Keeping the Anointing Behind Enemy Lines Series
Revoking the Anointing
Aug. 2, 2009 FBC, Chester Dr. Mike Fogerson, Speaker
Introduction
A Recently, a man was on his way to work and for NO apparent reason he just ran of the road, hit a tree, & died.
1 An autopsy showed no good reason why he’d ran off the road.
a A sharp doctor noticed a small pin prick behind his ear.
aa A Wasp.
bb The exact spot where the wasp stung was on a nerve that struck the driver with a flash of pain that literally blinded him.
b Usually a grown man could swat off a wasp, but this one the spot & destroyed him.
2 David stung Saul in the right spot, EGO, and it destroyed him.
a Saul was afraid of David, because the LORD was with David but had left Saul. I Sam. 18.12.
b You have the LORD with you too!!
aa 1 John 2.20 “You have an anointing from the holy one, and you all know.”
B Saul was Israel’s first human king.
1 Having a king wasn’t God’s idea or plan for Israel.
a Israel saw that surrounding kingdoms had kings, & their trusted leader Samuel was getting old. Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah;5 and they said to him, "Behold, you have grown old, and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now appoint a king for us to judge us like all the nations."6 But the thing was displeasing in the sight of Samuel when they said, "Give us a king to judge us." And Samuel prayed to the Lord.7 The Lord said to Samuel, "Listen to the voice of the people in regard to all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me from being king over them. 1 Sam 8:4-7 (NASB)
b God gave Israel their way & sent Saul. Now a day before Saul’s coming, the Lord had revealed this to Samuel saying,16 "About this time tomorrow I will send you a man from the land of Benjamin, and you shall anoint him to be prince over My people Israel; and he will deliver My people from the hand of the Philistines. For I have regarded My people, because their cry has come to Me." 1 Sam 9:15-16 (NASB)
2 Saul was a big man before he was ever king.
a 1 Sam. 10:23 tells us that he was 8-10" taller than his other countrymen. So they ran and took him from there, and when he stood among the people, he was taller than any of the people from his shoulders upward. 1 Sam 10:23 (NASB)
aa Literally head & shoulders above everyone else.
bb Age & appearance is not an indicator of spiritual maturity.
cc He was a midget compared to David or Jonathan (he lacked their spiritual maturity).
b Resulted in lack of confidence in himself & God.
aa Fuel his ego
bb Wanted people to fear him
c Saul’s big head cost him his kingdom, anointing, & eventually his life.
aa David’s coming on the scene didn’t create problems...it just revealed them.
bb People loved David, & for an unstable/insecure guy like Saul, David was a major problem.
cc ...being a double -minded man, unstable in all his ways. James 1:8 (NASB)
3 In 1 Samuel 13, Saul’s preparing to do battle with the Philistines & apparently Samuel told Saul, “Don’t go into battle until I can pray over you & offer a burnt offering. See you in seven days.”
a On the 7th day, no Samuel & the soldiers got restless. Saul took it upon himself to offer the burnt offering. He operated as a priest, outside of his anointing.
b Saul had no right to do this, had not asked God...didn’t know the will of God because he didn’t ask Him! ...therefore I said, ’Now the Philistines will come down against me at Gilgal, and I have not asked the favor of the Lord.’ So I forced myself and offered the burnt offering." 1 Sam 13:12 (NASB)
aa Samuel said to Saul, "You have acted foolishly; you have not kept the commandment of the Lord your God, which He commanded you, for now the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever.14 "But now your kingdom shall not endure. The Lord has sought out for Himself a man after His own heart, and the Lord has appointed him as ruler over His people, because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you." 1 Sam 13:13-14 (NASB)
bb Saul’s anointing is revoked (physically in the palace, he was spiritually behind enemy lines).
c This is the beginning of Saul’s decline, defeat, & ultimately his death.
aa Eventually fell out of fellowship with Samuel the prophet. Then Samuel went to Ramah, but Saul went up to his house at Gibeah of Saul.35 Samuel did not see Saul again until the day of his death; for Samuel grieved over Saul. And the Lord regretted that He had made Saul king over Israel. 1 Sam 15:34-35 (NASB)
bb Eventually fell out of fellowship with God’s people (ie. David)
cc Eventually fell out of fellowship with God. When Saul inquired of the Lord, the Lord did not answer him, either by dreams or by Urim or by prophets. 1 Sam 28:6 (NASB)
C Over the next 3 weeks we’re going to hear “Keeping the Anointing Behind Enemy Lines.”
1 Today, revoking the anointing (taken from you).
a Next week, relinquishing the anointing (giving up).
b 3rd week, recovering the anointing (getting it back).
