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.
