Called Into God’s Government, Pt. 4

Ronald Weinland

September 26, 2020

This will be Part 4 of the series entitled Called Into God’s Government.

In Part 3 we covered the story of Samuel and how God worked through him to establish the first king of Israel over Israel. We were covering how Samuel and Saul first met and how Samuel was used to prepare Saul for what was ahead of him.

So, this is quite a story in itself, what took place, just the main events that had to do with that relationship and how God was working through Samuel and so forth and preparing Saul, and the opportunity that was given to Saul, that changes as we go through this. It’s quite interesting to go through this and read this because, again, this applies, the lessons that are here apply so very much to the Church, and lessons that could be learned from that.

Again, incredibly valuable concerning God’s government because we don’t tend to think in that vein oftentimes. It’s a matter of order. It’s a matter of our desire to come into exactly what Atonement is picturing, coming into a unity and a oneness with God with humility of spirit. Because it takes that, that we want that way so very much we’re willing to humble ourselves, fight against self, understand what self and selfishness is like, desire to enter into, engage in that battle knowing that the biggest battle is self. Others may come in around us from other areas but the biggest one is right here in ourselves. Because if we can’t work with this then we can’t deal with the rest that’s out there.

Again here, God’s desire for us, what He places there before us, and it’s just a matter of what we choose, if we choose what He’s given to us after He’s chosen us, called us, in other words, to be called and the opportunities we have. So once again, it’s important to grasp that being called into the Kingdom of God or to the Kingdom of God, into God’s Family, that process that begins in the Church, and through a process of baptism and then choices we make until finally we become sealed, so, that process is actually being called into God’s government, and how we live our lives, that we’re coming into unity and oneness and recognize that everything comes from God.

It’s a matter of order that comes from Him, unity and oneness with everything that is the way He is and what He’s given to us and we learn that in large part within the environment of the Church. The greater lessons we learn in the Church, not in the world. Because it’s not out there. God’s government is in the Church and He wants us to learn those lessons. This is our opportunity to learn about how God’s government works in our lives. And so often, candidly, we really haven’t had that focus. We don’t tend to have that focus as much as we probably should.

Again, God is blessing us to be able to go through this series at this particular time, which has a great deal of meaning to it as well.

Let’s pick up the story from where we left off and how Samuel was telling Saul what would happen to him as he left their meeting, their first meeting, to retrieve the donkeys and return to his home. Because there’s a process that he goes through here where he is being encouraged.

Never happened. There’s never been a king over Israel. He’s being told that this is the desire of a people, to have a king, in that respect, to have someone, so he’s going to be filling that. It takes a while for this to fully gel, it truly does, and for him to really see what is taking place in his life and what is being placed in front of him.

So, there’s quite a bit he goes through and we read about part of that already, about how he talks about the tribe he’s from, the least of all tribes in his family, he feels, saying, in essence, the least of all families. And yet we see a stature that God has chosen someone who is taller than others from the shoulder up in height and appearance, and so forth, so he stands out in a group of people. Anyway, the story goes on. God’s going to lift him up to give him recognition, pre-eminence, to reveal to the people that He’s working through him, that something unique is taking place that has never taken place in Israel.

So again, 1 Samuel 10:1—Then Samuel took a flask of oil, and poured it on his head, and kissed him, and said, This is done because the Eternal has anointed you as commander over His possession. When you have departed from me today you will find two men by Rachel’s tomb in the territory of Benjamin at Zelzah; and they will say to you… So again here, incredible how he’s being worked with here, what he’s being shown by Samuel, from Samuel, and what Samuel is saying to him.

Because what he’s just experienced is kind of surreal. It’s hard for us to place ourselves in a situation like that because, again, we weren’t there, and we read about it and it’s a story. But it’s an incredible story, it truly is. We can relate to certain aspects of it because of our calling, the change in life that begins to take place when God begins to open up our mind and to work with us, the encouragement and strength He gives to us by certain things that He intervenes that we learn in time (sometimes in retrospect), to realize that came from God, that was God’s doing.

And so, we’re able to keep those things in here, in our heart and our mind and they mean a great deal to us. Again, indeed, that’s the way it should be. Because our calling should be exceedingly important to us, to be able to recognize God and what God placed before us, the opportunity, the awesomeness of it, the uniqueness of it. Because so few have ever had that.

Here is now an individual who has been called to be the first king over Israel. I still marvel as I go through this that this was God’s plan all along, to give a king to Israel. Awesome! Through time, all the way to the end of an age, 6,000 years, it was God’s purpose from the very beginning before anything was created.

God’s plan of having the Messiah, of having His Son, of having him be the pinnacle, the cornerstone, everything else of His creation, of how mankind could go through a process to be able to be saved, to be able to be forgiven, all this determined before He ever began His creation. Again, these things are incredible to understand, they truly are. And this one of them.

It wasn’t something that all of a sudden Israel starts murmuring and starts complaining and they’re tired of what Samuel is and to learn from this that what they really wanted was to be like the other nations and have their own military because they’re being overtaken at different times. So, they want to be able to stand up to them. They want to have someone who leads them with an army who is able to go out against them so they can be like all the other nations around them.

And yet, to understand that it was God’s purpose all along. Samuel’s feelings of rejection here, that Israel had rejected him, and it wasn’t about him. God said, “It’s not you, it’s about Me.” Again, that’s something we all had to learn, isn’t it?

When you’re called, when your mind is opened up and others around you, family and so forth, don’t see and understand what you do they don’t grasp it. They can’t. Yet your mind has been opened to see these things and you begin to change your life, something unique is happening to you, and so you can understand a part of this, in that regard. But again, it’s an experience that’s unique to each one of us, of something we can see, as something that we do experience that, again, we’re to hold dear to ourselves in a relationship with God, to realize what God is doing. So, you know what I’m talking about.

Again here, incredible to understand what was taking place, that God had desired a king long before, because it’s about the Messiah. The word meaning “the one anointed for a purpose, to be king.” That’s what Messiah means, basically. “Christ” means the same thing, “the one anointed to rule,” and that’s Christ, over all of God’s people through time. So again, incredible the things that we experience and learn from all this.

So again, this was all planned out, something that was done that we can learn lessons from.

It says, And when you have departed from me today you will find two men by Rachel’s tomb in the territory of Benjamin in Zelsah. So again here, step by step by step of things he’s going to experience that how could anyone foretell this? How can anyone tell what’s going to take place, that’s going to happen to you? This is coming from God. This isn’t a normal thing for someone to be standing there (Samuel), telling him step by step what is going to happen to him on his journey back.

So again, The donkeys, which you went out 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? Then you shall go on forward from there and come to the oaks of Tabor. There, three men will meet you who are going up to God at Beth-el… So again, step by step, three men, everything happening exactly like what’s being told to him. …one carrying three young goats, it just doesn’t stop, on and on and on it goes, another carrying three loaves of bread, and another carrying a skin of wine.

So, we can learn from this as well, as God works with us. I think of the Truths God gives to us, meaning far more than something physical that was happening to him, we have something happen to us on a spiritual plane after a time of an incredible event that was prophesied to take place in the Church – an Apostasy – something that was really foreign and difficult to grasp. Even though we had the teaching of it, a great falling away, “Oh yeah, a falling away is going to happen in the Church.” No comprehension it was going to happen as massively in the way that it did.

So, we experience things like this in our lives, in our calling. And for us, again, to experience something like that, to have the truths given to us above and beyond what had been given through the time of Philadelphia in restoring truth to the Church, those are incredible things that took place that gave great encouragement to us. It really did.

I think of markers. Even that God blessed us to be able to keep looking ahead. And those things, whether we recognize it or not, were short term, in that respect, because they weren’t a long way out there. If back in 2001 or 1995 or 1996 or 1997 we knew that nothing is going to happen until after 2020 – we don’t know when, but it definitely is not going to happen for at least twenty-some years, twenty-five plus years – you know what would have happened? A lot of people would have left a lot sooner.