2 We see these realities played out in the lives of Saul & David.
3 I pray over the next 3 weeks you’ll learn to discern when your anointing is under attack.
4 Pray
I When anointing is revoked, bearings are off.
A Saul didn’t listen to the words of Moses (Torah), Samuel, Jonathan, or David. Once he rejected God’s Word, the only voice left was that of the devil.
1 Days before his death, we find Saul face down in the house of a witch (one of the strangest nights in Scripture).
a He needed a word from God, & his buddy who could have helped him was gone (it’s sad when folks discover their real friends too late).
b He goes to a witch’s house, medium, hoping to get a word through Samuel.
c Saul had banished witches, sorcerers, & mediums before he turned his back on God.
2 Then Saul said to his servants, "Seek for me a woman who is a medium, that I may go to her and inquire of her." And his servants said to him, "Behold, there is a woman who is a medium at En-dor."8 Then Saul disguised himself by putting on other clothes, and went, he and two men with him, and they came to the woman by night; and he said, "Conjure up for me, please, and bring up for me whom I shall name to you."9 But the woman said to him, "Behold, you know what Saul has done, how he has cut off those who are mediums and spiritists from the land. Why are you then laying a snare for my life to bring about my death?"10 Saul vowed to her by the Lord, saying, "As the Lord lives, no punishment shall come upon you for this thing."11 Then the woman said, "Whom shall I bring up for you?" And he said, "Bring up Samuel for me."12 When the woman saw Samuel, she cried out with a loud voice; and the woman spoke to Saul, saying, "Why have you deceived me? For you are Saul."13 The king said to her, "Do not be afraid; but what do you see?" And the woman said to Saul, "I see a divine being coming up out of the earth."14 He said to her, "What is his form?" And she said, "An old man is coming up, and he is wrapped with a robe." And Saul knew that it was Samuel, and he bowed with his face to the ground and did homage.15 Then Samuel said to Saul, "Why have you disturbed me by bringing me up?" And Saul answered, "I am greatly distressed; for the Philistines are waging war against me, and God has departed from me and no longer answers me, either through prophets or by dreams; therefore I have called you, that you may make known to me what I should do."16 Samuel said, "Why then do you ask me, since the Lord has departed from you and has become your adversary?17 "The Lord has done accordingly as He spoke through me; for the Lord has torn the kingdom out of your hand and given it to your neighbor, to David.18 "As you did not obey the Lord and did not execute His fierce wrath on Amalek, so the Lord has done this thing to you this day.1 Sam 28:7-18 (NASB)
a This text is difficult because it deals with spirits of dead people, ghostly images, seances, speaking from the grave.
b It’s likely that...
aa Samuel came not because of the witch summoning him, but because God sent him.
bb God wouldn’t allow the devil to deliver this heavy of a message, nor would He give approval to a seance.
B When people who at one time experienced a closeness with God get away from Him, they act lost.
1 They start running with other people who are not close to God.
a Saul asked his “servants” about the witch. His bearings were off.
b He didn’t call Jonathan, David, righteous people, look to the Word.
c When your spiritual bearings are out of whack, you run with a different pack.
2 When you leave God you begin to embrace & engage in things that you were once removed from.
a Saul had turned out witches, then turned to one.
b Believers start doing things they KNOW are sinful.
II When your anointing is revoked, the end is never pretty.
A In 1 Samuel 15:1-3, Saul is told to go & utterly destroy all of the Amalekites. Then Samuel said to Saul, "The Lord sent me to anoint you as king over His people, over Israel; now therefore, listen to the words of the Lord.2 "Thus says the Lord of hosts, ’I will punish Amalek for what he did to Israel, how he set himself against him on the way while he was coming up from Egypt.3 ’Now go and strike Amalek and utterly destroy all that he has, and do not spare him; but put to death both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.’ " 1 Sam 15:1-3 (NASB)
1 These enemies had opposed God’s people since they left Egypt.
a The Amalekites didn’t have a country-nomadic, roamed around looking for a fight.
b "Remember what Amalek did to you along the way when you came out from Egypt,18 how he met you along the way and attacked among you all the stragglers at your rear when you were faint and weary; and he did not fear God.19 "Therefore it shall come about when the Lord your God has given you rest from all your surrounding enemies, in the land which the Lord your God gives you as an inheritance to possess , you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven; you must not forget. Deut 25:17-19 (NASB) Amalek attacked them when they were weary & hungry, weak while leaving Egypt.
c Not fair, right? The enemy doesn’t fight fair.
aa He looks for the weak, weary, worn, & attacks!
bb Saul is told to kill them all!
