13 So Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the presence of his brothers, and from that day on the Spirit of the Lord came upon David in power.
—The words from 1 Samuel 16:13
In 1 Samuel 16 the Lord gave the young shepherd boy, David, the dream of being King of Israel. Saul was the reigning king, but because of disobedience, Saul forfeited his right to be king. So the Lord sent the prophet Samuel to Jesse’s house to anoint the next king.
Pastor Bill Shereos1 writes of this incident:
David was the youngest child of Jesse and not well regarded. So when the prophet Samuel went to Jesse’s house to “anoint the person God would point out to him,” David’s father didn’t even bother to have David in the house at the time. David’s father, Jesse, thought David couldn’t possibly be the one to be anointed, because David was young. In addition, David was just a shepherd and didn’t have the stature of his older brothers. Nevertheless, the prophet Samuel asked Jesse to bring David into the house and Samuel anointed David, and a dream was birthed in David’s life.
Samuel thinks he spies the one God has chosen of Jesse’s sons to become king. But each time God says, “No!” When God chooses the least of the brothers, the youngest, the most immature, the least likely to succeed, the one no one else would ever have picked, we see the true measure of God’s majestic power.
The Scripture verse at the beginning of this blog post says it all. Once Samuel annointed David, “...from that day on the Spirit of the Lord came upon David in power.”
Whether you have a conscious awareness of it or not, this is exactly what has happened to you. When you acknowledged the gift that God has given you in Christ Jesus; when you accepted and affirmed that before the foundation of the earth God chose you—yes, YOU!—to belong to Him; when you accepted the reality that God sent His only Son, Jesus, to inhabit human form, to die on a cruel cross of Roman torture paying the penalty for your sins, and then rose again from the dead—when you accept that reality, God sent the Holy Spirit to dwell within you, just as He sent the Holy Spirit to dwell within David. The power of the Holy Spirit—the very power of God—resides within you.
God cares about every aspect of your life. There is no detail of your life so small that God will ignore it. He cares about every aspect of your life. And He extends His hand of mercy and grace on your life continually. That means He never stops loving you, never stops caring about you, never stops helping you, never stops guiding you, never stops enabling you, never stops placing His dreams in your heart and mind.
And not only does God place His dreams within you, He empowers you to realize the fulfillment of those dreams. He is at work within you right this very moment. He is working out the details, making the plans, putting a support structure in place, gathering the resources, installing the mechanism, creating the process, assuring the success of the dreams He has given you. He not only wants you to dream His dreams, He wants you to recognize that He is at work to make those dreams come alive.
I cannot stress to you enough how important it is for you to understand that you are NEVER alone! God is always present with you. In fact, theologically we use the term “perpetually.” God is perpetually present with us.
That word “perpetually” has some interesting aspects to it. It means “over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over...” Well, you get the idea. God is perpetually present. He never, ever leaves us. He sticks so close to us that we are not separate-able from God. Let me repeat that. He sticks so close to us that we are not separate-able from God.
Romans 8:38-30 sums this up quite well:
38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
God’s love is represented in and through His perpetual presence in our daily lives. He’s always with us. And He’s not just standing by watching us. He is actively working to enable us to see our dreams come true.
One of the most significant barriers to trusting God with our future is the strong feeling many of us have that we are alone. Have you ever felt all alone? Have you ever felt truly alone—abandoned—left behind—forsaken?We’ll, on nothing less than the absolute authority of God’s Word, I say to you today, “If you have become a child of the Most High God through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, you are never, ever alone! God is always with you in the deepest, closest, most intimate way possible. You are never alone!” God’s promise is His Presence. Yes! God’s promise is His Presence. Listen to these affirming verses of Scripture:
Deuteronomy 31:6—Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified ... for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.
Deuteronomy 31:8—The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.
Joshua 1:5—No one will be able to stand up against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you.
Hebrews 13:5b—...God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”
Today, praise God that He has chosen you to belong to Him. And, praise God that He will never leave you, nor forsake you.
Will you pray with me?
Thank You, God, for loving us. Thank You for sending Jesus to be our Savior. Thank You for sending us Your Holy Spirit to dwell within us.
Father, we praise You that you have given us the promise of Your Presence. You have said, ’I will never leave you, nor forsak you.”
Thank you for the gift of Your Holy Spirit to lead us along the pathway You have laid out before us. Help us to put our faith and trust completely in You. Teach us how to trust You, as we faithfully study Your Scriptures.
Thank You for Your power and for Your wisdom. We choose to rely on You to enable us in our quest for obedience to Your Word and to Your will for our lives. We praise You for the protection You give us each day. And, thank You for hearing our prayer in and through the precious Name of Your Son, our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
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1 Bill Shereos is the Senior Pastor of First Evangelical Free Church in Chicago, IL
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