Greetings in Jesus' name blog reading friends! It has been a few weeks, and I apologize for the delay in updating you all...I am currently settling in to my new job as a customer service specialist at Mardel ( a Christian book store/office supply joint,) helping out with some projects at Life Tabernacle and the usual stuff of spending time with my wonderful family...
Having said that, let me give you a few thoughts to chew on. Mark chapter 9 verses 14-29, read it. Amazing portion of scripture, and I think we have overlooked some things that will help us in our pursuit of helping others.
Having some trouble pasting the scrips, oh well, better to avoid copyright infringement I suppose...
Verses fourteen through eighteen give us the situation. We have a scribe, a group of disciples, and a boy possessed with a devil that is, among other things causing the boy to not be able to speak. From what I understand, the scribe brought the boy to the disciples hoping for the devil to be cast out, and the disciples were unable to do it. This is the message relayed to Jesus.
There are still particular devils today that wish to silence you. Just a sidebar.
Let's take a look at the list of things this devil does to this poor boy, for we ourselves could learn a thing or two: this is the devil's will for your life. God has a will for your life, so does the devil. Here's what he would like to do to you, according to verse 18:
1.) He taketh him (he seizes, grabs control)
2.) He teareth him (breaking, rending, tearing)
3.) He foameth (foaming at the mouth)
4.) Gnashes with his teeth (literal, but can spiritually represent bitterness.)
5.) Pineth away. This is the devil's ultimate will in your life: for you to dry up spiritually and wither away.
Problem: Jesus' boys couldn't get it done.
In verse 19, we get Jesus' initial response. He rebukes. He rebukes the disciples for their lack of faith. You need to note that: LACK OF FAITH, because he expounds on that statement later. He said "how long shall I suffer you..." Scriptural principle: 'without faith it is impossible to please God' - lack of faith GREIVES the Spirit. It frustrates him. It irritates the Holy Ghost when we demonstrate a lack of faith.
Let's jump ahead to the end, and then we will come back to the text. The disciples later asked Jesus why they were unable to cast out the devil. He said 'this kind comes forth only by PRAYER and FASTING. Can we make a connection. First vital connection: your level of FAITH is effected by your level of PRAYER and FASTING. Prayer is an excercise of faith. It strenghtens faith. You fail to pray, you can atrophe spiritually in the faith department. He also said, FASTING. Fasting is an act of faith, and a dying out to the will of your flesh. Because it takes FAITH to trust in God, your flesh can get in the way via you depending on you instead. FASTING says: I can't do anything in it of myself, HE must do the work IN me and THROUGH me, and he can't do that if the flesh is in the way.
So we have a lack of faith, prayer, and fasting on the part of the disciples, and at this juncture, we still have a boy possessed with a devil.
In verse 20, they bring the boy to Jesus. Notice how the devil in him acts up as they get in God's presence. The devil acting up in your life or in a church's life is a good sign that he knows that Jesus is getting ready to drive him out. Devils have a keen sense of when their time is up. This is when they act up the most. It is a defense mechanism, a last ditch effort at intimidation.
Jesus turns to the boys father next and asks how long the boy had been this way...chalk this up to LENGTH of CONDITION is no matter to God. If you've been bound for ten, twenty, thirty years, Jesus troubles the water wherever he goes, and he is not bothered by how bad things are, or how long they've been that way. The answer: since he was a child.
Now the next few verses are crucial, and I think they contain the things that we have previously may have missed.
Verse 22 gives a good picture of the work of Satan vs the work of God: the devil would throw the boy into both the water and the fire TO DESTROY him. Remember, John 10:10 - 'the theif cometh not but for to steal, kill, and DESTROY. Be it by water or fire. Two totally opposite things. He'll get some with sins, he'll get others with success. He'll get some with devils, he'll get others with distractions.
'But if thou canst do anything, have compassion on us, and help us'
The devil desires to destroy, but it is God's will to do, the have compassion, and to help.
