Thank God for gathering us together here tonight.
You still remember that, many times when we were together, we fellowshipped concerning the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Here you find a trio: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God is the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob.
We find that the lives of these three people are very closely related, and the work of God in calling these three is definitely in a sequence.
In the life of Abraham, we see the altar, which represents the cross. In the life of Isaac, we see the well, which represents the Spirit of life. And in the life of Jacob, we see the pillar, which represents the testimony.
So you find that out of the cross comes abundant life, and out of abundant life you have the testimony of Jesus. These three people represent a trail. There is a very definite sequence that you can see in these lives.
Now, you know that there are a number of people whose lives are so related. All the work of God upon these lives has a sequence. You can see very definitely what God is doing.
So this time, as we are together again, we would like to see another trio: Samuel, David, and Solomon.
You know, God promised Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob the inheritance. That was God’s promise to them. So through Moses, God brought His people out of Egypt, and through Joshua, God led His people into the promised land.
When you come to the end of the Book of Judges, and up to the time of Samuel, you find in Acts 13 that after about four hundred and fifty years God raised up Samuel. The people of Israel had never really possessed their full inheritance.
They were delivered out of Egypt, and they moved into the promised land. But the promise that God had given to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob was never fully possessed by the people. On the contrary, you find that their spiritual condition, and of course their political condition, were going down and down and down.
They were still not possessing their full portion. They were oppressed by their neighbours. Their condition was very poor, spiritually speaking as well as physically speaking.
It was as if God’s promise was not going to be fulfilled through His people.
But when they were at the lowest ebb, God began the work of recovery. God began to raise up three people: Samuel, David, and Solomon. Through these three people, God was able not merely to restore what had been lost, but to recover His original promise. Finally, the children of Israel came into the full possession that God had intended.
You know, when God does any work of recovery, He recovers more than that which was lost. He always recovers back to His original purpose and intention. That is what you find in these three lives. God raised up these three people to bring in that full recovery into the full purpose of God.
So I feel that probably it is of the Lord that we should spend some time together looking into these three lives—not studying them merely as life histories, but studying them to gather some important principles out of which God today will be able to do His work of recovery.
Now, as you all know, brothers and sisters, we are living in days of recovery. Much that God originally intended for His church seems to have been lost. But before the return of our Lord Jesus, there is bound to be recovery—not merely to restore what has been lost, but to recover God’s original intention concerning His people today; that is, concerning His church.
But to do that, God has to raise up men to work with Him. Now, this is a marvellous thing. In the work of the old creation, God did not require any cooperation from man. When God made the creation, He did it all alone. That was, of course, before man.
But in the work of the new creation, God always seeks for man. If He can get the right person, He will do His work. So, with God, man is more important than work. No work of God can be done if there is no man of God; but if God has got His man, then His work shall be done.
So I believe, brothers and sisters, this is what God is looking for today. He is looking for men. He is looking for a company of people whom He can use in recovering His original purpose concerning the church. I do believe that it is our desire that we should be such people.
So this time, we would like to study together a little on this matter. Let us read a few passages from 1 Samuel.
And Hannah rose up after they had eaten in Shiloh, and after they had drunk. Now Eli the priest sat upon his seat by the doorpost of the temple of the Lord.
And she was in bitterness of soul, and prayed unto the Lord, and wept sore.
And she vowed a vow, and said, O Lord of hosts, if Thou wilt indeed look on the affliction of Thy handmaid, and remember me, and not forget Thy handmaid, but wilt give unto Thy handmaid a man child, then I will give him unto the Lord all the days of his life, and there shall no razor come upon his head.— 1 Samuel 1:9-11
And the child Samuel ministered unto the Lord before Eli. And the word of the Lord was precious in those days; there was no frequent vision.
And it came to pass at that time, when Eli was laid down in his place—now his eyes had begun to wax dim, that he could not see—and the lamp of God was not yet gone out, and Samuel was laid down in the temple of the Lord, where the ark of God was; that the Lord called Samuel: and he said, Here am I.
