Today we are looking at something important and I want us to be very attentive. Let it not be said that the Lord came and I did not know it. Tonight, we are considering “Heralding the Samuels of Our Generation.” So, in case your name is not Samuel, don’t get too worried. What the Lord is doing is not in the nomenclature, it is in the spirit. There is a spirit that the Lord wants to reproduce in our generation. I want us to go to the book of 1 Samuel, and we will read verse 3 and then we will continue with other verses. The Bible says: “This man went up from his city yearly to worship and sacrifice to the Lord of hosts in Shiloh. Also the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, the priests of the Lord, were there.” May the Lord bless the reading of His word in our hearts in Jesus’ name.
Now, 1 Samuel introduced us to a family, the family of Elkanah and his wives, and subsequently, his children. Now, so that we can understand what this chapter is meant for, the Bible makes a very clear statement in verse 3: this man called Elkanah does what is called “worship and sacrifice” and he does it yearly. He does not just do it in his house, he does it at “Shiloh” and he does it yearly. So, he was a worshipper of God, he was one who sacrifices unto God in Shiloh. Now, when it comes to Shiloh, he is guided by a group of people called “the priests.” The priests are the people that welcomed him into the house of God on a yearly basis, and they guide him on how he will worship and sacrifice to the Lord acceptably.
Do we understand? So, the priests were like the middle men, they were like the intermediaries between God and the people of God. And so, when the people feel a need for God, they come to Shiloh and then they approached the priests of the Lord who introduces God to the people, who communicates to God on behalf of the people and communicates to the people on behalf of God. And so, you must understand, that these men, the priests of the Lord are assumed to have a cordial relationship with the Lord, they are assumed to know God and so, they can help men to please God. Let us go to another verse to build a background for us.
If you read 1 Samuel 2:1-6, you would notice that Hannah made a prayer which was what she did the moment God answered her prayer. Now, before chapter 2, we were told in chapter 1 that Hannah had been barren. The reason was not because she was not naturally fruitful, it was just because God closed her womb. Sometimes, a lot of barren people are blaming God. They are simply not aware of times and seasons. God is the one who owns children, He is the one that sends children. In the message “A Mist Rising from the Church”, God showed us how He uses children to remedy the things in every generation. So, the old generation is meant to pass away and a new generation that will do the will of God is introduced through the new born babes. Do we understand?
Now, Hannah was barren, she did not curse God in the midst of her barrenness, but she knew that the only way she would be fruitful was not through having more love with her husband; or just pleasing her husband, she knew she needed God. There is a message I head in the last episode of Life Treatment titled “Guilt.” And one thing I learnt from the message was that when you are feeling “guilt”, you must seek God. So, the treatment for guilt, according to that Life Treatment message, was God. So, if you have guilt, don’t look to men because they cannot help you remove guilt. They didn’t put it there; they didn’t create your heart as well. It has to be God. Now Hannah knew that it was God that must answer her prayer for her to be fruitful. Now, she was barren and what was going on in her time and her season was that there was a scarcity of a people that truly knew God and represented God.
So, there were people everywhere, but none of them was truly aware of who God was, and none was really interested in pleasing and in honoring God. And so, Hannah was looking for a child, God was looking for men and women, a people that would please Him. I want us to this background, because we must also understand dispensations, times and seasons, you must know the season that your nation is in. If you are a Nigerian or a Ghanaian or you are an American, you must know the season that your nation is in. If you are a member of the body of Christ, you must know the season that the church is in. Until there is an alignment of your desire and the will of God for that season, for that generation or that specific locality, there won’t be fruitfulness or the results that you are yearning for.
Because it is one thing for you to have a desire. God can give you your desire. But that does not have to be the perfect will of God. When the perfect will of God is done, then the desires of your heart that aligns with His perfect will are granted. So, men that know God truly, they don’t force the hand of God to do things. We will soon, by the grace of God, understands that. Those who know God don’t say “God you must do it” because if God does it and He does it at the wrong timing, then it is to whose advantage? A good strategy that is hastily executed is still a fake execution. And so, it is not enough for you to say “I am a prayer warrior”, it is not enough to say that you can pray. It is not enough for you to say “I know how to get God to respond.” Are you getting God to respond against His own will, towards your own aggrandizement to make you excited? And so, what the Lord is showing us in this place is that it is not enough for us to have needs in our lives, we must be opened to what the Lord is doing in our dispensation at a time as we find ourselves.