But now we're getting into the greater issue. I want you to note two things: one, this scribe was struggling with his faith: he said IF. He didn't ask for a sterile, simple religious fix, he asked for compassion, and for help. He was unsure of his faith, but he was quite sure of his need. Wow. I find it observationally humorous that Jesus rebuke the disciples for a lack of faith, but this guy gets off clean, even though he was struggling with his faith: MOTIVE. The scribe wanted compassion and help, the disciples wanted CREDIT.
Jesus responds in verse 23: watch, there is a credential for an answer here: "if you can believe, all things are possible..."
We know he's struggling with his faith, but its almost like Jesus cheering him on: just believe, just a little bit, just a mustard seed...if you can have just a little faith I can help you: watch the honesty of this man.
The bible says this man 'cried out with tears, Lord I believe, help thou my unbelief...'
And that man got a miracle. Why? The twelve had the power. The twelve had the authority. They had the credentials, they couldn't help this guy. But the scribe gets a miracle...I think I figured out why. He cried out with tears: that man loved his son, and Jesus was able to instantly read that in his tears...combined with the struggling 'I believe.' Don't you get it...Galatians said that faith worketh by love...not by pretense, or authority, or power, no it works by love...the scribe wanted the miracle for the right reasons, though he stuggled in his faith, his spirit matched that of God's - our spirit must match his, that's why motive is SO SO IMPORTANT in ministry. Because if our motive is wrong, we can have all the power and authority and position in the world, and none of that will help us when the rubber meets the road of real ministry...WE MUST LOVE PEOPLE! BECAUSE GOD LOVES PEOPLE...and he wants to love people through us. Your faith is not the biggest issue, the issue is wether your faith is working by pretense or by love.
Compassion, help, that's the motive for ministry. If its anything less, we are in the wrong field. This is why it is so key to be in tune with the will of the Holy Ghost in a service, and out...if we just do out of pretense we won't see much in the miraculous, but if we can follow his lead, he show us people that need to be loved, and shown the love of God. Friend, you have got to let it flow through you out of love: for God and for your neighbor.
How? How do I love those that I do not know. 'This kind comes forth not but by prayer and fasting...' You can't love in the flesh. Period. Real love, God love, faith that worketh by love love, it has to come from God's spirit in us, and can't be fake or conjured up in the flesh, so we have got to move the flesh out of the way to allow the Spirit to do what we cannot do: love sinners.
Prayer and Fasting weakens the flesh, and strenghthens not only your faith, but the Spirit in you is allowed to work with more liberty. The will of the Spirit is to love...get your flesh out of the way and let him do it...that's why the disciples were rebuked and unable to help, flesh was in the way. Could fake it real nice, call on the name, operate in pretense and religiosity, but couldn't help...Yes power comes by prayer and fasting, but power is not the issue. Remember, this guy was struggling with unbelief...what we need out of our prayer and fasting is compassion, and the desire to HELP.
Isaiah 58:6-8
it was never about power,
"Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?
Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?
it is all acts of mercy, and love, and compassion, and deliverance...not just faith...
Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thy health shall spring forth speedily: and they righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the Lord shall be thy reward...
Great will be the reward of a church that prays, that fasts, and that whose faith works by love. No devil can stand up to a person of God filled with holy, awesome love and compassion...especially when that love and compassion gets mingled with faith...then we see awesome things happen!
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Friday, April 2, 2010
From Bound To Revival
Hey folks, I am working on a message tentatively entitled "From Bound To Revival..." I want to share with you some notes and thoughts and get some feedback. This is by no means a finished set of notes, but rather just some thoughts I want to jot down before they pass through the exit door of my brain...
Judges 15:12-19 (New King James Version)
12 But they said to him, “We have come down to arrest you, that we may deliver you into the hand of the Philistines.” Then Samson said to them, “Swear to me that you will not kill me yourselves.”
