Called Into God’s Government, Pt. 3

Ronald Weinland

September 12, 2020

We are continuing in the series entitled Called Into God’s Government and this is Part 3.

Once again, being called into God’s family, into the Kingdom of God, is about being called into God’s government, and in many ways to me this is quite profound when you look at something like this because the tendency has been in God’s Church for people to believe or to think they understand God’s government. No, they don’t. People don’t, as a whole.

It takes a lot of time to really learn what God’s government is when it comes to how it functions, especially in God’s Church and through God’s Church. This has been an ongoing matter through time because we’re carnal human beings though blessed with the impregnation of God’s spirit. Then it depends upon our lives, how we’re living them, and our response in relationship with God as to how that proceeds in our lives.

My experience has been, since 1969 being baptized into God’s Church, as a whole, there’s been a lot of confusion about what God’s government really is and how it really functions. So again, there is much to be learned in this. Because I think of Mr. Armstrong and how we had basically, or there were, basically, three truths in God’s Church by the time Mr. Armstrong was being worked with and called and began his ministry, and God began to reveal things through him.

But I marvel at how the first one that is always recorded (or the fourth in total), the first truth was a matter of government. There is a lot to build upon that subject because it isn’t just a simple phrase or a simple few phrases like it is in the write-up about it. There is a lot involved in it. Because, again, it has to do with yielding to God’s government in our lives and how we want to be governed by God’s way. We want to be able to follow that way.

That is a matter of order. That is a matter of specifically having a desire toward wanting to have everything in our life function in a way that is in unity and agreement with God. That is not a simple matter. It’s a very difficult thing. But we have, or God has given us, within the environment of the Church, ways to learn about that, ways to see when it’s working well and when it isn’t working well in our lives.

And we have gone through it. Actually, one of the first things before we even got to the matter of Passover, which was one of the first big matters concerning something that we should have known better in the sense of what the ministry was teaching in so many ways, the matter of 14/15 Passover and matters of that particular area of life and the Days of Unleavened Bread and everything else that works into counting of Pentecost and all that. Those things did hit us early on.

But, candidly, the first thing we had to address was government, again. It got to a point because of the Apostasy, and because of how the ministry was, and understandably so, that people didn’t trust the ministry. They didn’t trust, what they would have thought in their minds at that time, what they did think in their minds at that time, was a matter of what God’s government was or should have been. People didn’t really think that far because of what we’d been through.

We were so weak. The Church was so weak. We were so lukewarm. It came to the point where I understand fully why God had to spew the entire Church out of His mouth because of where we were spiritually. It was pathetic. It was hideous, and we were all guilty of doing that.

Anyone who would have lived during that time (and this is what is sometimes hard for people to understand), every one of you would have done exactly the same thing. Because it was over time, it was a matter of something that took place and its dynamics. It’s just something on a spirit plane that took place that would have happened to anyone and everyone. No one would have had the strength.

Because it requires God’s spirit, and that was becoming weaker and weaker throughout the Church, throughout the ministry, and we depend upon the strength of those things coming through the Church, and when that isn’t working right you can’t work right. That’s just a reality. And so, when we didn’t have an apostle in God’s Church we suffered for it. We truly did. Especially because of the mind and the attitude that began to change within the Church.

So, government is a big deal because this was all about government. It’s all about how does the Church function, how does unity and order and God’s government really work? And if the structure of that begins to falter it begins to cause a breakdown throughout the entirety of the system. Because it began where? Pasadena. Talking, cutting down, tearing down, gradually destroying, bad mouthing things about Herbert Armstrong, things he had written and so forth. So, attacks were coming in from many different ways. Much of it out of jealously, candidly, and a desire of some to move totally away from everything anyway.

But again, it’s all a matter of government, what governs our lives, what governs the order of the Church. How is it functioning? How is it working?

When I go through this I can’t help it but I think of a meeting we had up in Toledo at one point. There was so much distrust that it almost got to the point where certain ones, and not just in the Toledo area, but in scattered groups throughout the Church (it was happening everywhere, as a whole), that a certain group of people with some ministers were getting together to determine how the Church should function, how the Church should work and we’d strayed so far away from that that it began to be a little bit like it is today. It’s like, “Well, what do you think about it? And what do you think? How do you think this should be done? Let’s… Well, let’s don’t call it voting because you can’t vote in God’s Church, so what do we do?”

Some people played around with some of that, some groups out here. There was one large group I think of, “We never vote.” “We never vote.” And yet in their meetings that’s exactly what was taking place. It’s basically taking everyone’s input and deciding. There was no government! When I was sitting in the back of a room one time and pieces of paper were being sent out to everyone, what they wanted to do and what they thought and so forth, and all this was being accumulated, I sat back there and listened to different ideas that people had and I thought, “This is nuts! This is nuts! This is not how God works!”

God helped to use that to slap me around, smack me a few times to knock some sense back into me to go back to—because this is what you’re brought back to—either God works through the ministry to the Church or He doesn’t.

Mr. Armstrong went through that in the early years of the Church as to whether people would guide and direct how the Church should be run. Not like the world where different ones in an organization or a local church would determine who was hired, who should they hire, what should they teach, what should they preach. That’s not how God works! So, either God is in it or He isn’t. And if God is in it and working through someone then by the things that are taught, the things that are given, the truth that comes as a result of that, because of God’s spirit people will be able to see that, those whom God is working with. That will become clear and that was a process of time we had to live through.

But I’ll never forget that, sitting in the back of the room saying, “This is not going to work this way.” If it’s just my wife and myself, we are going to do certain things. If somebody desires to be led by that, worked with that, taught by that, so be it. But if no one does, we have certain things we have to do. Just as much as what Loma and Herbert Armstrong, what they did for so long and what they lived. So, anyway, then as God worked with different ones it’ll become clearer.

Rather than going through all that we’ll continue on. But just to let you know that a lot of people thought they understood God’s government and they didn’t. When we came to the time of the Apostasy it became very clear it’s gone out the window and it has to be recaptured. There is a way that God works, and it can’t function any other way.

People can’t just give their opinions and be in disagreement and things don’t even make sense at times. It’s like some in the world today that want to run things and do things and they all have these different opinions about how things should be done. That’s why there is such chaos in government today. No one can agree. They can’t get anything through congress. They can’t come to agreement on things. You think, this is absolute chaos and confusion. That’s what government does in the world or man. But with God there isn’t. And so, that’s a matter of faith. Government. How does God work? It’s an awesome thing to understand.

So, when I mention this again and again and again, about how we may think we fully understand government, please understand there is much to learn. It’s an ever-learning process to grow in and it’s not something you do overnight. It may sound simple, but it isn’t, in the sense of how we actually end up conducting our lives oftentimes.

Again, I think of one simple thing that God says when people are sick, and something that God revealed at a particular point in time, that it’s all about government. The primary reason of all that is about government. It’s about, do we look to God? And if we look to God. We can say, “Yeah, I look to God. I pray to God about it, to be healed of this or to have God’s intervention in my life in this,” but God doesn’t say it’s between you and Him. That’s the simplicity of it. That’s government.

