The Spirit

 DEVOTION

1^ST SAMUEL

THE SPIRIT

1 Samuel  16:14-23

14 Now the Spirit of the LORD had departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the LORD tormented him. 15 Saul's attendants said to him, "See, an evil spirit from God is tormenting you. 16 Let our lord command his servants here to search for someone who can play the harp. He will play when the evil spirit from God comes upon you, and you will feel better." 17 So Saul said to his attendants, "Find someone who plays well and bring him to me." 18 One of the servants answered, "I have seen a son of Jesse of Bethlehem who knows how to play the harp. He is a brave man and a warrior. He speaks well and is a fine-looking man. And the LORD is with him." 19 Then Saul sent messengers to Jesse and said, "Send me your son David, who is with the sheep." 20 So Jesse took a donkey loaded with bread, a skin of wine and a young goat and sent them with his son David to Saul. 21 David came to Saul and entered his service. Saul liked him very much, and David became one of his armor-bearers. 22 Then Saul sent word to Jesse, saying, "Allow David to remain in my service, for I am pleased with him." 23 Whenever the spirit from God came upon Saul, David would take his harp and play. Then relief would come to Saul; he would feel better, and the evil spirit would leave him.

NIV

It must be a horrible experience to have the Spirit of the Lord depart from someone, and in some sense, we feel sorry or pity for Saul, for now he is exposed to the torment of an injurious or bad, unkind, evil spirit. This does give us a clue that there would be a difference between being possessed by an evil spirit and merely being tormented by one. We know that as long as we have the Holy Spirit dwelling within us, we can never be tormented by any evil spirit. When Saul brought David into his service, it was good for him because the Spirit of the LORD was upon David. This gives us another clue to the life of someone who has the Spirit of the Lord upon them, or in our case, dwelling within us. Whenever Saul was troubled in his spirit or tormented by an evil spirit, David’s music would bring Saul comfort and relief, and the evil spirit would depart. We wonder if it was because Saul was already depressed, because the Spirit of the LORD had left him, and his feelings were running rampant regarding his sad estate, thus, it left him vulnerable to evil. Is it possible that when we overfocus on our feelings or become too self-centered, even with the Spirit within us, we become vulnerable to the temptations of the flesh? There must be a difference between the Spirit of the LORD being upon David and the Spirit of God dwelling within us. Could we quench or extinguish the Spirit’s fire even though we were told not to? Is it possible that if we do hold back the fire of the Spirit, we then put ourselves in jeopardy of being tormented by some evil spirit? We know the Spirit would never allow us to be possessed, but would he force his fire, his power, against some evil spirit if we are holding him back, or putting a damper on his fire? We must live in the fullest of our faith and give way completely our will to the Lord, allowing the Spirit full access to bring fire and power into and through us, so that we can live to the fullest and bring comfort to all around us. It is when we demand our way, surrender to our feelings, we put that blanket over the Spirit, keeping his fire under wraps, and trouble finds its way in. Let us throw off everything that could quench him and allow him to fill us to overflowing with fire and power.