13 So they spoke to him, saying, “No, but we will tie you securely and deliver you into their hand; but we will surely not kill you.” And they bound him with two new ropes and brought him up from the rock.
14 When he came to Lehi, the Philistines came shouting against him. Then the Spirit of the LORD came mightily upon him; and the ropes that were on his arms became like flax that is burned with fire, and his bonds broke loose from his hands.
15 He found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, reached out his hand and took it, and killed a thousand men with it.
16 Then Samson said: “With the jawbone of a donkey, Heaps upon heaps, With the jawbone of a donkey I have slain a thousand men!”
17 And so it was, when he had finished speaking, that he threw the jawbone from his hand, and called that place Ramath Lehi.[a]
18 Then he became very thirsty; so he cried out to the LORD and said, “You have given this great deliverance by the hand of Your servant; and now shall I die of thirst and fall into the hand of the uncircumcised?”
19 So God split the hollow place that is in Lehi,[b] and water came out, and he drank; and his spirit returned, and he revived. Therefore he called its name En Hakkore,[c] which is in Lehi to this day.
A brief background, Samson just got through burning down the wheatfields of the Philistines because his father in law gave away his wife to one of his friends...(some friends.) Well, the Philistines in return burned down the house of the father in law and estranged wife. Next, the Philistines show up in Judah and start attacking people. Judah in turn, not wanting to suffer the loss for the cause of one man proceed to turn Samson over to the Philistines...that brings us to this passage. Judah selling out Samson for the sake of peace. Sheesh.
The Bible explains that Samson was basically hiding in the cave of a rock. Then Judah came to him and said: "we are come down to bind thee and to deliver thee to the Philistines..."
It was not the Philistines that bound him, it was Judah. Lets get on the same wavelength. The Philistines represent the enemy, Satan, sin, evil, etc. It was not the enemy that came to bind Samson, who is a representative type of the church, it was Judah. Judah was God's people in a broken, backslid, carnal condition. Man of God, saint of God, church of God, it is not the devil that comes to bind you. Its worldliness, carnality, the hint of a backslidden heart. Its not even sin that comes to bind you, its weights.
There is a two step process that will attempt to stifle you from doing damage to the enemy. The first thing that happens that prevents you from praying like you should, worshipping like you should, preaching like you shoud is you get BOUND by carnality and worldiness; by the condition of a backslid heart.
The second thing that happens is what has you BOUND attemtpts to deliver you to the ENEMY: Satan, sin, total backsliddeness. This is why weights are so dangerous, why carnality is so dangerous, because if you get bound by something, then you can easily be led away from your ROCK, your GOD, your place of safety. And this unfortunate happenstance befalls Samson in our text: he is bound, and then he is led away from the ROCK by a condition of backwards prioritied people.
Samson made the men of Judah promise not to kill him. Weights are not what kills you spiritually. Weights are what lead you astray to things that CAN kill you spiritually. That is why being bound is so dangerous. First weights and worldliness and distractions bind you, and then they lead you away to a place called DEATH...or at least that is the process that enemy wants to engage you in. It is too dangerous of an attitude to have: well, its not really that bad, its not really that sinful, so it won't kill me...IT DOESN'T HAVE TO KILL YOU, all it has to do is BIND you, and then you are spiritually useless and vunerable to an attack from the enemy...
In verse fourteen Samson arrives bound in Lehi. Now this is where the encouragement for you and I comes. He shows up in a place that would seem to be a situation of certain doom. He's bound, and the enemy is his way to take him out, but pay close attention. In verse fourteen, the Bible says that the Philistines "shouted" against Samson, but when they shouted, the Bible says that the Spirit of the Lord came MIGHTILY upon Samson. Here is a message you need to hear: the enemy has a voice, be we have a SPIRIT...This is why the book says "greater is he that is IN you than he that is in the world..." he that is in the world has a VOICE, but YOU have a SPIRIT inside of you...
