1 Samuel Overview Part 7 - Must Receive Anointing Through Prayers

Guorong and Qiuyin have thanked us for our concern for them and their baby who has to go through a major operation in 2 weeks’ time. The Lord tells us not to think or to be engaged in a lot of things now. God’s will is that we be watchful right now with what has happened to our brother and sister. Every day, I remember them in prayers. Today, I also remembered the deacons who are not with us, and the coworkers/deacons who have gone through much suffering, in the past, and in the present. The Lord wants to accomplish great things for World Evangelism through this. Is it good that we all have no problems and be in a high level of comfort? In our life of battle, have we failed before? David led his followers to war, but yet their wives, children and possessions were taken away. They scolded David and David almost fell. He wore the ephod and enquired of God. He was told to pursue the enemies and receive victory over everything. It does not matter whether our conditions are good or not. What matters is the present state of our hearts. This is the assurance God gives us. This is the process God brings us to. If we have remained in our old church, we will be discouraged. However, look, we have not even been discouraged, but we have loved the Lord even more. Therefore, when setbacks come, there is no need to think about a lot of things. Even if the child is handicapped, it is the Lord who creates lives, so that the way of bringing her up will be given, and the ministry for the whole life will be given. The Lord gives training so that we will not go away from blessedness. Our times are the greatest process God is going to reveal.

Next week is the last 1Samuel series, where we will look at David’s sufferings.

Passage Reading: Chapter 22:6-23

Saul is really a fearsome character as he sleeps with a spear in his hand. Man has mental problems. If his perspective is wrong, he will see wrongly even though no one has been unfaithful to him at all.

V10 Here, we link to the Scripture where it is said that God gives provisions to David with even the bread of Presence.

V14 The priest Abimelech is really upright when we look at how he replies Saul. He loves Saul and David.

Saul is indeed mentally ill as he killed all the priests of Nob. Starting from a small thing where Saul did not rightfully pray when he offered sacrifices to God in place of Samuel, worse contradictions came. The second time when he was instructed to kill off everything, he plundered the spoils, and left the strong men and the king Agag alive. Samuel cried the whole night then. When he met Saul again, Saul did not even feel guilty. Slowly, he wanted to kill David. Next, he found that there were no one to help him inquire of God, Therefore, he went to a sorcerer, which is the Lord’s most forbidden thing. The image of Samuel appeared and told him that he would be the same as him in death soon.

We must not be like this kind of believers! If we have not seen the Lord, do we continue to go on living like that? This is going to become a deep spiriutal problem. We must not look with contempt the sacrifice to the Lord. This sacrifice to the Lord is called prayer. If there is a small worry that comes in, do not let it remain! Of course, I believe that our coworkers will have compassion on Guorong and Qiuyin’s child, but if we have not, really be watchful. The Lord looks with importance His covenant made with us. Therefore, do not look at His covenant lightly.

1 Samuel continues to repeat the reason why Saul fails and why Israel fails. This is the failure of sacrifice. High priest Eli cannot hear the voice of God, and this is the reason why there is no effect or fruits in his ministry and in his management of the family. For David, all his prayers gather and accumulate more strength for him. How is God continuing to equip us today? We must be clear. In our past of living in a traditional church environment, we attended meetings, taught Sunday school, and even participated in the choir. However, we were not clear on the priority of sacrifice. Look - what did we talk about after meetings? We were mixed with the world! Have we realized why I “criticize” the present church of this age? Let us understand that we are all weak! The Lord’s word is more difficult because this age is really dark! Jesus was at the temple, and despite being compassionate, He scolded and turned everything upside down. “Do you know what you are doing? You are all deceived!” But we are no longer unclear. Pray, “I am very weak, but I know that I must restore Emmanuel! I know that world gospelization will be fulfilled in our age. I will not let go of anything that comes by, even if I am in the situation of Guorong and Qiuyin.” Even if I quarrel with my wife, my life continues to want to find the reason why there is such a quarrel. The Lord is delighted when my heart and life seek His will. I acquire a lot of wisdom and answer through all this. There is nothing that is greater than finding out the perfect will of God through prayers.

The brothers and sisters I lead will grow increasingly to:

1. Like to converse with God

If you have admitted that this is the altar God has given, this process will continue to progress so that we like to converse with God more, even if we do not receive visible evidence, for e.g. if your career has not taken off.

1) Meet God: Child of God

In the past, we do not know how to converse, but now you know that you are the child of God. This is about having loved the Lord.

2) Confirm (promise accomplished)

“Lord, I know that my process has pleased the Lord.” Have we confirmed this? Wilson has confirmed how God loves him by the works on his sister Xueting. When we know that we now no longer work for money but for the purpose of 4 gospelizations, we know we have pleased the Lord.

3) Test and seek the perfect will

Psalms 23 - Though I walk through the valley of death, the Lord is with me and I know the reason for walking through this suffering. I know why I have such coworkers with me. God does not want to give me relationships that are dissimilar to the struggles between the pastor, elders and deacons of this age. Have we tested and sought the perfect will? The gospel person is really different because after discovering the perfect will, he will then testify. If we have not accumulated the strength received through prayers through 1 week, 1 month, 1 year or several years, how can we testify?