It’s for that very reason He says, “You desire intervention? You desire My intervention? You will do it My way through those through whom I have chosen to serve in that capacity, and in no other way.” It’s as simple as that. That’s government. It’s a matter of a willingness of ourselves to surrender to, to yield to, to desire to do things God’s way.

That would seem simple enough, but this has been so abused over the years it’s not even funny. You’re sick, call for the elders of the Church. It’s not a suggestion. It’s a command because God wants us to be geared toward the way He works. That’s an awesome thing to understand. It really is.

So, we’re in the story of Samuel now and we’re going to go through this story because there is so much that happened in the beginning of a process there of establishing a king in Israel, of lessons over and over again, especially in the beginning here, that actually have a spiritual factor to it concerning structure, concerning the Church. We can learn from that in a very powerful way. Little things here and there. We’re given many physical examples of things in order to learn the spirit of what God wants us to see.

It’s like the physical tabernacle, everything in it had a purpose and a meaning on a spiritual plane. Much of it we still don’t know. There is much of it that is yet to be given to us, to be taught, and it’ll be taught through the Millennium. Every intricate factor, part of the temple and the service of the temple has spiritual meaning and purpose to it. Awesome!

So, we can learn from those physical things because that’s how we function as human beings.

So again here, we were at a point last week in 1 Samuel 8 where Israel had approached Samuel. He was getting old, his sons were not living as they should be, and so the people were concerned. And so, they went to him and said they wanted to have a king. As I mentioned last week, the primary reason is because of another kingdom that was coming up against them, another kingdom that was threatening them. They wanted to have a structure of a country, of another country, of other countries around them who had kings. With kings there were armies. They wanted to have that kind of structure.

God had reassured Samuel then, that at this point of what we’d looked at last Sabbath, that they weren’t rejecting Samuel. We’re not going to go through some of those verses. But even Samuel, even once all this was done, he basically was still smarting, I think, from some of this, and saying, in essence, “Wherein have I ever taken advantage of anyone? Wherein have I not been truthful to you? Wherein…” It’s like they were responding, “Never. Never,” basically, type of thing. Again, it hurt.

I can understand that, how he would feel about something like that. Because within the Church it’s been that way forever, that people come along and they have this thing that begins to happen in their life and they begin to turn to other things, do other things, and they begin to reject. But you can’t take it personally, which a person can do. It’s a matter of just a process. It’s about God. That’s what God was letting Samuel know. “Samuel, they haven’t rejected you. They’ve rejected Me, that I shouldn’t reign over them.” It was about God.

Whenever God is taken out of the equation in all that then those kinds of things can enter in, other kinds of thinking, other kinds of judgment. But the reality is God is always in it.

So, now we’re going to continue to look at the process whereby God was working with Samuel in order to provide a king for Israel. Again, something that God had planned anyway. It’s something that had been planned long ago to teach. It’s to teach. A lot of this, again, so much of what is written in the Old Testament is for the Church. It’s for the Millennium. It’s for the Great White Throne. It’s for spiritual growth and development. That’s what it’s about.

Those physical examples are powerful examples to learn from because we can begin to see the spirit of things then in our own lives. Again, there are many lessons and spiritual teaching tools along the way in all this.

1 Samuel 9:1—There was a man of Benjamin, whose name was Kish, the son of Abiel, the son of Zeror, the son of Bechorath, and the son of Aphiah, a Benjamite, a mighty man of power, or in other words, of prominence and wealth. That’s basically what it’s about. Because a lot of times, obviously, through societies and so forth, when there’s been a lot of wealth and someone has done really well in prominence and so forth, that’s what it’s talking about. There’s power that’s associated with that as well then, obviously.

He had a handsome son whose name was Saul. And it says, There was not a more handsome person than he among the children of Israel; from his shoulders upward, he was taller than any of the people. So, others might have come up to his shoulders. He was that much taller. It was talking about a pleasant kind of person in the sense of how people oftentimes judge—by appearance—which there are lessons in that as well, appearance, how people judge so often. So, here he was.

Verse 3—Now, the donkeys of Kish, Saul’s father, were lost. And Kish said to his son Saul, Please arise and take one of the servants with you and go and look for the donkeys. So, he passed through mountains of Ephraim, and through the land of Shalisha, but they didn’t find them. Then they passed through the land of Shalim, and they were not there. So again, over and over again here they’re travelling through the areas here looking for these donkeys. Some lessons to be learned in this little bit of how people tend to think.

Then he passed through the land of the Benjamites, but they didn’t find them. And when they had come to the land of Zuph, Saul said to his servant who was with him, Come, let us return, or otherwise my father may cease to care about the donkeys, and will become worried about us, because we’ve been gone so long now. So, here we are traveling throughout the different regions here looking for these donkeys and so this enters his mind that we better get back because we can’t find them and, “My father is going to be worried,” and on and on it goes, obviously, being far more important than the donkeys.

But donkeys were valuable. It didn’t say how many I don’t think here at all anywhere. But talking about donkeys and them being scattered somewhere. They have a value to them so obviously, His father wanted them back, but not to the detriment of possibly something happening to his son and his servant, and/or his servant along the way.

So, it comes to the point here finally where he said, said to his servant, Now, look, there is in this city a man of God, and he is an honorable man; all that he says surely comes to pass. That was his reputation. That’s what he was known for. This is what Saul was saying even. He said, “There’s a man in this city.”

Now, what should be obvious in a lot of this as far as how we think? That should have been one of the first things they thought of? If they’re going to start wandering through a particular area, where is God in the picture?

You know, there are certain things we can do in our lives oftentimes and where is God? Is God being looked at first here for answers, for help, for direction? This is oftentimes the way we think as human beings. We don’t think about God. God’s not first in our thinking. In our prayers, sometimes, it takes time for us to finally come to a point sometimes.

I mean, even when you’re sick, how often is it automatic, “I need to call for an elder.” Sometimes we just go on for a while and we get a little worse and then it finally hits us. I’m guilty of that. “Starting to get sick. I don’t feel good. Hmm. You know, it might be smart to call for an elder.” Is it automatic in our carnal human minds that God is always there first and foremost because this is what we’re thinking because we’re told to? And on and on it goes.

There are certain things in our life we can work out. There are certain things in our life we should put effort into. You’re starting to get sick? Yeah, there are some physical things if you were to still go to work? Now, today with COVID, that’s a totally different story. But certain things, if you can whatever it might be physically for yourself, to try to do a little bit better? You can still go to work; you’re not really being kept from work. It’s not that serious to call for an elder of the Church.

But you get to a point where you’re down, you can’t do things, a flu or a really bad cold and to the point where it’s kind of obnoxious to others, where you can’t go to work or shouldn’t go to work. Sometimes people still do.

But again, judgment all along the way there. How soon do you begin to look for God? You know, there are times when you can just go before God and say, “I’m having this. I don’t want to develop into something worse, and most assuredly if it does, I’ll be calling on the elders of the Church.” That should be the pattern of our thinking. Do what you can where you can.

