God Calls People To Participate With His Work! Series

Many of you are good at this “follow the hidden ball game”………

Many of us try to play this game with God, trying to hide things in our lives from Him. We may think we are playing a game but to God this is really not a game because He sees this game this way….. (through a clear glass!)

We will learn more about the power of God today as He now moves to a new king for Israel. Open your Bibles to 1 Samuel 16…. we will look at v8-23 today…

We note in v8-10 Jesse thought he had it figured out with one of his 7 sons! But God through Samuel told Jesse none of the 7 sons were chosen by God! Jesse either missed the lesson earlier in v7 or forgot like many of us that God sees through everything!

v11: We note Samuel’s faith; he basically said “there must be another son!”

v12: God’s chosen, David the youngest, a farm boy, ruddy (tanned), but good looking.

What do we note in v13? After David was anointed in public, God’s Spirit Power came to him! I find this interesting; wasn’t David already a godly man? But God filled him with His power! God can fill people with his power.

As if his job was done, we note Samuel leaving right after God filled David with power!

Then in v14-23: we note how God connected David with King Saul!

v14: God allowed an evil spirit to torment Saul

v15-17: God provided counsel to Saul

And what do you know? v18: One of Saul’s servants just happened to know a harpist! Now, if it was important for us to know that this servant heard about the anointing of David, don’t you think God would have indicated it for us? Saul’s servant likely had no idea of David’s anointment by God. It all happened by coincidence, right? I don’t think so!

v19-21: Saul called for David who entered into the King’s service.

v21-23: David became an armor–bearer and comforter for Saul. Very quickly, David went from caring sheep to king’s counselor! It was a miraculous transformation! How did it all happen? It was mainly God at work right? – not so fast!

But let us not miss the fact that people were involved. People could have messed up God’s plan: Samuel could have quit after seeing 7 capable sons passed by God; Jesse could have refused to send for David; David himself could have resisted the anointing; Saul’s counselors could have just kept quiet; Saul himself did not have to send for David; and again, David could have refused the military life from farm life; David was a content shepherd!

I believe we can sum it all up with this Biblical principle: God empowers & orchestrates; people are to participate! God is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow and God is still empowering and orchestrating for miraculous events in our lives; the question of course is are we truly participating?

Take some quiet personal time right now and ask, Lord, how are you orchestrating and empowering me in these areas of my life and what would you like me to do?

- personal life

- family

- church

- school or work

- others