gath.

When Jesus had called the Twelve together, he gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases, and he sent them out to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. He told them: “Take nothing for the journey—no staff, no bag, no bread, no money, no extra tunic. Whatever house you enter, stay there until you leave that town. If people do not welcome you, shake the dust off your feet when you leave their town, as a testimony against them.” So they set out and went from village to village, preaching the gospel and healing people everywhere (Lk.9:1-6).

In the passage above, Luke tells us of the moment Jesus gifted the twelve apostles and sent them out on their own.  I think there are two important lessons we can draw from this account. First, the twelve had been living with Jesus and seeing him heal the sick and cast out demons on a daily basis.  Perhaps, he had invited them to do some of those things themselves as he was training them to carry on his ministry after his departure.  But the presence of the Master had been a security blanket for these followers of his.  If they stumbled or fell short he would instruct them or pick up where they had failed and finish the job.  

But now, it was time for them to try their wings.  Not only was he sending them out without him, but he was telling them to take no staff, no bag, no bread, and no money as they went. The crucial result of this outing would be for them to learn that the Father would provide and  work through them supernaturally as they preached, healed and delivered.  Many of us, and perhaps myself as well, have rarely been put in a position in which we would fail, be imprisoned, starve, or die without his miraculous intervention.  When we do find ourselves in those circumstances and see the Father keep his promises in supernatural ways, our faith can blossom.

We actually need to let the Holy Spirit put us in those positions more often that we normally do. Sharing our faith with someone hostile to the gospel, sharing a word we believe is from the Lord with a stranger at our favorite coffee shop, or praying for a man we just met at the grocery story to stand up and walk away from his wheel chair are moments in which we will be foolish failures, unless God shows up. The axiom is true that unless we take risks, no faith is required.  But when we do risk, faith grows.  Even if our prayers do not heal on that occasion or if the “prophetic word” simply leaves the recipient puzzled, God is pleased that we stepped out in faith and that we risked failure doing what we believed he wanted us to do.

Remember when Peter saw Jesus walking on the Sea of Galilee and impulsively leaped from the boat to join his Rabbi.  He took a few steps of faith, but then allowed the crashing waves to take his attention off Jesus.  Of course, as he sank, Jesus pulled him out of the water.  We may think Peter was foolish for doing such a thing, but as many have noted, no one else in the boat was even willing to try. I have to believe Jesus was more pleased with Peter at that moment than with the eleven others who huddled inside the boat.  

Faith only grows when we see Jesus deliver us from difficulties that we know we would not have survived or succeeded in without his intervention. We need to look back and recognize his deliverance in our past but also be willing to step into risky situations in the present to do his will.  As we do, faith grows and our spiritual gifts increase.

A second lesson here is more subtle.  The text tells us that the twelve were given power and authority to heal, cast out demons, and preach with power.  Judas was among those twelve and so we must assume that he also healed, cast out demons, and preached.  The question becomes, “How could he have experienced those amazing manifestations of God through him, and still betray Jesus?  Sometimes giftings run far ahead of character.  Not only did he betray Jesus to the Jewish authorities, but we are told he also stole from the money people gave to fund the ministry of Jesus.  Great gifts, no character.

As we seek to grow in spiritual gifts, we should seek even more to grow in character…to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ.  Some men have been thrust into notoriety on the basis of their extraordinary gifts…preaching, healing, prophecy, and so forth.  And yet, the weight of their “success” was more than their character could support.  It’s not to say that true men of God cannot be ambushed by the enemy in a moment of vulnerability, but when influential leaders have been hiding sin for years, there is a flaw in their character.

Sometimes, the enemy convinces gifted people their notoriety, their large churches, and their leading roles at huge conferences are marks of God’s approval so they minimize their sin or somehow believe that God will give them a pass for their transgressions.  Sometimes, they choose not to confess and deal with the sin because they believe it would cost them the notoriety and influence they love. However, God does not approve and eventually will reveal the sin if the man or woman does not confess and repent.  The lesson is…in the kingdom of God, the fruit of the Spirit is always of greater value than the gifts of the Spirit.  We must make sure the fruit always runs ahead of our gifts.

When an evil spirit comes out of a man, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’ When it arrives, it finds the house unoccupied, swept clean and put in order. Then it goes and takes with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that man is worse than the first. That is how it will be with this wicked generation(Mt.12:43-46).

This well-known teaching of Jesus has served as a warning for those who have experienced deliverance from a demonic spirit for centuries.  We sight it at the end of our Freedom Weekends as a warning not to return to the things that opened the door to demonization in the first place. If you do, you may not just end up where you started, but will be in much deeper anguish because the returning spirit will bring others with him you did not have to contend with before.

The thrust of the passage is not a warning against deliverance, but against creating a spiritual vacancy through deliverance that is left uninhabited.  If the vacancy left by an unclean spirit is not filled with the Holy Spirit, you are subject to the return of the demon…and his friends. I suspect that many believers walk around with a vacancy within them, because they do little to be filled with the things of God.

Paul called the Ephesians to eliminate any spiritual vacancy within them. “Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled withthe Spirit. Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. (Eph. 5:17-20).

We may have the Holy Spirit living within us, but that does not mean we are automatically “filled with the Spirit.”  Often, God gives us the basics for being a child of God or for operating in a spiritual gift, but then leaves it to us to pursue more of him and more of the gift if we want to maximize what he has made available.  We can walk around with the minimum and still be saved, but as we do so, we leave room for the enemy to enter our house with torment and oppression. If being “filled with the Spirit” wasn’t dependent on us to some degree, he would not have instructed the church to pursue that state of spiritual being.  When we prioritize the spiritual above the natural, we will be begin to be filled with the Spirit and there will be no room for the enemy.  

Being in the word, in prayer, in obedience, in fellowship with other believers, in praise, etc. on a daily basis and inviting God’s Spirit to fill us is the process for being filled. When we fail to do so, we begin to create empty places within us that invite the enemy…either invite him back or invite him in the for the first time.  In the arena of spiritual warfare, being casual invites disaster because the enemy is always seeking entrance to our lives.  Because of that, we need to take inventory of what we are filling our hearts and our minds with.  

In addition to applying Christ’s warning to individuals, he applies it to an entire generation.  His words seem to suggest that entire cultures can be demonized when they have once enjoyed the presence of God but have since pushed God out of their culture leaving a huge vacancy for the enemy.  In Jonathan Cahn’s book, The Return of the Gods, he makes the case that this very thing has happened to America and that our culture has been demonized so that the “insanity” we see all around us is because Satan has been given the reins to our nation.  

Our situation is not hopeless but individuals or nations must begin to push out the enemy and his influence by displacement.  When we once again begin to earnestly seek to be filled with the Spirit, that filling will push out the presence of the enemy.  However, it is better to never allow the enemy in than to have to push him out later.  So the question once again is, “With what are we filling our lives?”.