What do people normally do? Vitamin C! Vitamin C. More juice! Juice! Whatever it might be, different things we try to do. Which it’s fine. We should strive to be able to do it; just like they did, they went out to try to find the donkeys. But if it’s going to be kind of a difficult thing and you don’t know which way to go or whatever, in the Church we have a battle in front of us, something is taking place, it’s always good to go before God and present certain things to God. “This is happening. I want Your guidance in this. I desire wisdom in making a choice and a decision here.” And so, it depends on how bad something might become as to what you might do, especially when it, as an example here, with illness.

He went on to say …all that he says surely comes to pass. So, let’s go there and perhaps he can show us the way that we should go. Now, again, we can just read this on a physical plane, and we want direction, “Where are the donkeys? Which way should we go?” But again, that’s what we’re to look to God for. What is the way we should go? Choices, decisions we make in life, things we pray about.

Obviously, we want God’s involvement – or at least we should—in the activities of our life. The more important they are, the more serious they are. Which, this was important. It was important to his father. It was important to them. There is a lot of money involved here. These are valuable animals because of all the things that they can haul and do and so forth. It’s not like we have today. We’re talking about cars and pick-ups and tractors and whatever it might be. Expensive! Well, there were things like that that were expensive to them as well.

But again, for us, what would we do? Well, we want to pray to God about it. Now, when it comes to the Church sometimes there may be certain things (I don’t want to go too far into this), but that might involve the ministry, the Church. Depends on what it is. That takes wisdom and time to learn some of those matters as well.

Then Saul said to his servant, But look, if we go, what shall we bring the man? So, here they are. They want to go to him, but they want to give him something as well, present something to him as a matter of respect and so forth. …for the bread in our vessels is all gone… So, “We can’t take food to present, to give to him as a matter of appreciation, of respect and so forth,” whatever it might be, and there is no present to bring the man of God. What do we have? So, the servant answered Saul again and said, Look, I have here in hand one fourth of a shekel of silver. I will give that to the man of God. So, in this way he can use it for whatever purpose.

So, again, a different kind of thinking, a different kind of system totally that is set up at that particular time than what we are accustomed to as far as God’s Church and things that we understand today.

Now, it’s kind of interesting here in verse 9, what was added by, what was written here. It said, (Formerly in Israel, when a man went to enquire of God, he spoke in this manner, Come, let us go to the seer. But he who is now called a Prophet was formerly called a Seer.) So, it’s making a distinction here, for whatever purpose in scripture here, in the writing and what’s recorded, it’s saying he’s being referred to here, in this respect, as a seer. Yet what they were accustomed to at the time of some of these things that were done and recorded and the like and things were written later on or rewritten or what, they referred to those individuals as prophets of God. So, it’s making a distinction here.

Now, we’ve had this in the Church, of changes that take place as far as functions and jobs and things that people have been given through time. We’ve talked about that even in the administration of the Church and things that happen depending on the need and a purpose. But also because of how society uses some things sometimes we have changed even meaning or names of certain things because of that.

So again here, I think it’s kind of interesting here how it points this out. It’s saying, formerly this is why it’s written this way. We don’t use those terms anymore, but that’s what was used back then. Because that name took on a different meaning through time. It wasn’t good.

Verse 10—Then Saul to his servant, Well said; come, let us go. So, they went to the city where the man of God was. And as they went up the hill to the city, they met some young women going out to draw water, and said to them, Is the seer here? So again, the reason for the explanation. That’s how they were referred to at that particular moment in time. Later on, especially as they referred back to Samuel and others, they were known as prophets.

So, they answered them, and said, Yes, he is there, just ahead of you. It’s really interesting when you go back and look at some of this history of things, of how some of these things changed. Because even the administration of how the Levitical system, the priesthood, the judges, there are some different times and different periods of time of how God did things and worked with people.

During the time of the judges, as example, most of the time it was a matter of raising up different ones to help give the Israelites a physical salvation from enemies. It was about coming together, like they did with Deborah, like they did with different ones. Most of them, every time you look at it, it’s a matter of battle and so forth that they were getting ready to go into and people beginning then to recognize that they’re going to be conquered unless they receive help. They’re in such a bad shape, bad situation that they begin to turn to God. Hmm, what a novel thought. Because they were very carnal people and they strayed away from God.

This can happen, and it happens in people’s lives constantly in the Church. It has through time, where people can stray and even entire groups and look at what we did during Laodicea. It’s a straying away from God. The weaker we become spiritually the more this kind of thing can happen. That’s why sin is so bad. Because it cuts us off from the flow of God’s spirit. If that begins to happen in an individual’s life, they become weaker.

My wife and I were having a conversation yesterday or the day before about someone we know has not been faithful for ages, and yet going to the Feast of Tabernacles like everything is okay, peachy-keen, part of the Body. I think, no, I’m going to let this go on for a while. Others can learn from this process. In time, either God’s going to take care of it, or I will. But these things can’t continue on. A lot of patience, a lot of time has been given.

And so, depending on different situations God works in different ways. I have to rely upon what God gives me to know what to do and how to do it and when to do it. I do not make those decisions lightly. I truly look to God for the time to deal with them, for what to deal with when it comes time. On and on it goes.

Things like this boggle my mind at times, but they continue to happen. They always have happened where if we become weak or we’ve never really become strong, because we really haven’t yielded our self to the process of what God’s granted us anyway—choice, choices, choices, choices—we’re not really taking action in our own lives of desiring God to rule in our lives. Because that’s what it’s about. Does God rule in our lives? If we don’t want our own rule, if we understand what our own rule is like, our own rule is nothing but selfishness. That’s what it’s based on!

If we rule our lives without input from God, that God’s not involved in what takes place, it’s ours and God’s not in it, God’s not in it. It’s as simple as that.

We want, we should want God in our lives in all the kinds of things that take place in our life because we want the rule of God to exist in our life. Because it’s a matter of God’s government. It’s a matter of His family. It’s a matter of unity and oneness with God. I want to be in agreement with God in everything, and where I am not, I want to be able to see it and I want to fight it, work on it, strive to conquer it.

They answered and said, yes, he is there just ahead of you. Now, hurry, for today he came to this city because there is a sacrifice of the people today on the high place. And as soon as you come into the city, you will surely find him before he goes up to the high place to eat. So again, this part of the process here of partaking of the sacrifice and so forth and what’s going to be offered and being there to perform it and do it and all the ritual that was associated with it.

Going on: For the people will not eat until he comes. When I read this, I have to laugh a little bit. Because how do I say this? There is a matter of, in this particular case here, of recognizing his function, his job, what his responsibility was and what he was to perform and how he was to perform it. There are certain things they shouldn’t do until he was there to perform it. But it’s also a matter of respect to the place, the office that God has given. This is a big thing that God’s Church has been tried in through time.

