On a Mission to Knowing-Growing

Earlier this week someone began reading from the Bible the assignment God gave to Samuel for him to go to Jesse and anoint the new king of Israel. This time it struck me how much Samuel was told to the detail of this, but he was not given the most important part; who that king would be until God Himself declared him. God didn’t immediately tell him it would be David.

Samuel was told specifically that it was a son of Jesse and God even gave specifics about Jesse that Jesse was a Bethlehemite. But, God doesn’t say David. God gives Samuel words to say and what to bring for a sacrifice in order to secure his safety and how to organize a gathering to anoint the new king. But, He doesn’t say it’s David.

God gave plenty of help and direction, but He withheld the specific of who it would be. God had learning planned. He was allowing Samuel, Jesse and us to grow in the grace and knowledge of our LORD. We get to see God’s heart compared to our own as we go one after the other with Samuel and Jesse, to the place of learning and knowing the grace and love of God. As each son is brought forward, God shows us how we don't see the way He does. We have a tendency to qualify people based on our impression of their credentials and disqualify people who seem to not have earned it outwardly. God doesn’t want us to fall from our own steadfastness; our own thoughts of what is the right way, but yield to what is His right way.

God desires us to grow; to grow in the grace and knowledge of Him.

In this example we get to learn what God looks at. He looks inwardly by His Spirit. He is looking into ours. It isn’t our accomplishments that we have done outwardly either, it is what we are inwardly in relation to Him. And in David He is so pleased that at the time of acknowledgment and anointing, God’s Spirit “rushes upon him and does not leave.”  In such an outwardly unlikely king, he is graced by the Spirit of God.

The LORD has Samuel on this mission to go through the process of growing and seeing His grace. He gets to learn and grow in this knowledge of it. A quick answer to who the king would be at the beginning would have fallen away as mattering much to us, just as maybe you hadn’t held onto the information that Jesse was called a Bethlehemite.

A quick full answer sometimes loses its impact. There is impact there in that quick bit of information and we don’t often look at it because we hadn’t processed through it first. We usually recognize it in David. Jesus is to be born from the house of David and Jesus was to be born in Bethlehem. It started with David’s father, Jesse, a Bethlehemite. But, I’m sure you remember the part of this story more in the realization of God’s choice in David better, because He purposed that learning to be one to grow in His grace and knowledge of Him learning at how much He looks toward the heart and not at just a little boy. You also may see how you too would have thought it would have been one of the older and more established and “ready” sons to be king. We get to grow through the process that led up to the answer.

How many times has God sent His people somewhere, but doesn’t give them all the answers up front? He knows the answers and what will come. But, His withholding is for our growth in the grace and knowledge of Him. God is very much a method teacher.

 Finding oneself going in a direction that the LORD has led you in, but you haven’t reached the place of its fulfillment is the education of growing in His grace and knowledge.

 It happened to Samuel, to Jesse and to all of us that reads it. It happened to the Israelites that were led out of Egypt towards the Promised Land. It happened to Peter in the full on forgiveness of his own forsaking of the One Who never forsook him. And days later Jesus rose again and immediately visited Peter. Then, following the personal visit from Jesus risen, out bursts Peter in the boldness of the gospel. Peter grew in grace and knowledge of his LORD Jesus Christ.

As you study the Word of God, we begin to know it better and revelation often comes as we are now able to process in reverse. We look back at what God said especially in Isaiah for example, and see the power in the prophecies. God reveals Himself in the process of our learning and in that we are growing in grace and the knowledge of Him. Best Teacher ever! He reveals when He knows it's time.

2 Peter 3:17-19 You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard so that you are not carried away by the error of unprincipled men and fall from your own steadfastness, 18but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.

The text of David anointed as king. 1 Samuel 16

Fill your horn with oil, and go. I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I have provided for myself a king among his sons.” 2And Samuel said, “How can I go? If Saul hears it, he will kill me.” And the Lord said, “Take a heifer with you and say, ‘I have come to sacrifice to the Lord.’ 3And invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what you shall do. And you shall anoint for me him whom I declare to you.” 4Samuel did what the Lord commanded and came to Bethlehem. The elders of the city came to meet him trembling and said, “Do you come peaceably?” 5And he said, “Peaceably; I have come to sacrifice to the Lord. Consecrate yourselves, and come with me to the sacrifice.” And he consecrated Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice. 

