To Encourage You

1 Samuel 10:6 “Then the Spirit of the Lord will rush upon you, and you will . . . be turned into another man.”

Did you ever, as a child, stick your finger into a light socket?  If you did, you’ll remember it, for a sudden encounter with electricity has a profound effect on you.  Have you ever been in a flood?  Isn’t the power of water incredible?  Have you ever burned yourself in an accident?  That’s another thing that’s hard to forget, for fire is a force not to be reckoned with.  Yet, so many people claim to be Christians, which is to claim they’ve had an encounter with the most powerful being in all the universe, and yet to look at their lives it may be very difficult to see that that encounter has had any effect whatsoever upon them.  Is this possible?  Can such claims be true? 

In the verse above we have Samuel prophesying that Saul was about to have an encounter with the Holy Spirit.  He tells him that this encounter would have a profound effect on him. He tells him that the impact would be so great that he would “be turned into another man.”  This reminds me of another person who once had such an encounter, i.e., Saul of the New Testament, the man who would become Paul.  Here was one who was, in essence, a terrorist, who went about persecuting Christians to the death. But then he met the risen Jesus and was profoundly changed as a result.  He was so evil before he met Christ that when the believers heard about his conversion, they had trouble believing it.  When Ananias was told by God Himself to go to Saul, he said this: “Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints at Jerusalem. And here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on your name” (Act 9:13-14). In response, the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel.”  When other believers heard that Saul had started preaching about Christ, “all who heard him were amazed and said, ‘Is not this the man who made havoc in Jerusalem of those who called upon this name? And has he not come here for this purpose, to bring them bound before the chief priests?’” (Acts 9:21). Later we are told, “And when he (i.e., Paul) had come to Jerusalem, he attempted to join the disciples. And they were all afraid of him, for they did not believe that he was a disciple” (Acts 9:26). 

But over time, Paul proved himself, and this one who had been one of the greatest enemies of the church became one of the greatest saints that has ever lived.  It was this same transforming encounter with the power of God that Paul then spoke about to the church at Corinth when he told them, “Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Corinthians 6:9-11).  In other words, it is impossible to have our lives impacted by the greatest power in the universe and not be changed by it.  If anyone has been born of the Spirit, they will be profoundly and fundamentally transformed.  As the Holy Spirit has told us in His Word, “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17).

So, are you a Christian? Have you been changed? Or is your life the same as it has always been, although, if asked, you’d say that you’re one who believes in Christ?  Have you truly met the most powerful being in the universe?  Has that encounter changed your life? If not, you may want to reevaluate your claims, for the most dangerous deception is when one is deceiving his or her own self.