We’re human beings filled with flaws. Everyone is. We are all physical. We all have selfishness. We all have weaknesses. Now, our desire is to grow and to conquer many of those, but the more we get to know anyone, the more we’re going to recognize, hmm, you’re physical just like me, you know, and you have emotions just like me. You have to fight things just like me. Oh yeah, uh-huh, that’s right. But people get these funny ideas sometimes expecting something different. I don’t know what it is.

But again, all of us, we should be growing, we should be conquering against the carnality of our life, the selfishness of our lives. But there are times when some of that comes out because of who we are, what we are as human beings. But when it comes to the order of government and recognizing, especially, the environment of the Church, I have seen many things over the years where many people have gone astray and in many cases, basically, destroyed themselves, began to destroy themselves spiritually because of disrespect for individuals placed in a position of responsibility within the ministry of God’s Church.

I’ve seen this a lot. I’ve seen incredible disrespect shown to people. I’ve seen an incredible disrespect in PKG. Sad. Women ordained and some people that have disrespected mightily the place that God has put someone because harsh judgment comes into play in something the Church or people have not been used to and how people tend to think, and oftentimes how men tend to think. Then the disrespect that comes to the place, position that God has given someone.

Now, this is not a small thing, but people oftentimes don’t recognize that, they don’t see that in their lives. So, we’ve had many changes in PKG for this very purpose, to be tried in many different areas of order, of how things work, and as to what people’s attitude is then towards a structure that God has given. Because so much of it then goes back to our attitude.

We get into, human begins in God’s Church can get into, a trap where there is this thinking about God and, “I think this way toward God, but I don’t agree with everything in the Church. I don’t agree with everything in the structure of the Church or who is in a particular place within the Church.” We’ve had a lot of people go by the wayside because of this. We’ve had people leave the Church because they didn’t agree with an ordination. I’ve seen incredible jealousies arise and destroy individuals right here in this area and throughout the Church through time, where individuals weren’t ordained or they weren’t recognized, or they thought they deserved something that someone else received.

See, what governs our life? Jealousy? Envy? Lust? Power? Recognition? Those are the battles of a carnal mind, of human life. We all have that. God tries us in those things as to what we’re going to do.

That’s why I say I chuckle at this one a little bit. I’m just going to read the whole section here. When you come into the city you will surely find him before he goes up to the high place to eat. For the people will not eat until he comes, because he must bless the sacrifice; and afterwards those who are invited will eat. So, there was an order of things. What do you call that? Government. There was a way it was to be done.

I think of this matter of respect then sometimes to how people think about someone that’s been placed in a certain place of responsibility. My wife and I have gone to different areas where people will have a meal and when we get there it’s almost over. To me, that is very disrespectful to anyone that God has placed in a place of responsibility, especially the more responsibility that He gives. I hope that makes good sense.

I’ve never addressed those situations, as a whole, just let them go by the wayside because, again, in time God will bring people to see and learn from things that they have done, to realize, “Yeah, we shouldn’t have done that. We shouldn’t have done that. We should have waited.” No matter what the reason is for maybe even a tardiness, “They’re late. Later than what they said they were going to be so… This is getting cold. Let’s start it.” Now, see, that’s not in my mind in God’s Church. It’s not in my thinking in God’s Church.

Do you understand what I’m saying about respect? Okay. It’s not about the person, it’s about how we think. It’s about a job, responsibility or whatever, and our desire to recognize that, to acknowledge that. Because so much that happens within the Church, it’s a matter of acknowledging the more you think in a certain way you actually are thinking that way toward God. Because, you see, that’s God’s way. That’s God’s government. That’s the order of things. How we think toward different ones who have a place of ordination.

We have that problem today in God’s Church where there are people who do not respect the ordination of God’s people that He’s placed in those places of responsibility! We still have those problems in God’s Church to this day, okay? They tend to stir me up and rile me up when I see and know those things exist. But I know that others can’t see them yet.

I hope through this sermon some will begin to look at some of those things in your area. Wherever you are, think about some of that. Wherever you’re scattered in God’s Church, how do you think about the individuals? You say, “Oh, well…” How do you treat them? How do you speak to them? Because I hear of some atrocious things sometimes of things that are said. They really are. So disrespectful!

I think, “If you can be disrespectful to that person, how are you to other people in God’s Church? How judgmental? How disrespectful are you to others?” Because we should respect everyone in Gods Church! But if you treat disrespectfully someone in a position of responsibility you are really missing the mark because God will hold you far more accountable for how you’ve dealt with that.

It’s not a small thing with the whole Body, but if you can’t separate even in your own thinking, “Oops, God is here!” God is in every person who has the impregnation of His holy spirit. How do we think about that? Do we treat them with respect? If God Almighty calls someone and gives them His holy spirit how should we think toward them? With respect? Better believe it!

But we don’t tend to think that way as human beings because we think of God and how we don’t see the in between, the government in between. It’s like, “Government comes from God, and I’ll pray to God about this, but I won’t dare take this to the ministry. I’ll work this out on my own.” Or, “I’m not going to do this…” or “I will do that because I’m praying to God about it, but I’m not going to take it, to that person? Pshew! They’re not going to have an answer for me anyway.” If they don’t, they will get you one. They know how to do it because it’s a matter of government.

Sometimes people won’t humble themselves. Now, I’m talking about something pretty serious here in some people’s lives. Because if you’re doing this in your thinking it’s hurting you, horribly so and it’s something to be repented of, bitterly so, before God, of not showing the respect that should be shown to those whom God has placed. It’s to the office, because it’s to God. Can we see that? Because we should be able to see that.

You’re looking at only the person, the physical human being, and you’re judging them because of how long you have known them and some of the (maybe) weaknesses you see or think that they have or see that they have. Because we all have weaknesses. But if God placed them there you better respond according to that process.

So, we think we understand government. Some that I’m speaking to today that are guilty of some of these very things, and I could go through a list and tell you names, names, names, names, the minister, the minister, the minister, but I wouldn’t do that. Those that I’m speaking to more so about this matter, you’ve got to get it in check. Because see, we think we understand government.

Some have been in God’s Church well before the Apostasy who are guilty of this—Not a few, Okay, are guilty of this very thing because God is not in the picture like He should be, the respect to God and how God functions.

Because God functions in a Church, in the Body of Christ, and that’s why it says in Ephesians, that’s why God gave some to be apostles and so forth, prophets, evangelists and on down, to serve within the Church. Because that’s how God works with us, leads us, and so forth, how we function as a body.

Just like for the Feast of Tabernacles this year: I left it wide open for a great purpose! This here, government. The first thought of people in many cases was not God’s government or God’s Church! Because I said certain things that if our thinking is correct, we’re going to respond in a certain way about where we should go, what we should do, and how we should do it. Was God in the picture? Or was it almost like going off on a vacation somewhere and what are we going to do and who are we going to invite and how are we going to get this and do this. Or was God in the picture in all of our prayers about those situations? Was God’s ministry ever in the picture in those things? Because there are many situations where they weren’t. Which is there to learn from, okay?

