Different Person

1 Samuel 10:6 says, "The Spirit of the Lord will come powerfully upon you, and you will prophesy with them; and you will be changed into a different person."

Some wonderful supernatural things are narrated in this chapter which certainly should give us great encouragement during dark times in our life that God would do the same for us. Well, the day I was to preach this sermon in our Night Prayer, I was attacked mentally and emotionally; however, great deliverance came over me as I meditated this chapter and I share what I experienced to start with, I can’t write what I did not relish myself….

TURNED INTO ANOTHER MAN:

If someone is worried about your lost one right now, I want to tell you that the touch of God would turn him into ANOTHER MAN. Say Amen.

In fact, after the touch of God you got to be unrecognizable. Your friends, your relatives, your colleagues, in fact, your own mom and dad should be astounded at the change in you. The best illustration that I can take is from the life-cycle of the butterfly; the metamorphosis of the butterfly consists of the following stages:

* Egg

* Caterpillar

* Pupa

* Butterfly

We all got to shed away our old habits and life just like the way the caterpillar sheds its skin in order to evolve into a stunning and astounding, beautiful butterfly! Apostle Paul said: Ephesians 4:22 “that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, 23 and be renewed in the spirit of your mind.'

Even after several years, I have seen believers tell me, ‘ I am just taking efforts to pray for half hour or I am struggling to wake up in the morning , I am unable to concentrate in Bible reading and they make no efforts to grow spiritually whereas their focus is on making more money and building castles on earth.

I did something after my encounter with Jesus, that you might find crazy, weird and fanatic. I stopped the News paper that I was reading then that had lot of cinema stuff than real news. I broke movie CDs, banned my children from watching movies. That's change - in and out! You can't watch lust and worship a holy God! Become another person! Evolve!

Signboards

1 Samuel 10:3 “Then you will go on from there until you reach the great tree of Tabor. Three men going up to worship 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.”

In this chapter we see God give number of signals or you may call them signboards in order to move from one stage to another. If only Saul stays alert and he moves from one point to another obediently following the signboards, then he would have no confusion. Very crystal clear signals are given, prophet Samuel told Saul ‘until you reach the great tree of Tabor’ and lot more. Read the chapter carefully and diligently in order to understand the spiritual meaning behind it. Swift reading would do no good. God wonderfully guided Saul during the initial days and expected him to grow in his journey with God and further walk with faith. Anybody listening?

Don’t we see umpteen ‘SIGNBOARDS ‘ along the way we travel : STOP, NO ENTRY, GO RIGHT, GO LEFT, SCHOOL ZONE, NO HORN, NO PARKING and so on. Any violations regarding this deserve punishment and fine. In India people do not adhere to rules and regulations, in fact, they love to disobey; however, abroad any violations of signals are strictly dealt with and in severe cases driving license is also cancelled.. Anybody listening?

When we relocated our ministry to Hyderabad, God very supernaturally guided us in our ministry and also gave me the name of the School that we run for the poor in Hyderabad (Abide School), color of school uniform and much more, I received all these in my dream with clarity. All I did was spend several hours in the presence of God. Spoon-feeding does not continue, further God expects us to be alert, sensitive to His voice, grow in discernment and walk in faith. As days go by, Saul started disobeying God and His prophet Samuel. Saul failed to wait for Samuel in making the offering, when questioned for his hasty action, he replied:1 Samuel 13: 12 I thought, ‘Now the Philistines will come down against me at Gilgal, and I have not sought the LORD’s favor.’ So I felt compelled to offer the burnt offering.”

Distraction and digression from the ways of God leads you to destruction! It did not happen on one single day in the life of Saul, it was slow descending and sliding into the pit of hell.