Tuesday, April 17, 2018

The Spirit Of The Lord

I Samuel 16: 13-14

Samuel anointed him, and the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon David from that day forward.

--But--

The Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord tormented him.

When Saul disobeyed God, resulting in God rejecting him as king, God had Samuel anoint David to be the next king, even while Saul was still reigning.

So God took His Spirit away from Saul and gave Him to David, and allowed an evil spirit to torment Saul instead. This resulted in mental illness bordering on madness. 

David saw God take His Spirit away from Saul, and later prayed that God not take His Spirit away from him as well when he sinned (see Psalm 51:11). 

We don't need to have this worry today. Since Jesus has come, has died and risen and ascended to Heaven to send His Spirit at Pentecost; now we can trust His promise to be with us until the end of this whole Age, no matter what (Matthew 28:20). 

If we leave Him and turn to our own way, He will only let us go so far then draw us back to Himself again. If we continue in our self-will, and God does not turn us around, then we should question whether we really are His child, or if we just professed a religion. Religion cannot save. 

Jesus saves, by taking our place in death, individually, because we all deserve death. When we repent, admitting that we deserve death and believe that Jesus died our death on the Cross; then God accepts His payment for sin on our behalf and gives us His own Holy Spirit in our spirit. 

That is being "born again," or "born from above." We gain spiritual life, comparable to how we got physical life from our mother. (see John 3:1-18.) Then we don't have "religion," we have the relationship with God that makes Him our Father--we are His children. 

And God will never cause us to be "unborn" from His family, He will stay with us permanently. 

Praise God for all He is! For His wisdom, for His goodness, for His love, for His mercy and grace, for His wonderful Plan of the Ages, for His giving us His Word and protecting it through all the times of Man. 

Praise Him for His greatness, His majesty, His immensity. Praise Him for being our Source of everything that exists. 

Praise Him for executing His Plan through the choices of Men, to unfailingly bring the culmination to our World that He planned from before the beginning. 

Praise Him for calling His own out of the darkness and dispair of this World from every age, every Nation, every tribe and language, into His glorious Light, to transform us into His creatures of light. 

Praise God from Whom all blessings flow. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!