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God anoints us all and he even blesses us with certain things but that doesn’t mean he can’t take his blessings away

We all know the story about God leading the Israelites away from bondage and into the promise land. However, the focus of this message is on a later part of the Israelites story which speaks about Israel’s first ruler. There was no real reason for the Israelites to have a king since God was their ruler and is their creator, but because the Israelites pleaded to be like the other nations God decided to give them a king and sent the prophet Samuel to anoint Saul as ruler over Israel. King Saul started out as a good King and If you read his story we know that God sent him to go fight against many nations and accompanied King Saul and his army during each battle which allowed them to be victorious. One of the nations God sent King Saul to overtake were the Amalekites. The difference with the battle against the Amalekites and the other battles was that it required Saul to be obedient to God’s instructions pertaining to the Amalekites. The Lord told Saul not to take anything from the Amalekites after defeating them and he also instructed Saul to kill them all. God helped King Saul win the fight against the Amalekites but Saul did not follow the rules God gave him. Saul brought back some things from the land of the Amalekites and he also spared Agag, the king of the Amalekites (1 Samuel 15 7-9). Due to Saul’s disobedience, God decided that Saul was no longer fit to lead Israel and told Samuel to anoint David as king.

Do you see how God put king Saul in a high place and how easily he was able to take him out of that place?

There are two things to take away from that story: Obedience and Patience

Obedience:

First, you must see and understand how God intended to bless king Saul. God was going to make king Saul just as big as David was if he had just listened and obeyed. God understood and had a reason as to why he instructed King Saul not to take anything back with him to Israel. It could’ve even been because God was trying to test king Saul’s obedience or because the nation they were fighting possessed a lot of things that were offered up their gods but we’ll never know. King Saul, however, couldn’t fully submit to God’s instructions and therefore lost his blessings.

When Samuel questioned king Saul about disobeying God he stated that the animals they brought back to Israel were supposed to be offered up to God as a sacrifice. Then Samuel asked him if making sacrifices to God was more important than listening to him (1 Samuel 15)? This right here is one of the most important lines taken out of the Bible, obedience is more valuable to God than sacrifice because through our obedience we allow God to lead us where he wants us to go and we allow the Holy Spirit to work through us.

Continue reading “Have you been losing your blessing?”

Scriptures:

Roman 8: 1-16

Romans 12: 2

Romans 3:23-24

1 John 1:9

Luke 15

Main passages:

    In Luke 15: 11-32 Christ tells a parable of the lost son.

“There was a man who had two sons. The younger one said to his father, Father give me my share of the estate. So he divided his property between them. Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. He longed to fill his stomach with pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything. When he came to his senses, he said, How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants. So he got up and went to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son; threw his arms around him and kissed him. The son said to him, Father, I have sinned against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. But the Father said to his servants, Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet…”

    Luke 15: 4-7 The parable of the lost sheep

“Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home… Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep. I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.”

Lesson:

We know that the son and his actions are representing us and our actions. When God created us he made us to be a particular way but because of the sins of Adam and Eve, we are now automatically born into sin. However, as we grow some of us start to drift farther and farther from God and our inheritance, which is the kingdom of heaven. Some of us never even knew God to begin with and aren’t even aware that we are royal. We become so concerned with living our “best lives”. We give ourselves up to false doctrines and sexual immorality. We surround ourselves with things that we believe will fill us up.Some of those things may be drugs, alcohol, dating, money,  or partying. The thing we all fail to realize when we’re out in the world is that none of those things will last and none of them will fill us up. Being out in the world will bring you to a point where the things you are surrounding yourself with will become a famine in your life. When you realize that, you might start to search for ways fix that longing inside. You think that something in your life needs a little tweak and you’ll be fulfilled. You say to yourself, if I just ask this person for this i’ll be filled or if I try to think or speak the thing I want to happen into my life I can fix this famine I feel inside. You might even think that your fulfillment lies in “settling down” with someone but no longer what you do or how you do it, if you do not come to God you will forever be unsatisfied. Like the lost son you will have your fun at first, but when that famine hits your spirit nothing of this world will be able to feed it besides God. When you make that decision to go back home or to come to the Lord for the first time he will meet you halfway and rejoice because you are found. The lost son realized that even the servants in his Father’s house were fed and had plenty left over. There is so much anointing in the presence of God and so many of the people in the Lords home are fed and they all have some left over. Even though you were lost and far from home God was already looking for you and he is filled with compassion for you. You are his lost sheep but in order to be fed,  you have to come to the point where you allow him to find you. The way you allow God to have access to you is by seeking him wholeheartedly and keeping his commands.

Continue reading “Dirt”