Because we’re human beings and we tend to think along a physical line. Though we are to focus on that which is spiritual, the reality is the pulls and things that happen in our life we needed those markers. We needed to be able to have things like that, to have a goal in front of us of something we were looking to and then coming to a certain point and saying, “You’re not quite there.”

It’s kind of like when you’re in a race and you have a goal in front of you. Because I’ve been in those races where people had just given up and quit. Sometimes I kind of scratched my head, figuratively, thinking some of them were some of the last I’d ever thought would have stopped running in just a 3½ mile race! But because they couldn’t be up front, the pride was so great…! Mind boggling!

Anyway, there are lesson in that, spiritual, too, because there have been a lot of people in God’s Church who have left because they didn’t get what they thought they should have. They thought they deserved more. “I should have been ordained as a deacon!” “I should have been an elder!” “I should have been a minister!” “I should have been a pastor!”

I’ll tell you what, it happened a lot, not a little. It’s happened in PKG. It has happened in PKG a lot, not a little, and many have left because of those kinds of things, because of a lust for power, position, recognition of what we thought we deserved. We don’t deserve diddly-squat! Then if we desired those things, we never understood what it was in the first place. It was about self then, wasn’t it?

So again here, incredible lessons of things that God has taken us through that we’re to learn from and we’re to grow through. We’re blessed in that. Because those things are hard to go through. When people you look up to, have been around, who have been in your home and you’ve had counsel blended sweet, in that respect, as the song goes, and then all of a sudden you find out what’s really inside? Because you didn’t know, maybe, until a certain point in time.

Most people have never known until it comes down to a point of disfellowshipment that something was wrong in someone’s life. Sometimes people are total aghast and totally shocked because they don’t know about the sin that’s been taking place for some time. Some people have been so good at covering that up, of hiding it, of being a deceiver. I was going to say a liar, but it’s the same thing.

We can lie in our lives, if we’re not careful, that we’re doing something that doesn’t really reflect and trying to have this air about what we are. God knows the heart. He knows the spirit. That’s why He says, “I desire those to worship Me who worship Me in spirit and in truth.” And so, we’re to be truthful before God. Yet so many people are not here today because of some of these things, simple things about government, because they didn’t understand them. Incredible!

Again, I go back to—and I think it’s worth repeating and taking the time to talk about this—the truths. They’ve given me incredible strength and encouragement along the way. If those things hadn’t happened, I don’t know what would be here today. There wouldn’t be near as much, and we’re pretty small. We’re pretty small now. And you think, “Oh, no.” Oh, yes. Oh, yes.

So, God gives us these things and if we continue to move forward, continue to fight against self, continue to repent and He gives us this encouragement along the way, we have to have that as physical human beings. We’re not spirit yet. We have to have that encouragement along the way because this way is not easy. It’s filled with hardship. It’s filled with hurt and pain and suffering, more so because it’s in here, in the mind, in the spirit. Incredible.

If we can fight those things and come through it, God will continue to work with it, can work with it. That’s the only way He can, through humility, and we can be transformed and become something different. It’s a beautiful thing. As long as we’ll keep repenting, keep fighting.

Again, he’s being told along the way here, three loaves and carrying a skin of wine. And they will greet you and give you two loaves of bread… So, it’s not enough that they have three, they’re going to give you two. Not three, not one, going to give you two. …which you shall receive from their hands. After that you shall arrive at the hill of God, where the Philistine garrison is. And it will happen, when you have there at the city, you will meet a group of prophets coming down from the high place with a stringed instrument, a tambourine, a flute, a lyre, before them, and they will be prophesying.

So again, all these things being told to him. He’s never experienced anything like this. Who had? He’s never heard of a story like this, of anything like this happening. Not in the history of Israel. Yet he’s going to be living it.

Then the spirit of the Eternal will come upon you, and you will prophesy with them. Awesome! Now, you need to understand what’s happening here because sometimes we think about these things and we hear the word “prophecy” and we just think it’s about future things. It’s not what this word is just about by any measure. It’s about God. It’s about the history. It’s about the lessons to be learned. It’s about so much more. Again here, “You’re going to begin doing something that you have never done. You have never experienced this.”

Now, it’s akin to a part of a process that we experience of God’s spirit, of things we’re able to know, to understand, and begin to talk about. Just like when we’re first called. You can have your mind opened one day about the Sabbath and all of a sudden the next day you could be telling someone else about the seventh-day Sabbath before you’ve had the time to study into it, all the scriptures and everything else, and to prove it to someone. People would get into some of that stuff and say, “I’ve proven it.” Think, no, God just gave it to you. You’re read it. You’ve heard it. Now you believe it. You didn’t figure it out.

Now, you can build upon that by study, and so forth, but you didn’t figure it out. God can continue to reveal more to you and help you to build upon those things, but God gives it to you. It’s an amazing thing you begin to experience, when you can begin to talk, and you hear about Unleavened Bread, Passover, and all of a sudden, these things begin to fit in place and they begin to make sense.

You never knew about a second life, a second death for those who don’t choose. All of a sudden it just fits, and it makes total sense because you see it. Incredible! Feast of Tabernacles, the Millennium, and all the things that are pictured. All of a sudden you see the Holy Days and you can begin talking about it. You can begin to talk about it with neighbors, a mate, friends, children, parents. If your mind was opened up first and others came along later, and even if they are never called you can begin (and we generally do), we begin to share it with others because we’re excited. They’re not as excited sometimes. But we are.

That’s what this is talking about. We’re prophesying. You can talk about God’s way because you see something that you’re able to interpret. You know what it is. We can read things, know things because God gives us that ability. It is a spirit of prophecy, of things that are hidden from the world, but we see them.

So, when you read that in the New Testament especially, that’s about the only way the word is actually used in the New Testament, except in the case of John, and then it doesn’t even say that. But anyway.

…you will prophesy with them and be changed into a different person. It’s God’s spirit, God’s spirit in the mind. That’s exactly what happens to you. Now, if you grew up in the Church you’re going to experience something different because you’ve had an access to something that is different in how it works in your life, a little bit here and a little bit there until you come to a certain point in your life of choices and decisions you have to make. But for many, and for most through time, it’s been a matter of being called out of the world and a change that begins to take place and you’re a different person.

If you make the choices of what God’s revealing to you, you do become a different person because you don’t see things the way you used to. You start to change. You quit swearing and cussing and taking God’s name in vain, if you were in that environment, which I was. That’s what I grew up in. That was my life. Every few words, that’s what it was. Didn’t know God’s law. Didn’t know those things.

But when that happens your mind changes and you don’t think that way anymore and you realize that there are things that are not to come out of your mouth, and your actions and certain things in how you conduct your life. You don’t go out and get drunk and go with the crowds anymore that you used to, and whatever it might be, the friends that tend to change. You begin to think they’re changing, and what’s happening is you’re changing because you’re a different person!

That’s what it’s talking about here. You are changing. Your mind is changing. You don’t think the same way anymore. You don’t want those things anymore if you’re yielding to what God is revealing to you. It’s exactly what was happening to Saul because it was God’s holy spirit.

He says, “You’re going to be a different person.” How is that possible? Did God make him? No, God gave him something just like He did to us when we began to see, when we couldn’t see before. Saul is going to begin seeing things he’s never seen before and he’s going to be able to talk about them in ways he was never able to before. Why? Because God communicates it and opens it up in his mind, things that he’s heard, things that he’s known of, just heard, and it all comes together for him, things about Israel and so forth, things that came from Moses, and so forth. Awesome!

“You’re going to become a different person.” What an incredible thing to be told. Then to experience it. “You’re going to be talking about things that you’ve never done before.”

…and be changed into a different person. Once these signs have come to pass you are to do what you see is fitting; for God is with you. In other words, you have help now and you’re going to have to make some decisions here. In other words, you’re to start doing, acting upon what you see. You’re going to have to start taking a stand, in essence, with what you see, with what you are beginning to have the ability to believe that you didn’t have before because you weren’t able to put anything together. But now you are. That’s kind of what it’s talking about here in that process.

