Changed

 DEVOTION

1^ST SAMUEL

CHANGED

1 Samuel 9:25-10:7

25 After they came down from the high place to the town, Samuel talked with Saul on the roof of his house. 26 They rose about daybreak and Samuel called to Saul on the roof, "Get ready, and I will send you on your way." When Saul got ready, he and Samuel went outside together. 27 As they were going down to the edge of the town, Samuel said to Saul, "Tell the servant to go on ahead of us"-and the servant did so-"but you stay here awhile, so that I may give you a message from God."

10:1 Then Samuel took a flask of oil and poured it on Saul's head and kissed him, saying, "Has not the LORD anointed you leader over his inheritance?   2 When you leave me today, you will meet two men near Rachel's tomb, at Zelzah on the border of Benjamin. They will say to you, 'The donkeys you set out to look for have been found. And now your father has stopped thinking about them and is worried about you. He is asking, "What shall I do about my son?"' 3 "Then you will go on from there until you reach the great tree of Tabor. Three men going up to God at Bethel will meet you there. One will be carrying three young goats, another three loaves of bread, and another a skin of wine. 4 They will greet you and offer you two loaves of bread, which you will accept from them. 5 "After that you will go to Gibeah of God, where there is a Philistine outpost. As you approach the town, you will meet a procession of prophets coming down from the high place with lyres, tambourines, flutes and harps being played before them, and they will be prophesying. 6 The Spirit of the LORD will come upon you in power, and you will prophesy with them; and you will be changed into a different person. 7 Once these signs are fulfilled, do whatever your hand finds to do, for God is with you.

NIV

We had to leave those last verses of chapter nine so we could include them at the beginning of chapter ten. The reason is that we need to start with Samuel telling Saul that he had a message from God. We would pray that men who have been called to be pastors to the people of God bring a message from the Lord for them to take to heart. We wonder if that is always true, and if some who stand before people of God speak not from the Lord, but from the desire for personal edification and gain. Nevertheless, it is the desire of our hearts to always hear a message from the Lord. Samuel also took a flask of oil and anointed Saul, but it was the LORD who anointed Saul the leader over his inheritance, as king over Israel. Once again, it is always the Lord who does that anointing, although we humans do apply the oil. We have heard, and if we remember correctly, that when we anoint someone with oil, we say, “I anointed you, in the name of the Lord.” However, we are only able to apply the oil, and it would then be the Lord who anoints them. The second point we see in this text is that when Saul met that procession of prophets with instruments playing before them and prophesying, the Spirit of the LORD came upon Saul with power, and he was changed into a different person. There is no question that when the Spirit comes upon us, or comes to dwell within us, we are a changed person. We wonder if it is possible that a believer has not asked the Holy Spirit to come upon them, or, as it might be said, has not been baptized in the Holy Spirit. It has been a point of discussion as to whether it is an automatic event the moment someone becomes born again, or it is a second event. Either way, if the Holy Spirit comes upon us or dwells within us, his power is always within us, and we should be a changed person, never to be as we once were. Of course, some people were raised in a Christian environment and always knew the Lord and have always had the Spirit dwelling within them from childhood. If that is the case, is it possible they have never experienced a change within them or become a changed person? What we know is that when as repented and accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we experienced an overwhelming sense of relief and freedom, knowing we were saved. But no one told us about the Spirit, but as we read about Him, we asked the Lord to anoint us with the Spirit, and he came with power and as the Lord anointed us, we became a changed person, a new creature in Christ, the old self passed away, died, and we were born from above someone else, as new as a new born baby, and we needed food, and God provided his word for us to grow in stature with Him and with people. The Lord will always be there to lead us, but we must follow, and as we do, he will anoint us with power, and we will continuously be changed, being transformed into his likeness.