And he ran unto Eli, and said, Here am I; for thou calledst me. And he said, I called not; lie down again. And he went and lay down.
And the Lord called yet again, Samuel. And Samuel arose and went to Eli, and said, Here am I; for thou calledst me. And he answered, I called not, my son; lie down again.
Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, neither was the word of the Lord yet revealed unto him.
And the Lord called Samuel again the third time. And he arose and went to Eli, and said, Here am I; for thou calledst me. And Eli perceived that the Lord had called the child.
Therefore Eli said unto Samuel, Go, lie down: and it shall be, if He call thee, that thou shalt say, Speak, Lord; for Thy servant heareth. So Samuel went and lay down in his place.
And the Lord came, and stood, and called as at other times, Samuel, Samuel. Then Samuel said, Speak; for Thy servant heareth.— 1 Samuel 3:1-10
And the men of Kiriath-jearim came, and fetched up the ark of the Lord, and brought it into the house of Abinadab in the hill, and sanctified Eleazar his son to keep the ark of the Lord.
And it came to pass, from the day that the ark abode in Kiriath-jearim, that the time was long; for it was twenty years: and all the house of Israel lamented after the Lord.
And Samuel spake unto all the house of Israel, saying, If ye do return unto the Lord with all your heart, then put away the foreign gods and the Ashtaroth from among you, and direct your hearts unto the Lord, and serve Him only; and He will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines.
Then the children of Israel did put away the Baalim and the Ashtaroth, and served the Lord only.
And Samuel said, Gather all Israel to Mizpah, and I will pray unto the Lord for you.— 1 Samuel 7:1-5
And Samuel called unto the Lord; and the Lord sent thunder and rain that day: and all the people greatly feared the Lord and Samuel.
And all the people said unto Samuel, Pray for thy servants unto the Lord thy God, that we die not; for we have added unto all our sins this evil, to ask us a king.
And Samuel said unto the people, Fear not: ye have indeed done all this evil; yet turn not aside from following the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart; and turn ye not aside: for then should ye go after vain things which cannot profit nor deliver, for they are vain.
For the Lord will not forsake His people for His great name’s sake, because it hath pleased the Lord to make you a people unto Himself.
Moreover as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you: but I will instruct you in the good and the right way.
Only fear the Lord, and serve Him in truth with all your heart; for consider how great things He hath done for you.
But if ye shall still do wickedly, ye shall be consumed, both ye and your king.— 1 Samuel 12:18-25
God raised Samuel as a vessel for recovery.
Samuel was a man who saw and who heard. He was a man of vision and revelation. He was a man of prayer.
We find that God used Samuel not only to turn the tide, but even to change the times. It was through Samuel that the period of the judges came to an end, and the day of the kingdom was properly introduced.
Now, if you read the Book of Judges, you find that during that long period God raised up judges to deliver His people from time to time. But the spiritual condition of the children of Israel as a whole is summed up in the last sentence of the Book of Judges:
In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes.
— Judges 21:25
In other words, during the time of the judges, the people of God were scattered people. They were not united or unified. There was a definite weakness, an inherent weakness, in the system of the judges.
It was through Samuel that the time was changed. He was the last judge of Israel, and he was the one who brought in the kingship. Under King David and King Solomon, you find that the whole nation was united as one and was restored to God’s full intention.
So, brothers and sisters, as you read the life of Samuel, you find one point in the forefront: he was a man of vision, or a man of revelation.
Now, as you know, revelation is the first basic thing in the things of God. If there is no revelation, there can be no beginning to spiritual things. Everything that pertains to God begins with revelation.
You never have the true beginning of a thing if you do not see God’s purpose, if you do not see our condition, and if you do not see what God is after. Then we miss the whole point.
The first basic thing in the spiritual life is this matter of revelation. You have to see. That is the reason Samuel represents revelation. In his life, you can see the principles that govern revelation: how revelation comes into our lives, what its function is, and how revelation is connected with other things.
So, brothers and sisters, let us make this clear at the very outset: in the recovery work of God, the first essential thing is revelation.