Just like it is with us when God calls us. So, we have to begin doing what we see. We have to make judgments, where before we didn’t care about judgment, we didn’t care about choices we made, we just went along and did whatever we wanted to do. But now, because of what you see, you’re going to have to make choices and decisions here.

Basically, that’s what he’s being told. Because our thinking is different, we’re a different person that begins to work inside of us, if you will, that you can make choices and according to this. That’s basically what he’s told, “You’re going to be able to do that, so do it. Do that which is coming into your mind of how you’re to live, of what choices you have to make about things you see around you that need to be addressed.” Why? Because you’re seeing them differently than you’ve ever seen them. Others can’t see what you see and you’re going to have to make decisions accordingly, to what seems right according to that. Okay? Does that make sense?

That’s why I’ve tried to work with and tell different ones within the ministry at different times be careful in some things, of how you do them, of how you work with different ones, because—and you have to be careful in judgment—because God is going to give you, does give an ability to see certain things because of the job. And that happens. And so, because you can see certain things then you’re going to have to judge according to that. But be careful in the judgment because they can’t see the same thing.

That’s why I’ve made comment. It’s hard to explain something like this in part. It’s somewhat akin to the comments I made concerning judgment, of how we are to judge and how we are not to judge. The reality is that when some of these things begin to happen, especially within the ministry, a person can judge too harshly because you’re expecting more of someone else, and that’s not right.

That’s why I’ve made so many comments, as I was getting ready to say, some people may come up to me and ask me certain questions about if this was applying to something in their life or whatever. I made comments that this is something I can’t give to you, that you have to go through, there are certain things you have to go through in life. In other words, I can’t come around and tell people that I see mistakes you’re making. This is your mistake. This is something you’re doing wrong. That’s not my job. My job is to preach, to preach it, and what we’re able to receive spiritually, that’s what we can change, that’s what we can begin to address.

Could I go around and start telling individuals in certain things in their life of what they need to change? Absolutely. Because in so many cases I know exactly where you are in your life spiritually, exactly where you are in your life spiritually. Does that make sense? And it’s because of what God gives.

We learn through an incredible process in our lives and we have to be careful how we judge, that we seek to judge in a right way. But Saul was being given something here because of the job he was going to have as the king, and he’s going to have to respond accordingly. He’s going to have to start learning some things that he’s never experienced before, of judgments, of decisions and so forth because of what he sees and that’s good. Because others around him aren’t going to see the same things, and someone, in this case, is to lead Israel.

Now, how they’re led is another matter. This is where the problem comes in. Because the reality is everything should come through Samuel. The king should have always looked to Samuel. But that isn’t how it worked. So, there are a lot of lessons in all of this, of things we have to learn in life, of experiences we have to go through.

Again, coming back here to these verses it says, verse 8—You shall go down before me to Gilgal; and surely, I will come down to you, to offer burnt offerings and make sacrifices of peace offerings. You will wait seven days… There’s an incredible thing that takes place there. Saul, you shall wait seven days, until I come to you and show you what you should do next.

What is being experienced here is something that Saul is being given things very quickly, his mind is opened up to do things, to experience things in a very quick process as well, and how he deals with those next seven days determines the kingdom he will rule, how much will God really be able to work through him, with him. Or will he misuse what he’s been given? In the first seven days. Awesome!

Because he didn’t get something. I’ll just tell you ahead of time here, which you should know. He didn’t get something. That though he may be at a point of becoming king, everything that was going to be given to him in the sense of major things as far as Israel is concerned was to come through Samuel. Because that’s government. Think, “Well, I’m the king! I have to make decisions.” But be careful of the decisions you make. Incredible, what we’re to learn as God’s people.

You shall wait seven days until I come to you and show you what you should do next. Right there, big clue. “I’m going to tell you what you should do next. Wait seven days and I’ll tell you then.” Government. He didn’t hear it.

So it was when he had turned his back to go from Samuel… That’s why I mention things about the Feast. Generally, we’re told where something is, what something is. This year was totally different, wasn’t it? And there’s a process here then we go through and it’s through experience.

So, sometimes we can get accustomed to specific things like the Feast and when it is or where it is and so forth. Of course, we know when it is, but where it is, how it’s going to be done and organized. But now, when responsibility of some of that is passed through the body, then we experience something else, how we go about it. And again, it’s a matter of listening ever so closely. But even then, it’s a matter of God’s spirit because we want to do things in a way that’s pleasing and honorable to God with God being first and we will learn from that process.

If God is first and foremost in our thoughts and our minds then our response will be that, to go to God and pray for help. We will want to use the ministry that’s available, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.

I could tell you so much more just in the example of the Feast of Tabernacles this year. I could tell you so much more but it’s not my responsibility. Because I can see all the things from one side…actually, all the way around the world and know where people are. But it’s not my job to go and tell people where they are. It’s between you and God as to where you are spiritually and to what’s first and foremost in your heart and your mind in your relationship with God. Where you see a certain error or something that could have been done better then what do we do? We just repent. We repent and acknowledge before God, “I should have done this. I should have done that,” and go on. Then it’s behind us. We learn a great lesson. You can learn it through experience.

The greatest things you learn are through experience because you don’t know them until you experience them. You can hear about them, you can go through various things, but when God lets you experience certain things then you can know them, and you can hold on to them. Mistakes will be made along the way. God has great patience with us. What a Great God we serve. Because we’re all physical carnal human beings and we all, every one of us, make mistakes. But we can repent of those and seek to never make the same ones again.

So it was when he had turned his back to go from Samuel, that God gave him a different heart. I’m sorry, but I cannot help but think back to that moment in my life at about 10:00 at night when I went home, and all of a sudden, I began to hear truth for the first time.

Now, I had listened to at different times out of curiosity. I remember standing in an aisle at a grocery store where I worked to go to college, and in a gas station at one time to pay for being able to go to college. And so, when I hear people telling me just how difficult certain things are, I think, yeah, well… Anyway, I don’t have a lot of patience with it because of holding down two different jobs in order to go to college and so forth, carrying a full load at college and the like. And so, please excuse me for my lack of patience sometimes and lack of mercy, perhaps, when people tell me that a thirty-hour week without college and going to classes is just so tough. I think, “Give me a break!” Give me a break. You know, forty, well, in my mind that’s about the minimum. Thirty? You’re taking too many siestas!

Work ethic is so important. You know, God works! We’re to work! So, there are things in our lives we’re to learn from that God has placed before us in life, and we’re to learn from those things. Getting away from this. But incredible what we go through in life to learn what we need to learn.

So again, I remember that night, and I had a different heart from that moment on. Things started changing. I knew right away I was going to have to tell my boss, “I’m not coming in next Saturday.” I’m going to have to go tell them that this is it. At that time putting in 60-80 hours in a week working in a elevator because of the grain elevator, because the grain harvest that was coming in.

Usually, I would go on harvest runs where you go out and follow the harvest from Oklahoma all the way up into Canada, to Canada because it would get ripe at different areas so the people who had the combines and the harvesters and so forth, they’d maybe start in Texas or Oklahoma as soon as school is out because they relied a lot on college students and high school people. Anyway, we would start out doing that with the harvest run and start down in Texas or Oklahoma, then up into Kansas or Nebraska where it got ripe next and just keep working all summer long. You put in a lot of hours doing some of these things with the harvest run.

But when I worked in an elevator I found out you’re going to put in a lot more hours because all this grain is coming in and it has to be taken care of, and you have to move it from one elevator to another, from great big quonsets and piles out on the ground, and you can’t let it get wet. So you’re out there, literally almost at times, like day and night. Again here, to tell them during that period of time, “I won’t be in on the Sabbath,” it’s like, “Riiiight.” It’s going to go over like a lead balloon.

Well, they couldn’t say much. They needed help. You get to a point sometimes where some people are over a barrel. But anyway, I had favor in that.

