Lightly edited for readability while preserving the speaker’s meaning and substantive statements.
Jesus. Praise you, Lord. We praise you this morning. God, that's our prayer this morning, God, that we would live and dwell and abide in the shadow of your wings, God. In your presence, Lord. In your favor. The Lord you said in the in the Gospel of John that we would have to abide in the vine. We'd have to remain there and dwell there and live there. Something we choose to do, God. You promised, God, that if we would obey you, God, that we would dwell that we would dwell in that secret place. Lord, we just praise you, Lord, for your presence, for your manifest presence. God, for everything that you have in your word that you want us to know and to experience. We praise you this morning. We thank you, Jesus, that you went to that cross and shed your blood to make it possible for us to enter into the Holy of Holies, to be in the presence of almighty God, to be washed and cleansed, to be made holy so that we could enter into that place. God, we want to stay in that place. We want to remain in that relationship with you. Father, we praise you this day. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen and amen. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. It's good, amen? I want everybody to take your Bibles. We're going to be in quite a few places, but I want you to take your Bibles this morning and turn into 1 Samuel chapter 24 to start with. I don't normally do things this way. I'm going to start with a verse and then we'll we'll work our way back to it. This is going to be part three of the series on rebellion and spiritual authority and understanding spiritual authority. If you're taking notes this morning, this is this is the title of the message this morning's called the Lord's anointed prophets, kings, and soldiers. The Lord's anointed. Now, the reason I I've called it that this morning is because this is straight from the scripture and uh this was actually King David before he was king speaking about King Saul while King Saul was chasing him in the wilderness and trying to kill him. And anyway, of course, King Saul um he ended up in the wilderness chasing David and David uh
could have killed him uh but he didn't and I'm just going to read verse six. We're going to come back to this in a minute, but this is what David said to his men. And remember, David had a a bunch of mighty men that were with him, many that had come to him that believed that Saul had lost the anointing and Saul was off and that David would one day be the the rightful king. And so there were many men and great men. We're going to look at some of them this morning, David's mighty men. Unbelievable men that were. But we're going to look this morning over the last couple of weeks I've talked about the some of the negative sides of how people resist or revile or deal with with spiritual authority, but you're going to see some this morning of the positive aspects of that. And really I'm going to show you something that the anointing of the Holy Spirit always flows in how you relate to the spiritual authorities and and the people that God has anointed and placed in in offices. How you how you relate to them is how what you're going to get from them. And the anointing always flows. I I I'll put it this way and I'll prove what I'm saying this morning. God calls. God calls, God ordains, but he always transfers his anointing through a man or a woman, through somebody to somebody else. He always confirms what he is doing on the earth through other people. Even in the life of Jesus, you guys have heard me talk about this that Jesus, you know, goes and he goes out into the wilderness. He's 40 days tempted of the devil. He's fasting and praying. It says he comes out of the wilderness in the power of the spirit, but where does he go? I'm sorry, even before that. Where does he go before he goes there? That's Matthew 4, Matthew 3. Where does Jesus go? First place he goes. I'm sorry, I need to back up. First place he goes is to John the Baptist. And the spirit of God was on John the Baptist. And John the Baptist represented that prophet who was to be the forerunner of Jesus. But it wasn't just that. Jesus comes to him and immediately John in the spirit recognizes that the Messiah, the lamb of God is standing in front of him. And Jesus has come there to be baptized of John, to submit to the anointing and ministry of John the Baptist. And John the Baptist goes, "Lord, you know, I have need to be baptized of you. You're greater than I am. Why are you coming to me?" And what did Jesus say? He said, "Suffer it to be so. Allow this to happen for this must be to fulfill all righteousness. What was Jesus telling him? This is God's order. I am first submitted to God and secondly I am submitted to God's authority where God is moving and whom God has called in
the earth and I am going to submit to that even before I begin my ministry. And later even when the Pharisees were arguing with Jesus, he asked them a question. He said, "I'll tell you what, I'm not even saying anything else till you answer me a question. The baptism of John, was it of men or was it from heaven?" The Pharisees were trapped. They were trapped. They said, "Well, if we say it's of men, everybody knew and recognized the power of God on John the Baptist and everybody knew he was a prophet. Even Herod knew he was a prophet." So, he said, "If we say he's of the devil and he's not a prophet, then the people will think we're crazy." He said, "But if we say he's from heaven, then he will say then Jesus will say, 'Why don't you believe me?' because John said who he was." You see? And even the Pharisees could not bump up against that spiritual order of the way God ordains his kingdom. So, Jesus submitted to it. Now, I'm going to read this verse here. Remember, King Saul was anointed to be king. And King Saul was anointed to be king, but then he began to rebel against the authority God put him under, which was Samuel. And so, we may we're going to back up and read that in a second, but I just want you to see this one verse. This was when David had been anointed to be the next king. There was trouble. David had to flee for his life and Saul became the schizophrenic believer that he was. Okay? Well, I'll tell you what, the story There are so many spiritual principles in this story about David and Saul that goes for many chapters of the Bible, it would do us well to learn them. Because this is a picture of two different Christians here. This is the picture of the Christian who persecutes the other Christian. This is the the the picture of a Christian who submits to spiritual authority and one that fights it. This is this the picture of a Christian who has had this the anointing of the Holy Spirit and is losing it because he is constantly disobedient. And the reason we're going to find out the reason that David was called a man after God's own heart was not because he was a perfect man, but because he understood this principle of authority in what I'm about to read to you right here. He knew he could not serve the Lord in a spirit of rebellion. So until God dealt with Saul, he wasn't going to deal with Saul. And here's what it says. Matter of fact, let's just read this whole thing. Verse one. And it came to pass when Saul was returned from following the Philistines that it was told him saying, "Behold, David is in the wilderness of En-gedi." Then Saul took 3,000 chosen men out of all Israel and went to seek David and his men upon the rocks of the wild goats. And he came to the sheep the sheep goats and by the way, where