Now, of course, just to put in a word of caution: by revelation or vision in the Scripture, it does not mean something that you see physically. That is not the basic thought of vision or revelation.
The concept of vision or revelation in Scripture is an unveiling of God’s mind to your spirit. When, deep down in your spirit, you are able to see God’s aim, to see God’s mind, and to see God’s heart, that is revelation.
Moreover, revelation is a continuous process in our lives, yet it is never something extra or additional to what God has already given in the Scripture.
We are not talking about new revelation that cannot be found in the Scriptures. No. If anyone should pretend to have such revelation, he must be a false prophet.
Revelation may be new to you, and it should be fresh to those who receive it. Yet you find that it is already in the Scripture. But the Holy Spirit renews it to our spirit. Therefore, it seems new to those who receive it. It is new, and yet it is nothing outside the Scripture.
So I think if we remember these words of caution, then we will not go astray. But anyway, I would just say once again that in the work of recovery, the first important thing is revelation.
Without revelation, there can be no recovery. The people that God would use today are those who receive from God and who can see something of God. That is in the life of Samuel.
We must know something of the background. I think the background of Samuel is found in the first few verses of 1 Samuel 3.
And the child Samuel ministered unto the Lord before Eli. And the word of the Lord was precious in those days; there was no frequent vision.
— 1 Samuel 3:1
The word of the Lord was rare in those days, and vision was not frequent. That was not God’s desire.
It was not God’s will that He should not speak. It was not that He had no desire to reveal Himself to His people. God wanted to speak. God wanted to reveal Himself to His people.
But why was the word of the Lord rare, and why was vision not frequent? It was not because God did not want to speak. It was because God could not speak. The ears of the people were dull, their hearts were filled with idols, and their eyes were blind. There was no condition in which God could freely reveal Himself.
Then it came to pass that Eli lay in his place, and his eyes had begun to grow dim so that he could not see. Eli was the priest at that time. He was supposed to lead the people of Israel, but he was an old man lying in his bed, and his eyes had grown dim.
Now, it is a little picture. He was a blind leader leading blind people, and they were all heading into the pit. The condition of Eli was the condition of the priesthood, the leadership, and the people of Israel. They were spiritually blind.
And the lamp of God had not yet gone out. The lamp was not supposed to go out, but it was burning very dimly. What a condition!
Brothers and sisters, when you read these words, you can visualise the spiritual condition of the children of Israel at that time. The condition was at its lowest ebb. It is true that the lamp of God had not quite gone out, but it had almost gone out.
You find that the priesthood was an abomination in the eyes of God and in the eyes of the people, because Eli’s two sons were sons of Belial. They were priests, but they caused the people of God to stumble.
You also find that the people of God had become very superstitious. They thought that by bringing the ark of the covenant into battle, they could overcome their enemies. That was superstition. Their own condition was contrary to God.
Finally, even the ark of the covenant of God—the glory of God—was taken captive by the enemy. Brothers and sisters, can you find a situation or condition lower than that?
It seemed as if God’s promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob could never be fulfilled. It seemed as if the people of Israel would lose the inheritance. But it became a matter of the honour of the Lord.
God could not deny Himself. Men may fail, but God remains faithful. He cannot deny Himself.
So here we find that, even in such a condition, God began secretly to prepare a vessel for recovery. In every move of God, before He moves in a situation, He begins preparing suitable vessels for Himself.
Samuel was the very opposite of the condition of the children of Israel at that time. When the word of the Lord was rare and vision was not frequent among the children of Israel, Samuel was a man of vision. Samuel saw. His eyes were not blind. It was through him that the testimony of God was recovered.
First, let us consider Samuel’s birth. How was Samuel born? Samuel was born through the prayer of Hannah. Samuel was born supernaturally.
God had shut up Hannah’s womb. Hannah means grace. God shut up Hannah, and she could not give birth. Because of that, she was criticised, persecuted, and ridiculed by Peninnah. Her soul was put into deep distress.
Every time the family went to Shiloh, to the house of God, to worship God, it was a time when she was deeply distressed and persecuted. She wept much before God, and she prayed much. She had a need.