2 Disobediently, he refused to do it, & ultimately one of the men that should have been killed got him, instead.
a So David said to the young man who told him, "How do you know that Saul and his son Jonathan are dead?"6 The young man who told him said, "By chance I happened to be on Mount Gilboa, and behold, Saul was leaning on his spear. And behold, the chariots and the horsemen pursued him closely.7 "When he looked behind him, he saw me and called to me. And I said, ’Here I am.’8 "He said to me, ’Who are you?’ And I answered him, ’I am an Amalekite.’9 "Then he said to me, ’Please stand beside me and kill me, for agony has seized me because my life still lingers in me.’10 "So I stood beside him and killed him, because I knew that he could not live after he had fallen. And I took the crown which was on his head and the bracelet which was on his arm, and I have brought them here to my lord." 2 Sam 1:5-10 (NASB)
b Can you imagine Saul’s final thought? “I wish I would’ve killed you when I had the chance.”
c He chose his own path, so he died on his own sword.
B The sin we fail to deal with eventually causes our downfall.
1 Sin doesn’t come in sizes or colors.
a If we don’t deal with sin early on, completely & thoroughly, it will overtake us.
b Once sin gets a hold of you, you go from bad to worse.
2 You can’t tame sin, domesticate, or be friends with it.
a “I’ve got this under control. I’m on it.”
b Your sins will find you out.
c Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall. 1 Cor 10:12 (NASB)
C You can chose your sin, you can not chose your consequences.
1 Many years ago a small Jewish boy asked his father, "Why must we surrender our Jewish faith and start to attend Lutheran services here in Germany?
a The father replied, "Son, we must abandon our faith so that people will accept us and support our business adventures!"
b The young lad never got over his disappointment and bitterness. His faith in his father and in his religion were crushed.
aa When the lad left Germany he went to England to study at the British Museum where he formed his philosophies for life.
bb From those intensive investigations he wrote a book that changed the world called, "The Communist Manifesto. From that book one-third of the world fell under the spell of Marxist-Lenist ideology.
c The name of that little boy was Karl Marx.
aa He influenced billions into a stream that for 70 years ruined, imprisoned and confused many lives.
bb Today, that system of thinking is crumbling, but only after people got a good look at its tragic consequences.
d The influence of this father’s hypocrisy multiplied in infamy. Without godly faith, all of us are subject to distortions in our perspectives.
2 I’m sure Marx dad didn’t intend to release communism into the world, but he couldn’t chose his consequences, just his sin.
Conclusion
A Saul is one of Scripture’s greatest underachievers & biggest disappointments.
1 He was anointed, hand-picked by God to be king of Israel.
a Head & shoulders above his countrymen, access to God through the high priest Samuel, authority to wage war/tame territory.
b Instead of chasing the enemy, he chased David.
aa If Saul chased God like he chased David, his anointing wouldn’t have been revoked!
bb Saul’s given a chance to be restored & refuses.
cc I believe God would’ve helped Saul, just like He helped Moses, Joshua, & Gideon, but Saul chose to go his own way.
2 "Now therefore, please let my lord the king listen to the words of his servant. If the Lord has stirred you up against me, let Him accept an offering; but if it is men , cursed are they before the Lord, for they have driven me out today so that I would have no attachment with the inheritance of the Lord, saying, ’Go, serve other gods.’20 "Now then, do not let my blood fall to the ground away from the presence of the Lord; for the king of Israel has come out to search for a single flea, just as one hunts a partridge in the mountains."1 Sam 26:19-20 (NASB)
a “If God’s having you pursue me because of some sin in my life, then I’ll offer a sacrifice with you & settle this matter. But if men are cursing me, then you can be sure God will settle the matter for me.”
b Then Saul said, "I have sinned. Return, my son David, for I will not harm you again because my life was precious in your sight this day. Behold, I have played the fool and have committed a serious error." 1 Sam 26:21 (NASB) Saul gives an empty confession...it’s empty because there is no repentance. He’d been the fool!
aa He ran ahead of God
bb He failed to obey God & kill the Amalekites
cc He turned his back on godly friends (David & Samuel)
dd He sought guidance from the devil
ee He refused to repent, even when he knew he had done wrong
B Saul & Saul (centuries after King Saul died in the dust, another Saul of Tarsus emerges).
1 His name quickly changes to Paul (from the Latin “paulus”, which means “the small one”).
a To me, the very least of all saints , this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ...Eph 3:8 (NASB) Paul said he was “...less than the least of the saints.”
b Saul died by suicide on the battlefield, but his namesake died a martyr’s death outside the city of Rome.
c Before his death, he wrote to Timothy: I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith...2 Tim 4:7 (NASB)
2 Paul lost his life, but he never lost his anointing. Saul lost both.
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