So, what was going on at that moment was that there was lack of men that truly knew God and represented God. God was looking for men, perhaps we could even make it simple; God was looking for a man. The mother of Samuel was also looking for a child. Now, if she is looking for a child, the question God should be asking is: to whose gain would the child be? Would the child be for her or for me? So, until these questions were settled, like transaction or a deal, there was no transfer. She was in need of a child; God was also in need of a man. But until they both came to a place of agreement, there was nothing to show for it. So, it is not enough for you to just ask for something.
I remember I was telling my wife and I have told her repeatedly, before I got to know that she is the will of God for my life, and before I proposed to her, I demanded her from the Lord and I told God several reasons why I demanded for her. But my reasons were genuine. But assuming I was just demanding, I had the list of two hundred things and those things has nothing to do with the will of God, and still, I insist that God should still satisfy it, by the way, maybe God would have answered that prayer with some other women before her and then I would have gone astray. Do you understand that?
Those who are missing the will of God, they are not allowing God to have His way. They give God all the reasons why their prayers must be answered. But yet, they are not asking, what is in it for God in this matter? What does God have to gain in this my two hundred things that I am asking for?
Now, Hannah has been coming to this Shiloh for years, and we must never forget that. Because the reason is simple. If you go back to chapter 1:2, the Bible says: “And he had two wives: the name of one was Hannah, and the name of the other Peninnah. Peninnah had children, but Hannah had no children.” That place established that Peninnah had children, not just one child. And in verse 4, the Bible says: “And whenever the time came for Elkanah to make an offering, he would give portions to Peninnah his wife and to all her sons and daughters.” So, from those passages, it can be deduced that Peninnah had nothing less than five children, and can a woman have five children in a few periods? No! Minimum of five years, worst case scenario. So, it tells you that Hannah had been barren for not less than five years, and if you want to be conservative or be reasonable on the matter, just give Peninnah two years gap between each of the children. So, that tells you that Hannah had been barren for about ten years, and she was coming to Shiloh in all those years, with a need for ten times.
She didn’t get answer in those periods, and you must not forget, in those ten years minimum, what God was in need of was also there. She needed a child; God needed a man. Because very soon in chapter two, you would see that what God wanted a Son to deal with has become institutionalized. So, there was an instituted corruption, meaning that it had persisted for so many years and there was also a simultaneous need for a child.
So, it does not matter how many years you have been complaining of your “lack of” or your “need for” and you have never gotten it. It is not God that is at fault. So, when men are crying “God, show up for me. God is also asking when you will also show up for His will.” So, that which you are asking for, have you brought it to a place that is in alignment with the will of God in that season, in that generation? What is the skill and talent that you have? At what point have you come to tell God: “Lord, if you can just explode this my talent, make it global. These shall be the things I will do with this talent for you.” And God knows you are clear and sincere in your heart. Bible says “God is the God of knowledge and by Him actions are weighed.”
Haven weighed your intentions; the He is now able to say “Let us reach a good agreement.” I will give you wisdom, just like Solomon. But these shall be your conditions, these are the things you would do. But we know what Solomon did with it. Sometimes, we don’t even know if we are sincere or not, but God knows. And that is why, God always in most times, allows time to test us. Hannah was tested. She got to a time that she became so desperate. In 1 Samuel 1:10-11, the Bible says:
“And she was in bitterness of soul, and prayed to the Lord and [d]wept in anguish. 11 Then she made a vow and said (a vow is very close to a contract, a contractual agreement. She made a vow and said “O Lord of hosts, if You will indeed look on the affliction of Your maidservant and remember me, and not forget Your maidservant, but will give Your maidservant a male child (there is a specific demand), then I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life, and no razor shall come upon his head.”