In order to have a need, it means that you have a cry to God. You cannot simply shut up your heart before God. Hannah was so desperate that she made a vow before God:
If Thou wilt give me a man child, I will give him back to Thee for life.
Maybe at the beginning Hannah only wanted a son in order to be delivered from her affliction and from the persecution that she suffered. Certainly, if only God would give her a son, her affliction would be gone and her shame would turn to glory.
But as she prayed and prayed and prayed, you find that she must have been instructed of the Lord. In the beginning, she was asking for a son for herself. But in the end, out of desperation, she was asking the Lord to give her a son for the Lord.
Remember, Hannah had a need. In the supplying of Hannah’s need, God was able to supply His own need. These two needs seemed to merge into one.
You find something similar at the beginning of the New Testament in the case of Zacharias and Elizabeth. They had no child, and they were both old. They had prayed that God would give them a son. They prayed and prayed and prayed, but there was no answer.
Then one day Zacharias was given the privilege of burning incense in the holy temple. It was a high privilege. He represented the whole people of Israel, presenting their need to God and praying for the nation.
The Bible does not tell us what he prayed at that moment, but we can be sure that, representing the whole children of Israel, he was not praying merely for himself. He was praying on behalf of the nation of Israel.
What was the need of that nation? A Messiah. Israel was under the control of the Roman Empire. They did not have liberty. They were looking forward to the hope of Israel in the person of the Messiah.
Then the angel appeared to Zacharias and said, “Thy prayer is heard.” How was it answered? “Thou shalt have a son.” And that son would be the forerunner, preparing the way for the Messiah.
So, you find that in Zacharias the occasion of his need and the pattern of God’s need were brought together. God’s need was supplied.
Brothers and sisters, we have many needs as children of God. Why should we have need? “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.” It seems as if God knows what we need before we ask. Why then should we ask?
Brothers and sisters, very often we try to separate our need from God’s need, and that is the whole problem. Because we see only our own need, God cannot hear our prayer in the fullest sense. If God were to give us only what we selfishly seek, we would become the most selfish people in the world.
But do you know why God sometimes allows us to have needs? He is trying to show us that our need is the occasion for the supply of His need. Through our need, He is able to supply His own need. He is able to bring in His purpose, His plan, His will, His kingdom, and His glory.
When you can see this, then your need becomes an occasion for God’s glory. We will no longer be struggling merely over a little personal need of ours. We can see that it is God who shut up the womb. Why? Because God has a need, and that need can only be supplied through our need in prayer.
This is a principle. When we pray, it seems as if we are troubling God with our own needs. But actually, it is only as we begin to see that God has needs in our needs, and ask Him to supply those needs for His sake, that our prayer becomes effective.
Samuel was born out of the asking, the prayer, and the prevailing of his mother.
One thing concerning revelation or vision: it is given to us sovereignly by God. In other words, you can do nothing to produce revelation. You can do many things, but in the matter of revelation, what can you do?
Sometimes brothers and sisters come to me and ask, “Brother, how can we get revelation? How can we see vision? How can we see?” The only answer I can give them is that we cannot do anything.
If it pleases God to reveal His Son in you, thank God for that. Revelation is sovereign. It comes from God. It begins with God. That is all. If it pleases Him, He will reveal; you cannot produce it by yourself.
That is absolutely true. But at the same time, why does God give more revelation to certain people and less to other people? Is that partiality? Certainly not.
You find, on the other hand, that revelation is given in answer to prayer. Do you remember the prayer of Paul in the Book of Ephesians?
That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him.
— Ephesians 1:17
Now, if revelation were completely independent of man, Paul would not have prayed this prayer for the Ephesian believers. What would be the use of such prayer? But Paul prayed that God would give them a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the full knowledge of Him.
“You shall seek, and you shall find. Ask, and it shall be given unto you.” It is not that God does not want to give this thing to you. Revelation is sovereign, but it is the sovereign pleasure of God to reveal.
So what is required of you? Do you want it? Then you seek it. Do you pray? Do you prevail? Is it precious to you? That is the question.