So, never forget. My mind was made up right away, my heart had changed. I wasn’t the same person anymore. I couldn’t have the same conversations with the same friends I had before. That’s why as soon as I left there and went back to the college area I was in it didn’t take very long, because of the friends I had, to realize I got to get out of here, because this environment is not good for me and I’ve got to go some place else. Because if I stay here it’s going to be too easy for me to get caught right back into that same life that I had and I do not want that life anymore.

The friends that I had there, the conversations we’d have, I think some thought I’d gone over a deep end already. So, we’re parting ways anyway. So, had to go to another city far away from anybody I knew, start up some new friendships and whatever, and totally different Church area. So, there are things you have to do in your life and decisions and choices you have to make.

So, this is what was struck as far as Saul was concerned. He was going to have to make some incredible decisions because His mind, what God was offering him, he had to make certain choices and he’s going to be judged from them right in the very beginning. This happens a lot to people who are called out there. There are a lot of people who have been called, their minds have been opened up.

I think of some we’ve sat with. There’s one in particular I can’t forget. He would put some of the people who had been in the Church for a long time to shame in the sense of what he could repeat and what he knew, his mind was so opened up and what had been given to him as far as the plan of God. But he had some stumbling blocks. A mate and a job situation. He just, he couldn’t stand. And because he couldn’t stand, he couldn’t come on into God’s Church.

So, very early on when God gives His spirit we begin to be judged and if we don’t receive that and want it God’s not going to force it on us. He’s going to take it away and give it to someone else. Awesome!

You shall go up from me to Gilgal; and surely, I will come down to you, to offer burnt offerings and make sacrifices of peace offerings. You shall wait seven days until I come to you and show you what you should do next. 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. Just like when we receive the truth and all of a sudden we start seeing things. Incredible! How do you explain that to anyone?

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 talk with them because he knew what they were talking about! He was able to see things, to know things in the mind. He could have a conversation with them about the same things they were discussing. He couldn’t do that before. No one could. But now, he could. Incredible!

Then it happened, when all who knew him formerly… What happens? This is Saul. It’s like any of us who are called out of the world. Here it’s talking about some of these things. Who are you? What have you been smoking?

Anyway, when all who knew him formerly saw that he indeed prophesied among the prophets, that the people said to one another, What is this that is come upon the son of Kish? “He’s not the same guy! He’s not the same person! What’s happened to him? This is weird. He’s weird.”

Is Saul also among the prophets? Then a man from there answered and said, But who is their father? Basically, it’s kind of poorly translated here, but what it’s saying, it says, the individual is asking, “But what does it matter who his father is?” That’s not the point. Therefore, it became a saying, Is Saul among the prophets? Incredible! Quite a story.

Verse 13—So, when he had finished prophesying, he went to the high place. Then Saul’s uncle said to him and his servant, Where did you go? So he said, To look for the donkeys. And when we saw that they were nowhere to be found, we went to Samuel. And Saul’s uncle said, Tell me, please, what Samuel said to you. He was interested in finding out. Because this was unheard of. “Samuel talked to you? Samuel invited you to eat with him? What did he tell you?” Because these things just don’t happen.

So, Saul said to his uncle, He told me plainly that the donkeys had been found. Now, he doesn’t tell him everything. But about the matter of the kingdom, he did not tell him what Samuel had said. Why? What’s going on through his mind? It’s like, “Yeah, I’m going to tell him that I’m to be the king? No way!” You know, you’re going to tell something like that to someone? They’re going to believe you? Right. They’re going to know you’re nuts. So anyway, that’s basically what’s taking place here. He doesn’t want to tell too much because just to be invited by Samuel was one thing, but to tell him you’re going to be the king? Then they’re going to know you’re smoking something.

Anyway, verse 17—Then Samuel called the people together to the Eternal at Mizpeh; and said to the children of Israel, Thus says the Eternal God of Israel, I brought up Israel out of Egypt, and delivered you from the hand of the Egyptians, and from the hand of the kingdoms of those who oppressed you. But you have today rejected your God, who also Himself saved you from all your adversities and your tribulations; and you have said to Him, But no, or No, but set a king over us. So, he’s repeating the history here of what’s just happened and so forth.

Now, therefore, present yourselves before the Eternal by your tribes and by your thousands. Because there was the system of government there of captains of tens, of hundreds, and of thousands through the process here. This is how a lot of this was done when different representatives of the larger groups were able to be able to be brought in together. Because you can’t get everyone there together, so you start out with the leaders of the different groups. And so, it mentions here, basically, the captains of thousands or the leaders of thousands because it was divided up that way.

It says here, Then when Samuel had caused all the tribes of Israel to come near, the tribe of Benjamin was chosen. So again here, different ones were being systematically—is going through a process here of leading up to Saul.

Verse 21, it says, And when he had caused the tribe of Benjamin to come near by their families, the family of Matri was chosen. So again, first it was a matter of choosing which tribe. Then a matter of within that tribe, the vastness of it and the different families, the way it was structured as far as the captains of thousands and so forth, and the leadership that was there. Then Saul the son of Kish was chosen. So, it just kept going all the way down until finally it got into a certain group of Benjamin. Within that group then, the family of Kish was chosen.

But when they looked for him, the son of Kish, speaking of Saul. Then Saul, the son of Kish was chosen. But when they looked for him he could not be found. Therefore, they enquired of the Eternal further, asking, Has the man come here yet? So, here they’re going through this incredible process of what’s going to take place. They’re reminded of what they have done. They want a king.

They’ve gathered all the different leaders together, the divisions of how they were divided up, and through that process Benjamin is chosen, and then, finally, through all the tribes or groups of Benjamin, finally it comes down to, all the way down to the son of Kish, because it’s in the family of Kish. Then they can’t find him. “Where is he? Where did he go? Has he not arrived?”

Then the Eternal answered, He has there among the vessels. He was hiding. That’s what it’s talking about. Not going to get into what this is all about here but anyway, it’s just basically, he was hiding. So they ran and brought him from there. Because he knew what was taking place. He knew a part of what was a process here, and he was of a unique spirit at this point. Still of a humble spirit, in that regard. Still didn’t believe what was taking place. Just like before his uncle, he wasn’t about to tell him about what Samuel had told to him, and now this kind of standing back, not wanting to be pushed in the forefront like this.

So they ran and brought him there. And when he stood among the people, he was taller than any of the people from his shoulders upward. Then Samuel said to all the people, Do you see the man whom the Eternal has chosen, that there is no one like him among all the people? So all the people shouted, and said, Long live the king! Amazing. Then it’s carried through time.

Verse 25—Then Samuel explained to the people the judgment of the king’s rule, and wrote it in a book, and laid it before the Eternal. Then Samuel sent all the people away, everyone… So, there was this order of things, of how they were to be done, and so forth, and this is what’s being given to them already, an outline of these things. So, everyone returned, as it says here, sent the people away, everyone to his house. And Saul also went to Gibeah; and valiant ones went with him, whose hearts God had touched.

So, valiant, strong individuals, ready to back him up, to be with him. God had placed it, it says, in their heart. This was their desire, to want to do this, to be there with Saul. He’s the king and so God gave them that excitement of what was taking place, and so they were there as kind of a small escort, if you will, of those who would be fighters, warriors as well, as time goes on here and shows.

But it says, But some rebels said, How can this man save us or even help us? That’s what it was about here. “How can he do this? What’s he going to do? So, he’s tall…” And so, there’s this question here about how can he do this?

What are we to see from some of this, to learn from some of this? Their mind definitely wasn’t on God, was it? It wasn’t a matter that God is giving them the king, that Samuel has said, “This is the one whom God has chosen. The Eternal has chosen him. The one who brought you out of Egypt, He is the one that has chosen the one to be the king to rule over you.” So, God was out of the question. “How can this man? He’s tall…? There’s no military; how is he going to do this?” God wasn’t even in the thought in their mind. Sad.

