This weekend is the sixth anniversary of my leaving the treacherous one (bagad) I was once wedded to. The above picture is a maple changing color in the fall in McKittrick canyon in Guadalupe Mountains National Park. I always wonder at the LORD's timing in the things that occur in my life...this is the end of the Hebrew year and my new beginnings came at a new year - 5767. God is GOOD!
It is also the Days of Repentance. The time of reflection before the end of the year. Today, September 1, is the 27th day and they end on Yom Kippur. When we repent, turning from a way that is not in GOD's will, we are always welcomed back into our Father's arms. HE is so loving, forgiving and merciful...unlike most earthly fathers. Yet when we persist in demanding our own stubborn will, the LORD will not take kindly to that. This is demonstrated in the story of King Saul losing what GOD had given him. 1 Samuel 15
Saul was anointed to be king of Israel. The gifts he'd been given, such as prophecy. were not removed from him, but due to his disobedience, his anointing of being king was. Even then, he remained king for many years. This tells us that we can persist in living outside of GOD's will for a great length of time, thinking we are still "okay" and have our anointing stripped from us. Yeshua taught us that an unfruitful tree may have a delayed execution. If it persists in it's unfruitfulness, it will be uprooted.
When I left the bagad, the LORD showed me he has a spirit of saul upon him. I needed to respect that he was anointed, and, as David, I needed to flee from him. This is the verse I have as my blog title. The bagad will, as saul, eventually fall on his own sword, he will be uprooted. He believes he's earned all sorts of Brownie points in heaven by having music festivals, playing worship music, and getting "sinners" to come to church. But he doesn't realize these are works, and works will not get us into heaven. Only GOD's grace gives us access into heaven. Hard to abandon that catholic way of thinking....(no offense, but it is definitely a phenomenon I've often witnessed of those raised catholic). We do good works BECAUSE we are the Beloved, it is our joy to show the love of the LORD to others!
When you read 1 Samuel 15, it is interesting to see saul at work. When Samuel calls him out on his disobedience (that he did not totally destroy all the Amalekites and their goods), saul does not repent. This was the tremendous difference between David and saul....David also sinned (as we all do), yet the moment he was confronted with his sin, he REPENTED! Saul first tries to twist and manipulate the LORD's words by saying to Samuel "I did obey the voice of the LORD..." In other words, he thinks he can fool Sam by ONLY SPEAKING HALF-TRUTHS. Ah, the bagad was an expert at that...as is the devil when he quotes Scripture. Verse 20 In verse 21, saul than uses another tactic - BLAME-SHIFTING. "but the people took some of the spoils..." Umhmm....again the bagad at his best. "I had no control over this, __________ controlled the situation" (fill in the name or names of who you want to blame)
As you read on, you may actually think that saul repents in verse 24, but you can see it is simply another manipulation. Samuel has made it very clear that his disobedience has now reaped the consequence of his kingship being removed. BUSTED! So he tries to align himself with the prophet and worship the LORD with him, but Sam wants none of that hypocrisy. Again, the bagad tries this tactic. Most of the time he doesn't though, because he honestly considers himself righteous and he doesn't need to repent. Sam had to actually do the work the king should have done, he killed Agag, the Amalekite king.
It is evident that even though saul was filled with an evil spirit, he could still prophesy and experience the Spirit of the LORD. 1 Samuel 19:23, 24 The more saul demanded his own will, his own way, using his own thought process, the more he became removed from GOD's will. UPROOTED!
The more responsibility we are given by the LORD, the more we have the capacity to abuse that which is given to us. In looking back through history and at those who have been given tremendous spiritual assignments, many of them fell shamefully. GOD has given us free will and HE does desire to entrust us. He will also bring us back into grace with HIS grace when we repent and turn from our stubborn self-will.
As the year ends, I thank and praise my Beloved ABBA. HE is magnificent, HE is worthy of all praise, HE is EVERYTHING to me! HE will avenge all wrongs done against me in HIS time. AMEN!