She got to a point that she was praying about her desires, she just wanted a male child, one that will take away her reproach. But if God can take away her reproach, she will make sure she removes the reproach on the name of God in Israel. Before Samuel was born, there was a reproach. Many people were beginning to get offended in God simply because of the attitude of men that called themselves servants of the Lord. Because the priest of the Lord according to 1 Samuel 1:3, are servants of the Lord. Many people, when they see what the servants of the Lord were doing, they asked themselves: What are we even in this for? Why are we in this Christendom? Why are we in this Christianity when those who are supposed to even show examples are the ones messing up?
So, there is a reproach. And a woman also had her own personal reproach, but she came to a time and said “Lord, let us exchange reproaches. If you can take away my reproach, I will also take away your reproach.” Does that not look like a deal? And so, God agreed. When God says “come let us reason together”, we think it is a joke. In James, it says: “you have asked and you have not received. It is not because God is stingy, it is not because God is unable. It is because you have asked amiss.” It is like someone shooting a wrong target. You are the one not hitting your target, your target does not move. God is faithful, God is able to make all things that He has promised you to come through. But how faithful are you in hitting the target?
Some people have failed God over and over again and so, when they are praying to God, there is no specific demand because they don’t want any specific demand from the Lord on them. This thing that is called consecration in ministry, is it not the demand of the Lord on you to retain the grace upon your life? And so, a man is saying “Lord, you can keep your grace, just help me but keep your grace so that there will be no demand on my life?” And so, because you are not able to satisfy any obligation from the Lord, you therefore make sure you can’t also ask anything from Him. Bible says wisdom is justified of her children. Can we see your children and we say you are a wise man or woman who has been following the Lord? Bible also says when you faint in the days of adversity, it is because your strength is little. You are rich, but you cannot sleep well. You are rich but you cannot afford to even speak out because of the fear that somebody will slap you spiritually. And so, when we are talking about the kind of authority that God is able to give you, it comes with many things.
Can you demand it, willingly telling God and saying “Lord, if you give me this authority, this is what I will do with it?” I pray that God will help us in Jesus name. So, let us see 1 Samuel 2:12 and see how the whole thing unfolded. But I will like to start from verse 11 so that we can see what led to other things. The Bible says: “Then Elkanah went to his house at Ramah. But the child ministered to the Lord before Eli the priest. 12 Now the sons of Eli were corrupt; they did not know the Lord.”
Now, one of the things that we must never forget is this. When there is corruption in the church of any nation, whether Nigeria or England or USA, when there is corruption in the church, it flows within the family structure of the church. Bible says “now the sons of Eli”, you can replace the Eli with the sons of the priests, the sons of the prophets, the sons of the apostles, men that have gone through the Bible schools, seminaries, theological schools, men that have been certified and have been ordained, ministers in the church and in assemblies of God’s people. Bible says the sons of Eli were corrupt. Whether we like it or not, corruption has a nature, and it produces corruption. So, what Adam did was not just a small matter, it was deep, it was an exchange of nature. There was an original nature, that was blameless and pure, and after the order of God.
But the moment there was a swap of allegiance from God the Father to Satan, there was now an adoption of a new nature, a nature that is corrupt naturally. And so, if you must also fix the sons, you must fix the father. If you must change the sons, you must change the fathers. There are general overseers today, whom we see as spiritual leaders, but they know they are just sons. There are founders of churches, leaders of ministries whom you respect but whom see themselves as sons. You don’t know their father; they know their father. I remember Jesus telling a people when He said “you are children of your father and his desires you will do. He was a murderer from the beginning.” Now, nobody in Israel saw Satan physically, but Jesus called them children of their father. So, when they produced fruits, they were producing the fruits produced by the tree of their father.
Now, the issue is this. The sons of Eli were sons of priests who had gone through the school of the priesthood, who had been certified and ordained. There was a knowledge they received in those schools that has produced the life they were living. And so, if they were corrupt, it means they had been corrupted by the system that produced them. So, you don’t just say “you have committed this crime and therefore, we are suspending you from this church.” If you do not fix the system that produces them, the same issues will arise again in another dimension. Make the tree good and the fruits will be good. So, when you see a general overseer that is misbehaving, don’t just discipline that man and you call yourself “PFN.”
