Turned Into Another Man

Scripture: I Samuel 10:6 (NKJV) - “Then the Spirit of the Lord will come upon you, and you will prophesy with them and be turned into another man.”

Our Scripture reading is the last of a series of prophetic proofs that the prophet Samuel gave Saul as a means of assurance that the Lord had indeed chose him to be Israel’s first king (See 1 Sam. 10:1~5 for the other prophetic proofs). In the verse above, the prophet Samuel prophesied a three-part prophetic word to Saul as a final and personal means of assurance and proof. The prophecy of the Lord through the mouth of Samuel was fulfilled just as the Lord said it would. The Spirit of the Lord came upon Saul, he prophesied among the prophets and he was turned into another man (1 Sam. 10:9~12). However, Saul was turned into another man only in terms of his role as king and the boldness in which he exercised that office. He was naturally a shy person (1 Sam. 10:20~24) but the Spirit of God upon him coupled with his role as king turned him into an assertive person. Nonetheless, he did not use this newly acquired boldness for righteousness sake. He used the boldness that was produced by the Spirit to further his own selfish agenda, just as the Lord foretold the people who begged for a king, so they could be like all the other nations (1 Sam. 8:1~22). The rest of the book of First Samuel and a major portion of Second Samuel, show that King Saul never took heed to the Spirit of God, the Word of God, nor to the prophet Samuel. He was another man only in his role -- the anotherness (if I could coin a phrase) never penetrated the core of who he was. In other words, his nature was never changed from the inside out.

This is not our experience as New Testament believers. We are indeed new creatures -- something that did not exist before fallen creatures that have been redeemed (2 Cor. 5:17). We are privileged to be under the new and better covenant, which has better promises than the Old Covenant -- because they are established in the fulfilled and finish work of Jesus Christ. In the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit coming upon a person was rare. The Spirit of God came upon certain individuals of His choosing for a determined period of time, to enable the individual to do a particular task. He would then depart upon completion of their task or because of a sin issue in their lives (Ps. 51:11). For New Testament believers, the Holy Spirit indwells us forever as opposed to merely coming upon us (Jn. 14:16, 17). He also gives us various gifts, and He produces the fruit of the Spirit in our lives as we learn to yield to Him (Ro. 12:4~8; 1,Cor.12:4~12; Eph. 4:11~16; Gal. 5:22, 23). He is truly committed to the work of anotherness, that is the business of transforming us into the image of Christ (Ro. 8:28; Phi. 1:6).
 
The Holy Spirit works on us from the inside out but is the anotherness that He produces visible enough for others to see? “Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned men, they marveled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus” (Acts 4:13). Can we say that this has been our experience? Are others, especially those who knew us when we were not saved, forced to take notice of the anotherness that’s produced by the Holy Spirit in our lives? Have they noticed that we have been with Jesus? If not, then why? Could it be that we foolishly hide our light and saltiness when it’s convenient for us to do so? This is uncharacteristic of us as Christians. Rather we’re exhorted to work out what is being produced inside of us (Phi. 2:13, 14). We’re commanded to put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness (Eph. 4:24). And “…be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Ro. 12:2). In other words, manifest the change, the anotherness that God has produced in our lives to His glory (Matt. 5:13~16). Indeed, Samuel’s prophecy, that Saul would be “…turned into another man…” is more comprehensively true of us than of him. The question is will we let it show? Not trying to show it as the scribes and Pharisees used to but in the overflow of the abundance of His life in us that comes from genuine fellowship with Him (Gal. 2:20). In 1 Cor. 6:9, 10, the apostle Paul gave a list of unrighteous acts of sin and said that those who practice sin of this sort or any other (have a habitual unrepentant lifestyle of living this way) will not inherit the kingdom of God. This is so because their lifestyle gives evidence that those who can habitually live this way are not, nor have they ever been saved. Then the apostle says one of the most powerful statements in all the Bible concerning the believer’s experience, he said, “And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Cor. 6:11). Do some of us have seedy, delinquent, or even a criminal past? Absolutely, but it pleased God that He should call us out of darkness and into the glorious light of the kingdom of His dear Son, and that He should breathed the breath of life into us while we were dead in trespasses and sin, causing us to walk in the newness of life (Col. 1:12~14; Eph. 2:1~3; Tit. 3:3~7). This is the testimony of the believer’s anotherness, that a change has taken place. A change of allegiance, nature, desires, direction, priorities, walk, talk, etc.      
 
Prayer: Heavenly Father, I thank You that You took it upon Yourself to change us from our former state of being, living, and mindset that we were bound and trapped in before You. We were truly lost without You, but Your grace has set us free to be new people --a people whom You have changed and are progressively changing from the inside out. Please give us the grace and strength to manifest the wonders of what You are producing, rearranging, and creating in our lives to Your glory and the testimony of Your praise. In Jesus name. Amen.

(by Bro. Casey Lingham)