Fill Your Horn and Go!

"Fill your horn and be on your way!" Those words come from 1 Samuel 16:1. God talking to the Prophet Samuel and telling him to fill his horn with anointing oil and go and anoint David as King. Saul of course was still alive, and Samuel was afraid. But God said to go, and He gave him clear instructions as to what to do. He was to take a heifer and go and say he had come to sacrifice, and he was to invite Jesse and his sons and then God would show him what to do. He gave clear instructions, up to a point, and then God said “I will show you what to do. You are to anoint for me the one I indicate.” I would imagine that Samuel felt a bit unsure, but he knew the Lord and he trusted Him to show him and so “Samuel did what the Lord said”

A few weeks ago, the Lord in His wonderful supernatural way gave me this word for my life. “Fill your horn with oil and be on your way.” I read it, looked at and did what I usually do, I went and looked for a deep spiritual meaning. Looking up the Greek, scanning the commentaries and so on. Had my head full of stuff but no real understanding. What was God saying and of course it is very simple, very plain with no deep hidden meaning. Jesus said the same thing to His disciples using more time appropriate words in Mathew 28:16-20.

Matthew 28:16-20

Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go.  When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,  and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.

And Luke fills in more of this picture of what it is to go.

Luke 16:15-18

He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.”

Jesus clearly explained and told them to go just as He tells us today that we too are to go and spread the Good News, the Love of God and at the same time to demonstrate His wonderful love for us through healing the sick and setting people free from the trauma of life. Demonstrating and revealing His Kingdom. Did you notice that the disciples doubted. I too am at times afraid and unsure of what to do, I don’t know what might happen. However the Lord has spoken clearly and I need to step out, there is no mistaking or misunderstanding that command. So of course, I have been reading and re-reading Carina and Shanae’s piece on Authority. So helpful! I have been given authority and I have been told what to do. I haven’t yet been told what it will look like and I don’t think I am going to get that blueprint. But I know I must go! Thinking about authority took me back to being young, that’s quite some time back, but I was thinking about a time when I went on holiday with my brother. My parents booked us a few days in a beachfront hotel in Durban and my dad gave us his credit card with clear instructions as to how much we were allowed to spend….and yes, some guidance as to what we were allowed to buy. We went off very happily. We had no doubt that our rooms would be booked and when we used the card, we never feared that it wouldn’t pay for what we had purchased. It was my dad’s card, and he would never send us off without there being enough. I could so depend on him and know that if he said there was enough, then there was enough! And I knew that my folks loved us both and wanted good things for us, here they were giving us a wonderful few days holiday at the end of our final years at school. Jesus is saying a similar thing to us.

Our heavenly Father loves us. Do we really know how much He loves us. So much that He would never, never ever, send us anywhere without giving us ALL that we needed to do what we were told to do. So, when we are told by God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit to do something, we can know because we know, because we know that He has already made available everything we need to fulfill that task. God the Father gave Jesus His son all authority to go and do what He had commanded Him to do, and now Jesus is giving us that same authority to continue the work that He, Jesus, had begun and to finish it. We can go because He has ordained that work for us to do. He has given us the power of His Holy Spirit and all authority to go and make disciples, heal the sick and reveal the Kingdom of Heaven to a lost and hurting world, just as He did. Only He has paid for it! He has paid for it in full! He has equipped us with His Holy Spirit and is sending you and I out, as He did the 12, the 70 and all His disciples to finish the work He came to do. He has brought salvation through His death and resurrection and through His defeat of Satan He has given us victory. A victory that allows us to see His Kingdom established on earth, one precious soul saved at a time, one disease healed at a time and demons cast out setting captives free so that His glory spreads until one day it will cover the whole earth. When you or I pray for the blind man, we can expect him to see because Jesus has said we can, we must and because of Him, it is done. I do believe that the church as a whole is far too timid, and faith is not spoken of nearly enough. We are so afraid of offending one another with doubt and fear…..perhaps my faith is not enough. Perhaps your faith is not enough……..perhaps it is not God’s will…….miracles have ceased and the list of excuses for our fear is endless.

May we encourage one another to believe God, to trust Him and know that every time the Kingdom is revealed, in big or small ways, He is glorified. I am not going to preach in a stadium, run a great big ministry but I am going to speak Jesus to the lady next door, to the man down the road and to those I can reach. I am also going to grab every opportunity He offers me. May we encourage one another to step out and trust God that He is with us, He had commanded us to do it, He has paid for it and He wants, even more than we do, to see His Kingdom established on earth.

Father you have told us to fill our horns with oil and to go, may we do just that and may our faith be strong in the knowledge that you have given us all authority to go and the anointing power of Your Holy Spirit to do. Amen!