Environments and People Whose Passion for the Holy Spirit Is Contagious

When Samuel anoints Saul, he gives him a series of instructions that tell us something about how the Holy Spirit moves in the lives of believers.

The prophet Samuel tells him to set out on his way and continue farther on until he reaches the oak of Tabor. “Three men going up to God,” he says, “will meet you at Bethel, carrying young goats, bread, and a jar of wine. Once they have greeted you, they will give you two loaves of bread, which you shall take from their hands. After that you will come to the hill of God, where the Philistine garrison is. When you enter the town there, you will find a company of prophets coming down from the high place, with a psaltery, tambourine, flute, and harp before them, and they will be prophesying.”

What the prophet Samuel is establishing here is a supernatural atmosphere. It is interesting that the Spirit of God dwells in Samuel, and so Samuel has a tremendously powerful and precise prophetic spirit. He is giving Saul very clear instructions.

Saul must take this road, and when he reaches a certain place, he will find some men who, it says, are on their way to Bethel—they are going up to God at Bethel. It is interesting that Bethel carries echoes of divine visitation in the Old Testament. It is a place where, for example, Jacob had a very powerful encounter with God, where Abraham originally worshiped the Lord and where, after returning from Egypt, he went back to Bethel and worshiped the Lord there once more. Bethel is a supernatural place, a place where God seemed to dwell in a very powerful way.

And these men whom Saul is to meet are going to that place, Bethel; it says they are going up to God. It is as though they are going there to seek something from the Lord. Perhaps they are going there for a revival meeting, or a prayer meeting, or to receive an anointing, but they are going to that place where the Presence of God dwells. Clearly, they are men who know the moving of the Spirit, and God had a mysterious purpose in having Saul receive something from them on his way to his personal encounter with the Holy Spirit.

Often, one of the things we will need most is to spend time with and build relationships with people who have the anointing of the Spirit of the Lord. If you are seeking to have the Spirit of the Lord move in your life, you would do well to associate with people who know the Spirit, people who have God’s energy, people who love the things of the Spirit, who have the wisdom to speak about how the Holy Spirit moves, and who themselves have the Lord’s anointing because they dwell in that supernatural dimension that Bethel exemplifies here.

People say—and I believe it is very true—that the Spirit of God is received more through impartation and by catching it from others than through teaching. A church may have tremendous teaching, tremendous biblical instruction, good sermons, and good discipleship classes, but if it does not also teach people how to come into contact with the bare Holy Spirit of God, how to come into contact with and handle the raw energy of the Holy Spirit, it falls short.

As children of God, we need to seek out settings where the Presence of the Lord moves, where the Presence of God is alive through praise and preaching that glorifies the Holy Spirit, that teaches the people to live in the energy of the Holy Spirit and gives God’s people opportunities to enjoy that energy, which renews them, revives them, heals them, and carries them forward. If you want that fullness of the Holy Spirit, look for a church; find people who love the Spirit of God and have an appetite for the things of the Spirit.

It is not that the Presence of God is absent from other places that do not necessarily have that Pentecostal emphasis, or that God does not love those people, or that they are not truly useful to the Kingdom of God. But I have always believed that God’s perfect desire, and the ideal way to move in the things of the Kingdom of God, is to be in places where the moving of the Holy Spirit is praised, stirred up, and sought.

Imagine how many people today have great godliness but do not know the Power of God. How beautiful it would be if those people, who sometimes have hearts that are deeply spiritual and eager to serve the Lord, were also filled with the Holy Spirit, with that bold energy the Holy Spirit gives. It would be wonderful. Yet today it seems we have these two extremes: people who love the Word, preach the Word, and love teaching and theological truths; and, on the other hand, people who love the Holy Spirit, the energy of the Spirit, the gifts, and revival.

And it is as though they have formed two camps in the Kingdom of God, when what God wants is for these two extremes to come together as one being, one community, one people who ground their lives in the Word of the Lord, in good teaching, good theology, and sound doctrine, but who know that the fire of God is needed to give life and warmth to that body of teaching and good instruction. Both are needed.

And I believe that when God says to Saul, “Look, go and meet these men who are going up to seek God at Bethel, that place filled with God,” he is saying, “Hey, start spending time with them; start catching that energy of the Holy Spirit from people who are already filled with the Holy Spirit and know the value of seeking that energy.” Let us seek out settings and people whose passion for the Holy Spirit will rub off on us. God bless you, and until our next meditation.