Why do you desire revelation or vision? Do you desire to have revelation that you may become a great man or a great woman? Your prayer will not be heard.
But if you seek revelation to see and know God’s will, God’s eternal purpose, God’s counsel, and God’s plan—if you seek to have light, not for your own sake but that God’s need may be met in this day—then your prayers will be heard.
Brothers and sisters, there is no need greater than this: that God’s people may see.
Everywhere you go, you get an impression. You find many of God’s people who love the Lord, but somehow they do not see. Because of that, you find God’s people are divided.
In Proverbs 29:18 it says:
Where there is no vision, the people cast off restraint.
— Proverbs 29:18
Or, to put it another way, the people perish. Why is it that God’s people today seem to cast off restraint? Why are God’s people scattered and dissipated?
You see many of God’s people being stirred up and raised by God. They love Him, and yet after a while they become dissipated. Why? No vision. They do not know where they are going. The blind are leading the blind, and everybody falls into the pit.
What is necessary today is revelation: spiritual insight and spiritual discernment—those who can see God’s mind, God’s will, and God’s purpose.
Brothers and sisters, nothing unites more than vision and revelation. Many things that are good divide us, but vision and revelation unite us. This is the need today for the church of God.
But how does it come? God is willing, but are we seeking? Do we see that our need is God’s way of bringing us to see? Do we see that in seeking revelation, it is for God’s need and not for our own honour?
Do we see that it is through the travail of our souls that we enter into revelation? It is not something cheap. It is something costly. That is how Samuel was born.
What is revelation for? It is for the purpose of God.
After Samuel was born, and after he was weaned, Hannah fulfilled her promise. Samuel was lent to the Lord for life. She brought Samuel to the temple and left him there to minister in the house of God before Eli.
If you read the second chapter through the third chapter, you find that the boy grew. He grew before God in wisdom and in favour with God and men. As a little boy, he was clothed with an ephod, a priestly garment, and he ministered in the temple unto the Lord before Eli.
But he had no personal knowledge of God yet. The word of God had not yet come to him, and he did not yet know the Lord.
Then one day, while he was sleeping, God called, “Samuel.” He heard God’s voice, but he did not know that God was calling him. So he got up and ran to Eli, his master, and said, “Here am I; thou calledst me.” But Eli said, “No, my son, I have not called thee. Go back and lie down.”
The second time, Samuel again ran to Eli. And the third time, Samuel still did not know the voice of God because he had no experience.
But Eli, however weak he was and however blind he was, still had some experience of God. He trembled for the ark of God. So when Samuel came the third time, Eli knew that God was calling the boy.
Therefore, he told Samuel, “Go, lie down; and if thou hearest the Lord call thee, say, ‘Speak, Lord; for Thy servant heareth.’” This was the way that Samuel first heard the voice of God.
From that time onward, the word of Samuel never fell to the ground. God saw to it that the words He gave to Samuel were fulfilled. So all Israel knew that God had established Samuel as a prophet of God.
God began to appear again in Shiloh and to speak again because He had found a vessel.
Brothers and sisters, it has pleased God to reveal His Son in us. We are children of light. We are no longer in darkness. We are supposed to be people who see and who hear.
This is our birthright. Why? Because in Him, that is, in Christ, is life, and the life is the light of men. If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.
Remember this: we who have become children of light should have light all the time. We should be walking in the light all the time. We should have revelation all the time. We should be able to see all the time. This is our birthright.
But in our experience, you find that revelation increases in the measure of the increase of our life with the Lord. The boy has to grow.
As Samuel grew in life, as he ministered to God under Eli, then God began to call him and to speak to him.
In reading the first two or three chapters of 1 Samuel, it is almost like reading Luke 2 concerning our Lord Jesus when He was a boy. The child grew in grace and wisdom and stature, in favour with God and man.
It is true that revelation is our birthright. God does not mean that we should walk in darkness. God wants us to see His purpose, His heart, His mind, what He is doing, what He intends to do, and what He is after. God wants us to see that because we are children of light.