was a cave and Saul went in to cover his feet. And David's said that And David and his men remained in the sides of the cave. And the men of David said unto him, "Behold, the day of which the Lord said unto you, behold, I will deliver your enemy into your hand that you may do to him as it shall seem good unto you." Then David arose and cut off the skirt of Saul's robe privily or secretly. And it came to pass that David's heart smote him because he had cut off Saul's skirt. And he said unto the men, "The Lord forbid that I should do this thing unto my master, the Lord's anointed, to stretch forth my hand against him, seeing he is the anointed of the Lord." So, David stayed his servants with these words and suffered them not to rise against Saul. But Saul rose up out of the cave and went on his way, and David also rose afterward and went out of the cave and cried after Saul, saying, "My lord the king." And when Saul looked on him, David stooped with his face to the earth and bowed himself. And David said to Saul, "Wherefore hearest thou the men's words, saying, 'Behold, David seeketh thy hurt.' Behold, this day thine eyes have seen how the Lord has delivered thee today into my hand in the cave, and some bade me to kill you, but my eyes spared you, and I said, 'I will not put forth my hand against the Lord, for he is the Lord's anointed. Moreover, my father, see ye the skirt of thy robe in my hand, for in that I cut off the skirt of thy robe and killed thee not, know thou and see that there is neither evil nor transgression in my hand. I have not sinned against you, yet you hunt my soul to take it. The Lord judge between me and thee, and the Lord avenge me of thee, but my hand shall not be upon you.' This is why David was a man after God's own heart. Remember this whole time been talking to you about the principle of rebellion. There are many people, remember the taco? There are many people, all right, who hide their rebellious nature, who hide their contempt for spiritual authority, who hide their disobedience and their rebellion in wrapped in religious facades, but it's there. Watchman in his book, Spiritual Authority, talks about it this way. He talks about He talks about standing with Christ in doctrine while at the same time standing with Satan in principle. And it's it's that way. You can be right in your doctrine. You can be right. You can even have word for your situation, but if you are in rebellion to spiritual authority or in disobedience to God, then it's that taco full of dog poop.
Right? It's standing with Jesus in doctrine while standing with Satan in principle, in the principle of rebellion. Okay? Now, David had every right here in the sense in the natural This man was hunting David to kill him. Saul had had gone crazy and lost the spirit of God. It said the spirit of God departed from Saul and an evil spirit troubled him. And Saul would go back and forth. And see, this is this is the craziness that can happen within Christianity. Is that you can go back and forth. If a person gets in disobedience and rebellion, they can go back and forth between the spirit of God and an evil spirit just back and forth. I've seen it so many times it just blows my mind. And this is what happened to Saul. One minute he was loving David. He was appreciating David playing the harp and making him feel better, and then the next minute he was throwing javelins at him and trying to kill him. Saul even got so crazy that when he found out Jonathan was friends with David, he tried to kill his own son with a javelin. Saul went on to kill 80 priests of the Lord. I mean, you can read this story. He would bounce back and forth. Then one time he's on his way to get David in another place. He's on his way to get David. He gets around a company of prophets. the spirit of God hits him, he falls on the ground and starts prophesying. See, here's what's so scary. You can have the gifts of the spirit and still be deceived. You can have the anointing and be the anointed of the Lord and be off in disobedience and rebellion. This is what's so frightening and this is what happened to Saul and David recognized it and David refused to follow that pattern. David knew if I put my hand on the Lord's anointed, I am going to teach my men the same rebellion and the same disregard for authority and the same issues that are in Saul. And if I'm going to be king and that's the call of my life and I'm going to be king, I want men who understand you respect authority, you honor authority, you respect God's anointed, you respect the anointing and call on someone's life. You respect that. You don't fight that. AND SO DAVID SAID, "My hand will not be upon him." He said, "God will deal with it." One day he will fall in battle or one day he will die of something else, but it won't be because of me. And the Lord looked at that. I'm telling you guys, the Lord looked down at David and just went, "Wow, I found a man after my own heart." And here's what's so amazing. You know, David knew David knew that he wouldn't be a perfect man when it came to being perfectly obedient or perfectly
moral or you know, he he knew he wouldn't be he knew he wouldn't be a perfect king when he became king, but he knew one thing. He wanted to train his men that even when an anointed called leader is not perfect, it still gives you no right to revile, resist, or fight them. That is God's business. If the church world would learn this, now granted, every pastor that's in a in a position in a pastorate, God didn't necessarily call him there. He may not even be anointed. He may just be a hireling. He may just decided when he was young that that's the job I'm going to take. I'm going to go to school like anything else and be a pastor like you decided to be a teacher or you decided to be, you know, an engineer or whatever. That's That's what a lot of them do. But, there's a difference between somebody who's just picked a profession and someone whom God has called and anointed and touched and filled by his spirit and the gifts of the spirit are flowing and the truth is going forth out of them. And this is what the church world, you