I Bow to Your Will My King
/1 Samuel 24:6
And he said unto his men, The LORD forbid that I should do this thing unto my master, the LORD's anointed, to stretch forth mine hand against him, seeing he is the anointed of the LORD.
God has placed certain things in order. Saul was anointed by God originally but David was anointed by God to take his place. Saul was the first king but David was the chosen one. In this sense, Saul represents our first birth in Adam, but David represents the new birth we receive in Jesus. Saul the old man and David the new man in Christ. Important—man has a plan and God has a plan.
However, even once, we receive Christ as our Savior, there is a whole lot of old thinking, old desires, old ways that we have not wanted to let go.
There is an ongoing rivalry between the flesh and the Spirit in the life of the believer that is revealed in the story of these King’s: David and Saul. I will explain in a moment, but I want you to be made aware that Satan will fight harder than anything to prevent you and I from making the journey from Saul to David.
You see as long as Saul remains king in your life, the enemy of God is champion over you. Your life will be filled with defeat and fear. The things that God has prepared for you will not come to pass in your life, because you will be filled with doubt and unbelief. The enemy of your soul will ridicule and antagonize you. Furthermore, there will be people within the church that will help the enemy make you second guess the purposes that God has for your life, because they themselves are operating under a spirit of Saul. You see Saul wants all the credit. Saul is resistant to God’s will because if God has his way, Saul doesn’t get his way, and if God has His way, Saul doesn’t get the glory. Saul represents the old man, and the first man refuses to die.
As soon as David is anointed king, the page of the Bible is turned and we are introduced to the battlefield scene that contains, Saul (the people’s will) for their lives, and David (God’s will) for His people’s lives and Goliath (the enemy of God and His people)
And the story is filled with a battle between good and evil, between flesh and Spirit and even between brother and brother.
Satan wants to paralyze God’s people in fear, so that they can’t walk in victory, Saul wants to remain king, because flesh wants the glory and flesh wants to rule and doesn’t want to die, because flesh wants what it wants even though it will prevent God’s perfect will and even though it will prevent God’s people some how, some way from moving into the things of God.
Romans 8:5
For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.
Romans 8:8
So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.
But the Spirit says enough is enough!
I know I spent a lot of time on this, but I want you to understand that once you give your life to the Lord, that this is just the beginning. There will be an ongoing battle where your self will will not want to step down and move out of the way, even though this is the obvious will of God.
Romans 8:13
For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.
And so even after the fact that God’s anointing of David is proven true in that David kills a giant that Saul couldn’t kill, there is still an ongoing saga where Saul demands to remain king and desires to destroy the choice of the Spirit of God, and this is where we are in this story. The ongoing saga and David running for his life.
But make no mistake, God’s hand is in all of this, because God has a perfect plan, and He has perfect timing. He tests the hearts of His saints. He puts the faith in the fire and tests who will stay true to the will of God and the call of God. He wants to know who His true followers are and who will operate as kings and priests in His kingdom.
Will we endure?
2 Timothy 2:3-4
3 Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. 4 No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.
1 Samuel 24:8
David also arose afterward, and went out of the cave, and cried after Saul, saying, My lord the king. And when Saul looked behind him, David stooped with his face to the earth, and bowed himself.
David humbled himself and reverenced God’s will. People so struggle with this. They get frustrated with where they are in life. They get frustrated with their job situation and don’t endure. They get frustrated with their marriage and don’t endure. They get frustrated with their church and don’t endure.
Next thing you know, they’ve been married 4 times, have had 12 different jobs over the last 3 years and switched churches so many times that they finally gave up and said, “I will just do church at home.”
The whole while, the job wasn’t the problem, the wife wasn’t the problem and the church wasn’t the problem-- hold on a second. I didn’t say that there were no problems with the wife, the job or the church. I said those weren’t THE problem.
The problem is the same problem with all people that no one wants to come to the grips of reality with. The problem is you, the problem is me. The trial you’re facing is not because of the other person, it is because God wants to deal with us. He wants to crucify our flesh. He wants us to die to self, if that Saul dies, David, God’s will can assume the throne ♥️.
What does David do, he bows himself towards God’s will. David says, “God has a will. I don’t understand why I’ve been anointed king and I’m still running for my life, but I’m going to bow down to His will and let God be God.”
2 chapters later David is faced with the same test, but the end result is that he trusts God’s will and timing and puts it into the hands of God:
1 Samuel 26:10
David said furthermore, As the LORD liveth, the LORD shall smite him; or his day shall come to die; or he shall descend into battle, and perish.
1 Samuel 24:4
And the men of David said unto him, Behold the day of which the LORD said unto thee, Behold, I will deliver thine enemy into thine hand, that thou mayest do to him as it shall seem good unto thee. Then David arose, and cut off the skirt of Saul's robe privily.
Conclusion
1 Samuel 24:5
And it came to pass afterward, that David's heart smote him, because he had cut off Saul's skirt.
1 Samuel 24:6
And he said unto his men, The LORD forbid that I should do this thing unto my master, the LORD's anointed, to stretch forth mine hand against him, seeing he is the anointed of the LORD.
It’s so important that we learn to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit, and the more that we understand the written word of God, then the better we can discern a word that is spoken to us:
Notice this— these men spoke this as though it were a word of prophecy from the Lord. They try to do it again two chapters later. Thank God someone, like David, is more concerned about God’s will than his own will, because that’s what the flesh wants to hear, “It’s about time Lord. I was wondering when you were going to show up for me and take this thorn out of my flesh.”
We have a problem in that so often, we love to hear a prophetic word that tells us what we want to hear and many times those words help our flesh to survive, but God is more worried about us submitting to His will and not our own.
Maybe some people here, you would say, “I’m not even sure that I know what a word of prophecy is/ ok… but w/ that said, let’s make it more practical. If you’re not careful, you will listen to the advice of others that will tell you what you want to hear about a situation in your life rather than what the Spirit is saying about the situation.
When David cut that corner of the skirt off of Saul, the word says, “David was smote in his heart. That’s the voice you want to hear: not the voice of the prophet— I did not say that you don’t want to hear the voice of prophecy, I said that you don’t want to hear the voice of a prophet and you don’t want to hear the voice of someone who will tell you what you want to hear. Instead, you want to, you have to, it’s the most important thing in your life—to hear the voice of God!
2. While I was praying about God’s will for the message, I heard the Lord say, “A broken and a contrite spirit I will not despise: Psalms 51:17
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.
And from there, my prayer was, “Lord, in the flesh, on this earth, we are so worried about ourselves and our own kingdom, but that’s not you. You died on this side, so that we could be part of the real kingdom on the other side. Please let us die to self now, so we can work in your kingdom that you have already established here.”
Because look, He said to Pilate, “My kingdom is not of this world…” it’s David’s heart, as he bows prostrate to God’s will.
Are you willing to bow prostrate to God’s will this am?
Are you willing to give your heart fully to the Lord?