But that does not automatically mean that you will see light. It depends very much upon your growth in your life with the Lord.
Samuel waited upon the Lord. That is what “ministered unto the Lord” means. He waited upon the Lord. As a little boy, he grew before God. There was that life before God, and as he grew, God began to call and speak to him.
How important it is for us to see that we need to grow in our spiritual life. How do we grow in spiritual life? By waiting upon the Lord.
In the temple, that is to say, by having a hidden life with the Lord. As we commune with Him, as we abide in Christ, as we live before Him, and as we wait upon Him, you find gradually that our life grows. As our life grows, revelation increases.
Not only that, Samuel, strangely enough, was trained under Eli. Who was Eli? As we have just mentioned, Eli was an old man, blind spiritually. Yet it pleased God to put the vessel of His choice under the direction of one who had little spiritual sight.
Sometimes Samuel might have thought, “Eli, what are you? How can you have authority over me? The word of God does not come to you any more. You are blind. How can you help me?”
But here you find the obedience and the diligence of the boy Samuel. You know, when a boy falls asleep, he can hardly hear anybody calling. And if he gets up the first time and finds that there is nothing to it, certainly he will neglect the second time.
But here we find the obedience of Samuel. Whenever he heard the call, he got up. He went to Eli and said, “Here I am; you called.” How obedient he was! How diligent he was!
He was under training and discipline. Through training and discipline, he was able to grow in the Lord. Through obedience and diligence, he was able to grow up.
Brothers and sisters, in growing spiritually, God not only puts us before Himself; very often God puts us under somebody. That somebody may not be perfect. No one has ever been perfect.
Yet somehow, in that person there may be some experience that can help. Other people’s experience can help us to grow in the Lord—but remember, only indirectly, not directly.
Nobody’s experience can help you directly, not even your own experience. Experience is past history. Our past experience came from past revelation. God revealed something to us, and so we experienced something. Therefore, experience is actually the history of past revelation.
Experience helps to direct us to God, but it cannot substitute for God’s present revelation. God has to lead you on. If you depend upon past experience, you will remain behind while God is going forward. You will be living in the past, however much revelation may have been in that past experience.
But experience does help us to direct our attention to God. Because we have some experience, we will go to the Lord and say, “Lord, here am I. Speak, for Thy servant heareth.”
But old Eli could only direct Samuel to go to God. He could not give Samuel the oracle of God. It had to come from God.
Brothers and sisters, the past experience of God’s people, and even your own past experience, does help. It helps to direct us to God and to seek God. But remember, it helps only indirectly.
Sometimes God so arranges that, while we are in the process of growing, He puts us under the authority of those who are older and perhaps more experienced, that we may learn obedience and diligence. If we learn in that way, then you find the word of God comes to us.
In other words, revelation increases as life grows.
By the way, if you want to know more about this matter of authority, there is a new book here. I am not advertising it, but I feel that it is something very important to us today. If you read it, you may find more. I just mention it.
Anyway, here you find how Samuel began to grow and became able to receive the word of God—more revelation from God—as he grew in life. This is also true with us today.
After the ark was returned from the Philistines, it was kept in the house of Abinadab in Kiriath-jearim. During those twenty years, the heart of the people of Israel began to turn to the Lord.
Now, how did that happen? I do believe that it was probably due to Samuel’s work during those twenty years. God was speaking to Samuel, and Samuel was giving God’s word to God’s people. It was through Samuel that the heart of the children of Israel began to turn to God.
So, as the people of God returned to God, Samuel said, “All right, let us gather together at Mizpah before the Lord, and I will pray for you.”
You remember how the people gathered together. They made a covenant with God. Then the Philistines came to fight against them. The people asked Samuel to pray and to offer an offering. He prayed, and God sent thunder. The Philistines were routed before the children of Israel.
It is interesting that the Philistines came no more to oppress the children of Israel. Samuel set up a stone and called it Ebenezer, which means, “Hitherto hath the Lord helped us.”
Now you find that, in this period of time, through this vessel of revelation and vision, God was able to speak and to reveal Himself. Through that, several things were accomplished.