That’s why I mentioned, when I mentioned this to, talking to Wayne about it, and he hit it right on the head as soon as I’d talked about it in a sermon, “Going to bring some things out in the open of how people think.” Paraphrasing some things here. And it does, because all of a sudden you don’t have a strict structure that tells you this is where we’re having the Feast of Tabernacles this year. Instead, there are things that you can do. How do you do them? If God isn’t in the Feast of Tabernacles, what is He in? If God isn’t working in our lives and we want to please God and honor God, how do you go about doing that in a way that truly will honor and please God?

Well, it’s a good test. It’s a good revealer. Things happen in our lives sometimes to reveal things about where we are, what we’re doing, what we see, how we think. Is God in the picture? Because see, there’s a structure we live by, especially within the Church. So, we learn from that, we repent, and move on, and strive to never repeat certain mistakes that we make in our lives sometimes and to examine other areas of our life. Because, you see, this is not a small thing, again, in how people think about different ones in their areas or different ones in the ministry; it has so much to do with how you think about God. You think, “No, it doesn’t.” Yes, it does. Because God placed them there. You say, “No, you did.” Hmm. Interesting. That’s right, sure did. I wonder, was God involved in that? Hmm.

So again, these things reveal a lot in our lives in how we think. I especially get a little warmer when I think about how some people treat women in the ministry. It’s been a battle. It’s a battle coming out of that past. It’s not an easy thing. The longer some people have been in the Church the harder that battle can be sometimes because of the changes and how God is bringing us to a point in time where there’s a new way beginning for the entirety of the world, that the Church hasn’t been accustomed to except in PKG.

All the scattered groups out there, if you were to tell them, “Oh, they’re ordaining women now! Can you believe? That shows everything! Don’t even have to look at 2012. Just look at the fact that women were being ordained. No wonder…!” And people look at things like that and they judge accordingly, sadly, because they don’t understand.

So much of it comes back to ourselves and what it is sometimes that arises in life, or arises within the Church that tries us, and how we think then towards what is taking place. Because if God is somewhere then we have to be careful, very careful how we think about it, how we respond to it, and if He’s not there then that doesn’t matter at all, wasting your time anyway.

So again, when I read something like this, “for the people will not eat until he comes,” I have to chuckle a little bit inside and think of the different times. And is it about me? No, it’s not about me. But I know what it’s about, and because of that, I see a lacking. I see a wrong thinking and want to see it change because it’s how we think toward what God establishes before us. Respect.

The lesson in all that is we don’t respect one another like we should. All the more so if it’s even God’s apostle. If we can’t do it with God’s apostle what’s missing? What’s going on in our thinking? I would shudder to think Mr. Armstrong would be coming into an area, back in those days, and everybody has eaten or is eating by the time he gets there! It would only happen once! It’s just something you wouldn’t think because of the respect we have or should have to the office, to the responsibility that God has given.

Verse 14—So they went up to the city. And when they were come into the city there was Samuel coming out toward them, on his way up to the high place. Now, the Eternal had revealed to Samuel the day before Saul came, saying, Tomorrow about this time I will send you a man from the land of Benjamin, and you shall anoint him leader over My people Israel. What an incredible thing. It was in his mind to do this. He knew where this was coming from. He had experienced this long enough. Whatever the process was, it’s there.

…that he may save My people from the hand of the Philistines. So, this is what this is about, their desire for a king. Just like in the judges, they were raised up in different times to save them from some neighboring nation that was out to destroy them, out to take them captive, whatever, out to glean their wealth or whatever.

He’s saying here to Samuel ahead of time, “Here is the individual.” So again, that he may save My people from the hand of the Philistines. For I have looked upon My people, because their cry has come to Me.

Then verse 17—Then when Samuel saw Saul, the Eternal said, There he is, the man whom I spoke to you! What an incredible thing that took place. You think of different things that have happened throughout scripture, throughout time, and here he knows that this is going to take place, it’s been revealed to him this is going to take place, and then God lets him know he’s the man.

Now, that had to be an amazing thing that Samuel went through in this process here because of what he was getting ready to do. But anyway, you have to think about these things sometimes and the awesomeness of the moment in time when they happen.

This one shall reign over My people. Awesome! Then Saul drew near to Samuel in the gate, and said, Please tell me where is the seer’s house? So, Samuel answered Saul and said, I am the seer. Go up before me to the high place, for you shall eat with me today. Can you imagine, even Saul, even Saul out looking for donkeys, for something like this to be told to him, “You’re going to eat with me today.” This wasn’t done, okay? …and tomorrow I will let you go and will tell you all that is in your heart. But as for your donkeys they were lost three days ago. Do not be anxious about them for they’ve been found. And on whom is all the desire of Israel?

Now, it’s hard to capture by this, by what’s stated here, but basically, it’s saying, speaking to him, that “You’re the one for whom they’re looking for. This is the desire of Israel. You are the desire for Israel,” in essence. This is what he’s telling him.

What does this mean? I mean, this is basically, to him, it’d have to be like, “This is nuts! He’s inviting me up to eat and telling me, making a statement like this?”

Is it not on you of all your father’s house? “Who is the desire of all Israel? Who are they looking for? Isn’t it on you of all your father’s house?”

Then Saul answered and said, I am but a Benjamite, of the smallest of the tribes of Israel, and my family the least of all the families of the tribe of Benjamin. Why are you thus speaking like this to me? It’s like, “Why are you saying these things?” Now, too bad he couldn’t hold on to that thinking. Because through time, circumstances and so forth, he lost that, that humility, that thinking.

It’s kind of like for us. Never forget your calling! Never forget who you were and what you were. The farther back, the more you should remember it. Because if you know who you are you won’t be lifted up in pride and haughtiness. You will have learned as well to fight against such things, to never allow the slightest bit of that to begin to enter into your life because you’ve seen it destroy or know of it destroying others.

Like this that takes place here. I’ve seen it over and over and over again in God’s Church. Saul. It’s been repeated hundreds and thousands of times in God’s Church.

Why are you thus speaking to me like this? Now, Samuel took Saul and his servant and brought them into the hall and had them sit in the place of honor. Again, just wasn’t done. So, you think about Saul and what’s going through his mind.

Do we grasp what God did with us, to be placed in the Church of God, set in a place of honor in the Body of Christ, in the family of Elohim in embryo? Sometimes we really just can’t grasp it, where God has placed us. It’s difficult because we’re human beings. And so, to grasp how great it is of what God has placed before us is sometimes hard for us to drink in. It really is. And yet that’s what we should learn and see and grasp and zero in on. Who was I? What was I? What kind of a future did I have? Without God what do we have?

What we’ve been given is so incredible! It blows the mind! But we can lose that in our thinking sometimes and not be moved by it in gratitude and thankfulness to God, and humility, candidly. Because we should never forget what we were before, what was in front of us before, if God weren’t there.

What God has placed before us, we really can’t grasp. We can strive to appreciate it. We can strive to embrace it and strive to be thankful for it, but it’s not that easy. It takes God’s spirit to really be able to do that well. Truly does.