If you discipline the man and you do not deal with the roots, the tree that has produced the general overseer, you have only wasted your time. There is a curriculum, there is a doctrine or a knowledge that produces the corruption in the man. When God said “there are many trees in this garden, eat! Except from this tree that has the knowledge of good and evil.” What good can come from a man that has the capacity for evil? A man of God that can prophesy and curse, a man of God that can give and steal, a man of God that can heal and kill? What good can come from such a man? And all is rooted in the knowledge that they have acquired. And so, if you do not deal with the knowledge, which has become a platform for their building up, then if you are addressing the things they are doing now, you are wasting your time because more people have been produced after the same system.
So, when the Lord is dealing with Heralding the Samuels of our Generation, God is dealing with the structures that produces Samuels. Samuel is just a child; he could have remained like that if not that God came in at a point to interject his development and to make it after his own kind. Now, the Bible says that the sons of Eli were corrupt, so, it shows that they have been corrupted over time. And see why they are corrupt, verse 12b. It says: “they did not know the Lord.” The Bible calls them the priests of the Lord in chapter one verse three, the servants of the Lord. You can call them “the senior pastors, general overseers” but Bible says they did not know the Lord. How can you be a general overseer of God’s people and you do not truly know God?
Because if you have asked Hophni and Phinehas, “Do you know the Lord?” They would have said yes. You will hardly ask any general oversee today “Are you a man of God” and they will say no. So, these boys or these people would have said they were in knowledge. But this was not a question sent to them. This was a question sent to God. It was God recording about their true state. They could think they knew God. They could think and settle with that, but God knew that they knew, because the Bible says, “God is the God of knowledge.” He weighs action, He is the God of knowledge just as He is also the God of peace. So, what you know, God knows, what you don’t know, He knows. So, you can say you know and yet you don’t know. So, God says the reason for their corruption is a matter of knowledge.
If they had known God, they wouldn’t be corrupt because the knowledge of God would have produced, as we were taught on Saturday, the good behavior in them. Apostle John in 1st John says that “whatever is born of God overcomes the world” and another part he says “you can’t sin.” Why? You have been born of God; you can’t sin. Some of Jesus’ disciples wanted Him to respond in a certain way at some point, and they said “Jesus, these people do not respect you; do you want us to call down fire?” You know what, I love and hate the experience that I read there. I love, Because I love their spirit, like, this were not people who lacked faith, they had faith. But the hate is that they wanted to use their faith to destroy, and we mustn’t miss it.
Apostle Paul was clear, “this power, this authority that God has given to me is not to destroy anyone of you, it is not.” The authority that God has given to me is to edify, to build you up. Now they had faith, it means they had faith enough to remove mountains and to call down fire. They said “Jesus do you want us to call down fire from heaven, just like Elijah did?” And the Bible says, “Jesus said no! For you do not know the manner of spirit that you are of.” Assuming Jesus wasn’t there, what would they have done? They would have done it. So, who was Jesus to them? Jesus was the truth. Let us call Him “The Tree of Life.”
So, the life they wanted to live, was inconsistent with the tree, that Jesus was, Jesus was the tree of life. But they wanted to produce fruit that can only be produced by the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And Jesus said “you do not know the manner of spirit that you are of. You do not know the manner of tree that you are hooked up to.” It does not produce good and bad, it produces good. Even Jesus said at a point: “no one is good but God.” So, do you see that instead of you to be flogging the children, the sons, you must find out where they are getting their resource from.
Nobody can be bold enough to ask a man of God like “Sir, where do you feed on, or from?” Jesus said “those who feed on me, will live because of me.” Sir, man of God, who do you feed on? How are you fed? Nobody can ask, but do you know we may not have to bother, but we can know what they feed on by the things they produce. I love doing something that is not very nice, but let me just say it. When we were younger and we were living with our brothers and sisters in the same house, there were some times you go to toilet at the same time with your brother and sister. I don’t know some people that lived at water system toilet house from like childhood will not do this. But the people that lived in the bush, like some of us, you could have done it. And so, sometimes, you go to toilet, open defecation with your brother or your sister and by the time you are smelling the something that your brother or sister is producing; when you finish, you say something like “I think you ate something when you were coming, what I was smelling, looks like something you just ate.”
