THE ANOINTING TEST, NO. 3
Men, how sad it was for Israel to be under the leadership of king Saul after the Spirit of the Lord departed from him and an evil spirit was permitted by God to trouble him (1 Samuel 16:14). We read that the evil spirit would only depart from Saul when David (the anointed one) played his anointed music in his presence.
Saul became a hindrance and trouble to all Israel and his own household after the Lord departed from him. How difficult it must have been for Jonathon to see the way his father became so jealous and hateful to the anointed David whom Jonathan loved as his own soul (1 Samuel 18:3).
After David had sinned with Bathsheba he was very concerned that he might end up like Saul. David knew he could be killed by Saul because of the evil spirit that troubled him. In Psalm 51:10-12 he cries out to God: "Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of my salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit."
Men, as fathers and leaders of our households, we must always have about us the unmistakable fragrance of the anointing of Christ's presence.
2 Corinthians 2:14, 15 says, "Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savor of his knowledge by us IN EVERY PLACE. For we are unto God a sweet savor of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish." The J. B. Phillips' translation says, "We Christians have the unmistakable "scent" of Christ."
Men, for the sake of our families, we fathers must seek the Lord to be, at all times, filled with the Holy Spirit's presence, fragrance, and power. We owe it to our children more than anything else.
Be encouraged.
Colin Campbell
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