So, to them God was still not a part of their consideration. Now, when I’m reading this, I think of different ones who sometimes within the Body, who are ordained, and it’s like, “Who are they? They can’t do that job. They’re not qualified…” Who’s qualified? God has called us all, literally, to be priests, priests of God, servants. Within the Body it’s immaterial, in that regard. It’s important, obviously, but it’s God who places us in the Body. It’s like whatever happens in time, we come to a point of learning, of understanding wherever we are there is so much to do. There is so much that God will place before us. We can’t grasp it!

God is going to place us within a body, within His family. Sometimes we get human nature involved and it’s like, “Well, I want to do this,” or, “I see this as being more…” That’s why it’s so important to grow in the mind of God. That’s not what it’s about. It’s about a great family and all of us needing one another. Because we can’t think that way as human beings.

We don’t tend to look that way as human beings, to see everyone who works in a community, we need each other. The more we grasp that the more we work together in cooperation, unity, and so forth, the better a community functions, the better a nation functions. When there’s opposition, then you see what happens. It’s just life is not pleasant.

How much more in the Family of God, that we learn those things, about what God is building and what God is constructing and the mind of God that’s in the midst of all this.

I think of the two who wanted to, you know, be on the right side and one the left side of Christ in the Kingdom. Think, you’ve got a way to go. You have some lessons to learn. So, that’s just a carnal human thinking, and sadly, that carnal human thinking so often is carried within the Body, within the Church, and we have to go through those things to get rid of them.

It’s about God! It’s about the Family of God! It’s about what God is going to build and construct that goes into time in ways that we can’t even begin to comprehend. But in the meantime, in human life, in human bodies we can get caught up in the physical and begin to make other things important that we think are important and lose sight of what God is building and what we have a part of. It’s going to make all these things look pretty unimportant, puny one day, in that respect, in the scheme of things.

So, how can he help us? What can he do? How is he qualified?

So, it says, they despised him and brought him no presents. In essence, meaning here, they weren’t going to support him. That’s what it’s about. It’s a recognition. It’s not a matter of the gift or anything of this nature that’s being translated here. So, they were not going to support him.

And you know what? These things have happened ever since I’ve been in God’s Church. They’ve happened ever since the Church began. It happened with Ananias and Saphira in the very beginning in the Church. They wanted to have this air about them; they’re going to give everything, basically, in essence, to the Church. All this money. And yet they kept half of it back. And yet they gave this air in this belief to others that somehow they’re giving everything. “We’re sacrificing… Because this is so important to us.” And they were lying. I hope you know the story. And because they were lying, they were struck down dead, one at one time and the other that followed. This is in the book of Acts if you want to go look it up later.

But anyway, incredible here. And they were told, “Are you going to lie to the holy spirit of God?” The point is, is that we can do this in our lives. God knows what’s going on in our thinking. No one can lie to God. Everything is open before God. That’s why He seeks those to worship Him, who do so, to worship Him in spirit and in truth. Because the two go together. You can’t separate them. We have to be closer to God, receiving of God’s spirit, and it has to be done truthfully. We have to be honest before God.

There is no sense in trying to hide anything from God. He knows everything going on in your mind! At any time He so chooses, it’s there. We can’t comprehend that as physical, carnal human beings. But that’s God Almighty. He knows when we’re in unity and oneness with Him. He knows when we have a humble spirit. He knows when we have a spirit of pride and when we’re resisting Him and doing something we shouldn’t be doing and not putting Him first. Instead, we’re putting up some obelisk in front of Him and worshipping it, raising it up before our relationship with God! Because when that obelisk goes up it stands between us and God. And we do that as human beings, whatever it might be.

I do that, I say this, I have those feelings, those responses right now because even to now we still have people having things come to the surface, that God is bringing to the surface, situations that happen. It just doesn’t stop. Of things you think you know about someone, and then all of a sudden, certain things come out to bring some of that into question. And it’s hard! It’s difficult. Of how we can rob ourselves of what God offers us. Sad. Sad. Sad.

God places so much before us and all we have to do is grab hold of it, continue to repent and fight against self, strive to conquer self, strive to think right, to live right, to get our minds cleaned up and get rid of the stink and the stench and the garbage and the swill and the things that stink, and repent of them and there is no excuse. God Almighty will give us the strength and the help to change anything in life, anything! I don’t care what it is. And if we don’t fight that fight, aren’t willing to fight that fight and we continue to put that obelisk up before God, it comes to a point where He says, “No more.” So, we have the blessing and the ability to repent.

I hate to see people continue to go by the wayside. And I wonder, how long? You need to answer these things yourself. If it’s not 2021, if it’s not 2022, where will you be? Because I’ll tell you, the longer this goes on the more who will not be able to continue on.

You didn’t come into this for setting a time period. And because some didn’t come to pass, what you said, “Well! Blah, blah, blah.” Well, continue to follow God and whatever He reveals to us and shows to us, because He has the ability to do anything at any time to give us whatever He wants. We just keep going forward and we keep fighting this.

Because if you don’t know that self stinks and you need help to continue to fight against it, that you need help to get rid of your carnal, human nature, that you need a continual supply of God’s holy spirit, and if you’re doing anything or allowing anything into your mind or your life and your being that is not a apart of that, doesn’t agree with that, God doesn’t, He’s not going to continue to pour out grace forever upon us, and there will come a reckoning.

Only by the mercy of God is each one of us here. By the mercy and the grace of God is every one of us here. Not a one of us deserve to be here. Not a one of us have earned it. You don’t earn this! You keep fighting and you’re ever thankful to God that you have what you have. What an awesome thing. So, we’ve got to love it, we’ve got to want it, and we’ve got to fight for it.

So, we tend to think carnally. “How can this man help us? How could he save us? So they despised him. I marvel at how this has happened. Oh, go back all the way to after college and being in the Houston area and the Church of about 600 people and different areas we’ve been in at different times and how every time anyone has ever been ordained a deacon or an elder I have seen ripples in God’s Church, I have seen friendships end! Every time! Every time! Every ordination! Because we tend to hold them up higher in our mind and our thinking about where we think we are, maybe, and what we think someone didn’t deserve.

It’s not a matter about deserving, it’s a matter about what God chooses. And sometimes, maybe, just to bring something to the surface that you can deal with in your life if you will address it, that you couldn’t see before. Someone to become jealous of someone else because they got ordained, and then they can’t think straight anymore because they were friends before, they could share things before. But now that you have this, it’s not the same.

Every time. I have seen a lot of ordinations in God’s Church, a lot! I saw a lot in Houston when we were there. 600 people – you’re going to have a lot of deacons ordained and you’re going to have a lot of elders ordained. The jealousies that emerge when those things happen, it’s horrible.

I remember going to a minister one time before I was ever ordained, just because of a job that I’d been given to serve in helping out with some of the youth in the Church. We had a pretty good-sized youth group with 600 people in the Church. Yeah, we had a pretty good-sized teen youth group to work with, and because of working with them we had different jealousies that started coming in from different people we had known, that we’d been close to. They no longer could have the same relationship with me and my wife. They changed! I didn’t change! I went to him and said, “I would rather not have this than to have people turning against me,” to have certain friends that I have known for a long time begin to, one in particular, a deacon in the Church. I wasn’t ordained. He was. He should have been able to deal with that. All of a sudden, their spirit toward us changed.

That’s where I started to learn some things about government, similar to this on a spiritual plane. He said, “I’ve always known there was something there in their life, but it’s never come to the surface to where I could deal with it.” He said, “Your being where you are and doing what you do has helped bring it to the surface to now where I can deal with it.” It’s not fun. But God works in a lot of different ways to mold and fashion us as a Church, as to whether we yield to what He’s doing within the Body, what He’s doing in our lives, as to how we see ourselves, as to whether or not we truly have a humble spirit or not. God will work with that humble spirit. But if we get pride in the way and jealousies, those things aren’t of God and God can’t use them and they go by the wayside. They go by the wayside. People who are eaten up with those things, if they can’t repent and deal with those things, they go by the wayside.

So, when I go through a sermon like this, there are so many things I see of what I’ve experienced in my life that makes it kind of hard sometimes because of what I’ve seen within the Church all the years, the decades, and realizing, we’ve got a battle always in front of us.