I don’t know whether we understand. By the kind of smell, you can suspect the kind of food that produced it. Do you know every food has smell afterwards, like aftermath smell, do we know? Yes, every food has smell. If you drink milk, all manner of milk, there is a smell that you will produce, it is different from any kind of smell. Do you know the thing that we are talking about? Jesus said “those who feed on me will live because of me” and Jesus Himself said “it is not what a man takes in that defiles him”, and He said very clearly that “what a man takes in, he will eventually release.”
Jesus didn’t bother to tell you it will smell. Do you understand what I’m saying? So, it smells, whatever you eat will smell. You know actions, habit, behavior; smells. Whatever you feed on will smell, good smell, bad smell, we will smell it, and we will guess what you have been feeding on. Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth will speak. Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth will do. So, when these people were corrupt, they were corrupt simply because they’ve been feeding on corruption. So, the things you feed yourself on will produce a behavior in you. The things you feed yourself on will produce habit in you. So, if you can hide what you are eating you cannot hide the smell of it, except we are not living in the same roof, except we are not on the earth together, except we are not in the church.
The kind of things you are teaching your church members we will know; it will reveal the things you’ve been feeding yourself on. Whether it has been newspaper all day, you will teach us news, “this Buhari self.” You are on the pulpit preaching, before you know it you have gone to Buhari (President, Federal Republic of Nigeria – 2015 till publishing date). Before you know it APC, before you know it PDP. Then we know you have been feeding on newspaper. What you eat you will vomit. Alright. So, the Bible says they were corrupt.
Now later on, in verse 13, the Bible says: “and the priest custom with the people was that when any man offers the sacrifice.” Did you see that statement? (1st Samuel 2:13). Now the question we should ask is: was the priest custom the ordained custom? Was it has received from the Lord or has adopted, or has evolved over time? Not everything that people do in the name of God or in the house of God is as ordained by God. Some do it to satisfy themselves, some do it because that’s the only way they can survive and so before you approach such, you must ask questions.
1 Samuel 2:17 says: “Therefore the sin of the young men was very great before the Lord, for men abhorred the offering of the Lord.” When the purpose of a thing is not known abuse is inevitable. So, there is a lack of knowledge of God, there is a lack of knowledge of the acceptable way that God must be worshipped, and so, when you don’t know God nor the way men should worship Him, even though you have become a guide for others, you are just a blind guide of the guide, and you and the people you are leading will fall into the ditch. Alright!
Later on, in that chapter 2, the judgement of God came upon Eli, the father. Don’t forget that Satan will also be punished eventually. Don’t forget that the judgement of God always come, it comes to the father and also to the children. But what God is doing in this time and season is to raise up new Samuel. And let’s see what the new Samuel is supposed to do, in chapter 2, and I want us to read from verse 33 downward. 1 Samuel 2:33 downwards.
“But any of your men whom I do not cut off from My altar shall consume your eyes and grieve your heart. And all the descendants of your house shall die in the flower of their age. 34 Now this shall be a sign to you that will come upon your two sons, on Hophni and Phinehas: in one day they shall die, both of them.” Then as soon as they die, as soon as they fail, as soon as they fizzle out, as soon as the fruit of corruption or the branches of corruption producing fruit of corruption; as soon as they are cut off from the tree. See what happens in verse 35: “Then I (I want you to note the word. It is going to be done by God Himself) will raise up for Myself a faithful priest who shall do according to what is in My heart and in My mind. I will build him a sure house, and he shall walk before My anointed forever.”
The question is: how can a man do what is in Gods heart except a man knows what is in the heart of God? Can I do what is in the heart of my wife for instance, if I do not know what is in her heart? So, you have to know to do, do you understand that? There is knowledge. But this is not a knowledge that is isolated from God, an isolated knowledge, no! This is a knowledge that is attached or rooted in God, it originates in God, its springs in God, and it is established in God.