know, we have we've made it excuses because so many leaders have fallen and so many leaders have messed up. We've made these excuses that we can just be rebels and not still not have to respect God's authority. But, let me tell you, these principles in the word of God, whether Old Testament or New, have not changed. Okay? Now, let me show you before we go in, let me show you the beginning of Saul's downfall. You're going to be amazed at this. Go back with me to 1 Samuel chapter 10. Everybody with me? 1 Samuel chapter 10. This is good stuff. We're going to learn about how the anointing flows, too. And this And what I'm preaching today, this is a Old Testament and New Testament principle, which tells me one thing, God hasn't changed his mind on the subject. Right? It's in both Testaments, we can pretty well go, guess what? It's established, right? Now, we don't have to have that cuz if it's in the Bible one time, it's established, but it's good to know God just gave it to us both places, right? First Samuel 10, I want you to see this. Samuel was the prophet of the Lord. That's why I'm calling this the Lord's anointed, prophets, kings, and soldiers. Hopefully, we'll get through all this. But, Samuel was the anointed, proven prophet in the land. From a child, God called him, God confirmed, his prophetic words came to pass, everybody recognized that Samuel was a true prophet, and it was the prophet's job to hear from God and to anoint and place kings in authority. Of course, in this situation, this was Israel's first king, and and God didn't want them to have a king, but they demanded their way, and God said, "I'm going to give you what you want, even though I don't want
it, but I'm going to give you what you want, and here's this what he's going to do to you." And it wasn't good, right? So, I'm going to give you what you want. So, he gave them a king, but to do that, he took the prophet, the one, the elder, the one in spiritual authority, the one in that office, and he took his oil. Now, remember, the spirit of God is upon Samuel. The oil just represents the anointing and the spirit of God on Samuel. Samuel is the elder. Samuel is the one hearing from the Lord. Samuel is the one giving words to Saul and has heard from God who's going to be king, and this is when he finally gets Saul, and he anoints him with the oil. Now, look at this. And Samuel took a vial of oil. This is uh 1 Samuel 10:1. Samuel took a vial of oil and poured it upon his head and kissed him, and said, "Is it not because the Lord has anointed thee to be captain over his inheritance?" So, I wanted you to see the moment Samuel anoints him. Was it just Saul and God alone? Nope. Nope. God had a job for Saul to do, but Saul had to submit to Samuel. Okay? Here's the sad thing about Saul's life. Saul started out humble. He started out humble. Even though it says he was taller than all the rest of the Israelites, he was also a handsome man, he was big, he was strong, he was he was impressive to look at. And it says though he hid himself when when Samuel called him to come out before all of He was humble. But it didn't take long for that to change. Saul becomes king. I mean, if you look over in chapter 10, I want you to see the spirit of God working. Look at verse 9. And it was so and this is after he left Samuel. It says, "And it was so that when he had turned his back to go from Samuel, God gave him another heart, and all those signs came to pass that day. When they came to the to the hill, behold, a company of prophets met him, and the spirit of God came upon him, and he prophesied among them. And it came to pass when all that knew him beforehand saw that, behold, he prophesied among the prophets, then the people said one to another, 'What is this that is come to the son of Kish? Is Saul also among the prophets?' So, the spirit of God had come on. So, and here's what's interesting. Saul was not called to be a prophet. He was called to be a king. But because Samuel had anointed him, the transference of that anointing gave him the gift of prophecy. Isn't that interesting? But the thing about Samuel that was different than Saul was Samuel was a prophet and a priest. This is This is very significant cuz here comes Saul's downfall. Let's go to chapter 13.
Saul and Jonathan his son had fought some battles and God was blessing them to take care of Israel's enemies. Things were going okay for a while with Saul. Y'all with me? First Samuel 13. It said that Saul verse one it said Saul reigned one year and when he had reigned two years over Israel Saul chose him 3,000 men of Israel where where of 2,000 were with Saul in in Michmash and the in Mount Bethel and 1,000 were with Jonathan in Gibeah and anyway they go to this battle. Now go down to verse six. I don't want to read the whole thing. It says that when the men of Israel saw that they were in a strait for the people were distressed and the people did hide themselves in caves and this there were they were sizing up to have a battle with the Philistines here and and the and again the Israelites were a little scared. But look what it comes to. And it says verse seven, and some of the Hebrews went over Jordan into the land of Gad and Gilead as for Saul he was yet in in Gilgal and all the people followed him trembling. They were terrified for some reason. And he tarried seven days. Now listen to this. He tarried or Saul waited seven days according to the set time that Samuel had appointed. So Samuel told Saul, you wait seven days, I'll be there in seven days, don't do a thing until I get there. Listen, Saul. Listen. He didn't. He got impatient. Look what happened. It says but Samuel came not to Gilgal and the people were scattered from him and Saul said, bring hither a burnt offering to me and a peace offering and he offered the burnt offering and it came to pass that as soon as he made an end of offering the burnt offering, behold Samuel came and Saul went out to meet him that he might salute him. And Samuel said, "What have you done?" And Saul said, "Because I saw that the people were scattered from me and that you came not within the days appointed and that the Philistines gathered together together at Michmash." And listen, all excuses for disobedience. Therefore said I, "The Philistines are come down now upon me to Gilgal and I have not made supplication unto the Lord. I forced myself therefore and offered a burnt offering." Listen to what Samuel said to him. And Samuel said to Saul, "You have done foolishly. You have not kept the commandment of the Lord thy God, which he commanded thee. For now would the Lord have established your kingdom upon Israel forever. But now your kingdom shall not continue. The Lord has sought him a man after his own heart