The voice is dangerous ONLY if you listen to it. Satan used his words to deceive Eve, and she listened. Woops. The devil talks to you all the time. He breathes out threatenings, he is the accuser of the brethren. Its that voice that is always disagreeing with what God told you. He is trying to get you to believe his false, negative report, but he can only use his VOICE. BUT YOU CAN YOU TAP INTO THE SPIRIT IN YOU....
The Philistines shouted victory against Samson, but the Spirit of God came on Samson, and when it did the word says "and the cords that were upon his arms became as flax that was burnt with fire, and his bands loosed from off his hands."
Saint of God, preahcer of God, hear me, the solution to unbinding you from what has you bound is the SPIRIT coming mightily upon you...remember what John the Baptist said: ''he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and FIRE..." Remember on the day of Pentecost "there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of FIRE..." Remember that the writer of Hebrews said that "our God is a consuming FIRE..." If you need to get unbound, put yourself in the middle of a red hot apostolic prayer meeting, put yourself in the middle of a red hot, Holy Ghost saturated altar call and let HIS SPIRIT come on you MIGHTILY because John said the Spirit, the fire, will burn up the chaff; thats the waste, the weight, the sinful part that has you bound...
Church, we have got to get unbound or we will lose this fight against the enemy...we have got to get a fresh touch of Holy Ghost fire, we have got to pray through, worship through, preach through...we have got to let that FIRE come on us MIGHTILY to get us unbound...physical fire burns things, so does Spiritual fire...it BURNS things that BIND you. If we can get unbound, we can fight!
So once you get unbound, you have got to get an instrument in your hands by which you can fight the enemy. Samson picked up a freshly deposited jawbone of a donkey. HE PICKED UP THE FIRST THING THAT HE SAW! Maybe you can help me figure out what it means. I'm not what if anything that jawbone represents. Who killed the donkey? I don't know. Did it die of natural causes; did it starve? I'm not sure, I just know that because it died, because it gave up or lost its life, it was right were God wanted it, and right where Samson needed it. Maybe we're not Samson, maybe you're the donkey. If you're willing to sacrifice, lay down your life if you will, then you could be in a God-ordained position to be used by a man of God in a fight against the enemy. It was just a jawbone, but it was available, and in the hands of an UNLOOSED man of God, it became the instrument by which Samson dropped 1,000 Philistines in one fight.
So get unbound, pick up a fresh weapon. Pick up a fresh prayer. Pick up a fresh session of praise and worship. Pick up a fresh sermon, preacher. Pick up a fresh WORD...the sword of the Spirit, your offensive weapon against the enemy is the WORD of GOD...pick up a fresh WORD and start swinging it: "no weapon formed against me shall prosper..." "rejoice not against o mine enemy for when I shall fall, I shall arise..." and WATCH THE ENEMY FALL AT YOUR FEET. Sin will fall, devils will come out, sickness will leave, addictions have to go when you get UNBOUND, and you start swinging that God ordained instrument...my my.
After the victory, Samson sang about it. He had himself a praise session about his victory. We need some more of those in our churches.
Samson named that place Jawbone Hill. We need to name our victories. We need to landmark them. We need to remember them.
Now, this is where we need to go. Read verse 18 again, here I'll paste it so you don't have to scroll back up:
"Then he became very thirsty; so he cried out to the LORD and said, “You have given this great deliverance by the hand of Your servant; and now shall I die of thirst and fall into the hand of the uncircumcised?”
Friend here me, we can't miss this truth. Your greatest moments of spiritual vunerability come immediatley following your greatest victories. Listen to me prayer warriors: spiritual warfare will deplete your spiritual energy...virtue goes out. You get thirsty. You become weak. When you are thirsty and weak you are just as vulnerable as when you were bound...but Samson cries out to God. I find this interesting, when he was getting put into a position in which he needed to fight, the Spirit came MIGHTILY upon him, but when he needed something in himself, for himself, HE cried out to GOD. God will equip you for the battle, loose you, provide a weapon for you, but when it is a relationship aspect between you and God, he is a gentleman. He wants you to call out to him. Jesus, I need you, I'm spiritually spent and dry, I need you.