We are a family, and if we don’t respect one another, love one another, we’ve got a battle on our hands. If we become jealous or envious of one another, if we can’t think right toward another and want the best for them? We should want with all of our being that not just ourselves but everyone else in the Body make this, come through all this. Do we not want that? Sometimes we don’t think or live sometimes as though that’s what we really desire with all of our being, that we want everyone to be able to come through all this. We should if we love each other.

So, it says here, so they despised him. It’s a horrible feeling to all of a sudden be despised, to know you’re despised, to know that someone thinks of you differently now, they look down upon you, they don’t like you anymore, they’re not a friend anymore because they can’t hide their feelings and that cuts deep. And so, they didn’t give the support. I’ve lived that over and over and over again. We have to. You, in God’s Church, you have to live through those things.

But, it says, he held his peace. You know, some judge harshly from their own perspective, believing and repeating their concern. Because oftentimes when these things happen the problem is, is that they don’t keep it to themselves. They start talking to others, to find fault with the one they’re having trouble with, and so they have to pick away. This causes divisiveness. It’s like a cancer – incredibly destructive.

I’m not going to go through this. Basically, it just comes down to the fact sometimes there are just some people it’s best to ignore them. It’s best to ignore that kind of a mind. If someone is divisive, if someone is saying bad things, if you’re not able to deal with that yourself then at least ignore them. Because we still have little rumblings sometimes that go on, of harsh judgment out there by people upon others.

Sometimes in something as stupid as a mask! I think of this one organization. Two ministers in one organization out there quit because they weren’t going to wear the mask, right? Where they were told by their Church, you’re to wear a mask. Some got real upset because they could no longer sing songs. (It’s the hardest thing through this mask.) So, they made a decision that it’s better not to have the music right now. Well, we made that a long time ago. It’s not hard for us.

But isn’t that amazing? Because we’ve had people leave this body because we didn’t have music anymore. Same thing happens with sermonettes. We’ve had people because they couldn’t give sermonettes anymore have left this body. And on and on it goes, of how people think sometimes because they didn’t grasp government, how God is working.

I think of the thing of make-up again. It just blows my mind, our history. Thousands and thousands. Thousands! Not a few! Thousands on both sides of the coin. People who, if someone else wore it, it was like, “They’re sinning! I know they wear it.” Someone said to my wife, one minister here after the Apostasy, they came to our place because he wanted us to come with them because he raised up (I’ve told you this before), he raised up all these churches, and listed all them so I would know how many churches he raised up. Well, right away I knew he was smoking something. Anyway, sorry.

He was out in left field because I knew he didn’t raise anything up. God Almighty does! When you take the credit and honor to yourself, boy are you sinning! Anyway, my wife has always, since that time of those things have happened, when it was okay, has always worn it lightly. She didn’t like to wear a lot, just been what we both like. It’s not a measure of “Okay, going to see how much you put on up here and how much goes here and going to measure that.” No, people were free to do whatever they desire to do. But there were people back then because of all that, because of all we’ve gone through, because it went back and forth at different times, even during the time of Laodicea then, of certain decisions that were made. Then there were different ministers who held this standard of what was right and what was wrong in the matter of make-up.

One time this minister was waxing eloquent at our house, at our home talking about some of these things and I thought he was really perhaps at that point in time, giving him some time, because I thought maybe he really wanted to help the scattered Body. But he was in for it for someone else. It was about more churches to raise up over here.

Anyway, my wife stopped him at one point because he was talking about make-up, right? And she said, “Now, wait a minute.” She says, “I want you to know I do wear make-up. I put it on lightly.” And his wife said, “I told you she wore make-up!” Whooooo, okay. Glad we got that one out! So, she had told her husband, “Mrs. Weinland wears make-up.” Anyway.

I could tell you so many stories. Anyway, government. I think about those decisions that were made back and forth, and yet isn’t it amazing what people will hold on to and hold as a standard of righteousness? How we can judge? How we can judge each other about things?

Now, there is a unity and a harmony we come to within the Body of certain things, of dress, of what we wear, of hair, of different thing, but we strive to do it in a better fashion than in times past when people would go too far in some of those things and because it became more of a physical thing in the sense of an exact spot and an exact thing and black and white. Anyway, I don’t want to get into all that.

But I hope you understand what I’m talking about here as a matter of something that’s so piddly, unimportant in the scheme of the world, make-up, as to whether someone would wear it or not. Yet we had thousands who set sides in God’s Church, being on one side or the other, because that became so important as to whether or not you were really close to God or not.

You think, they don’t get it at all. They don’t understand the spirit of who God is. I hope you see that. Because if you don’t, there are things to learn.

1 Samuel 11:1—Then Nahash the Ammonite came up and encamped against Jabesh-gilead. And all the men of Jabesh said to Nahash, Make a covenant (make an agreement) with us, and we will serve you. Now, they were ready to surrender when this conflict came along. They were at a point, but they hoped that there might be some help. And yet they were at this point here, of readiness to surrender, if need be, and so they were willing to discuss this with them and said, “We’ll make an agreement with you if you’re willing to do so. This is what it is, and we will serve you.”

Because, basically, what would happen is if a neighboring area were to come in and conquer you then obviously what happens after someone is conquered? So, different things here happen in battles and wars and so forth that took place, and this is just another one of those where they were coming up against a part of Israelites.

So, he says, Make an agreement with us and we will serve you. So, in other words, they were ready to give up from the get-go but they were holding out some hope for something else that might take place here.

I think of sometimes of us in our lives, that battles will come along and we’re ready to give up sometimes at the smallest thing. That’s horrible! What battle is it that we’re not willing to fight? What is it that we’re not willing to go through? What is it that can interfere with our relationship with God? Because many have gone by the wayside who haven’t stayed in the battle.

So, Nahash the Ammonite answered them, On this condition I will make a covenant with you, that I may put out the right eye of all of you and bring shame on all Israel. “Okay, we’re going to make this agreement with you.” Can you imagine? “We’re not going to kill you. We’re not going to conquer you and kill all of you if,” because that’s what was basically in their minds ready to take place because they’re overwhelmed by this massive army coming up against them. They see it and they’re ready to give up immediately. But here, in this case, they’re holding out some hope for something else.

And so, he responds back by saying here, “Yeah, we’ll put out the eye of every one of you. I’ll make that agreement. I’ll hold off coming in and conquering and killing and destroying you and everything you have. We’ll put out the eye of every one of you and you’ll serve us then. By doing this we’ll bring great shame upon Israel.” In other words, “We’re just getting started in conquering you.” Unimaginable!

Then the elders of Jabesh said to him, Give us seven days, that we may send messengers to all the territory of Israel. Then, if there is no one to save us, we will come out. In other words, we’ll surrender to you. Can you imagine? If this doesn’t happen in a certain time then this is what we’ll do, we’ll go ahead.

I think of different ones who have talked to family and “Well, if this doesn’t happen at this particular time…” Did anyone ever have a conversation like that? “If something doesn’t happen in this particular time then this is what we’ll do.” Then something doesn’t happen — 2012? Because some of this happened.

Yet there is so much to learn from some of these things, truly. You keep fighting. You keep looking to God. You don’t give up. You don’t surrender to something else that you know is wrong. You don’t do it. You don’t change something, that you’re going to change your life now to appease something, someone else coming in to conquer. You don’t do that!

But they were willing to do that. It would have been better to stand and fight, to take the risk of being destroyed if your eyes are on God. Truly!

So, the messengers went to Gibeah of Saul and told the news so all the people could hear. And they lifted up their voices and wept. Can you imagine being told this whole area is surrounded and if they don’t receive help that they’re all going to have their eye put out? I can’t imagine living through something like that. And so, there was great sorrow that something like this could happen in Israel.

Now, Saul was following behind the herd coming in from the field; and Saul said, Why are the people crying? So, they told him the words of the men of Jabesh. Then the spirit of God came upon Saul when he heard this news and his anger was aroused greatly. So, he was able to be moved by what was taking place, by the experiences he had had, now being told, “You are to be the commander of Israel,” and so he was stirred up, and what came out of him was great anger then toward the Philistines…toward those who had come up against them.