and the Lord hath commanded him to be captain over his people because you have not kept that which the Lord commanded." Now, I don't want to keep reading here, but the moment Saul gets impatient, sins, does not respect and obey his spiritual authority, which is interesting, the command came from Samuel, but what did God say? What did Samuel say? "You've disobeyed God." Right? Oh my lord. And God says, this is what blows me away. God said, "Had you obeyed, your kingdom would have been established forever." But the moment he got impatient and disobeyed, and the one of the reasons this was such a serious issue is because Saul was not a priest. He stepped out of his place into Samuel's place. Oh. See, isn't that what Miriam and Aaron did? They tried to step into Moses' place. The sons of Korah tried to step into Moses' place. The moment you do that I don't know how many people I'm telling you in churches all across America right now and across the world there are people sitting in the pew that think they can do a better job than their pastor's doing. Well, amigo, why don't you step up? You know what I'm saying? We'll find out. Right? But they're sitting there thinking that. There's young men sitting in the pews thinking because you know what? Maybe that pastor's a little old. Maybe he's going through a dry spell. Maybe he's struggling with something and there's young men sitting in there going, "I can do better than that old man." Yeah, you might for a day. You don't know what kind of strength that old man has from withstanding the battles of that of that office for all those years. How about this one that's out there gets out there in the pew? "I'm not getting fed anymore." No, maybe you're just not eating what's being fed. The devil brings up all kinds of little thoughts and that's what he did with Saul. Samuel's not here yet. But it's interesting, the moment he got done with the sacrifice that Samuel showed up on the day. He was just maybe a few hours late. But this disobedience and this is what's so frightening. Samuel looks at Saul and goes, "Saul, you're only being king for 2 years." He looks at Saul and goes, "God's rejected you and picked someone else." And yet God lets him be king for 38 more
years before he removes him. It's hard to fathom, isn't it? Here's what's even frightening. By the time David comes up and kills Goliath, we don't know how many years passed exactly, but David was a teenager. So, at this point David was probably around John's age. Maybe younger. God goes, "That one right there." Here's what's scary. Go over Go over to Samuel. Or Samuel 15. Well, not 15. I'm just going to tell you he This is when Samuel gives Saul another command to destroy the Amalekites and he doesn't do it. It's where we get the whole thing about to obey is better than sacrifice. You know, offering sacrifices when you're in disobedience is that taco. And he says it's witchcraft and it's rebellion and it's stubbornness. And this is when it had already been determined. It had already been determined about Saul, but this sealed the deal right here. Okay? Chapter 17. Oh, let's go on down. Let's see. This is when the Lord speaks to Samuel. I want to see where I want to start cuz I don't want to read too much here. I'm sorry. I'm ahead of myself. Chapter 16. That's what I was looking for. Look at verse 1. Jumping ahead of myself. You got with me? This is when it says in in verse 1, "And the Lord said unto Samuel, how long will you mourn for Saul, seeing I have rejected him from reigning over Israel? Fill your horn with oil, go and I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I have provided me a king among his sons." And then he says, "How shall I go? How can I go? If Saul hear it, he will kill me." And then the Lord gives him a way to do it, so he goes. I want you to to look over when he finally sees David come in. Go to verse 13. It says, "Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brethren." And the spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward. So, Samuel rose up and went to Ramah. But, look at verse 14. "But, the spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord troubled him."
Boy, boy. You know, I remember years ago hearing a preacher on TV. I can't remember now who it was. But, he said this, "The Holy Spirit will come in your life like a roaring lion." He said, "But, when he leaves, you may never know it." The spirit, the anointing left Saul, and an evil spirit came and troubled him. The anointing to be king now rested upon David. And then that's when we get into the story after the Saul becomes he's already troubled by an evil spirit then he becomes jealous of David. And then he begins to try to chase David and kill David. Now I want to show you something before we go any further. The anointing of God, like I said before, the the anointing of the Holy Spirit is always transferred through somebody else. We see Samuel transferring the anointing to Saul. We see Samuel transferring the anointing to David, right? That was order in the kingdom. Matter of fact, you can go down and see. You can see how there was transference between from the prophet, the leading prophet Elijah, to his successor Elisha. You see this with Moses. It said Moses laid hands on 70 elders of the congregation and the spirit of God, the anointing that was on Moses was transferred to those 70 elders. There's always a transference. God gives to men he's called and appointed, but then that spirit or that anointing is transferred to others. And one of the things, you either fight that anointing, you either fight that or you submit to it. That's fighting it right there. All right? Now let's go I want to I want to show you some of this in the New Testament. Go with me. Let's go to Timothy. First Timothy, chapter 1. I want you to see this principle in the New Testament. Because this is how the anointing flows. I'll tell you in my own life I remember when, you know, I had fellowshipped with with Gene May, who is clearly a New Testament prophet and teacher and pastor and operates in those in the fivefold ministry. And I really believe also the the the ministry of an apostle and evangelist. I I believe he walks in all five. And he and I had known each other since 1989 and we had talked about, you know, me being ordained by him and and me submitting to his ministry and becoming letting him become an elder in my life and and so we we prayed about it and this was in 1995 and he was busy doing other things. He knew God was going to have him do that, but he wasn't ready for that. And so
