1 Samuel 7:4-12 So the children of Israel put away the Baals and the Ashtoreths, and served the LORD only.
And Samuel said, “Gather all Israel to Mizpah, and I will pray to the LORD for you.” So they gathered together at Mizpah, drew water, and poured it out before the LORD. And they fasted that day, and said there, “We have sinned against the LORD.” And Samuel judged the children of Israel at Mizpah. Now when the Philistines heard that the children of Israel had gathered together at Mizpah, the lords of the Philistines went up against Israel. And when the children of Israel heard of it, they were afraid of the Philistines. So the children of Israel said to Samuel, “Do not cease to cry out to the LORD our God for us that He may save us from the hand of the Philistines.” And Samuel took a suckling lamb and offered it as a whole burnt offering to the LORD. Then Samuel cried out to the LORD for Israel, and the LORD answered him. Now as Samuel was offering up the burnt offering, the Philistines drew near to battle against Israel. But the LORD thundered with a loud thunder upon the Philistines that day, and so confused them that they were overcome before Israel. And the men of Israel went out of Mizpah and pursued the Philistines, and drove them back as far as below Beth Car. Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen, and called its name Ebenezer, saying, “Thus far the LORD has helped us.” NKJV

The children of Israel realized their wrong doing and turned to God meaningfully; they came together to offer unto God as sign of recommitment to serve Him. God was happy about this but Satan wasn’t, so he gathered all their enemies together to come and disrupt the service. If you asked the philistines they would have said that it was through their own effort that they had come to attack Israelites but the true position was that they were being used as agents to do the devil’s work.

They camped against Israel just as the lamb for offering was about to be slaughtered, the people were afraid of the phalanx of philistine armies. They were afraid for their lives, interestingly that they weren’t attacking them when they were serving the baals but when they had changed their ways to serve the true God, they were about to be attacked. Maybe some would have asked, what wrong have we done now? They might have thought that by coming back to God no one would dare attack us! But the truth on the ground was contrary to their expectations and they were very afraid of the situation.

However the servant of God Samuel was in their midst and he was not perturbed by whatever was happening because he knew that God about to fight for them. So he proceeded with the sacrifice as if nothing was happening. The philistines thought that it was business as usual; they knew that they would subdue the Israelites any time of the day. What they didn’t know is that this was a new congregation that had discarded all the Baalim and Ashtoreth from their midst and had fully turned to God of Heaven.

They had drawn water and poured before the LORD, they had fasted the whole day as sign surrender unto God after Samuel had prompted them to return to God. When their coming together got to the philistines they thought that this was the right time to flex their military muscles. The presence of philistine armies was a tactic of the devil to scare the Israelites into submission to philistines. God allowed all this to happen so that He could show Himself Mighty against the forces of the devil.

The Israelites turned to Samuel the servant of God and said to him; verse 8 “Do not cease to cry out to the LORD our God for us that He may save us from the hand of the Philistines.” NKJV. At last, in their fear they acknowledged God! They realized that He was their only true protector, true salvation and He was the only One with enough strength to deliver them fully considering the large number of the enemy that was coming against them. Samuel knew what needed to be done, since the children of Israel had been rebellious and sinful, blood was needed to be shed before their prayer for help could gain favour with God; prayers of sinners are an abomination before God; so no matter how much they pleaded before their sins were forgiven it would have been all in vain.

Many people have problems in acknowledging God when they are in any form of distress; instead they feel dejected and neglected. They are filled with despair and hopelessness; they cannot see any goodness coming out of their present situation. It is the high time that we should start seeing God’s hand in all our situations; whether good or bad; although Satan would like to show that he is capable of troubling them. We need to know that God is always with us as long as we are born again; no matter how hard the devil complicates our situations we should see that God is going to save us from such as long as we are willing to walk with Him

Isaiah 59:1, 2 Behold, the LORD’s hand is not shortened, That it cannot save; Nor His ear heavy, that it cannot hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; and your sins have hidden His face from you, So that He will not hear. NKJV

There was an obstacle in their way of prayer that needed to be removed first; there is nothing else that makes God not to hear a nation’s prayer but its sinfulness; we also know that without blood there is no remission for sin. No matter how much they repented nothing could remove sin until blood was shed. Samuel knew what was lacking and so he took a suckling lamb to fulfil this requirement; he offered it as burnt offering unto the LORD and then he cried unto the Lord for the sake of Israel and the Lord heard him.

People need to realize that before God can respond in your defence you should fulfil certain conditions; being remorseful for sins committed is not enough but shedding of blood is what removes the sin and restores communication with God. Today, this requirement has already been fulfilled by the blood of Jesus Christ on the cross. He offered Himself once and for all and no other requirement for blood is needed.

While he was offering the philistines  drew near to attack the Israelites without knowing that God was now ready to deal with them, they (philistines) had now become enemies to God as He has promised that “I will be an enemy to your  enemies and an adversary to your adversaries” and no longer the slaves they thought they had. Their previous sins had made them (Israelites) slaves to philistines until then; the situation had now changed completely for they were now depending on God to fight their battles. For this reason He thundered from heaven and the philistines were confused and Israelites easily routed them completely.

Proverbs 3:5-7 Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths. Do not be wise in your own eyes; Fear the LORD and depart from evil. NKJV

At last the children of Israelites entrusted their safety into the hands of God through prayer, through surrendering fully unto Him by throwing away all idols and foreign gods. God was happy with them again, so when they entreated Samuel not to stop praying for them that God would rescue them from the hand of philistines. After God started to intervene, the only work left for Israelites was to finish off the philistines and share out the spoils. God directed their paths from then, they were now willing to follow His continued guidance.