So, he took a yoke of oxen, and cut them in pieces, and sent them throughout the territory of Israel by the hands of messengers, saying, Whoever does not go out with Saul and Samuel to battle… You notice this? He’s including Samuel. This is early. He’s making sure here this is not just me. He’s not being haughty about it at this point in his life at all. It’s a matter of still humility, in that respect, and he knows he’s been given a responsibility.

But Saul, Saul is the one, and so he makes it clear here, If you do not come out with Saul and Samuel to battle… So, he included himself in it because he knew the responsibility that was there. That’s what came into his mind of something he should do because God stirred up spirit. …so the same thing will be done to their oxen.

So, do you see what he’s saying? He said, cut these up, he sent them throughout Israel, and he said “This is what’s going to happen to your oxen if you don’t come up and fight. You’re going to suffer loss. It’s your duty, your responsibility. You need to come up and fight as well or we’re going to come back and destroy your livelihood.”

Then the fear of the Eternal fell on the people and they came together as one. So, they were moved by this and they realized this is what Saul is doing throughout all Israel and they’re being told that you’re to be a part of this battle. We’re going to respond. We’re going to do it, otherwise, we’re being told what we have is going to be taken from us. So, they were stirred up. They wanted to become a part of it. They wanted to give that support. A lot of different emotions, I’m sure, amongst people. Human nature.

It says, And when he numbered them in Bezek, the children of Israel were three hundred thousand, and the men of Judah thirty thousand. Incredible, 330,000 coming together as an army.

So, they said to the messengers who came, in other words, who came earlier to tell them of their plight, This is what you are to tell the men of Jabesh-gilead, Tomorrow, by the time the sun heats up, you will be delivered. Then the messengers went and reported it to the men of Jabesh, and they were rejoiced. So, the men of Jabesh responded by saying, Tomorrow we will come out to you, and you may do with us as it seems fit. Now, they believed what was going to happen here, so they sent the message back putting them off guard, in essence here.

But going on here it says, And then the following day Saul set the people into three spearheads; and they came into the midst of the camp in the morning watch and killed… I’m sorry, this was Ammonites. I think I said Philistines earlier. …and killed the Ammonites until the heat of the day. Those who remained were scattered so that no two of them were left together. That’s how scattered they were when they began to flee before this army of 330,000 people.

Then the people said to Samuel, Who is it who said, Saul should not reign over us? Bring them so that we may put them to death. But Saul said, No man shall be put to death this day, because today the Eternal has made deliverance for Israel. Then Samuel to the people, Come, let us go to Gilgal, and renew (restore) the kingdom there.

So, it’s quite an amazing thing that’s happening so quickly here in his life and to the Israelites and what they’re experiencing and what’s being done here. And his mind, in that respect, very much geared toward God that has given him this responsibility. He’s taken it upon himself to do what needed to be done.

So all the people went to Gilgal, and there they made Saul king before the Eternal in Gilgal. There they made sacrifices of peace offerings before the Eternal; and there Saul and all the men of Israel rejoiced greatly. So, I don’t have much farther here to go today. Let me just make sure I didn’t skip over anything, because I feel like I did in part of this.

Incredible what’s taking place here. God’s establishing him as king, doing these things to establish him as king before the people so that they’re able to see this. And so, how could this be done in a better way except something like this done in such a massive way, of a victory that’s given, of something of this magnitude.

In Chapter 12 Samuel repeated to Israel how God delivered them out of Egypt and brought them into their land, and that throughout this history they had continually turned from God, it’s what the history was and so this is being repeated then in Chapter 12. Until some nation came along. This is the whole story of the book of Judges, over and over again they’d turn away from God and then a nation would come up against them and they’d all of a sudden, you know, turn to God again and ask for deliverance because they’re overwhelmed and they know they can’t conquer.

And so, God would give them a judge, in essence, to raise up, to lead them, to give them an army of people that would go out and fight. This was repeated over and over again, and they’d continually ask God to deliver them.

Then we come to Chapter 13, so let’s start there. 1 Samuel 13:1—Saul reigned one year; and after he had reigned two years over Israel, Saul chose for himself three thousand men of Israel; two thousand were with Saul in Michmash and in the mountains of Beth-el, and a thousand were with Jonathan in Gibeah of Benjamin. The rest of the people he sent away, every man to his dwelling. Then Jonathan destroyed the garrison of the Philistines that was in Geba, and the Philistines heard about it. In other words, a quick response here of what took place.

Then Saul blew the trumpet, or a call to arms like we heard in the Feast of Trumpets that was done. So, it’s a call to arms, throughout all the land, saying, Let all Hebrews hear, in other words, respond to and obey the call to come together. And all Israel heard how Saul had attacked the garrison of the Philistines, and that Israel had now become a stench to the Philistines. What on earth? I guess maybe the Ammonites? I don’t know my history here in some of this, but were they a part of the Philistines? Sounds like it must have been. I’m going to have to go back and do some reading here and come back to you and let you know later on what was being discussed here.

So, the people were called together to Saul at Gilgal. Then the Philistines gathered together to fight with Israel, with, it says here, thirty thousand chariots, six thousand horsemen, and people as the sand which is on the seashore in multitude. In other words, they’re just without number they were so massive here, and so there’s not a count, just a massive army.

And they came up, and camped at Michmash, to the east of Beth-aven. Then, when the men (army) of Israel saw that they were besieged, in other words, they were being pressed so much so upon them that they were about to be captured. They understood that. They knew that. Because the people were being pressed in then they hid in caves, thickets, rocks, underground chambers, and in cisterns. Even some of the Hebrews crossed over the Jordan to the land of Gad and Gilead. As for Saul, he was still in Gilgal, and all the people following him, it says, were terrified.

And after he had waited seven days, according to the time set by Samuel, and because Samuel had not yet come to Gilgal; and the people had scattered from him, Saul said, Bring a burnt offering, and peace offerings here to me. And he offered the burnt offering. I hope we realize at this point here he did something, took something to himself he should never have done. Because at this point here there was a matter of government that he stepped away from and took it to himself. No longer as a matter of Samuel, under Samuel’s guidance and direction, but he took things to himself that he should never have done.

Now, it came to pass, that as soon as he had finished presenting the burnt offering, that Samuel came. Timing. Interesting. So, Saul went out to meet him so that he might greet him. Everything’s okay, everything’s normal, nothing here in his mind of the magnitude of what he’d done. And sometimes that happens within the Church. Sometimes we can lose sight a little bit here and there of how God functions and how God works in our lives. And yet God gives us, in the Church, opportunity for repentance and change.

And so, we have examples like this that are profound, that are incredible, and sometimes they carry great penalty with them. Because this is about a physical not a spiritual process of change and growth and conquering and overcoming, but here is something physical to teach (if we learn from it), that which is spiritual, like within the Body, within the Church. These are indeed physical things that are taking place in order to learn the spiritual. They’re examples.

Then Samuel said, What have you done? He didn’t question anything to this point. But when Samuel asks it, “What have you done?” Saul replied, When I saw that the people had scattered from me… Some had gone across. They were scattering all over the place as we just read. They were terrified so they were being scattered in great fear. …and that you did not come within the days appointed… He didn’t see himself at this point. He didn’t take it to himself to acknowledge I shouldn’t have done this. He gave excuse of why he was doing what he was doing. Human nature in it’s rawest form. Happens in life all the time. Happens in the Church all the time! Sometimes we see it and sometimes we don’t.

God has patience with us and brings us along and then we come to a point in time where we see something, and we repent. Because God’s working with us to transform the mind, and as long as we keep repenting and keep humbling ourselves before God, He continues to work with us. We’re so blessed in that regard, in that respect, to understand that.

But when we justify ourselves when something happens, sometimes that blinds us to where we can never change. If we get to a point in time where if something is given to us, perhaps some correction, whether it be personal—usually that’s the most important time then, where it becomes more important in our lives.