First, the people of Israel began to turn to the Lord. Is that not a big thing? They turned to God.
Second, they were delivered out of the hand of their enemies.
Third, they were united once again under the leadership of Samuel.
Fourth, through Samuel, a new system—a kingship—was introduced. That is to say, a new stability was introduced into the nation of Israel.
Of course, throughout that time, you find Samuel was faithful to God. He was faithful to the revelation that he received from God.
Because he was faithful, sometimes you find that he was very firm, as in the case of Saul. Naturally, he loved Saul very much. But when Saul went against God, Samuel had to declare, “God hath rejected him.”
God said, “I have found a man after Mine own heart.” And Samuel anointed David. Throughout his life, Samuel was faithful to the revelation that God had given him.
Now, brothers and sisters, what is the effect of revelation? What does God really want to obtain through revelation?
First of all, revelation from God turns the heart of God’s people to God.
If there is a so-called revelation that turns people away from God, it is not from God. That is for sure. If it is from God, invariably the effect of revelation will be that the hearts of God’s people are turned to God.
Second, if it is revelation, there is deliverance. We will be delivered from the enemy. The Philistines here represent the flesh, especially deliverance from the oppression of the flesh.
Third, if revelation comes from God, that revelation will unite God’s people. Revelation should not divide God’s people.
It is very tragic to see many people today professing that they have new revelations. But when these new revelations come, they divide God’s people. Is it a revelation from God? Revelation from God unites; it does not divide.
Lastly, revelation always brings in the kingship. In other words, the sum of revelation is Christ. It always brings in Christ. It makes Christ Lord over all. That is revelation.
If a revelation does not bring in the kingship of Christ, it is not from God.
For those who have received revelation, there is a responsibility. The responsibility is to be faithful. We have to be faithful to the revelation that God has given to us. If we are faithful, then God will give us more revelation.
Finally, you see the relationship between revelation and prayer. Samuel was born through the prayer of Hannah, his mother. Samuel was a man of prayer.
When he gathered the people together at Mizpah, he said, “I will pray for you.” When the Philistines came, he prayed to God, and God heard him. When the people of Israel desired a king, he went to God concerning it.
Even when he had to anoint Saul, he did so knowing that Saul was the people’s choice. He knew that God was displeased with it, though God allowed it. Samuel said, “If you turn your heart to the Lord, the Lord will be merciful to you. But I will not cease praying for you. I will show you the good and right way before the Lord.”
You find that throughout Samuel’s life, he was a man of prayer. Of course, in Psalm 99, you find these words:
Moses and Aaron among His priests,
And Samuel among them that call upon His name;
They called upon the Lord, and He answered them.— Psalm 99:6
Samuel—what a man of prayer! Brothers and sisters, revelation and prayer go hand in hand.
Prayer brings in revelation, and revelation produces prayer. The more you receive light from God, the more you should give yourself to prayer, because everything is accomplished by God through prayer.
So Samuel was a man of prayer. How we need to see this!
May God raise up among us today those who are vessels of revelation. But as vessels of revelation, they should be men and women of prayer. If prayer is lacking, then revelation will fall short.
So we do need to look to the Lord not only to give us light, but also to give us burden, that light may become prayer.
So this is the first in that sequence: revelation. And God willing, we do not know, maybe tomorrow morning we will speak on David, and then on Solomon. We find that through these three persons, God’s work of recovery is brought in.
Our heavenly Father, we do praise and thank Thee, because man may fail, but Thou never failest. Thou art faithful to Thy promise.
We praise and thank Thee because Thou art doing the work of recovery today among Thy people. But Thou art looking for vessels of recovery in terms of revelation, of light, of vision, of seeing, of spiritual discernment, and of insight.
O Lord, we do humble ourselves before Thee. We ask Thee, if it please Thee, that Thou wilt make us people who see—not for our sake, but for Thy need to be met.
O Lord, we pray that we may not only be given light, but that we may also be given burden, that we may know how to pray for the revelation which Thou hast given to us.
May Thy will be done. In the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.