Watch verse nineteen:
"So God split the hollow place that is in Lehi, and water came out, and he drank, and his spirit returned, and he revived..."
This is the dangerous mistake we can make if we are not careful: we cannot affor to mistake or replace revival with just a spiritual victory over sin and or the enemy...Getting loosed is not revival. Victory over the enemy is not revival. Getting loosed and defeating sin and weights and devils are PREDECESSORS to REAL REVIVAL...
Samson, even after his great victory over the Philistines cried out to God "I THIRST!" And maybe you are in that place...Lord I don't understand, I've been loosed from weights and sins, I've prevailed in prayer over the enemy, WHY DO I FEEL SO EMPTY AND THIRSTY??? Its because God never wants your deliverance and your exploits spiritually to replace your relationship with Him...Your victories are given to lead you to a place where he can refresh YOU with living water. Not to fight, not to do some great exploit, but just to refresh YOU.
The Bible says that when Samson drank of that water that God caused to spring up from the ground at Lehi, a representative type of the living water spoken of in John chapter seven, he revived. Friend, real revival is a place beyond victory, beyond Jawbone Hill...we must ge to the place called En Hakkore - which means "The Spring of the Caller..." Getting loosed and gaining victories will put us in a place to call out to God in desperation "I thirst..." and there in that place the waters of the Holy Ghost can refill us, and refresh us personally. Don't stop at getting loosed. Don't stop at gaining the victory...CALL OUT TO HIM, and will refresh, and revive...The spring is "in Lehi to this day..." that place will be a landmark for you, greater than victory, a landmark of relationship between you and your God.
I hope this helps someone...if you have feedback, let me know. God bless.
Judges 15:12-19 (New King James Version)
12 But they said to him, “We have come down to arrest you, that we may deliver you into the hand of the Philistines.” Then Samson said to them, “Swear to me that you will not kill me yourselves.”
13 So they spoke to him, saying, “No, but we will tie you securely and deliver you into their hand; but we will surely not kill you.” And they bound him with two new ropes and brought him up from the rock.
14 When he came to Lehi, the Philistines came shouting against him. Then the Spirit of the LORD came mightily upon him; and the ropes that were on his arms became like flax that is burned with fire, and his bonds broke loose from his hands.
15 He found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, reached out his hand and took it, and killed a thousand men with it.
16 Then Samson said: “With the jawbone of a donkey, Heaps upon heaps, With the jawbone of a donkey I have slain a thousand men!”
17 And so it was, when he had finished speaking, that he threw the jawbone from his hand, and called that place Ramath Lehi.[a]
18 Then he became very thirsty; so he cried out to the LORD and said, “You have given this great deliverance by the hand of Your servant; and now shall I die of thirst and fall into the hand of the uncircumcised?”
19 So God split the hollow place that is in Lehi,[b] and water came out, and he drank; and his spirit returned, and he revived. Therefore he called its name En Hakkore,[c] which is in Lehi to this day.
A brief background, Samson just got through burning down the wheatfields of the Philistines because his father in law gave away his wife to one of his friends...(some friends.) Well, the Philistines in return burned down the house of the father in law and estranged wife. Next, the Philistines show up in Judah and start attacking people. Judah in turn, not wanting to suffer the loss for the cause of one man proceed to turn Samson over to the Philistines...that brings us to this passage. Judah selling out Samson for the sake of peace. Sheesh.
The Bible explains that Samson was basically hiding in the cave of a rock. Then Judah came to him and said: "we are come down to bind thee and to deliver thee to the Philistines..."