anyway, but finally we kept talking, kept fellowshipping and I still considered him that. But we made it official in 1999. He came to Montgomery, my church in Montgomery and and ordained me under his ministry and laid hands on me. And I can tell you this, I already operated in the gift of prophecy, word of knowledge, word of wisdom, uh discerning of spirits. I already operate and the call to be a prophet was already on my life. And I'd already operated in those gifts. But when I submitted to his ministry and when he laid hands on me and ordained me to the ministry, I saw an unbelievable increase in the gift and clarity of the gift of prophecy and the and the gifts of the Holy Spirit in my life. It was unreal. As a matter of fact, it used to freak me out. And still to this day, I've gotten a little more used to it. But I remember how back then I might have a word every once in a while for somebody, but after um that laying on of hands and that transference of that gift and submitting to that elder and that authority, it was unreal. I went to the um island of Mauritius. It was in 1999 that that we made the official ordination take place. In 2000, I went to the island of Mauritius to preach in five different Assembly of God churches there and I remember I didn't go there thinking that I would prophesy to one person. I was just going to preach and give altar calls for people to get saved and prodigals to come home and preach about revival and and so I got there the the main church had about 250-300 members or so packed out, you know, their their churches there had open windows and open doors and the people could sit even sit outside and power of God came down and I remember when I gave the altar call and people were coming up to get saved. Hindus were getting saved left and right that had never accepted Jesus before in their life even the first night. But after after I gave the altar call for salvation and prayed for people. I remember that night two four old ladies that had to be in their late 60s early 70s who were Hindus with the red dot never been born again came forward to get saved. I stepped down off the platform to pray for them. The power of God hit them. They hit the floor. They got up praising Jesus saved. I didn't even have to pray with them. They was like it was like Saul. They went down on the ground and they got up born again. It was a powerful time. But after I gave the altar call for salvation I gave the altar call for people who needed you know Christians who needed to repent who needed a refreshing. Started praying for people were hitting the floor all over the place. But God started giving me I mean it was unreal. These such specific words about them. One after the other after the other after the other to the point that the the the pastor and he's still a
friend of mine on Facebook Pastor Devon Rizzuto. He said to me he said I had no idea at the end of that first service he said I had no idea we invited a prophet here. Cuz he said he was a pastor he'd been pastor there for years he said you were reading everybody's mail to the letter. And I didn't go there even thinking I was going to prophesy to anybody. So, I saw a great increase in my life and it and it and and the increase in my taught me more about it and taught me more how to flow in it. So, it it was a wonderful time, but I want you to see what Paul says about this. 1 Timothy chapter 1. Are you with me? I'm sorry. Did I say chapter 1? I meant chapter 4. This was Paul's instructions. He just giving him some Timothy who was a young pastor and Timothy had submitted under Paul's ministry and Paul's authority. He says, "These things verse 11, these things command and teach. Let no man despise your youth, but be an example of the believers in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity. Till I come, give attention to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine." And look what he says, "Neglect not the gift that is in you, which was given you by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery or the elders." Now, wait a minute. I thought I can be an independent agent and get everything I need by myself. No. That is not biblical, never has been biblical. I mean, I got people that I thank God that the Holy Ghost speaks to me and I don't need anybody else. Well, I hope he speaks to you, but if you keep that attitude, you're going to start hearing a deceiving spirit. Because God always uses other people. The multitude of counselors there is safety, all right? Always. He never disregards his pattern, okay? But I love this, "Neglect not the gift." That is the Greek word charisma, the anointed miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit that were given you by someone prophesying over you and the elders, the presbytery, a group of elders laying hands on you. Everybody see that? See, it just flies in the face of most of the denominational church world. What? God can transfer the anointing and the gifts of the Spirit in me into you? Yes. It's the way it works. All right? Let's go to Let's go to 2 Timothy. I meant 2 Timothy chapter 1. That's why I was getting messed up there. Paul tells Timothy really he was being nice in 1 Timothy saying that it was given you by prophecy and the laying on of hands of the elders, but he gets a
little more specific about what elder really imparted to him. Are you with me? 2 Timothy chapter 1 Let's just read verse 3. He said, "I thank God whom I serve for my forefathers with a pure conscience that without ceasing I have remembrance of you in my prayers night and day, greatly desiring to see you and being mindful of your tears that I may be filled with joy." He says, "When I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in you, which dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am persuaded it is in you also." So, he talks about here's an anointing and gifts. He's talking about transferred generationally. Then he goes into this. He says, "Wherefore I put you in remembrance that you stir up the gift of God which is in thee by the putting on of my hands." Are you seeing that? So, Paul says, "Stir up the gift of God that's in you what? By you and the Holy Ghost being alone? No. By what? The laying on of hands. It's It's amazing. Go with me. You can go to Romans. Go to Romans chapter 1. Y'all don't mind learning a little bit this morning, do you? Romans 1. Now, Paul had started the church in Rome by being a under house arrest in Caesar's household. To the point they finally gave him a house to live in on his own, and he brought people in there, and Paul established the church. Right? So, he was writing to this church. Romans 1, let's go down to verse Oh, let's see. Well, we'll start reading from verse 8. He says, "First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world. For God is my witness whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his son that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers, making request if by any means now at length I might have a prosperous journey by the will of God to come to you. For I long to see you that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift to the end you may be established." So, do you see that? Paul told them, "I hope that God will give me the opportunity to have a prosperous journey to Rome again so that I can lay hands on you and impart to you some spiritual gift that you may be established." Well, wait a minute. Couldn't they just
