Read part 1 here. Read part 2 here.
After Saul’s exposure at Gilgal and his removal from the kingship, Saul’s life fell into a steep decline. We see that “the Spirit of Jehovah departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from Jehovah terrorized him” (1 Sam. 16:14). This Spirit of Jehovah was the Spirit that once rushed upon the anointed one and gave Saul utterance and power (10:6-7, 10). When the Spirit of God “rushed” upon Saul, it gave him words to speak. When there is a way in us for God to accomplish His will, there is a supply of speaking from Him. This speaking, God’s words, is the foundation and the establishment of God’s kingdom. It carries the authority and the reigning in the administration of God’s governing. The word is how we know that the Spirit of God is with us. But when Saul rejected the Lord’s word and thereby rejected the kingdom administration of God’s eternal economy, the Spirit of God left him, and so did the kingdom and the reigning. Saul’s actions were seemingly only minor errors, but by nature they were critical; they were against the administration of God, hindering the way for His dispensational move.
Against God’s administration
For rebellion is like the sin of divination, / And insubordination is like idolatry and teraphim. / Because you have rejected the word of Jehovah, / He has also rejected you from being king. (15:23)
When the Spirit of God moved on from Saul to David, immediately Saul’s life went from a promising beginning to a cursed and darkened ending. Now, instead of the Spirit of God rushing upon Saul, an evil spirit terrorized him. This evil spirit is the manifestation of the departure from God’s word; it is a curse from Jehovah, but it is also the true condition of Saul manifested before our eyes. Saul did not lose the kingship because he failed to completely follow through with God’s command to slaughter the Amalekites, or even because he lied, reasoned, and argued. Saul committed a much greater sin than that. He lost the kingship — and any connection to the kingdom of God — because he violated the governmental authority of God through idol worship.
To worship idols is the ultimate opposition to God’s economy. Anyone who wants to be reigning in life needs to remove their idols. Samuel discerned Saul had an idol inside of him (v. 23). That idol let him co-exist with the enemies who occupy the good land; it caused him to become mixed, and to reject God’s words. God’s house only has one value — one standard. Anything that comes in that is not of that nature is divisive and fatal. In God’s eyes, what Saul did was unforgivable, and exposed him as being a rebel against God — an enemy of God; by holding onto something else in his flesh, what he did was as evil as contacting an evil spirit and doing its intentions rather than God’s (v. 23, footnote 1). As a result, Saul had no way to reign and no way to have a portion in the kingdom. He failed to be a true king by failing to recognize God’s administration; any person who doesn’t recognize the authority — the word — of God has no way to exercise authority.
In us — in our church life — there can be no coexisting of God and idols; Exodus 20 says, “You shall have no other gods before Me. / You shall not make for yourself an idol…” (vv. 22-23). If anything other than the One exists in us, that is an idol, and it is against God’s economy. Idols are not just physical figures or outwardly sinful things; worshiping idols can be very subtle. When we pity and comfort ourselves, or endorse our own desires — in other words, when we preserve any part of the flesh, good or bad — it is self worship. In this condition, we are noisy with the bleating and the lowing; the flesh is loud in us. But the Lord says, “Kill them all.”
The “Saul” life among us
Saul is not far away from us; he’s in our church life, and he’s in us. The consequences of living a “Saul” life are severe and sure. If the Spirit of Jehovah could depart from Saul — one chosen and anointed by God Himself to be king over Israel — and an evil spirit could come in its place to terrorize him, don’t you think this could be us? We might think our murmurings or subtle opinions are small, but to God, this kind of attitude is a telltale of a much deeper sin, and rejects the issues of His administration. We see the severity of Saul’s violation, but can we see and confess the same condition in ourselves? What has been preventing us from reigning and enjoying the kingdom? Sin, demons, the world are waiting to overpower us; they are like the unclean spirit that roams and seeks rest in anyone who is unoccupied, bringing seven more unclean spirits alongside (Matt. 12:43-45). They bring with them weakness, sickness, failure, frustration, fear, and restlessness. Who are the unoccupied ones? They are those who are without government, administration, management, or supply from God. If we don’t have God, we are one with the evil generation (v. 45; Gal 1:4).