It was not the Philistines that bound him, it was Judah. Lets get on the same wavelength. The Philistines represent the enemy, Satan, sin, evil, etc. It was not the enemy that came to bind Samson, who is a representative type of the church, it was Judah. Judah was God's people in a broken, backslid, carnal condition. Man of God, saint of God, church of God, it is not the devil that comes to bind you. Its worldliness, carnality, the hint of a backslidden heart. Its not even sin that comes to bind you, its weights.
There is a two step process that will attempt to stifle you from doing damage to the enemy. The first thing that happens that prevents you from praying like you should, worshipping like you should, preaching like you shoud is you get BOUND by carnality and worldiness; by the condition of a backslid heart.
The second thing that happens is what has you BOUND attemtpts to deliver you to the ENEMY: Satan, sin, total backsliddeness. This is why weights are so dangerous, why carnality is so dangerous, because if you get bound by something, then you can easily be led away from your ROCK, your GOD, your place of safety. And this unfortunate happenstance befalls Samson in our text: he is bound, and then he is led away from the ROCK by a condition of backwards prioritied people.
Samson made the men of Judah promise not to kill him. Weights are not what kills you spiritually. Weights are what lead you astray to things that CAN kill you spiritually. That is why being bound is so dangerous. First weights and worldliness and distractions bind you, and then they lead you away to a place called DEATH...or at least that is the process that enemy wants to engage you in. It is too dangerous of an attitude to have: well, its not really that bad, its not really that sinful, so it won't kill me...IT DOESN'T HAVE TO KILL YOU, all it has to do is BIND you, and then you are spiritually useless and vunerable to an attack from the enemy...
In verse fourteen Samson arrives bound in Lehi. Now this is where the encouragement for you and I comes. He shows up in a place that would seem to be a situation of certain doom. He's bound, and the enemy is his way to take him out, but pay close attention. In verse fourteen, the Bible says that the Philistines "shouted" against Samson, but when they shouted, the Bible says that the Spirit of the Lord came MIGHTILY upon Samson. Here is a message you need to hear: the enemy has a voice, be we have a SPIRIT...This is why the book says "greater is he that is IN you than he that is in the world..." he that is in the world has a VOICE, but YOU have a SPIRIT inside of you...
The voice is dangerous ONLY if you listen to it. Satan used his words to deceive Eve, and she listened. Woops. The devil talks to you all the time. He breathes out threatenings, he is the accuser of the brethren. Its that voice that is always disagreeing with what God told you. He is trying to get you to believe his false, negative report, but he can only use his VOICE. BUT YOU CAN YOU TAP INTO THE SPIRIT IN YOU....
The Philistines shouted victory against Samson, but the Spirit of God came on Samson, and when it did the word says "and the cords that were upon his arms became as flax that was burnt with fire, and his bands loosed from off his hands."
Saint of God, preahcer of God, hear me, the solution to unbinding you from what has you bound is the SPIRIT coming mightily upon you...remember what John the Baptist said: ''he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and FIRE..." Remember on the day of Pentecost "there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of FIRE..." Remember that the writer of Hebrews said that "our God is a consuming FIRE..." If you need to get unbound, put yourself in the middle of a red hot apostolic prayer meeting, put yourself in the middle of a red hot, Holy Ghost saturated altar call and let HIS SPIRIT come on you MIGHTILY because John said the Spirit, the fire, will burn up the chaff; thats the waste, the weight, the sinful part that has you bound...
Church, we have got to get unbound or we will lose this fight against the enemy...we have got to get a fresh touch of Holy Ghost fire, we have got to pray through, worship through, preach through...we have got to let that FIRE come on us MIGHTILY to get us unbound...physical fire burns things, so does Spiritual fire...it BURNS things that BIND you. If we can get unbound, we can fight!