That’s why I marvel at how things have happened in the last few years, where I’ve seen more people who have come to a point that it’s been traumatic, but they’ve addressed it and repented and showed incredible rebound and growth. Because in my experience in times past, when people have come to a certain point, they just go somewhere else, they do something else, they quit.

I have been awesomely inspired by how more and more the Church is growing and able to respond to those things quickly if we will do so. Because as long as we will repent and cry out before God, He has mercy upon us. As long as we have that holy spirit coming into our lives and we cry out. That’s His desire; He wants us to come through this. But if we make excuse, “You did not come within the days appointed. That’s my reason. Therefore, I was justified in doing this, I took to myself a responsibility that wasn’t mine.” Incredible.

…and because the Philistines gathered together at Michmash; then I said, The Philistines will come down now on me at Gilgal, and I have not made supplication to the Eternal. “So, I couldn’t wait.” So, I was pressured… I want to pause there for a moment because this thing about pressure, I can’t help but think about a spirit world out there and Satan.

Because sometimes there is a pressure. It’s like being pressed. If you’ve experienced this, you know what I’m talking about. You feel a stress, a pressure that’s not normal. A lot of things can happen around us at times where we can catch ourselves and realize, wait a minute, I feel this intenseness about “whatever.” And if we can respond properly before God that’s an awesome thing. But if we misuse it that can be a bad thing. So, there can be a breaking point in our lives spiritually as to how we respond to certain things.

The reason I’m mentioning this is because right now Satan is stirred up mightily. I don’t want to get into a sermon later on that’s pre-recorded. But I’ll tell you what, you need to understand. If we can grasp that this world is being stirred up by a spirit world, if you can see it, which you have opportunity if you want to, just turn on your TV and you’ll see it every day in the kinds of things that are taking place here and around the world, how people are being so stirred up. It’s because there’s a being who is gaining in power right now. We should understand that. Because of things that are happening around the world and because of things that are happening between nations, and attitudes and feelings people are growing in in their senses of taking sides and positioning themselves, that there is something incredible taking place out here, some of it absolute insanity that’s taking place.

We in God’s Church should be able to see where it’s coming from. It should be no surprise to us. We should be able to grasp that. If we can see it in the world, please understand that same being and those cohorts with him want to destroy you.

So, I’ve seen a marked increase in those things, myself experiencing them, of things I have not experienced for a long time around me, okay? And you have to address those things as they come at you to realize where they’re coming from. Once you recognize that and you pray to God in that context there is incredible strength and help. Because He wants you to be able to grasp these things. And sometimes there are certain things that happen so you can grasp that this is for us a spiritual war, a spiritual battle, and things are going to come at you.

I’ll just tell you right now, things are not going to get easier in this regard. They’re going to get a whole lot worse. We need to be able to spot them as they’re happening, to realize that if you feel this stress and pressure coming at you, know where it’s coming from and reject it and stand up and cry out to God for the strength and help. Because He’s the only one who can help you, Him and His Son, Joshua. You don’t have the ability. You just don’t have it. God does. But you’ve got to recognize it and see what it is, know what it is. Not something to be afraid of except for the fear of moving away from God.

Because these distractions out here can distract you. Things can distract you and pull you away and weaken you if you’re not careful. Please understand why they might be coming toward you. Because it’s those distractions, if your mind begins to move away from a relationship from God and you’re not doing the things and the closeness of a relationship you must have with God (because that’s where your strength is from), it could be over with. You’ve got to fight!

So, I was pressured into offering a burnt offering. “Nothing else I could do, except that.” What about waiting for Samuel? The day is not over yet. How about waiting for Samuel?

Then Samuel said to Saul, You have done foolishly. You have not kept the commandment of the Eternal your God, which He commanded you. For now, to this point, in other words, the Eternal would have established your kingdom over Israel forever. Now, it’s not going to happen. Because of this, “In the first seven days,” incredible, choices that were given, an ability that was given.

I think of thousands and tens of thousands, likely hundreds of thousands of people who have had their minds opened up and had choices to make. Now, he was given something far, far greater, to be told you’re going to be the king of Israel and to have access, help from God Almighty. That’s not a small thing, of what was being offered to him, of what he rejected because of choices he made. Because God can’t have that.

Those lessons are there for us. We see a history of things, of how people have not stood and done, responded to the spirit that was given to them in their minds that came from God. The lesson for us is you continue to fight.

And if we see anything like this in our life, we repent of it. We don’t want that in us. We don’t want to have a mind that judges wrong. Because to judge God’s people isn’t our job…if it isn’t our job. Sometimes we have certain things we are to judge, certain situations. But to judge one another within the Body? We’re to judge self. We’re to judge self and strive to be right before God.

And so, sometimes things can happen with a Body. Again, so many lessons to be learned from some of this, about judgment, of how we think. It’s easier to see fault in someone else and begin to judge them accordingly, have expectations of other people.

If every one of us belongs to God, who are we, as it says, to judge God’s servants? …unless God’s given you a role as a part of that. That’s another matter. Then you need to be even that much more careful how you do it.

So, God says, “I would have…” He’s being told here, “The Eternal would have established your kingdom forever.” Now, it means exactly that, because king David’s kingdom has been established forever. The Messiah is a descendant of king David and that kingdom has been established already forever. Hope we understand that. It’s where the Messiah, in essence, by his lineage came from. This is what it’s talking about; for something to be established forever is what this is discussing. Awesome, to understands that. Awesome! It really is.

Verse 14—But now your kingdom will not continue. I think for the time of PKG, some will not be a part of God’s kingdom. There are a lot of people, a lot, who were able to become a part of and went by the wayside. Incredible, what’s taken place through time here. Some who will not be among, obviously, the 144,000. I marvel at that. We’re here, basically, because some of those things had happened.

I think of what it says to Philadelphia. It’s not to Philadelphia. All those things given in the seven Church eras are for all seven Churches, though certain traits were marked by each era. But one place there, when it talks about Philadelphia, “Let no man take your crown.” Awesome! Because, the reality is if God has called us, He’s given an opportunity, especially going back in time here, not necessarily now because some are going to live on in to a particular period of time here of the thousand years, the beginning of it. But when it’s talking about the beginning of God’s Kingdom, 144,000, that’s another matter.

So anyway, some won’t be a part of that because of choices and so forth that have been made. But as long as individuals are willing to repent—I don’t care who they are—even some who have left as far as PKG, because there was a time that we went through a particular process. Depends on how far people have gone. But if God has a purpose in being able to stir individuals from our past, whether it be a part of what had happened before the Apostasy (which God is going to do), or even some who were a part of PKG (because that can be a witness as well in a very powerful way), that as long as people will repent and cry out to God, God is very merciful. Awesome, to understand that.

To me, there is no better thing than to see someone who has gone astray, who repents and comes back, the one in the ninety-nine that equates with that. Because we should have a desire toward each other that everybody survive this, that everybody comes through this, that everyone makes it. And it’s beautiful.

I look forward to the time, I don’t care what stage it is, into the Millennium or the Great White throne, when individuals have an opportunity to see themselves—I think of all the people we’ve known through time here in the Church—who are able at that time to come to repentance and come back into the Body, to be there, and all that past, all that was ever said. I can think of some pretty funny things people have said about me and to me that people get caught up in something that takes place. But when they can come to repent of those things it doesn’t matter, those things aren’t important. What matters is they’re back and we’re a family, and hope that they come through whatever part it is, whether it be the Millennium or the Great White Throne and come on into, indeed, God’s Family.

So, anyway, we’ll pick this up after the Feast. We’ll begin at this point here. Because we’re going to keep going through this series here because there are just so many things in this one example alone of what happened between Saul and Samuel that are so profound, and things I have seen repeated in God’s Church over and over and over again, that in large part the Church has not grasped to the level that it needed to about government, about God’s government, how it works in our life and what we should want to be in unity with because it’s a matter of being in unity with God.