Verse 36 says: “And it shall come to pass that everyone who is left in your house will come and bow down to him for a piece of silver and a morsel of bread, and say, “Please, put me in one of the priestly positions, that I may eat a piece of bread.” ’ ” From here, we can deduce that even though God had an intention of appointing a new priest, He didn’t reveal it. It’s a will, it is an open will. Those who are lying, they key into it, even if you are lying you can key into it. Do we remember that God didn’t say I will raise Samuel? He says “I will raise a priest, a faithful priest.” So, the only thing God used to qualify or identify the person, is the faithfulness.
Let us see chapter 3:1: “Now the boy Samuel ministered to the Lord before Eli. And the word of the Lord was rare in those days; there was no widespread revelation” and we are in the month of revelation. But the word of God was rare at the time. There was no wide spread revelation, was it because God couldn’t speak, no! There was no one to hear Him. It was not because God couldn’t show, but there was nobody to see. It was not because God couldn’t lead, there was no man to follow. So, because no one was willing to go all out with God, so there was scarcity of what God has available in the land, so there was scarcity not because God couldn’t supply, because there was no man to go in search of what God can supply. So much is in God for your nation, so much is available in God for your generation. if you continue in your presumed, or assumed ignorance of God, your people, your generation will be in lack of what God has supplied.
So much grace is available from the Lord, but there is a man that must go to bring it for the people. Apostle Paul said, “I labored more than them all yet not I, but the grace that was given to me.” God supply grace and I use the grace to labor, for the good of God’s people. So, the labor that I produced was like my own commitment, my own responsibility. However, I was able to be responsible, because God was responsible for my survival. So, God was my secret and I engaged God in dispensing knowledge. Apostle Paul wrote two third of the New Testament, not by works but by the Spirit.
You remember what we learnt yesterday, “REVELATION DOES NOT TAKE TIME, IT TAKES THE SPIRIT OF GOD.” And so, by the Spirit of God, I have revelation and so I share. The prayer we were led to at the beginning in Ephesians 1 talks about the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him. There is spirit of knowledge, and there is a spirit of revelation. If you hate knowledge you cannot get that spirit, because spirit is attracted to men that are in need or in love of it. Do you know if you love to steal, the spirit of stealing will come upon you? If you love to backbite, the spirit of backbiting will come upon you.
Let us see Hosea 4:6. The Bible says:
My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.
Because you have rejected knowledge,
I also will reject you from being priest for Me;
Because you have forgotten the law of your God,
I also will forget your children.
So, lack of knowledge is not lack of access to knowledge. It is not because knowledge is not supplied, it is because knowledge is not demanded for. When you don’t see God’s knowledge around you, it is because men have chosen something else apart from God’s knowledge. And don’t forget, even though God is a God of knowledge, remember God is not the only one that can make you to know, even Satan can make you to know. The Bible talks about the tree of the good and evil, it is still a knowledge. It is just the kind of knowledge it produces, that’s why the Holy Spirit is always attributed to the Spirit of truth, or to truth.
So, when you talk about the Holy Spirit, you are talking about truth. The Holy Spirit does not just make you to know, He makes you to know the truth. What you get outside of God is falsehood, it can be so demanding, you can have to be waking up every night just to cram, just to memorize. But what you are reading, is what does not originate in God. Even though it is exciting you, it does not have to be the truth. Yet, it is only the truth that can set you free. It says “because you rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being priest.” So, this message is not to unbelievers, it is not even to new converts, it is to the leaders, men who are serving God on the pulpit, men who are ministering unto God in worship in the world, men who are laboring in the place of prayer.
God is saying “if you reject knowledge, I will reject you.” So, a man who loves knowledge is a man who loves God. Why, because God is the God of knowledge. God says “those who honor me, those who seek for my knowledge, I will honor them. I will bless them with that knowledge, and those who despise me, and those who reject me I will likely esteem them”, they will die in their ignorance. You remember in Romans, they refuse to retain God in their knowledge, God therefore, gave them, you remember that word, “God gave them, God gave them” God gave them over to a reprobate mind and so they began to do things that are not convenient. On their own they wouldn’t want to do it, but they’ve been given over, and what was it that led to it; they did not retain God in their knowledge.