get that on their own with Jesus and prayer and fasting? Can God do that? Of course, he can. Why does God show us these things in the scriptures that God uses other men and other women to minister to us, to impart to us the Holy Spirit, to impart to us a fresh anointing, to impart to us spiritual gifts? Why? Because God's principle of respecting God's established and established authority and elders in the kingdom, he has not changed his mind from the Old Testament to the new. Right? Even Paul. Now, I'm not going to I'm not going to read this, but even Paul, you can go to Acts 9. Stay with me. Y'all stay with me. You'll We're learning something today. You can go to Acts chapter 9 and you can see everybody's read where Saul of Tarsus, where Saul got saved on the road to Damascus. The light shown from heaven knocked him down to the ground. "Who are you, Lord?" "I'm Jesus whom you persecute." He was He was saved. It was a sovereign act of God. He said to Saul, "You are chosen vessel unto me." So, God made it known to him, "I have saved you. I am Jesus. I have saved you. I have called you. You will be a vessel to me." And he And so, Paul was sovereignly touched by God. But, what is Jesus telling him to do? Go into the city and wait. And Paul goes into the city blinded by that light that he saw, blinded and has to sit there and wait for a brother named Ananias. And he said, "I'm going to send the man named Ananias to lay hands on you that you might receive the Holy Ghost and receive your sight." Now, why didn't God just do it sovereignly? Why didn't God just say, "Saul, I knocked you on the ground and I saved you. Now, I'm going to fill you with the Holy Ghost. I'm going to give you sight back. Why was it just all Paul and the Lord? Because God wanted to teach Paul in the beginning, you are not an island to yourself. You will have to learn to submit to other brothers and sisters who are elders have been saved longer than you, who are in offices higher than you, and you will have to learn to submit to them and learn from them and listen to them and respect them or else you're going to be in trouble. So, immediately God teaches him that lesson immediately. Now, it wasn't so hard for a Jew like like Saul because he understood the Sanhedrin principle and he had been taught under Gamaliel and he had respected his leaders in the Sanhedrin. So, he understood this is a principle of God, respecting authority and teachers. So, what happens after this? Does Saul become an apostle and immediately go out planting churches? No, he does not. Now, God Paul was a
special case because he was going to be the apostle to the Gentiles. So, God takes him out into the wilderness of Arabia for 3 years, gives him divine revelation of the gospel, but then he comes back and Paul submits to the church at Antioch. And it says, if you read Acts 13, that he submitted to the pastors and the prophets and the elders at the church of Antioch for quite some season. And it says there were many prophets and teachers and it lists a bunch of people and then it lists Saul last, Paul last. Okay? But, when the Holy Ghost decided it was time for Barnabas and Paul to go out from that church and become apostles. They weren't apostles yet. But when the elders of the church prayed and fasted and said and when they laid hands on them, they sent them forth. And that was when the first time you see Paul referred to as an apostle. And here's what's interesting. Barnabas was always referred to first than Paul. Until much later when they parted company. Okay? Here is the point. Even Paul was submitted. When Paul goes Acts 15, see I'm just moving through Acts. Acts 15, when they have the council at Jerusalem about the questions of the Gentiles, and I mentioned this a couple of weeks ago, I think. But when they made this mention, Paul Paul just got up and shared what God had done with him. Peter got up and shared what God had done with him. But you know who made the final authority? The final decision, who was the final authority? James. So James was the head of the apostles even. Not I mean it's hard for us to fathom. Not even Not John the beloved. Not Paul who wrote half the New Testament. Not Peter. James. I don't know. Maybe Jesus didn't let Peter and John be the uh the head apostles in Jerusalem because they had won the argument about who was going to be the greatest. Maybe they won the argument. Well, I'm the one that's always laying on his chest. He likes me the most. You know? Well, I'm the one who changed my name to He changed my name. I'm a stone. I'm a rock. All right. And James might have just been sitting over there being quiet and the Lord thought, yep, he's the one.
I have to keep these two under a little bit of control. A little bit of humility. All right. Now, let's go back. I want you to go to 1 Samuel. I'm sorry. Not 1 Samuel. Go with me to 2 Samuel. 2 Samuel 23. I can give so many New Testament examples of the transference of the anointing from five-fold ministry and elders to others. Everybody in 2 Samuel with me? Do you want the anointing? Do you want to increase the anointing? You want to increase the gifts? This is a principle that has to be in your heart. It was in David's heart. And he was blessed even though he wasn't perfect. Here we go. Now, what did I say? The The title of this message is the Lord's anointed prophets, kings, and soldiers. Within the five-fold ministry, there's order. Apostles first, prophets after that, teachers or pastors, evangelists, gifts of healing, it goes down the line. So, within the five-fold ministry, there's order. Then within the church, you break that down and you got elders, and then you have deacons. Some elders are fivefold ministry, some are not fivefold ministry and they're still elders. We may deal with all that here very soon. But even within leadership, so that's why even in the Old Testament you get the picture of prophets and kings and priests. Those were offices of ministry. But I want to show you something else. Not everyone's called to the fivefold ministry or an office ministry. That's okay. Cuz you got to do what you got to do, but they're soldiers. So even if you're a soldier, you're just a foot soldier in this army. You still need this in your heart. Now remember me talking about earlier that David spent a lot of time training his men. I will not put forth my hand on the Lord's anointed. I will not sow into you a rebellious spirit or a spirit that that is defiant or independent. I'm not going to sow that spirit into my Why? Cuz David knew he would get it back. Let's just read. David had some men. They were called his mighty men. Right? You need to understand the breakdown. There were 37 of them in total. Okay? And there was the chief three. And I love their names. The Tachmonite.