4) Do it fixed time: morning and at twilight, and at a fixed place

For normal days, let us do 2 prayers, one in the morning and one at twilight. On days of anxiety, let us do more in between. If we have not been able to pray before sleeping because we are too tiring, do it before. When I go jogging at 8+ pm, I discover the days’ accomplishment and see how the day of sanctification is accomplished in the vision set before me already.

This week, I told my wife, “I must do my morning prayer, or our brothers and sisters will fall. Let us adjust the time to bring the children to the childcare centre. The habits we are used to like in reading the newspapers after waking up, stop it for the sake of morning prayers.” If we want to pray, it is no longer about being bothered about inconvenience or the need to sacrifice. After touching the newspaper or computer, our minds will be too complicated. Let us wake up with a fresh mind.

Moreover, find a fixed place to pray. Find a place, whether it is a room where there is air-con that is like fresh air or the stadium after jogging in the evening. Find the place like how David would go into the temple to pray. Do not find a place like in the MRT or on the buses, places of convenience to pray. Find the best place. I cannot emphasize this enough.

5) Influence people surrounding you

By accumulating these prayers, look at what will happen to your career. Do not look forward to a quick fix of accomplishments because problems we face are to press ourselves to prayer, not to discourage us. From the sorrowful face, you gather joy amidst conditions where all will be sad, and you will bless them.

God gave David Northern Israel. David thought, being cut to the hearts, “Since God has uplifted me and established me, I will establish the temple of the Lord as the place of prayer to the Lord as He is still living in a tent!” Saul destroyed the temple, but David established the temple. I want to discern the ones among us who like to pray.

When David found pleasure in God, even when his pants were down by accident, he was not bothered. He was Holy Spirit-filled. When we find pleasure in God, even if we have problems, we will like to share. Some people share their problems but after that instruct people to keep them a secret. This is because that secret is probably seen as an inferiority or problem. Micah saw David’s pants being dropped and looked at David with contempt. Micah must be beautiful because of her handsome father Saul, but David never looked at her and she had no children for her whole life. All this happened because she looked at the most important thing of prayer with contempt. She did not receive healing of what had passed down from her father.

2. Get Anointed

We must get the anointing from God. The small condition you have, God shall anoint you. Receive anointing in the gift that God has given you. If you are not courageous like Timothy, God will anoint you to be courageous to preach forth His word. When David was small, he took care of the sheep and prayed every time while doing so. Therefore, God sent Samuel, who never even thought that he was the one to be anointed, to look for David! God anointed him. Only when the appropriate time came, the Holy Spirit anoints the one who loves to pray. Your wisdom and power come from here.

1) The anointing of driving away evil spirits

Actually David just sang the psalms he always made while taking care of the sheep. Therefore he was just himself as he sang, “God will surely drive our enemies away because of His love…” Through this, the evil spirit that disturbed Saul with jealously and fear left! In the story of David and Goliath, it was vaguely recorded that he just threw a stone and Goliath died. Before that, it recorded more on how David accumulated the victory of the Lord in his heart. Therefore, he drove away the works of the evil spirit. The problems in our fields are because of the evil spirits.

<2Ti 2:1-7>

(1) Soldier: Identity (purpose, direction, promise)

Use the identity of a soldier to drive evil spirits away.

(2) Compete: perfect will

Use the rules of the perfect will of God to drive away the evil spirit. There is no use to tell Satan again and again, “Luci... Luci... Lucifer, go away, go away!” But if we have found the perfect will of God, Satan would immediately leave.

(3) Farmer: Serving, living

The farmer continues to see whether his sheep have grown, and continues to pray for them. Evil spirits are everywhere. Therefore for a person to become an instrument of the Lord that He can use anytime so that he continues to drive away demons, he must continue to find answer in all his conditions, even though it means he has less sleep.

2) Get man’s anointing: traits of David

We cannot learn character, but we just confirm the following seven dedicated areas in the heart of David.

(1) Humbleness

David had a Master in his life. Everyone can thus see God. When Nathan rebuked him, he repented. When people slandered him, he heard the voice of God.

(2) Joyful

Let us become more alive! His psalm, “My heart, why are you downcast? Look at the smiling face of God as He helps us!” David found the reason for being joyful. You must be joyful if you want to become beautiful. I find that the most ugly person is one who hates people and those who are sorrowful. No matter how pretty a sister is, her ugly expressions can be seen. Ronnie, from Penang, is not that handsome with a short nose and a balding head. But when you see why he is joyful, and the God that he places confidence in , people want to follow him!

Once I met up with a divorced couple at a wedding banquet. They sat with me at the same table. When I saw the expression on the face of the man, there was no joy but he was filled with grievances when he saw his ex-wife again. Similarly, the expression on his ex-wife’s face was equally sorrowful. How could they influence each other to bring about reconciliation?

(3) Endurance

When we see the weaknesses of someone besides us, are we able to endure? David put up with people who neither feared God and nor loved men, and told Solomon how to deal with such people. He did this when he saw the timetable of God (as he could not do it in his lifetime, to his defense minister. Solomon acquired the wisdom and perspective to deal with them.

