Praise Will Always Be Joined to the Anointing of the Holy Spirit

In the life of Saul, this very imperfect king, the first king of Israel, we see many things that help us better understand how the Holy Spirit moves in the lives of God’s children. We see here that there is much we must learn to be skilled stewards of that gift and that energy God places in our hands through His Holy Spirit.

We have seen that the prophet Samuel guides Saul through a series of initial encounters that will prepare him for the work God has for him. The work Saul was going to carry out was a work of war, a work of liberation. Israel was possessed, surrounded, and oppressed by enemy powers, and God raises up Saul to bring liberation to His people. That is why Saul first needed to be filled with the anointing of the Holy Spirit.

We have said that in spiritual warfare, in the war against those powers that want to destroy our lives, wreak havoc, keep us oppressed, and prevent the life of God from being manifested through us, we need that fullness and that experience of the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

After giving him instructions about the people he will meet along the way, Samuel says to Saul: “And when you arrive there at the city, you will find a company of prophets coming down from the high place, with psaltery, tambourine, flute, and harp before them, and they will be prophesying. Then the Spirit of the Lord will come upon you with power, and you will prophesy with them, and you will be changed into another man. And when these signs have happened to you, do whatever your hand finds to do, for God is with you.”

Again, we see here a series of very powerful teachings. Another group of people God wants Saul to meet along his way is a company of prophets. This idea is very interesting: evidently, Samuel was not the only prophet in Israel. There were other anointed people as well, filled with the Holy Spirit and possessing the prophetic gift; there were communities of people who knew the Power of God.

We do not know exactly who made up this company, this select group of men filled with the Holy Spirit, but God wanted Saul to meet them because the Power of God was in them.

Again, look at the importance of those environments that are pregnant with the Presence of the Holy Spirit. God does not send Saul to a place where there is biblical teaching and all these things, which are very important, as we always point out. Rather, He sends him to a place where the Presence of God is laid bare through these powerfully anointed people.

And what is also interesting is that these men who are walking along and coming down are said to be “coming down from the high place.” These people were coming, as it were, from a time of praise. The high places in Israel were places that symbolized nearness to the Presence of God. They were places that perhaps symbolically overlooked the city, and these men went to those places because there was, as it were, a Presence of God there. It is somewhat mysterious, but there are certainly places consecrated to the worship of the Lord, and those places take on, as it were, a Presence, a fullness of the Holy Spirit.

False prophets have always understood this too. And where did they worship false gods? In the high places as well. The devil is always trying to imitate what the children of God do, and those places symbolically have great power and a great symbolic anointing. So these men are coming from that place, from a time of praise, intercession, crying out, and spiritual warfare; they are coming filled with the Holy Spirit.

And it says that before them were people worshiping the Lord with psalteries, tambourines, flutes, and harps. Praise will always be joined to the anointing of the Holy Spirit. These men knew that the Presence of God is stirred up through worship. Wherever there is an atmosphere filled with the Holy Spirit, there will be worship—not halfhearted, lukewarm, passive worship, but fervent worship, worship with different instruments.

The Word of the Lord calls God’s people to worship Him likewise with tambourine, with psaltery, with harp, with dancing, raising their hands, enthusiastically expressing their worship of the Lord. And God wants us to worship Him with our mouths, with our hands, with our spirits, with our minds, with every dimension of our being. God delights in the holy sound of His children worshiping Him with a multitude of instruments.

Many people think that reverent worship of the Lord has to be very subdued, very solemn, very mystical. And God also delights in that fervent and joyful worship of His people, because that worship has an impact on us. It clears our minds, purifies our bodies, focuses our minds, and intensifies our energies.

We are biological beings, and our spirit is joined to our body and to our brain. That separation of the hands and feet from the body, from the spirit, is something wholly artificial that God does not recognize. Enthusiastic worship, praise through different instruments and through our bodies, has a power to stir up the Presence of God that nothing else can match. And these anointed prophets, this company of prophets, know the importance of worshiping the Lord in that way, as a form of spiritual warfare. We will see more later, and we will dwell further on worship as warfare as a platform for the Power of the Holy Spirit to move.

But God sends Saul to meet this company of prophets, among whom praise is moving powerfully, because God had a purpose for Saul in that environment, and for the mission He had for him later on. God bless you; we will continue our meditation in our next reflection.