Eleazar the son of Dodo the Ahohite. Shammah the Hittite. You recognizing something here? A lot of them weren't Jews. But they had left their heathen gods. They had forsaken their own country and their own land. And they had recognized this anointing on David and they fully submitted themselves to him, and they loved him, and they respected him. I want to show you the level of both how David's men felt about him and how he felt about them. Because this is really how it's supposed to work. All right? Let's read this. I'm going to read some of this just for fun, if y'all don't mind. Second Samuel, did I tell you 23? Now, this is This is the account here. This is called David's last words. Many of you know a man's dying, his last words are pretty important. Especially a godly man who was a prophet, a priest, and a king. This is David's last words. Let's read some of this. Now, these be the last words of David. David, the son of Jesse, said, "The man who was raised up on high, the anointed of God of the God of Jacob, the sweet psalmist of Israel, the spirit of the Lord spake by me, and his word was in my tongue. The God of Israel said, 'The rock of Israel spake to me. He that ruleth over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God. He shall be as the light of the morning when the sun arises, even a morning without clouds, as the tender grass springing up out of the earth by a clear shining after the rain.' He says, 'Although my house be not so with God, yet he has made me an everlasting covenant.' Now, David here is talking about, you know, what had happened. David committed adultery, David killed Uriah the Hittite, David did some things that were wrong, and he says, "You know what? My house hadn't been perfect, and yet God still promised him, 'From you will come the Messiah. Your house will be forever.'" So, David wasn't perfect, but I'm telling you, it's because of this mentality that he had. This being quick to repent when he did sin and respecting God's authority even when Absalom overthrew the throne, threw him out of his palace, overthrew the kingdom, took the throne by force, David told his men, "Don't put your hands on him. Maybe God's put him in his place. And if God sees fit, if I am the one, God will bring me back." Amazing humility, amazing
restraint. I Again, I am fascinated. I have been my whole Christian life with these stories of David and Saul. Are you with me? Let's read. Let's skip down to verse 8. These are the mighty men. I'm going to do my best with these names. These be the names of the mighty men whom David had. The Tachmonite that sat in the seat, chief among the captains. The same was Adino the Eznite. He lifted up his spear against 800 whom he slew at one at one time. See, these were men, listen to me, y'all. These were men who had the anointing and spirit of God upon them to do supernatural acts. Kill a one man kill 800 men without a gun? This is a supernatural This is the anointing the type of anointing that was on Samuel I mean on on um Samson. And where did they get it from though? Where did David's men get the anointing to do these things? From the giant killer himself. WHO GOT THE anointing from Samuel. You see what I'm saying? It's a beautiful process of how God moves the anointing down. So, it says the Tachmonite, he could kill he killed 800 men at one time. And after him was Eleazar, the son of Dodo the Ahohite, one of the three mighty men. And when he uh when they defied the Philistines that they were to gather together to battle, and the men of Israel were gone away. Everybody ran away. And he arose and smote the Philistines until his hand was weary, and his hand cleaved to the sword, and the Lord wrought a great victory that day, and the people returned after him to spoil. So, everybody got scared and ran away, and this guy stood there and fought them all and saved. And won. Until he had he had gripped the sword so long he couldn't turn loose of it. Well, that's the way we got to be in a fight. Hold on to this sword. Hold on to this word and not give up until we get the victory. Amen? Let's keep reading. Then there was Shammah, verse 11, Shammah, the son of Agee the Hararite. And the Philistines were gathered together into a troop. And there was a piece of ground full of lentils, and the people fled from the Philistines, but he stood in the midst of the ground and defended it, and slew the Philistines, and the Lord wrought a great victory. Now, here's a guy that wouldn't even going to let the Philistines have a little pea patch. No. You're not getting it. Everybody ran away. He stands there and defends a little pea patch. You know why? Cuz it's going to feed somebody. And you know what? People can ridicule. I'm going to say this just for some folks that may listen. Some people may ridicule the size of our church because it's small, and we've stayed small these few years, but I don't care. It's the Lord's pea
patch. Amen? And it's feeding somebody. That's right. AND I'M GOING TO FIGHT for it. That's right. So, what? Cuz we have some unfriendlies that listen to these podcasts. All right? Trust me, I know. I like our little pea patch. And you know something about seed? You get one little pea patch, next time you got more seed. Pea patch going to get bigger. Amen. Feed a lot of people. But let me show you what I want to get to. These are These were men that had the anointing on them. Most of them were were not Jews by nature, but they had totally converted and under David's leadership. And there was even order among them. But listen to this. And the three, this is verse 13, and three of the 30 chief went down and came to David in the harvest time unto the cave of Adullam. And the troop of the Philistines pitched in the valley of Rephaim, Rephaim. And David was in then in the a hold in the garrison of the Philistines that was in Bethlehem. So the the Let me word this. The Philistines had a garrison, basically a fort guarding Bethlehem. This is David's hometown. Okay? Not he wasn't happy about this. But they're in the heat of battle. And it says it in the heat of the battle, it said, verse 15, and David longed and said, "Oh, that one would give me to drink of the water of the well of Bethlehem, which is by the gate." Now, David just, you know, in the midst of a battle, and listen, I've been in Israel, I spent a month there, you get thirsty, don't you, Marlene? It's something about the air, it's dry, and it's a constant film of dust in the in the air. It's a desert. It's arid. And and I remember just understanding thirst when I was there. All right? So I can imagine David in the midst of a battle, in the midst of fighting the Philistines, in the midst of commanding his armies, his men, he's like, "Oh God, that I could have a drink of water from from my hometown, from that cool well." He just makes a whim. He doesn't order anybody. It's just a whim that comes out of his mouth. These men loved him so and were so loyal to him. Look what they did. And the three mighty men broke through the host of the Philistines and drew water out of the well of Bethlehem that was by the gate and took it and brought it to David. They fought. These three men, three men. They've been in battle with these Philistines for God knows how long. All of a sudden, these three men go, "My king wants a drink of water from his
