Tuesday, April 19, 2016

When you can’t hear The Lord, then what? – 1st Samuel 28

The Philistines set up their camp at Shunem, and Saul gathered all the army of Israel and camped at Gilboa. When Saul saw the vast Philistine army, he became frantic with fear. He asked the Lord what he should do, but the Lord refused to answer him, either by dreams or by sacred lots[a] or by the prophets. Saul then said to his advisers, “Find a woman who is a medium, so I can go and ask her what to do.” His advisers replied, “There is a medium at Endor.” So Saul disguised himself by wearing ordinary clothing instead of his royal robes. Then he went to the woman’s home at night, accompanied by two of his men. “I have to talk to a man who has died,” he said. “Will you call up his spirit for me?”
“Are you trying to get me killed?” the woman demanded. “You know that Saul has outlawed all the mediums and all who consult the spirits of the dead. Why are you setting a trap for me?”… 15b Because I am in deep trouble,” Saul replied. “The Philistines are at war with me, and God has left me and won’t reply by prophets or dreams. So I have called for you to tell me what to do.” 16 But Samuel replied, “Why ask me, since the Lord has left you and has become your enemy? 17 The Lord has done just as he said he would. He has torn the kingdom from you and given it to your rival, David.18 The Lord has done this to you today because you refused to carry out his fierce anger against the Amalekites.”


 “The Spirit of the LORD had departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the LORD tormented him”[1] and on this chapter he was desperate to hear from our heavenly Father without an answer, his desperation pushed him to do even worst.  This is why is essential, that we recommit our lives to the Lord continually! Like a daily routine, talk to the Lord, confess to Him your sins, show HIM your love, ask Him about your things, and read His word, DAILY!!!! Because it’s really easy to fall in the trap of not confessing and leaving crumbs of hurt, disappointments and issues laying around today; then if today’s get together with the leftovers from yesterday, and from the day before, that’s a big clump, altogether they can transform in a root of bitterness, and that my friend, it’s no good!

Another thing that happens is that the pressure of those roots creates a build up, and with time it when it can be held no more, it will explode, somewhere, somehow and the results can be catastrophic! In this case, he had “the greatest” (not) idea, he decided to consult a Medium! Can you believe that???! I mean time after time, the Lord had express His disapprove for worshiping other than HIM, and this guy chooses to consult one!?  Really?!

Some of us today, don’t exactly go to a Medium but may get on the phone with sister ----, and sister ----, or brother -----, and then each of those give us their opinions, in spite of their experiences and disappointments in life; sometimes their failures, and all of those opinions differ one from the other one. Then at the end we get more confused and troubled than what we were at the beginning and more tangled than a spaghetti plate. All BECAUSE we didn’t want to wait upon the Lord!

When we do not hear from God two things are happening, 1) God is telling us to wait for whatever we’re asking; and 2) there’s an unconfessed sin on our side.  Sometimes we humans, DO NOT LIKE TO WAIT, and we rather do something else in the meantime, or work ourselves in, to acquire that which we are looking for.

Unfortunately, when GOD says wait, NO MATTER how hard you try, is NOT going to come in. It’s like when we disobey the principle of tithing, no matter how much you work to try to stay afloat it seems like it’s never enough; the car breaks down, the A/C stops working, the washing machines gets stuck, and the money do not last. On the other hand when you, in faith, start tithing first, sometimes is unexplainable how the Lord makes it happened; you pay all your bills, and HE stretches it to cover what needs to be covered with the other ninety percent of your income; and the blessings go overboard, to the point you can even go out to eat an ice cream, which you hadn’t been able before when you had three jobs.   Is like when a recipe has an ingredient that we do not have instead of thinking “maybe today is not the day for me to do this”; we just tend to find a substitute for that one thing we need. And the result, well it might not be exactly as if we would have waited, that’s for sure!

The second thing that could be preventing the Lord from answering your petition is an uncircumcised heart; in other words, if there’s an unconfessed sin in your life that HE’s trying to get you to see it. This is a hard pill to swallow, because no one likes to be confronted; it just feels uncomfortable! But the truth is the sooner we confront it and deal with it, the better for us it will be.  For this one, we have to separate from everything and everyone so our minds get unplugged and we need to have a deep conversation with our heavenly Father. 

So, the next time you get tempted to try to make it on your own because GOD is “not answering” your petition, please DON’T!!!!  BE DETERMINED to go before GOD first, make sure your heart is clean and HE doesn’t have anything against you; then worship HIM in the hall while the door opens! It’s always the best thing than pushing ourselves in; and if you still doubtful, ask a confirmation about your options, one by one, at the end, you will get GOD’s choice, and that, my friend, is the right on!!! Do not doubt it!

As we take time for this time of separation, “in our prayer closet”, we can start by worshiping HIM for whom HE is, for the time HE’s giving us to separate from everyone just to talk with Him, for life, for His love, forgiveness, and mercy and for the coming answer to our questions. We can sing our favorite worship song, we can pray Psalm 119, is just a time of worship. Then we can humbly ask for a revelation of the things that might be hindering us from hearing HIS voice, and getting Him to answer us; those things that aren’t pleasing to Him, which we have to confess. Believe me, buckle up, because HE WILL TELL you! And do not be surprise because you’ve worship and now are calling HIM to confess, and HE LOOOOOOOOOOOOVES THAT!

After you’ve done this, with thanksgiving in your heart, worship HIM by doing what HE has placed in your heart to do.  By the time you finish, who know if what you’ve been asking for and been waiting for so long is in queue to happened after you get out of your prayer closet; outside the door! Try it!

I pray in the name of JESUS for a great revelation in your life.  I pray you make time today, to get in your “prayer closet” in that intimate place where you can undress your heart to the Lord to seek HIS face for direction in your life. I pray for the Lord to bless you and make your cup overrun for you to bless those around you and testify to the world what the LORD had done for you, and I pray for HIS glory, in JESUS name, AMEN!!!




[1] 1st Samuel 16:14

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