(4) Love <22:2>

(5) Righteous

Once David pursued his enemies with his soldiers. When he reached the river, he left 400 of his men behind because they were too tired. He went and captured his enemies with the 200 soldiers. The 200 soldiers came to say that it was their efforts. But David saw that everyone had put in their best efforts, therefore he said that everyone should receive equal reward. This is analogous to what Jesus said, “the ones who came in the morning, and the ones who came later shall receive the same”.

(6) Loyalty

Submitting to someone is very difficult, but submitting to God is easy. David did not kill Saul not because he did not have the right to do so, but he recognized that Saul was one whom God anointed. God anoints preachers. Therefore no matter under what circumstances, submit to them. Even if he is very bad, submit to God to submit to him. Our parents and our bosses are what God has fixed. When we do this according to God’s will, we will get the pleasure of God. Let God deal with them if they are on the incorrect path.

Huijun is adorable in God and beautiful in being submissive. However, one day, I told her that I did not want her to become a “yes” person. She could actually regard her relationship with me as a long-time friend, as a pastor-sister relationship, and give me suggestions. Then surely I will listen and pray about it. But of course, if she does not give me face in her suggestions so that it goes out of being a long-time friend or a pastor-sister relationship, the best way is come up angry to deal with her attitude first, and I will then answer her suggestions accordingly. If I have a wife who talks nonsense unreasonably to me, I will ask her to stop and be quiet first, and then I will continue talking or discussing with her. There should also be due respect given between coworkers. If we do not have this, bad things will continue to happen in these relationships.

(7) Principle

David had a principle in treating everyone. Whatever he did, he would consider the whole picture because of the principle in treating everyone, so that whether he had to pursue the enemies, or whether he had to rebuke or let go, he knew clearly and confidently.

Do not learn this principle. This must come from prayers and from God. This must be a result of the anointing from the Holy Spirit. I do not learn to be joyful, but when I am touched by the Holy Spirit and am convicted with His perfect will, I will be filled with joy.

3. David’s whole life - many sufferings

Next week, we shall talk more about David’s life, but let me briefly introduce you his life to prepare for next week. Saul also had a lot of sufferings, but they were all a result of his own desires. There may be much enticement in David’s living, but it only caused David to see:

1) The reason for the necessity to pray, meet God, rely on God

If we only pray when we meet with problems, it is too late. If we are always in prayer, always in joy, we will not fall so easily. Qiufen grinds her teeth when she sleeps. I read in magazines that about 15% of the people have this problem, and it especially happens to people who are stressed. Though Qiufen said she had no stress, I discovered that when she had more stress, the grinding of teeth became more serious. According to the dentist, the grinding caused harm to the gum, and therefore recommended a special gum guard, which was quite expensive. However I knew that this came from Adam, the fundamental problem. Therefore, I told her to pray for 6 months first.

David probably had a soft spot for girls. If we know that we have such a problem, be watchful. There is a lot of darkness while driving on the road. Sometimes, to avoid being latte I tend to cross into other people’s lane. People’s curses would have “killed” my whole family in the car. If we have a bad temper, we are not the only one being affected. We will affect others too, and it becomes worse as we age. Though I am weak, God has mercy on me. Quickly see God’s pleasure, and then our words will also be gentle. When we will not be able to overcome our temper, it can “kill” others . Find peace in God and pray for 6 months and see the results thereafter.

David enjoyed the company of people and was never in a bad temper. Saul was one who would get angry easily just by hearing some unpleasant things. Abimelech and all blessed him, but when he suffered a little, he treated everyone as his enemies, and uncontrollablly killed everyone. “Which one of you is loyal to me? Even Jonathan is not loyal to me!” Yet he relied on Doeg, a Gentile Edomite. Sometimes, we are hurt by people in church, and therefore think that such people cannot be relied upon? This is really unfortunate. We shall see how we are joined together with one another.

Patrick, Jianwei, Wengang, etc, we may become business partners in future. If we have not seen the reason to become business partners, we will surely quarrel because of the business. We must see now, that God has prepared our relationships for the purpose in God. If we have seen, then, the money that comes in can be shared flexibly so that the one with family can get more. This is the most important time to be joined together as brothers.

Therefore, pray defensively , rather than pray only when there is an emergency.

2) Different in explaining sufferings

Are we able to explain that not being able to see God’s perfect will is a form of suffering?

3) Authority of Shepherding given

We get authority of shepherding not by any other virtue, but by the life in us. Therefore, do not look lightly at the problems or conditions we have now. Of course, we must often encourage and visit one another. We are born not being able to love people. The problems in church normally result from this. Our eyes only love people whom we like to love. Therefore, we must identify ourselves now as having the same blood of Jesus Christ, etc. If we have a tinge of uneasiness with one another, God will fix this, and the authority of shepherding will not be given. Such a person cannot serve the Lord, as people will fall because of him. I find God’s perfect will and God gives me life. I thank God for these. We received the word first; therefore let us receive grace in this first.

Taken from Discipleship Training 9^th February 2007.