The Holy Spirit - Learning from 2 Samuel

‘…They came into the house… and slew him…’ (2 Samuel 4:7). What are we to make of this kind of thing? - ‘What’s the world coming to?’. Where’s it all going to end?’. It is difficult to maintain real faith in the Lord when this kind of thing is going on. What are we to do? Don’t bury your head in the sand. Don’t pretend that such things are not happening. Don’t imagine that that they will just go away. ‘Inquire of the Lord’. ‘Do as the Lord commands’. Keep on believing that there will be a breakthrough - from the Lord (2 Samuel 5:19,23,25,20). Can you ‘hear the sound of rustling in the leaves of the trees’? - ‘The Spirit of the Lord has come down on the earth’. Let us ‘rise, a mighty array, at the bidding of the Lord - The Spirit won’t be hindered by division in the perfect work that Jesus has begun’ (2 Samuel 5:24; John 3:8; Mission Praise, 274).

‘When she saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord, she despised him in her heart’ (2 Samuel 6:16). Michal was a very angry young woman. Her husband had embarrassed her and she didn’t like it! What had David done to deserve this? - ‘I will celebrate before the Lord’ (2 Samuel 6:21). This is really quite pathetic. God’s children are learning to ‘worship Him in Spirit and in truth’ (John 4:23-24). In comes ‘the stiff upper lip brigade’. They have no real heart for worship. They put a dampener on it - ‘This has to stop’. This is not only pathetic. It is sinful. ‘Do not quench the Spirit… Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God… Be filled with Spirit, addressing one another in psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with all your heart…’ (1 Thessalonians 5:19; Ephesians 4:30; 5:18-20).

By birth, David was ‘the son of Jesse’. By grace, he was ‘the man who was raised on high, the anointed of the God of Jacob, the sweet psalmist of Israel’ (2 Samuel 23:1). What we are in ourselves is nothing compared with what we can become through the grace of God! Look at David. Listen to what he says, ‘The Spirit of the Lord speaks by me, His Word is upon my tongue’ (2 Samuel 23:2). What had David done to deserve this? What was so special about him? Nothing - This was the work of God, the work of divine grace. In ourselves, we are ‘godless’, good for nothing, ‘like thorns that are thrown away’ (2 Samuel 23:6). In ourselves, we are not ‘mighty men’ (2 Samuel 23:8-9). How can we be changed? - ‘The Lord wrought a great victory’ (2 Samuel 23:10,12). Which of us can be described as ‘a valiant man… a doer of great deeds’ (2 Samuel 23:20) - apart from the grace of God? ‘By grace you have been saved…’(Ephesians 2:8-10).