September 11 -- "When The Spirit Departs"

Today’s Reading: Judges 16

"When The Spirit Departs"

Yesterday, we read of the amazing moment when the Spirit of God miraculously and powerfully came upon Samson. Today, we read of the tragic moment when that same Spirt left him.

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 anointing, that power of God is no longer upon your life.

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 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.