Let Us Focus on God’s Anointing, Not Saul’s Armor

People who do not know the power, the anointing, the fullness, the experience of the Holy Spirit do not have the ability to interpret correctly the strange, different, sovereign things God often does in the lives of anointed people or in anointed settings—things that often contradict the standards of reason and culture.

Another situation we find interesting concerns Saul’s armor, which teaches us another very revealing lesson. When Saul agrees to let David go against the giant Goliath, he tries to help him by providing the customary armor of a soldier. I imagine that the armor worn by the king of Israel must have been the best in all the land, offering the greatest protection and making effective movement easiest.

But when David puts on this armor, because he has no practice with it and is not accustomed to using such things, he feels uncomfortable and clumsy. He simply takes it off and uses the five smooth stones and the sling he was accustomed to using in his work as a shepherd.

And interpreters of Scripture have always seen a great lesson in this. What a man or woman of the Holy Spirit uses is not necessarily the same weapons used by those who do not have that power in their lives. When we do not enjoy the anointing and the fullness of the Holy Spirit, even in the Christian life, ministerial work and the tasks of everyday living are often much more laborious, requiring many more resources, more effort, simply more equipment.

But when the Spirit of God is in our lives, that anointing within us makes us much more economical, more efficient; it enables us to do much more with much less. That is why it is so important for us, as children of God, to have that power and to cultivate that fullness of the Holy Spirit in our lives, because it will make everything work more easily.

We see this, for example, in the life of the early Church, where we are told that the first Christians—as Paul notes somewhere, I think in First Corinthians—were neither highly educated nor of great renown or much social influence. Rather, he says that God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.

God always seeks out disadvantages to show His Power; He seeks out the small, the ungifted, the unrecognized so that the glory will always go to His Name. God likes to use earthen vessels, clay jars, fragile and weak instruments to show His Power. What God is looking for is that willing heart, that mind that will believe God for anything, as David believed God for victory over this great giant.

Many times we, the children of God, make many mistakes by trying to fit in and form partnerships with people who do not know the Power of God, whose hearts are utterly lacking in understanding of the mysteries of the Holy Spirit, and who do not share the same loyalty to the principles of Scripture, simply because they offer some tactical advantage—whether money, influence, or access to political power. And so we end up entering into unequal yokes, whether with unbelievers or with believers who do not move in the Holy Spirit as we do. What seemed like a momentary advantage later becomes a terrible hindrance to our ministerial life.

We, the children of God, must be consistent in the way we move within the sacred realm of Pentecostal anointing. This move of God is very specific in its manifestations; it does not necessarily follow the standards of reason or human understanding. The apostle Paul says that the foolishness of God is wiser than the wisdom of men.

The foolishness of the cross, with a crucified Christ, is far more powerful and effective than the apparent power of men. Through the cross, Christ—restricted in His movement, tortured, apparently defeated—won the most powerful victory of all. For the Bible says that on the cross the Lord defeated the principalities and powers, publicly displayed them in their defeat, canceled the record of decrees, the devil’s accusation that stood against us, and opened a Ministry of grace and power for every believer.

The weapons God uses are very different from the weapons the world uses, and even from those used by believers who do not know the moving of the Holy Spirit. That is why the apostle Paul also says: “The weapons of our armor are not carnal, but mighty in God for the destruction of strongholds.”

We must understand that, if we want God to use us, we will not necessarily be able to use Saul’s weapons. We will not be able to rely on the weapons of reason or marketing, or worldly advertising, or cultural trends, or the academic pedigree of people who study in seminaries and such places. All of that is good; I believe in it, and it is very important. But if the anointing of God is not in our lives, all that equipment and all those accessories we use will be of no use to us.

God wanted to provide a very clear illustration of this principle by showing here that David did not want to move in Saul’s armor; Saul had been rejected by God. Moreover, no armor could accomplish or facilitate what God was going to do through David. It had to be a direct intervention of the Power of God, and everything else was entirely symbolic.

If the Power of God was moving in David’s life, everything else was entirely secondary; even the five smooth stones and the sling David used were entirely symbolic. David could simply have picked up a handful of dirt and thrown it in Goliath’s face, and that would have been enough for the Power of God to manifest itself and bring down the giant.

The most important thing we must ask ourselves is whether God is with me, whether God and the anointing of God are moving in my life, because if we have that, we need almost nothing else, although all the other resources are important and necessary. But what matters most is: Is God with me? Is the Power of God in my life? Is the anointing of God moving powerfully in my life? If God is for us, who can be against us? Let us concern ourselves with the anointing of God and not so much with Saul’s armor.

May God bless you, and until our next program.