6When they came, he looked on Eliab and thought, “Surely the Lord’s anointed is before him.” 7But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” 8Then Jesse called Abinadab and made him pass before Samuel. And he said, “Neither has the Lord chosen this one.” 9Then Jesse made Shammah pass by. And he said, “Neither has the Lord chosen this one.” 10And Jesse made seven of his sons pass before Samuel. And Samuel said to Jesse, “The Lord has not chosen these.” 11Then Samuel said to Jesse, “Are all your sons here?” And he said, “There remains yet the youngest,a but behold, he is keeping the sheep.” And Samuel said to Jesse, “Send and get him, for we will not sit down till he comes here.” 12And he sent and brought him in. Now he was ruddy and had beautiful eyes and was handsome. And the Lord said, “Arise, anoint him, for this is he.” 13Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers. And the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon David from that day forward. And Samuel rose up and went to Ramah.


A quote from Alexander Pope ~ “Some people will never learn anything, for this reason, because they understand everything too soon.”

 

 

Loved Into Existence

 

 

(From prayer time this morning)

Have I not been in your presence since My intention of My conception of you? Your life is of My desire. Your life is what I had loved into existence for man to know you too.

You bring to those around you parts of Myself that no one else can; your laughter, your joy, your hope and your faith. They are my being in you. See the way you are made. These are the things of the Father. Your whole being is of Me and you carry the Promise of eternal life with Me.

Psalm 139:15-17  My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. 16Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them. 17How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them!



Under A Shroud

 

“Under a Shroud.” This was the response the LORD gave when I was praying for someone and I was concerned that they had seemed to have lost some of the joy of the LORD. The smiles had faded despite Biblical pursuits and study.

A shroud? I looked up the definition. It was defined as “Jewish grave clothes.” It is attire placed on a deceased body.  Jesus was known to have been wrapped in grave clothes. You may have heard of the shroud.  Shrouds are a mostly Jewish custom.

This is an awareness for us.

 Many Christians are being drawn to Biblical study in Hebrew ways of old because it is the roots for Christianity. God is making a powerful move to link us and understand it as He draws Jew and Gentile together.  Some are getting tangled up along the way and are becoming encumbered in Law and losing the vision of the grace that first drew them to Him.  Others aren’t necessarily in that area of study, but linger in the death of Christ because of their sin. Their faith remains shrouded in the death. They don’t know how to move past the funeral.

The death is vastly important. It is the display of God’s love and simultaneous Holiness. The wages of sin is death. The Law revealed to us just how sinful we are, but it also delivered a grace that could only come from God. The outpouring of love amidst His holiness flows like a river throughout His ways in the Old.

When focus becomes Law minded, it is easy for our mind to start to focus on the rules and focus less that the rules were about love for God and each other and we begin to operate toward self-righteousness.

 We’ll die trying.

 As much as we try to own our sins and mourn what we did to Jesus, we again come into self. We need to know this; He planned His death. He fulfilled it and it was written and prophesied thousands of years before we were even born and started to sin. We need to see Him!  It can’t be said enough. He died because He FIRST LOVED US!

We need to see His love! We need to see His resurrection! We need to face His grace and glory with our faces uncovered.

He rose!

 He did His incredible thing for our freedom out of  His love so that we could be born again.

 Like Him!

Our death or dying is so that we may live is a dying to our old life’s ways of self-focus. Self focus  leads to sin. Dying to sin is what we do when we live God-focused and grace-focused and gospel-focused. Sin loses its power over us in His power.

The good news!

New life in Christ! He is a redeemer! He is God! There is a song, “My Redeemer Lives!”  If we are born again and living a new life in Christ, we shouldn’t be living in grave clothes. He says we are clothed in His righteousness in Isaiah 61:10-11 

10.I will greatly rejoice in the Lord;

my soul shall exult in my God,

for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation;

he has covered me with the robe of righteousness,

as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress,

and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.

11. For as the earth brings forth its sprouts,

and as a garden causes what is sown in it to sprout up,

so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise

to sprout up before all the nations.

 

The power and influence for the Kingdom of God came following His resurrection and to man now redeemed, for His Holy Spirit to be for all who will wait on Him for it. His death caused the disciples to hide in the covering of  a house in fear until they received word that He had risen.  From there was the explosion of a people moved to move for His Kingdom without fear and without glumness.

So much was their desire to live for Him that they were willing to die for Him in order to make Him known and to not forsake Him. We needed to see death to life. We needed to see sin and death conquered. His Spirit brought that strength to us so that we are empowered by His righteousness to sprout up and follow Him, rejoicing and giving Him praise. 

Our studies are good as we dig back to our foundation and better comprehend His Holiness, but the flowing waters of His grace is what keeps us moving in His freedom and love. Be attentive in those Hebrew studies to see His love multiplied over again by His frequent manifestations of Himself, His Words through His prophets and His graces extended after every mess up as hearts  returned to Him. His grace is everywhere in the Old Testament. His resurrections in fresh starts and redemptions by His love are present right alongside His people.

The Light of His countenance upon us shines brightly for all the nations to see when we come out from under the shroud.

Luke 20:38  “He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive."