Today's Reading: Judges 16

When The Spirit Departs

In yesterday’s reading, we read about the Spirit of the LORD rushing upon Samson.  It was a phenomenal and powerful move of God’s Spirit upon Samson granting him astounding physical strength.

In today’s reading, we read that, in spite of Samson’s amazing gift from God, he had little respect for either his Nazirite vow or the Israelite law. He handled a dead lion, married a Philistine woman and joined in the customary wine-drinking feasts of the Philistines. As a result of his carelessness with the things of God, the Spirit’s power was removed from him.  “But he did not know that the LORD had left him.”  He was blind to the departure of God’s Spirit.  And it ended tragically for him.

This presents us with a powerful life lesson about presumption - a self-confidence that can cause a person to presume that God is still with them when, in fact, He has departed. There is a spiritual kind of a blindness that afflicts people especially if they are fooling around in the enemy's territory, trying to play around with sin, playing games on the enemy's field. It is possible for you to stray from God and to get out and isolated, away from God. You can get so caught up in your activities that you're not really aware of the fact that the anointing, the power of God is no longer upon your life.

One point to remember is that God continued to use Samson for a period of time before his carelessness with the things of God finally resulted in the pulling away of God’s anointing. There are many people who assume because the anointing God is still upon their life that He must be pleased with all that they are doing. That is a wrong conclusion. God does not immediately lift his anointing from a person's life because they have failed or have faults. Many people use the rationale "but God still uses me" and thus, they take the fact that God is still using them as a sign of God’s approval of what they are doing. “If God didn’t approve of what I was doing then He would take his anointing and take His power from my life.” That isn't always true. It's a wrong rationale.  If they continue in that path they’re going to arrive one day at the place were God's Spirit is removed from their life. And they won't even know it for a period of time.

Samson was blind to his own spiritual state. It is possible to be self-deceived about your own spiritual state. Samson had the potential of going down in the history books as one of the mightiest and most glorious of all the deliverers of Israel. His name could've been alongside of Joshua's and David's and Samuel's, the marvelous deliverers of Israel. But he could not conquer his own passions, his own lust.  And it led to the LORD removing His anointing.

This is why we are exhorted repeatedly in Scripture to humble ourselves before God and constantly be on the lookout for pride and presumption creeping into our lives. “Keep thy heart with all diligence; For out of it are the issues of life.” (Proverbs 4:23) Never presume upon God.  And never handle the gifts and callings of God carelessly.