In today’s church life, sometimes we are too comfortable, and we don’t realize the evil spirit is among us. Actually, the Lord allows the evil spirit to be with us — Jehovah Himself sent the evil spirit to Saul! If in the church life, there is an absence of this reigning condition, there is surely an undercurrent of doubting, resisting, and rejecting. Outwardly, we may all be in agreement, and yet inside we harbor jealousy, competition, murmuring, complaints, and reasoning. These things will cause us to dwell in our failures and stop us from growing — they prevent us from exercising an overcoming and reigning life. Eventually, the Spirit of Jehovah will leave the ones who remain in this condition. Even worse, we may still be “in” the church life, yet be living without the Spirit, instead allowing an evil spirit to subtly live among us. During the church meetings, we might appear humble, but when the meeting is over, we only care about our own living — our own family, our own career, or our own tasks. We may welcome blessings, but when judgment and the word comes, we do not see that as the Lord’s governmental hand. We may be bothered by very small, irrational things; even a saint’s way of speaking or dealing with us becomes a huge obstacle to us — a heavy stone we cannot bear. When we are touched by other saints or feel we are misunderstood, we are easily irritated and filled with opinions. When we encounter a little difficulty, suddenly we all become blind, deaf, and dumb, losing all our faith in the Lord. In this condition, we are like the seven nations, who occupied the good land but manifested a value entirely against God’s economy (Deut. 7:1).
Many saints are in this kind of “hibernating” condition today; in other words, we are in the church life, but we don’t use our spirit, and as a result, we are not functioning as part of this vital body life. If that is the case, how can we have a church life? How can we have salvation? Such ones can never understand the mercy that is at the foundation of First Samuel, forming Samuel’s unique serving life. They do not see that mercy is better than sacrifice: “But go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice,’ for I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners” (Matt. 9:13). Behind this foreground of God’s mercy, the backdrop is dark: “There is none righteous, not even one” (Rom. 3:10). The Lord came not for the righteous. But many believers — especially the ones with good outward, promising appearances — easily “check out” or go into hibernation because they don’t think they need mercy as their salvation. There is a subtle refusal to confess their sin and unrighteousness. If we have this attitude — this high mind — we don’t enter into God’s kingdom, but build our own — our own family, our own comfort zone, and our own ideology of serving the Lord. Inwardly, the murmuring justifies, occupies, and ultimately binds such ones in an evil way.
This is a sober matter in the church life today. In this situation, the biggest concern is that this sin of violating the economical hand of God cannot be forgiven, and that the saints who insist in their own ways will be left behind in the old dispensation. The reasoning, complaining, and murmuring will disqualify us from the kingship, for there is no such thing as a “half salvation.” The Lord’s new creation is only the overcomers — those who are absolute for God’s word and for His works. The Lord doesn’t examine our outward appearance, but our heart. Outward performance without reality is not only inadequate, but fatal to us, causing God’s presence to leave us. All these years, it wasn’t the outward things that damaged us, but something much deeper in us. All of our selfish struggle and calculations — and especially all of our good performance and good behavior — only display a value that is altogether against God’s economy. Reading the Bible, fellowshipping, serving the saints — these are not enough if we don’t have the Lord’s presence through the supply of His word in our spirit. We have the opportunity today to rid ourselves of our idols and instead turn to the pure, powerful word that is among us. While we still have the chance, while there is still mercy and grace available to us, we should turn more quickly. We may have heard many times that we need to turn, and to be transformed and reconstituted by and with the word; today is the day to believe, obey, and do.
The dispensational Word
We know that God’s administration is carried out by His word, the original Word — nothing more, nothing less. If we are to be dispensational vessels who can be used by the Lord for the turning of the age, we cannot have any mixture. Instead of receiving the word, Saul occupied himself with idolatry. But by the word, Samuel was constituted, empowered, and strengthened to reign. The word of God cannot be blemished, twisted, or suffered. The word finds its way as a pure incarnation in man. God must and does have His way through us! When the Lord’s calling comes to us, do not reject, resist, murmur, or complain — that is the anointing, the reigning, and the kingship. Do not miss this opportunity to be anointed as king! Whenever we exercise our spirit — whenever we follow this tangible, real sense in us — the anointing spirit gives us power and constitutes us, giving us wisdom to differentiate, understand, and minister.
Today, the Lord is seeking those who desire, obey, and execute His word in reality; He is seeking His corporate sonship, a people who can be His vessel to change the dispensation. These people cannot be budged; they do not negotiate for their own selfish interests, but for God’s. The Bible is not written according to our idea of morality or logic, and the histories it records are not even about “Christian values”; rather, the Bible chronicles the Lord’s works to produce the true sonship, the true birthright in His people. It is God Himself who created the heavens and the earth and sent out His own son in time and space, carrying iniquity and sin to the cross to terminate the old and germinate a new creation. This is God’s economy. This is a kingdom that will never fail. This is the life that will never dim. Nothing can tarnish the word of the Lord. The Spirit is seeking His representative to receive His words — a channel through which His ruling is dispensed over the earth with power and life. This is our portion to participate in this kingdom as kings. God is determined to flow through man, and He is moving on. Let us not be left behind!
(Above is part 3 of a series compiled from notes of fellowship taken from gatherings on 1/14/2022, 1/16/2022, and 1/28/2022, not reviewed by the speaker. Read part 4 here.)