Now, Samuel took Saul and his servant and brought them to the hall and had them sit in the place of honor among those who were invited, of about thirty people. That’s what God does in a calling. He invites us. Some places translate it as that. It’s the same kind of word that’s used at times. It’s like the different ones invited to the supper. Christ gave the parables and so forth, same type of thing. That’s what it’s taking about and those who refused and those who were too busy because they had to go out and do this and go do that. That sometimes happens as well because God’s just not in the picture and the thinking isn’t right. That happens even within the environment of the Church.

Here we are invited in to be with others. How awesome is it that we grasp all the others who are there as well that are invited, called, have that kind of an invitation to join in with a closeness and a relationship with God? Awesome!

And Samuel said to the cook, Bring the portion which I gave you, of which I said to you, to set it apart. The best portion. So, the cook took up the thigh with it’s upper part and set it before Saul. So, not only gave him a place of honor, but now the best of what was there to partake of.

Saul should have never lost that spirit, that thinking of what happened to him. But he couldn’t hold on to it. Why? Well, one of the main reasons is because of God’s spirit. Which, we see something different in David that God did with him and how He worked with him. Saul didn’t have that and it was a carnality that was there, that there were certain things that were going to happen regardless in time because God’s not in it. If God is not in something, human beings under certain circumstances and conditions are definitely going to respond in a certain way. It’s just going to happen.

Just like what happened in Laodicea to the Church. Once you’re cut off from God’s spirit there is a certain pattern that is going to take place and there’s not a thing you can do about it. Without God in the picture what do we have? If you’re on your own, you’re truly on your own. If God’s not in it?

So, he placed it before Samuel and said, Here it is what was kept back! It was set apart for you. Eat, for until this time it has been kept for you since I said I invited the people. So Saul ate with Samuel that day. So, all along here Samuel knew what was getting ready to take place. He already knew what was going to happen. He was going to be shown the man. He’d already prepared this up there, that this was going to take place, one was going to be invited, certain amount was going to be set apart. All this was planned. That’s what it’s saying here. That’s what it’s talking about.

So, when they had come down from the high place into the city, Samuel spoke with Saul on the top of the house. They arose early. And it was about the dawning of the day that Samuel called to Saul on top of the house, saying, Get up, that I may send you on your way. And Saul arose, and both of them went outside, he and Samuel.

And as they were going down to the outskirts of the city, Samuel said to Saul, Tell the servant to go on ahead of us (and he went on), but you stay here so that I may convey God’s word to you. Awesome! So, he’s getting ready to tell him something here, that still, he had to be a little bit in shock of what was taking place. Here he’s been invited to do this and to eat with the seer, in this case, at that time, of God, and all these people there and he was given the best portion, the seat, the best of the place. And incredible!

So, again, what’s going through his mind had to be incredible, what was going on in the sense of humility that he still had at this point in time and how he thought. To a point here, that as it comes out in the story, he becomes embarrassed by it when he’s around others. It just doesn’t sink in.

This sense of being unworthy. Now, that’s not a bad thing to have. We know we’re not worthy. We should never lose that. I’ve seen people in God’s Church get raised up with such pride and haughtiness you know that it’s not of God’s spirit, of their place, of what they think is their responsibility, of their job, of whatever it is, that that becomes embarrassing when those kinds of things happen, when you realize this isn’t the way God is, this isn’t like God, this isn’t the mind of God, this doesn’t reflect humility.

Because we should always have that humility in our thinking, and if we see ourselves clearly for what we are and recognize that everything that’s changing inside of us is of God, everything that’s good and right, beautiful, the transforming of the mind, the coming into unity, it’s of God. Want more of that. It’s a beautiful thing.

The story continues on here, 1 Samuel 10:1—Then Samuel took a flask of oil, and poured it on his head, and kissed him and said… And so, probably on the forehead, something like that of that nature that would be done. Because here he is, possibly because he was a tall man, a lot taller than Samuel, so to do this he probably was on his knees or in such a position that Samuel was able to do this service in the first place, to pour the oil over, and then possibly on the forehead, whatever it might have been. Perhaps on the side of the cheek. I don’t know. But a lot of times when people read “kiss,” they think it’s on the lips. No.

...and said, This is done because the Eternal has anointed you as commander over His possession. Not inheritance. Some translate it as inheritance. No, it’s God’s. We’re all God’s. We all belong to God. Everything belongs to God Almighty. And so, the nation of Israel, God brought them out of Egypt; they belonged, as all mankind did, but especially the nation, it’s God’s nation of people that carry His name. Because Israel carries God’s name in the name itself.

And this is done because the Eternal has anointed you as commander (leader, ruler, to reign) over His possession. Incredible!

He went on to say in verse 2—When you have departed from me today you will find two men by Rachel’s tomb in the territory of Benjamin of Zelzah; and there will they say to you, The donkeys which you went to look for have been found. Now, incredible. Some of these things that sometimes are written like this, that God gave this to Samuel to give to him and so he was telling him something that was going to happen along the way.

And why is that? Well, to reveal certain things to show that when these things happen you should be moved by them, that God’s in the picture, that this is coming from God. It’s not coming from “me,” it’s coming from God. This is what God is doing. Because that’s what he already told him before here. He said, basically, he said that “because the Eternal has anointed you as commander.” This is something of God. This is something that God is doing. And on it goes.

So again, this story goes on. The donkeys, as it says here, which you went to look for have been found, and now your father has ceased caring about the donkeys and is worrying about you, saying, What shall I do about my son? So, this is what came to pass.

Then you shall go on forward from there come to the oaks of Tabor, there three men will meet you who are going up to God at Beth-el, one carrying three young goats, another carrying three loaves of bread. Very specific. “These are the things that are going to happen.” Again, these things are done to encourage. God gives us things that happen in life to encourage us. It’s God. When it says, “be strong and of good courage,” these are things that come from God.

To be strong, to be of courage, to be courageous in how we live our lives, to be encouraged is something done on a spiritual plane by a relationship, through a relationship with God. It comes from, the source is God Almighty.

Again, God gives us different things along the way, and I think of the primary thing that God gives us. What? Many ways it happens. I think of the recent sermons here about a calling. And before that series started, I Choose You. Awesome! Now, that was encouraging to me. Mentioned it to Wayne later on. I said I found that very encouraging to me because though we know it, as he replied and made same comment, we know that, that God is the one who gives these things and works the order of things and when they’re given, and the content of what is given. And so, we’re encouraged by those things because we see God’s hand at work.

Awesome, when those things take place in our lives, in people’s lives. All the Church then should drink in of the same thing. That’s why it’s stated. And so, we respond in thinking, yeah, this is awesome, that God continues to reinforce and to encourage us that this is coming from Him. How can it happen any other way?

I knew someone one time, I was going to say, “very close to,” but we weren’t all that close – but we should have been in life, in physical life. Who in coming to services on a regular basis to Sabbath services at that particular time began to wonder and ask the question of me, basically, “Is the ministry basically getting their sermons from The Plain Truth, from whatever is written in some of the things that come out, the Pastor General’s Report? Is this, ministers are told what to speak on week by week?” That’s sad when people don’t see and don’t recognize, no, God works in a certain way and He leads the Church.