You have a responsibility to accept the knowledge of God and to keep it. If God speaks to you and you forget what God had said, you did not retain the knowledge of God in your heart. If God speaks to you and you say in Yoruba “Tolorun bawo” meaning “What is it with God” Is it only God that can make me to know? There are people who are not even aware that God exist, who knows so much, do you want to live the kind of live they are living? Let God be true and every man a liar.
You remember yesterday sir, when you were giving us that verse in John 17, it says “this is the eternal life that you know Him, this is the eternal life that they may know Him, the only true God.” So, the knowledge of God produces eternal life, a life that begins now, and terminates in eternity. A life that makes you to be above circumstance, a life that you are not at the mercy of people’s thoughts and desires. Somebody does not think you should die and you just die. There are people who want you dead and you’ve not died. Not because you have the power to keep yourself, there is a power in you that produces life in you. The life of God produces life in you. And there is death of the world that produces death.
So where do you side? He said “so choose this day whom you will serve, is it the God that your forefathers served at the side of the river, that did not help them.” There was a time Apostle Paul was talking to a people in Act, you know those who worship an unknown God. He said “these things you’ve been doing, like you’ve been serving an unknown God. What have you known?” I think he even said it to a people in Galatians, he said “you should be ashamed of these things. You were doing them before they didn’t profit you, why are you still doing them? Why can’t you switch over to the light?” A people can be rejected because of their ignorance. And there is something I want us to note in that first Samuel, as I’m concluding now, we will read that 1 Samuel, and then Ephesians 4 and so we close. There is a statement made there that we must not miss.
1 Samuel 2:26, the Bible says: “And the child Samuel grew in stature, and in favor both with the Lord and men.” And I am sure we have read something like this in Matthew and in Luke. For John it says “And the child grew and wax strong in the spirit, and was in the desert until the day of his manifestation.” So, you can see this, what was said of Samuel, was similar to what was said of John and of Jesus. The child grew and increased. The child grew in stature, he grew in stature and enjoy favor with God and man. Let’s see Ephesians chapter 4, as we close and we can see from verse 12 downward. The Bible says, talking about how God has raised Apostles, Prophets, Evangelist, Pastors and teachers and the purpose is what we are introduced to in verse 12: “for the equipping of the saints, for the work of ministry. For the edifying of the body of Christ till we all come to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.”
Apostles, Prophets, Evangelist, Pastors and Teachers have been raised up by God to equip the saints for the work of the ministry, to edify the entire body of Christ, till we all come to, and you see what we are shown; the unity of the faith, the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the fullness of Christ. The Bible says “and the child grew in stature”, the Bible now shows us that there is the stature of Christ which we are expected to grow into. And what is it that the Bible says will keep us growing? It says “till we come to the unity of faith and knowledge of the son of God.” For the people who do know their God shall be strong and they will carry out great exploit, so much, depends on our knowledge of God. If we will grow at all in life, in influence, in authority, it is because we have grown first in Christ Jesus. So much requires our growth, the things I used to do, I do them no more. Apostle Paul said “when I was a child I thought like a child. But when I became a man”, I don’t know who you are becoming. “When I became a man, I put away childish things.”
I’m sure Hophni and Phineas refused to put a way childish thing and so they decided to reject God and the knowledge of God, and so, they continued childish behavior, even though they were getting older. So, it is not enough for you to be counting how many years you’ve been in the church. You must measure yourself with the stature of Christ. Are you growing in the stature of Christ? And so that we are not confused, Galatians chapter 5 reveals to us what the stature of Christ is. The Bible says “and the fruit of the Spirit is, the fruits of Christ is, LOVE, PEACE, GENTLENESS, FAITHFULNESS, SELF CONTROL, against such there is no law.”
So, that shows us if these are the fruit of the Spirit of Christ, then it shows the tree that produces them. If you have an idea of the fruit, you can sum up the tree, and if you can measure up to that tree yourself, you can begin to produce the fruits of Christ. “Let this mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus.” Let this knowledge, this crave for knowledge for the truth. How much do you know, how much do you know, how much do you want to know? A church felt they had it all, in Revelations, and God said “you thought you were okay, but you are not. You are miserable.” Jesus even said it will have been good if you had known that you were blind, but you thought you can see, your situation continues.
I pray that God will help us in Jesus name.
