God Wants to Lead His People - If They Will Only Let Them

Christ Triumphant - A Devotional by E.G. White

God Wants to Lead His People - If They Will Only Let Him

Today's Text: Nevertheless the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel; and they said, Nay; but we will have a king over us. 1 Samuel 8:19

The Message:      The Lord told Samuel further to grant their [the people's] request, but to bear a strong testimony against them in regard to their sin in choosing a temporal ruler rather than a divine ruler.... To have a king was not after God's arrangement but after the order of the nations who did not know and acknowledge God.      After this plain statement they still persisted in having their own way, and Samuel consented. The people still were determined to have a king. They decided that Samuel did not understand the situation. If he only knew all the circumstances, the motives, and the designs, and understood as well as themselves the great advantages, he would be as ready as they to have a king to go in and out before them, that the nations should not look down upon them and despise them. They did not, in their spiritual blindness, look beyond Samuel and discern that it was the word of God that they were hearing through His servant.      God was leading and guiding and working for His people in many ways unseen. Their enemies could not distinguish the source of their wisdom and power and who was to be glorified for their wonderful deliverance and marvelous success. God wrought through Gideon. But the manner of their deliverance was of that character that no human being could take the glory, and in recounting the wonderful victory, they could not extol any mortal's wisdom.... The power, the wisdom, and the might were in heaven, but they wanted it upon the earth. It was of God, their mighty King, but they wanted it visibly embodied in a person. In this light God accounted the sin of Israel a rejection of Himself. If they had cherished a sacred, reverent fear of God as their Supreme Ruler, they would never have invested authority in human power, to be controlled by it.      Yet the Lord would not leave Saul to be placed in a position of trust without divine enlightenment. He was to have a new calling, and the Spirit of the Lord came upon him. The effect was that he was changed into a new man. The Lord gave Saul a new spirit, other thoughts, other aims and desires, than he had previously had. This enlightenment, with the spiritual knowledge of God, was to bind his will to the will of Jehovah.      Knowing the will of God, which had been plainly stated to him, did Saul bear the test, did he show reverence for God? When brought into a strait place, he did not heed and obey the express command of God, but he ventured to transgress.-Letter 12a, 1888.

Commentary: My friend, as in the days of the kings of Israel, men have always desired to place the wisdom of men above the wisdom of God.  Israel was to be a nation ruled by the omnipotent God, but they had desired to have a human figure which they could see to lead them.  They desired to be like the other nations of the world and desired to have a king to rule over them.  In the same manner God's end time church has looked so much to the world that they have done essentially the same thing. God had desired to lead His church through His prophet, but the members desired to have elect a body of men under the control of a president to lead and control the work of the church.  In setting up this hierarchical structure the church has in essence done what the children of Israel had done in the past. The church is to be lead by the working of the Holy Spirit upon the members of the church.  As each would submit themselves to the control of Christ, He would prompt and guide each to do his part in the salvation of others.  We are to be unified in Christ by the indwelling of His Spirit within our lives.  But this is not the case today.  The church has become more and more like the fallen churches of Babylon and the work has been committed to a small group of men rather than by the Spirit of God. In the last days God will have a people that will not follow the dictates of men, but will be lead by the Spirit of God.  When the Spirit of God is poured out upon the church, men and women will be filled with His Spirit, but the majority of the professed followers of Christ will not receive this Spirit because they have already accepted the spirit of another. Because they have accepted the doctrine of the trinity, introduced to the church by the leadership of men, they are not fitted to receive the Spirit of Christ which is to unify His church and to bring the last message of hope to a dark and dying world.  By their belief in the false god of the trinity, they have in essence accepted another god in place of the One true God spoken of in John 17:3, and have closed their hearts to the voice of God within their souls. My Friend, now is the time for us to unite with Christ in giving the three angels message to the world, and the only way that this message can have the affect spoken of in Revelation 14:6-12 is if we are filled with the Spirit of Christ. May you turn away from the voice of men and heed the message of the Faithful and True Witness today. God bless,

Video of the Week The Paradigm Shift - Part 1 - The Trinity Doctrine Exposed A powerful message from Nader Mansour on how the trinity doctrine became part of the Seventh-day Adventist church.