I think of people who are travelling in different areas at times back in the times of Worldwide and they would talk about a sermon that they heard a minister give in a particular area, and you say, “Well, we went through the same thing.” So, sometimes people begin to think that, well…? The reason that question was asked about The Plain Truths is because they got The Plain Truth and it’s like this is what they’re covering. Hmm. It just so happens that the Plain Truth comes out later or whatever, or within the same week that maybe a sermon has been given and it’s like, hmm.

Now, this happened a lot, of things that would come out and at the same time there would be sermons given. It’s hard for people to grasp, no, it wasn’t communicated, that they were told to speak on a certain subject, its just how God works because there’s a timing of what He’s leading us in and what He’s molding us in. We experienced these things over and over again.

What does that do? It encourages you when you see God at work in your life by things that are physical and spiritual that work together. God did this and has done this through time with people He’s worked with. We shouldn’t let those things escape us, to understand how things take place, how things work. I think of the truths that God has given at different times and how one has led into another or whatever takes place.

Again, going back here. So again here, talking about this, what’s going to take place. Then you shall go on forward to the oaks of Tabor, as I said …three men will meet you there going up to God at Beth-el, one carrying three goats, another carrying three loaves of bread, and another carrying a skin of wine. They will greet you and give you two loaves of bread, which you shall receive from their hands.

So again, God was working with him to begin to prepare him for something that he needed, yet he wasn’t able to receive it yet. But it helped him to be prepared more for what was coming. Because there are certain things that happened here that continue on and he still wasn’t fully ready and somewhat resisted some of the things that were taking place.

I think of God calling Saul, who became Paul, and what happened in his life, and struck him blind for a period of time. Sometimes it takes a lot to humble someone, but He’d already been working with him for a long time to give him knowledge of so many things that he’d been trained in. Then when God began to work with him how that was able, with God’s spirit, to begin to apply the spirit of things in a very powerful way to all that knowledge that he had in him. It was incredible how God prepared him and had a place for him and a function for him well, well before some of these things took place.

Sometimes we just don’t recognize the power of God to prepare, to fulfill phases of His plan. Every one of us who is called have an opportunity, the blessing of places that we’re going to be able to serve in ways that we don’t even grasp yet. We can’t be told; we can’t be given those things. But as we continue on God gives more and more.

It’s not about getting it; it’s not about the power and the grandeur of it and the recognition of it. It’s a matter of realizing the excitement, of sharing something with God as a part of His plan to fulfill things that are going to become more exciting because God’s plan is exciting and inspiring! And if we get to be a part of that it’s about God and what God is building and what God is doing, and He gives us a part in it to help in the building. It’s hard for us to grasp those things oftentimes.

He’s giving these things, again, all these things that are going to transpire. They’re going to give you two loaves of bread, which you shall receive by their hand. So, all these things in exact numbers of what’s going to take place, everything that fits into place.

That’s why there are times I become excited about different things. I think of 19-year cycles that excited Mr. Armstrong, of things he saw fulfilled in his ministry. That meant something to him, and God worked with him in that manner. Though some found fault with it. “Well, it’s not a 19-year time cycle, not a true cycle for the earth and the sun, and it’s 18,” or whatever it is. I think of some of the stupid things. It’s about God! I could say more but I’ll refrain myself. It’s about how God was working with him that was exciting to him because of something that meant something to him that was personal.

I look at the things that God has given since two thousand and whatever, well, going back before that, with the Apostasy, 1994, and the intricacy. Because I like numbers. And to see how they fit into place? I wasn’t good in a lot of things in school, but math (until I got to calculus), I loved. There are things about calculus I just didn’t like. The rest of it I loved. And things like that, then, when you come to a point when you see things fitting.

That’s why when you see some of the things I’ve written about in those areas (which I know God has given), they’re inspiring, they’re encouraging. They’re encouraging to me and it should be encouraging to us (if you like numbers). If you don’t, then you just, “Okay, well, that’s good,” because we’re all different in that.

But I find them immensely encouraging because I see the hand of God that’s done something, that’s given something that’s physically impossible as far as probability is concerned. It’s not possible. Though with God, it’s possible. Again, exact timing of things coming to a certain point in time. Awesome!

There is a lot more, but I’ll stop there.

So again, God gives us things to encourage us along the way because of whatever we’re going to be doing. But God should always be at the forefront in all of that, and if we ever lose that or begin to insert self in along the way then we’re going to have some hard knocks, truly, of things we’ve got to learn and repent of in order to continue on.

Verse 5—After that you will arrive at the hill of God, where Philistine garrison is, and it will happen that when you have arrived there at the city, you will meet a group of prophets coming down from the high place with a stringed instrument, a tambourine, flute, a lyre, before them; and they will be prophesying.

Then the spirit of the Eternal will come upon you. So, he had an experience for a time that he was able to experience something that was unique to him in a very powerful way, and something that could have become more a part of his life had he continued to respond in a proper way. But he didn’t. God was giving him every opportunity.

I think of God’s calling for the Church, for everyone in the Church. When you’re called to the Church, when you have this opportunity because you receive the impregnation of God’s spirit, that’s something far beyond what so many were given in time of old. Because it’s God. It’s the impregnation of the spirit of God in our being and an access to the holy spirit of God whereby we can grow and be transformed and become something different.

Yet I marvel at the fact that more have turned away from that than have embraced it and held on to it with all of their being and cried out to God day by day seeking His holy spirit to continue to dwell within them and to fight against sin when it’s revealed, when it’s magnified that this is sin, and we need to fight it and conquer it. The day we quit fighting and striving to conquer the sin, well, that’s why so many have gone by the wayside – not a few.

So, incredible, he says you’re going to experience something else. Then the spirit of the Eternal… I mean, to be told something like this at that time in that environment? Unheard of! …will come upon you and you will prophesy with them. What does that mean? …and be changed into a different person. Awesome!

It’s like when you’re first called, you experience this. We’re talking about the ability to talk about God’s way, things of God and so forth, with an understanding of things that are written, recorded or whatever, and if certain things are given to us, like is for us when we see the truth, it’s just something you come to know and you can start talking about it immediately. As soon as you have your mind opened up about the Sabbath day, Passover, the Days of Unleavened Bread and you see the purpose of unleavened bread, and all these things you’re reading, it’s like this incredible light goes on inside and you see this process from Passover, being called out of the world, coming out of sin, receiving God’s spirit, all the things, that ability to live God’s way of life, all the things up to the Last Great Day.

Almost immediately upon reading those things the first time you can sit down with someone else and you can begin telling them everything with belief and confidence this is true. Sometimes people are a little dumbfounded by it. They listen to you for a while out of kind of stark amazement, like, “I’ve never heard such things.” They’ve never heard such things. They’ve never heard such things. You can talk about heaven and hell and things like that and what’s going to happen to people, and people die and you can die twice, and it’s like nobody goes to heaven and all these things coming out of your mouth.

