Friday 15 January 2016

How God tests Saul, even softened ones

Many people may find this form of test hard to take. It was put in the Bible for us to learn some of the subtleties of flesh and spirit.  This is the relationship of Samuel with Saul and concerns only seven days between chapter 10 and 13. Now Saul reigned 42 years ( *1 Sam13.1) but it was all over in virtually 7 days in terms of anointing and choosing. That should pierce us to the heart.
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1 Samuel 10:8 And you shall go down before me to Gilgal; and behold, I will come down to you to offer burnt offerings and sacrifice peace offerings. You shall wait seven days until I come to you and show you what you should do.”
1 Samuel 11.14 -15 Then Samuel said to the people, “Come and let us go to Gilgal and renew the kingdom there.” 15 So all the people went to Gilgal, and there they made Saul king before the Lord in Gilgal. There they also offered sacrifices of peace offerings before the Lord; and there Saul and all the men of Israel rejoiced greatly.
1 Samuel 13:5 Now the Philistines assembled to fight with Israel, 30,000 chariots and 6,000 horsemen, and people like the sand which is on the seashore in abundance; and they came up and camped in Michmash, east of Beth-aven. 6 When the men of Israel saw that they were in a strait (for the people were hard-pressed), then the people hid themselves in caves, in thickets, in cliffs, in cellars, and in pits. 7 Also some of the Hebrews crossed the Jordan into the land of Gad and Gilead. But as for Saul, he was still in Gilgal, and all the people followed him trembling.

8 Now he waited seven days, according to the appointed time set by Samuel, but Samuel did not come to Gilgal; and the people were scattering from him. 9 So Saul said, “Bring to me the burnt offering and the peace offerings.” And he offered the burnt offering. 10 As soon as he finished offering the burnt offering, behold, Samuel came; and Saul went out to meet him and to [e]greet him. 11 But Samuel said, “What have you done?” And Saul said, “Because I saw that the people were scattering from me, and that you did not come within the appointed days, and that the Philistines were assembling at Michmash, 12 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.” 13 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 [f]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.”

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Here's what happened in Havant Church with Peter Stott. Around 1995 he had cancer of the bowel. He was close to death. God raised him but during that time, which was also Toronto.....God brought Peter into a whole new realm of intimacy. Peter then began seeing that his ministry style had to change from pastor pyramid to a much more Spirit led format. He softened the structure and appointed others to have far more hands on control in things but also training them in sensitivity in meetings. There was another strong wave of anointing. Around this time Graham Cooke who was still moving with Peter in the UK in prophets conferences came to the church before I was there and just spoke this sentence...... Moses my servant is dead. The Spirit swept through the meeting and everyone laughed in a Toronto kind of way. Right at that moment it was like the start of the Spirits work to sweep away lawbased Christianity and with it the rigid pyramid architecture. Now prophets are anointed to do stuff like this by saying one sentence. Even at the time you would be hard pressed to articulate what was going on because the Spirit is doing it all and at a simple surface level it just looks like people laughing. But this is how God's real stuff works. He operates way above the understanding of human wisdom. So this marked a major shake up in the church. I was like a test for them. Bringing me in in 2000 God even prepared the way for them by telling them somebody would come from London. I did come.from London but via Emsworth.....so this was a similar thing to those who expected the Messiah from out of Egypt. Jesus did come.from out of Egypt. Now I wasn't a messiah but I did have a thirdlevel anointing to begin sharing the thirdlevel. I never had the full Jesus treatment that I did in Emsworth where they physically carted me away in 1988.......this was already after the Toronto wave.....so they were that much further in the Spirit. But still, somewhat scaled.down, I had the same treatment I received at Emsworth. In a brethren based church they operate from the scripture about first one person, then several people then as a church you are disciplined. So I had to meet with Peter and the elders in a backroom midweek meeting with them to be told that I could no longer speak publicly. This was around 4 years ago. For disciplines sake I went there for a few months and did just that but after prophecy was not even being heard....( strangely they allowed this.....Perhaps because one of my words named the church in the Spirit as the turn around church) I was encouraged by others on here to leave. So I am telling you this anecdote to explain that God is not messing with our generation. When He speaks by the Spirit to us in how He runs His church as he did direct with Peter during his time with bowel cancer.......He then follows through with tests to see if we will recognise someone moving in humility. Because this new order of leadership isn't like Saul......it is a David leadership from a psalm 51 heart.
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A similar sort of thing is happening in all our relationships.   Can we walk together in Light or do we force ourselves.

Even more bizarre is when two prophetic types get together over tea and biscuits in 1 Kings 13   (Both Peter and I by the way are prophetic types. )

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