So once you get unbound, you have got to get an instrument in your hands by which you can fight the enemy. Samson picked up a freshly deposited jawbone of a donkey. HE PICKED UP THE FIRST THING THAT HE SAW! Maybe you can help me figure out what it means. I'm not what if anything that jawbone represents. Who killed the donkey? I don't know. Did it die of natural causes; did it starve? I'm not sure, I just know that because it died, because it gave up or lost its life, it was right were God wanted it, and right where Samson needed it. Maybe we're not Samson, maybe you're the donkey. If you're willing to sacrifice, lay down your life if you will, then you could be in a God-ordained position to be used by a man of God in a fight against the enemy. It was just a jawbone, but it was available, and in the hands of an UNLOOSED man of God, it became the instrument by which Samson dropped 1,000 Philistines in one fight.
So get unbound, pick up a fresh weapon. Pick up a fresh prayer. Pick up a fresh session of praise and worship. Pick up a fresh sermon, preacher. Pick up a fresh WORD...the sword of the Spirit, your offensive weapon against the enemy is the WORD of GOD...pick up a fresh WORD and start swinging it: "no weapon formed against me shall prosper..." "rejoice not against o mine enemy for when I shall fall, I shall arise..." and WATCH THE ENEMY FALL AT YOUR FEET. Sin will fall, devils will come out, sickness will leave, addictions have to go when you get UNBOUND, and you start swinging that God ordained instrument...my my.
After the victory, Samson sang about it. He had himself a praise session about his victory. We need some more of those in our churches.
Samson named that place Jawbone Hill. We need to name our victories. We need to landmark them. We need to remember them.
Now, this is where we need to go. Read verse 18 again, here I'll paste it so you don't have to scroll back up:
"Then he became very thirsty; so he cried out to the LORD and said, “You have given this great deliverance by the hand of Your servant; and now shall I die of thirst and fall into the hand of the uncircumcised?”
Friend here me, we can't miss this truth. Your greatest moments of spiritual vunerability come immediatley following your greatest victories. Listen to me prayer warriors: spiritual warfare will deplete your spiritual energy...virtue goes out. You get thirsty. You become weak. When you are thirsty and weak you are just as vulnerable as when you were bound...but Samson cries out to God. I find this interesting, when he was getting put into a position in which he needed to fight, the Spirit came MIGHTILY upon him, but when he needed something in himself, for himself, HE cried out to GOD. God will equip you for the battle, loose you, provide a weapon for you, but when it is a relationship aspect between you and God, he is a gentleman. He wants you to call out to him. Jesus, I need you, I'm spiritually spent and dry, I need you.
Watch verse nineteen:
"So God split the hollow place that is in Lehi, and water came out, and he drank, and his spirit returned, and he revived..."
This is the dangerous mistake we can make if we are not careful: we cannot affor to mistake or replace revival with just a spiritual victory over sin and or the enemy...Getting loosed is not revival. Victory over the enemy is not revival. Getting loosed and defeating sin and weights and devils are PREDECESSORS to REAL REVIVAL...
Samson, even after his great victory over the Philistines cried out to God "I THIRST!" And maybe you are in that place...Lord I don't understand, I've been loosed from weights and sins, I've prevailed in prayer over the enemy, WHY DO I FEEL SO EMPTY AND THIRSTY??? Its because God never wants your deliverance and your exploits spiritually to replace your relationship with Him...Your victories are given to lead you to a place where he can refresh YOU with living water. Not to fight, not to do some great exploit, but just to refresh YOU.
The Bible says that when Samson drank of that water that God caused to spring up from the ground at Lehi, a representative type of the living water spoken of in John chapter seven, he revived. Friend, real revival is a place beyond victory, beyond Jawbone Hill...we must ge to the place called En Hakkore - which means "The Spring of the Caller..." Getting loosed and gaining victories will put us in a place to call out to God in desperation "I thirst..." and there in that place the waters of the Holy Ghost can refill us, and refresh us personally. Don't stop at getting loosed. Don't stop at gaining the victory...CALL OUT TO HIM, and will refresh, and revive...The spring is "in Lehi to this day..." that place will be a landmark for you, greater than victory, a landmark of relationship between you and your God.
I hope this helps someone...if you have feedback, let me know. God bless.
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