Some of it just makes sense to people when they first hear it. Then they kind of become a little afraid of it and they, candidly, become a little afraid of you. They really do. That’s why some people are put in this category of a cult because, “It can’t be like that. It can’t!” and they have to refuse it because to accept it would mean they’ve got to do something. They’re not going to do something because they’re not being called and drawn.

But isn’t that an amazing thing when you experience it? That’s exactly what we’re talking about here. It’s having God’s spirit in you, because you would have no way of doing that otherwise, that all of a sudden you can speak the same things of what you’ve just seen, what’s been revealed to you. Incredible.

Then the spirit of the Eternal will come upon you, and you will prophesy with them. So, this is a little different, in that regard, of what was added to that, but it’s the same sort of experience but on a spiritual plane of what we are able to have from the moment we’re called, if we keep making the right choices, from then on. We become different, don’t we?

As soon as you start believing and you start acting upon those things, you’re not going to work on the Sabbath anymore. As soon as you do that, your mind, “Man, I’m going to take time off. If my boss says otherwise, I’ll face the music.” How many people have done that through time? A lot. You’ll face the music, whatever it is, because God comes first, because this is true. You know it! You know it and you’re ready, you’re committed.

It’s an awesome thing that takes place in the mind, it really is. You become different. That’s why if you lose it you become a different person. That’s why I mentioned even last Sabbath of some of those in the ministry I knew, not only walked to God’s house side by side but ate together in houses side by side, in meals together side by side, and visited and counselled about things within the Church and of Gods way, whatever it might be. Were of a certain mind in those things they’d been taught one day and literally the next day I did not know them. They became a different person.

So, what an incredible thing if it’s this kind of person when you have God’s spirit. That’s the one you want to be.

Once these signs… So, all these things that happen to our lives are signs that we should never forget. That’s why we should never forget our calling. I will never forget the first night at about 10:00 when I was told about the Sabbath and I knew it was true! I’ll never lose that. It’s in my mind. It’s in my being. It’s in my beginning and I cherish it. I know it’s from God. That’s what we’re to be like. We’re never to forget. Because I began to become a different person.

That’s why some of my relatives when they came over, I’ll never forget that either. Within a week or two or whatever, bunch of relatives, I don’t even know why the came by because we weren’t very close, but a bunch of them came by and we’re eating together and visiting together, and somebody asked a question. Well, you always look for an opportunity to share in the beginning when you probably shouldn’t be. But you’re so excited about what you see all of a sudden and someone asks a question and you don’t want to just answer that question, you want to unload a whole lot more because you’re excited about a whole lot more.

You just start rattling off these things and you see this, their eyes, a little bit of disbelief. I’ll never forget those things either, this disbelief, because they knew what you were like before that. They knew who you were. I wasn’t a good person. Who was? Wild as all get out as a teenager. They all knew it. So, when I would talk about God and His plan they listened because I think the were probably more in shock than anything else. They’d never experienced anything like that.

So, we should never forget those things. In time you learn they can’t, they don’t, they can’t see it, they can’t know what you know, and you probably did more disservice to them than helping them, but you know, understand the excitement. You have to learn. That’s how you learn.

Once these signs… Those are all signs to me. What happened to you should all be signs to you, of things that happened in your life. I think of my wife because she grew up in the Church. She went through different signs that were given to her that she’s come to know and see in a deeper way as time has gone on, of things that her father taught her and gave to her and said to her in different bible studies and things that came along. That those were signs. They became powerful signs because those are the things that have come to pass with more meaning in time.

Once these signs have come to pass… We all experience some things different. Sometimes people who grow up in the Church experience something different than somebody like me who lived like I lived, who at 14 would pass as an 18-year-old. Because back then, to go into a bar or a place where they offered beer, at 18, you had to be served. I could pass with those who were 18, 20, and so forth. Went in with 20-year olds because we were a small town of about a hundred people, so there weren’t a lot of people to mix with, so they accepted me as being whatever. Being younger and being with older groups I could go in there. Anyway, did that starting at 14. I wasn’t a nice person, in those cases, and how you live life when those kinds of things take place.

So, experienced the sign of a change in my thinking. What an incredible thing when you experience that. You’re different. You don’t think the same. You have no desire to darken the door of those places. You’re embarrassed for what you did, the kind of music you listened to, the kinds of things you did. Totally different now. Amazing!

Once these signs have come to pass you are to do what you see is fitting, for God is with you. What an awesome thing, this encouragement that was being given to him along the way.

A little bit farther here: You shall go down before me to Gilgal; and, surely, I will come down to you, to offer burnt offerings and make sacrifice sacrifices of peace offerings. You shall wait seven days… I want to bring that, because this pops up again later on down the road. Because he responds a certain way this time, and later, he responds in a very wrong way.

In the beginning, very early on, he responded because he was filled with humility. He couldn’t believe this was happening to him. What a beautiful ting to hold on to, humility, “I can’t believe this is still happening.” Awesome!

You shall wait seven days until I come to you and show you what you should do next. This is not a small thing. In essence, God is going to give to you what is to take place next. If you see him as God’s servant, you will do it exactly the way it’s been told to you and you won’t deviate one iota from it. You won’t raise yourself up one iota because you’re of a humble spirit and you’re going to listen to what God has given. Awesome!

So it was when he had turned his back to go from Samuel, that God gave him a different heart, and all those signs came to pass that day. A different heart. When things enter into your mind of things you couldn’t piece together and see about things you’ve heard in the past, stories you’ve heard about God (which they did), and now all of a sudden they begin to fit. They knew their history well, of what happened, of coming out of Egypt and all the things that happened. They were taught different things that had taken place. But it was all physical.

But when God’s spirit is there and brings it alive and fits it together in a way in your mind that you couldn’t even begin to see before, that’s powerful. And that’s what was taking place.

And when they came there to the hill, there was a group of prophets to meet him; and then the spirit of God came upon him, and he prophesied among them. He could speak with them, could converse with them about the things they were talking about, about God, about whatever it was that was being covered. They could speak about the same things. He entered into conversation with them about the same things.

He was able to do this. It says, indeed, prophesied among the prophets, that the people said to one another, What is this that has come upon the son of Kish? “What is going on?” It’s kind of what I said when I was sitting in that living room a couple weeks after God opened the mind and started giving all this stuff and it was like they’re a little bit in shock. “Who is this?”

That’s happened to a lot of people. You do things like that in different times and you experience certain things that stick with you.

Is Saul among the prophets?

We’ll stop there because, again, we experienced different things when we’re called into the Church. The point of all this being is that oh if Saul could have held on to this. If he could have held on to this how incredible it would have been. But he didn’t. We’ll go into that and some of the reasons for it.

Again, there are things along a spiritual plane that have happened through time in God’s Church. If we can hold on to the truth, to the signs, to the things God’s done in our life the humble spirit, never forget who you are, never forget what you were, that humility God can work with.

If pride enters in, He’ll work with that to change it, to humble us, but that doesn’t always work. That’s why more have gone by the wayside than have continued.