Fall 1983
Coming to Know Him
Sergio Valori
Pastor

There is an abundance of teaching given on Jesus Christ in the earth today more so than ever before. Yet, there is a scarcity of the number of people who truly know Him. We so need to have a knowledge of the ways of God, for this guides us on a path to knowing Him.

Let us take a close look at the early spiritual walk of Saul in 1 Samuel, chapters nine and ten. We think of Saul as the man who missed God, and he clearly did miss God’s best for his life, due to his own disobedience and hardening of heart. However, as we read these chapters, we can learn much as to the ways of God in His apprehension upon our own lives. In reference to Saul, God chose him to rule over Israel, for these people were demanding a king. Although God desired that they be content to have Himself as their king, He responded to their cry for an earthly ruler.

In the beginning verses of chapter nine, Saul’s father had lost his donkeys and had sent his son out after them. We note a long search with no good result (verses 4, 5). Finally, the servant of Saul suggests a man of God, a prophet (Samuel) that could possibly help them. In this we see God setting up a circumstance, a problem we can’t solve, which draws us to Him. In verses fifteen and sixteen God told Samuel: “Tomorrow I will send a man to you.” Here, God created a problem. Let us face reality. Until we are beset with needs, we don’t really turn to God. God has to create problems we can’t solve, or He makes good use of a situation in which He was not involved. When we turn to Him, He’s waiting for us. He knows when we are coming. In the scripture, Saul’s thinking was solely on the donkeys: God had something else in mind. He is more interested in us fellowshipping Him, than us fellowshipping our problem!

We may say we’ve already come to Jesus, but He wants to bring us fully to Him. Thus this illustration may be repeated over and over in our lives, with God allowing problems, or deliberately creating them—not to show His magnificence in how He can resolve a situation, but to draw us to Himself.

Let us stop a moment and contemplate this subject. There is a difference between looking to God to solve our problem and getting into fellowship with Him as a person; and we can miss as Saul did. It is one thing to bring God into our lives so that we can be blessed or be more comfortable, but God is concerned about altering our lives—transforming us—elevating us up into Him. We can live in a much lower plane than God has destined us to live. God is not a hard, calloused God who is not interested in our needs. He knows and is moved with compassion. But God wants to raise us and get us taken up with His eternal purposes. These circumstances He uses as His drawing power to get us to fellowship Him. If everything went smoothly, we would fall short of pressing into the kingdom of God.

In chapter nine, verse nineteen, Samuel tells Saul to come and eat with him (fellowship him) as our Lord is calling us to do likewise with Him as a person. In verse twenty, Samuel assures Saul the donkeys are found! “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and all these things (the donkeys) will be added unto you.”

Before continuing in the story, let us look at the different realms symbolized in the tabernacle of the Old Testament, for they are clearly defined. The outer court is where our needs are met: a blessing realm. In that place, God is known for what He can do for us. The Holy Place is the place of service, where we can become so occupied in working for Him that we never come to know Him. The Holy of Holies is where the person of God comes down off the Mercy Seat and communes with the priest face-to-face. When Jesus rent the veil for us, He opened the way for us to come and meet our God as did the priest of old.

Continuing in the scripture, we see in 1 Samuel 9:22 that Samuel took Saul into the parlor and gave him a special place to sit. There is that inner place where we can sit and come to hear the voice of God. If you are sensing the drawing power of God on our life, you are a blessed person. We must set our own burdens aside and come into His presence, for there is a special portion reserved for each of us, if we will respond to His call (1 Sam. 9:24). The shoulder portion was reserved for the priest, and this special portion was being presented before Saul. We tend to drift into aimlessness, and it often takes a special crisis to awaken us to the special purpose God has for each one of us.

Then Samuel bids Saul, “Stand thou still awhile, that I may shew thee the word of God” (1 Sam. 9:27). In other words, be stilled before the Lord, and lay aside our busy, natural life and even our ministry, that He can bring us into a new relationship with Him—one we have never before known.

1 Samuel, chapter ten, begins with Samuel taking a vial of oil and anointing Saul. Now comes the revelation of his calling: called to the throne of Israel to be king. In 1 Corinthians 6:2-3 Paul is correcting and exhorting God’s people, when he found one brother taking another to court. He chastised them for such actions: for not being able to judge the smallest matters, when our calling is to judge nations and angels. It is a knowledge of who we are that causes us to rightly live and behave. Every bit of territory in our lives has to be conquered by Jesus Christ. Our lives have to be above reproach, where the devil can find no ground to accuse us. Emphasis in the kingdom of God is on character: he that doeth the will of the Father. There is order and government and purity in His kingdom; and we need to be clothed with his nature, and are being groomed for a place to rule and reign with Him.

Verse six reads, “And the Spirit of the Lord will come upon thee and thou shalt prophesy with them, and shalt be turned into another man.” Verse nine says, “And it was so, that when he had turned his back to go from Samuel, God gave him another heart.” As Saul was anointed into God’s purposes and he clearly heard the call and received it all, he became a new person—God’s man—with a new heart toward God. This singular experience turned and changed this man, although he later hardened that heart. Yet, this has great symbolism for us; for as we are open to God, and these turnings take place in our lives, we are changed from glory to glory.

There is still another thought in relation to Saul’s turning experience. In Ezekiel 11:19-20 God promises for His remnant, “I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you: and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh: that they may walk in my statues and keep mine ordinances, and do them: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God.” God is interested in changing us into another man. It is a turning point that permanently alters us; where the Spirit reigns supreme and we are led by the Spirit of God, ruled by His guidance and moved by His word. God not only wants to cleanse our inner man of carnality, but give us a new heart that is full of the glory and knowledge of God.

The father desires that we might be lifted up out of the narrowness of self and our little problems, for He is looking for a vast family of sons to fill the earth with a people conformed to His likeness. This is the glory of God on the earth as the waters cover the sea; this is the new birth of a dying world.