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As Saul turned to leave Samuel, God changed Saul’s heart, and all these signs were fulfilled that day.
1 Samuel 10:9
Saul had come to Samuel looking for his father’s donkeys, but God had other plans. By the time Saul leaves Samuel’s presence, he was anointed king over Israel.
Following this event, we are told that God changed Saul’s heart. Before God can use a man for His purposes, He has to give him a new heart. A new heart is necessary because His call is always bigger than our capacity to carry it. A new heart equips and enables us to carry out His call.
TAKE AWAY:
Transformation
When the spirit of the lord enters a man’s life, transformation happens. This is what happens to Saul, God transforms Saul and gives him another heart. Saul’s transformation was in two folds. First, he was given another heart right after oil was poured on him. Then he was changed some more when the Holy Spirit rested on him.
The Spirit of the Lord will come powerfully on you, you will prophesy with them, and you will be transformed. 1 Samuel 10:6 When the Spirit of the Lord came upon Saul, he was transformed.
In the New Testament, we are promised the same.
Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come. 2 Corinthians 5:17
Amplified says he is a new creature [ reborn and renewed by the Holy Spirit]… Transformation comes because we receive the Spirit of God in our hearts.
Why we need a changed heart
We cannot follow God without being transformed. We cannot do the things of the Spirit with an old heart. We cannot believe God for the impossible without His Spirit. So a new heart is necessary to enable us to do what God has called us to do.
I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. Ezekiel 36:26-27
God gives us a new heart and spirit to enable us to follow His laws. He puts His Spirit in us to help us obey His commands. We cannot be pleasing to Him without the enablement of His Spirit. And that’s why a new heart is necessary.
From pauper to prince
Saul responded, “ Am I not a Benjaminite from the smallest of Israel’s tribes, and isn’t my clan the least important of all the clans of the Benjaminite tribe? So why have you said something like this to me?” 1 Samuel 9:21
This was saul’s response when he was told God had chosen him to be king over Israel. He asks, ” Why? I’m not anything, I come from the least of the least.” Saul did not see himself as king material. He had a smallness mentality. God didn’t care how he saw himself because all Saul needed was to see himself the way God did.
We cannot be princes with a pauper perspective. If we show up to the things God has called us with a lack mindset we will not do them well. We cannot reign where we don’t believe that God has made us kings. We cannot lead where we don’t believe we are qualified to do so. Saul needed a new heart and a new perspective.
He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap; he seats them with princes, with the princes of his people. Psalm 113:8
God glorifies Himself in this. He takes people who are not and makes them into princes.
We cannot sit with princes while we still see ourselves as poor and needy. We have to be transformed to be able to sit among princes and not act like poor needy people. We have to leave behind the ash heap of our upbringing. We have to leave behind our poverty mentality. This is what the word calls transformation.
Is God calling you to something that makes you feel like you want to run as far away as you can? Is God calling you to something that scares you to death? Is God calling you to something that feels like it is beyond where you come from and who you believe you are?
You are not alone everyone who has had to do great things for God has felt like Saul. But they decided to abandon their pauper mentality in order to reign with God. They have allowed God to change and transform them into new men and women. If we will allow God to transform us we will move from being paupers to reigning as princes with God.
Breaking up with insecurities
Something is highlighted in Saul’s life. Even though Saul was given a new heart, he never really laid down his insecurities. His insecurities followed him into kingship and because of this he wasn’t the best king. In fact, God rejected him as king later on.
And Samuel told him, “Although you were once small in your own eyes, are you not the head of the tribes of Israel? The Lord anointed you king over Israel. 1 Samuel 15:17
Saul would not lay down a ‘smallness mentality’. He never could rise above thinking of himself small. So, he couldn’t do what God had called him to do; his insecurities kept interfering with God’s plans for his life.
Even though God gives us a new heart and transforms us. We have to partner with Him, we have to come into agreement with who God says we are. We have to decide to leave behind all our insecurities because if we don’t they will end up ruining the things God wants to do in and through us.
May God give us a new heart and transform us in such a way that we never go back to our insecurities.
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