You Are Asking For My Help, But Are You In A Place To Receive It?
1 Samuel 28:5-19 (Amplified Bible)
5When Saul saw the Philistine host, he was afraid; his heart trembled greatly. 6When Saul inquired of the Lord, He refused to answer him, either by dreams or by Urim [a symbol worn by the priest when seeking the will of God for Israel] or by the prophets. 7Then Saul said to his servants, Find me a woman who is a medium [between the living and the dead], that I may go and inquire of her. His servants said, Behold, there is a woman who is a medium at Endor. 8So Saul disguised himself, put on other raiment, and he and two men with him went and came to the woman at night. He said to her, Perceive for me by the familiar spirit and bring up for me the dead person whom I shall name to you. 9The woman said, See here, you know what Saul has done, how he has cut off those who are mediums and wizards out of the land. Why then do you lay a trap for my life to cause my death? 10And Saul swore to her by the Lord, saying, As the Lord lives, there shall no punishment come to you for this 11The woman said, Whom shall I bring up for you? He said, Bring up Samuel for me. 12And when the woman saw Samuel, she screamed and she said to Saul, Why have you deceived me? For you are Saul! 13The king said to her, Be not afraid; what do you see? The woman said to Saul, I see a god [terrifying superhuman being] coming up out of the earth. 14He said to her, In what form is he? And she said, An old man comes up, covered with a mantle. And Saul perceived that it was Samuel, and he stooped with his face to the ground and made obeisance. 15And Samuel said to Saul, Why have you disturbed me to bring me up? Saul answered, I am bitterly distressed; for the Philistines make war against me, and God has departed from me and answers me no more, either by prophets or by dreams. Therefore I have called you, that you may make known to me what I should do. 16Samuel said, Why then do you ask me, seeing that the Lord has turned from you and has become your enemy? 17The Lord has done to you as He said through me He would do; for [He] has torn the kingdom out of your hands and given it to your neighbor David. 18Because you did not obey the voice of the Lord or execute His fierce wrath upon Amalek, therefore the Lord has done this thing to you this day. 19Moreover, the Lord will also give Israel with you into the hands of the Philistines, and tomorrow you and your sons shall be with me [among the dead]. The Lord also will give the army of Israel into the hands of the Philistines.
Someone I know recently wrote something on Facebook in reference to needing God’s intervention and needing God to give her what she needed and to fix a difficult situation in her life. I replied to her comment, and simply said God wants your full attention. You cannot have it both ways, wanting God to be all up in your situation when He is telling you He wants you heart, mind, soul, body and spirit and you are in refusal to submit your life to Him, and come out of some things, that He has been asking you to come out of. There have been some very interesting request to God for Him to do, and to help, but yet we have chosen our will over His and yet we have the nerve to ask, and in some case demand that He step into our situation and calm our fears and ease our pains, and fix our messes, but yet we have not given Him anything to work with. We are in refusal to get in a place where God can help us. We want to do as Saul did and be the big man or woman in our own life and then when our enemies, problems, fears, illness, complications, stresses, trials and tribulations come we are seeking out God wanting Him to answer, then when He is silent we become frustrated, upset and desperate and will try to seek destructive means to ease our pain and calm our fears.
Why do we think that God should answer us and cure what ails us just because we ask Him to and yet our life is being lived in the zone of a sin, compromise and denial of God? We sacrifice on the altar of our pride and self-absorption and we do not honor God with our time, our talents, our resources or our lives; but yet we feel that He should be there when we call. We are determined to appease our flesh ( all the while knowing it is wrong) and to deny God and His request. Then we fall out with fear and anxiety when God does not rescue us or when He shows us what our disobedience is producing or has produced. We do not realize that if God was with us, the minute we decided to sacrifice at the altar of self, God backed off and allowed us to be our own God. So if we are our own God then why can we not save ourselves or fight our own battles? Why then do we feel the need to come running to consult God in moments of distress? It is because we are not really the boss, we are not really in control and we certainly really do not have things well in hand as we like to think we do, or claim that we do. These last few years as my life has gone through twist, turns and changes at the hands of others, I have come to realize, I need God more than I need air; that I have to place myself in a place of submission to Him in order for Him to hear me and respond. I cannot choose me and my way; I cannot choose to be mean, angry, and retaliatory; I cannot choose to live my life any old way, doing and saying any old thing and expect that the battles are really the Lord’s. The more we invoke our will, our ways and our opinions over matters the more we move from where God can and will help.
We have to make up our minds; do we want the blessing of God and access to Him or not. We can never have God on our terms. He is Lord and He is creator and our choses will affect His willingness to reside with us and assist us. We cannot defile the body, do our do and live like Hell and expect Heaven as a return on our lack of investment. We cannot expect God’s protection when we live outside of God’s covering. The Bible says choose this day who you will serve will it be God or mammon, which is man, money materials. We cannot be subject to ourselves and still be under the authority of God and retain our connection with Him. The question that needs to be asked is, am I in a place where I am able to receive from God, hear God or be protected by God? Am I walking in obedience, submission and covenant with God? If you are not you can rest assured that His spirit will not rest with you either just as it did not rest with Saul, and the help that you seek may not be able to be found until you make up in your mind to take you down from the place of honor and place God in His rightful place!
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