well. Let's go get it." We just don't even have that concept of honoring one another and honoring our leaders. We don't have that concept because it's an American mentality. No, those dirty rascals, whoever's in authority, something must be wrong with them. Some of them are. Some of them aren't. Right? Shoo. Come on with me. Yeah. But look what happens. David, oh, here here here's the other side. They brought David this water from the well. And it says verse 16, "Nevertheless, he would not drink thereof, but poured it out to the Lord." Oh, here we go. And he said, "Be it far from me, oh Lord, that I should do this. Is this not the blood of the men that went in jeopardy of their lives? Therefore, he would not drink it." These things did these three mighty men. See, here's the thing. David was blown away that these men would risk their lives to get him a cup of water. And because he respected, he saw how they loved him and respected his authority and the anointing on his life and his leadership, he refused to abuse it. Trust me, you guys, there's a lot of things that I could say to y'all that I don't. Because I don't want to abuse my authority and my influence in the Lord. We have to be careful. Am I always going to do everything right as a pastor or as a minister or a prophet? No, I'm not going to do everything right. How many of you know the times that I don't do something right may just be a test for you to see how you're going to respond. But that goes for in the home with the husband or in the school with the teacher or even with the police officer on the road. Hey, you may not have done what he said, but you know what? You don't talk to him like a dog. You know, the fastest way I've seen to get out of a ticket Yeah, is to say, "I was wrong. I deserve it. I'm sorry. Forgive me." I told one cop one day, "I didn't really think I ran the red light. I thought I went through it yellow, but he was determined that I ran the red light." He pulled me over. I was in a hurry. I was late for an important appointment, and I was like
I said, "Okay. I said, I know. I know. I said, I shouldn't have gone through it. I know, go ahead and write me the ticket." He said, "Hey, hey, hey, I'm not writing you a ticket." I He said, "I didn't say I was writing you a ticket." But see, I was ready to take my what I deserve. I said, "You're right, you know." I said, "Please, you know, I will write the ticket. I'll take it." He's like, "Hey, I didn't say I was writing you a ticket." He didn't. And then I apologized. I said, "I'm just in a hurry to get to an appointment, and I've had a bad day already." And he goes, "I understand. Slow down." But just respecting that authority. I want y'all to know, as a pastor, as uh a prophet, as a having gifts of the spirit, where I try to I all my life tried very hard not to abuse that or control people's lives in any way. That's not my goal. But it doesn't change when I'm supposed to give you counsel or when I'm supposed to really get forceful about something. There will be times. I say that. But I want there to be between all of us. And you know, and this goes Bill, you're in you you go to another church. Same thing at your church. I know you've had issues there, you know, with authorities doing things they shouldn't do, and and and God's working that out, working showing you how to deal with that. These issues will never go away. They will constantly come up in the home, at school, children with your parents, with your pastor, with other leaders. The question is, will you be like David's mighty men? Or will you end up being like his sons who did not respect his authority and tried to overthrow him and tore up his house? Will you be like Saul and become a schizophrenic Christian who one day loves David, next day hates David, love David, hate David, love David, hate David? God doesn't want us like that, does he? Can I say this? If you're double-hearted, double-minded you find yourself one day saying, "Boy, this guy's anointed." And the next day saying, "No, he's not. Yes, he is. No, he's not. Yes, he is. No, he's not." There's a problem in you. Somebody's disobeyed somewhere. What got Saul in trouble?
Disobedience. Spirit of God leaving him. Right? All right. I want to close with this thought. The anointing and just you just write this down. The anointing of the Holy Spirit will either increase in you or decrease by your obedience or disobedience to God and his delegated authority. David knew this. Why did David cry out in Psalm 51? What did he cry out? He's crying out for forgiveness, but what else? Cast me not away from your presence and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Why did he cry that out? Why was that a fear of his? Why did he know that God would do it? Because he saw it happen to Saul. Matter of fact, when David wrote about Saul after his death, it says this, it was as though he had not been anointed. The way he died. The way Saul's life ended, going to a witch, God not talking to him anymore, and then being killed by an enemy. See what I'm saying? And he said Saul and and David mourned when when he found out Jonathan and Saul were dead. He mourned. And he said, "Oh, how the mighty have fallen." It was as though they had not been anointed. David found a way to maintain his anointing and his place with God, and Saul lost it. We will all end up like one of them. You hear me? We will end up like David or we will end up like Saul. It is a fact. It would do you good to go and read these stories
and let God speak to you about things in your life. Amen. Let's pray. Thank you, Jesus. Lord, I thank you, God, for your grace to delve into these subjects, God, on rebellion, offense, disrespect and disregard for authority, God's schizophrenic Christianity, compromising Christianity. Lord, help us all, God, to submit to your word and to those you bring into our lives, God, as ministers and counselors. God, help us to not be deceived like Saul was. Help us to not lose the anointing like Samson and Saul did. God, we want to increase in the power of the Holy Spirit, in the anointing of God, in the plan that you have for us. We thank you, Lord. We thank you for Fire and Grace Church, this little pea patch we have. God, we're going to choose to fight for it and stand our ground and press forward that we may feed some people who need who need the food from this little pea patch. We ask you to bless your people here, God, that are faithful that have been faithful who have been loyal to both Nancy and I who have been loyal to each other and love each other. Lord we ask you God to completely root out any seed of division, any seed of rebellion, any seed of disrespect in any of us. Lord root it out. Change us that we may grow in the anointing and power of the Holy Spirit. How does in Jesus' name we pray? Amen.