We are also being cautioned not to consider ourselves wiser than everybody else. We should regard others with all respect that is due to them. When we humble ourselves and consider ourselves lesser than other brethren, God will be glorified in our humility. Self exaltation and importance brings strife and conflict amongst brethren fellowship, this also destroys the image of Christ in us therefore we must always deny the self and put God before anything else.

God’s deliverance and victory on that day was as result of obedience and not military prowess of the Israelites. We too can tap into this kind of power when we are born again, no matter what situation is against us we should not seek carnal weapons to fight but be subjected to the power of the almighty God. The devil knows that we are capable of accomplishing great feats when our faith is matured but he does discourage that from happening. Just as the children of Israel were being distracted form re-establishing their bond with God by the presence of warring philistines, so are we distracted by various attacks too.

Satan knows very well that when your faith and mine is fully grown he cannot have his way with you so he creates all sorts distractive situations that would at least delay your attaining spiritual maturity. Today my message for you is this, “are you willing to live under intimidation of Satan or are you going to receive this word and go forth boldly as God confuses your enemies so that you can acknowledge Him in your life?” God is ready and willing to give you victory in life; but when situations have risen against you, where are you going to get your help from? Is it your rich friends’ or influential; parents and relatives or your spouse?

Children of Israel had rebelled from God’s grace; however they had realized their mistakes and were ready to make amends with God. Satan took their gathering as an opportunity to disrupt their restoration; in such a way he still operates against us today as well. When you are about to do something that would glorify God in your life he attacks your with all sorts of sicknesses either yourself or those close to you so that you don’t fulfil whatever obligation or intentions you planned. In most cases this happens when brethren have decided to faithfully support the church with offerings; paying tithes faithfully; or pledges to build the churches etc.

When brethren are planning to build a house to live in and move out tenancy, somebody all of sudden urgently needs money for this or that urgently. This freedom does not go well with the devil, so he will bring all sorts of attacks in your life or that of your loved ones so as to delay your progress. May be it is a child who is going to high school or even university, all of a sudden something unexpected happens to derail your plan. These, brethren are attacks from the enemy to remove or keep in you check so that you don’t come out of his slavery. My advice is trust the Lord, remain focused and tell the devil that you’ve discovered his evil plan against your progress.

Satan will strongly oppose any move towards your making any inroad towards personal reconciliation with God. He was very content when the children of Israel were under slavery of sin and philistines but they wanted to come back to God, he incited the lords of the philistines to attack them. This action was meant to stop or delay their efforts to reconcile with God; but as usual he came very late because Samuel had already taken command of the situation to reconcile the people to their God. Such attacks come our way even today, however many Christians are left devastated instead of being victorious.

Are you planning to come back to God through your recommitment to be faithful to God through tithes and offering? The way to go is, ignore any contrary messages that will surely come when the time for offering and paying the same is almost come. Many people have failed in this area because the magnified situations have always sent them off reeling into complacency and they never try to rise again. The enemy will send forces to make you deviate from your plans, so be wise like Samuel was, he did what had to be done then called upon God for deliverance of Israelites from the hand philistines and the result was devastating for the philistines and rewarding victory for the Israelites.

May be the enemy has considered you to be easy prey for a very long time but this is your time to show him that you have a more powerful God than those enemies of yours. Do you want to see God unleash His awesome power against your enemies; situations; circumstances or conditions? Yes, then pay no attention to distractions and concentrate on the plan(s) you had intended to fulfil, let God deal with whoever is intending to remove you from this track, restoring yourself to God through offering and tithes. To make and realize God as your Ebenezer you must shed all self thoughts and perceptions and look unto God only.

Never boast about anything but humble yourself before God and let Him lift you at His own timing. God never delays confirming those who are His; as long as you remain focused and not distracted by the sideshows that the devil brings your way.  Remember this one thing that whenever you are doing something that glorifies God; Satan will always seek to destabilize you from fulfilling your calling. When this happens, then you should be aware that this is the confirmation that you are on the right course to making peace with God.

Many people wonder what are the indicators to show that one is on the right track, well, as with the Israelites, they had no opposition from the lords of philistines before they came together to make offering to God, that is when they rose against them. You too are like this, when you didn’t know God you had no major challenges but when you received salvation you started having challenge after challenge. Even before you resolve a situation a fresh one arises; my brother my sister these are some of the indicators and confirmations that you’ve made the right choice in life. For the devil knows that he has lost one to God, so as a way of getting back at you he throws everything he has against you so that you may backslide but when he finds he can’t win, he creates some funny sideshows to delay you from attaining spiritual maturity.

Faith is what scares Satan; he will fight you from left right and centre so that you don’t achieve this. Again the Bible says that without faith you cannot please God, so faith is very important both to a Christian and Satan for different reasons. To be able to put that stone mark of victory after victory takes faith without relenting; God becomes your Ebenezer when your faith is established. To be able to stand and say “Thus far the LORD has helped us” is very important to a modern Christian; however you must shed everything selfish in you. The choice is as always yours; do you continue with your initial plan or will you accept to be subjected to all kinds of diversions?

We must reach somewhere and put that landmark of distinction in our lives; that define failure and success; that define faith in God of fear of the enemy. Trial, tests, tribulations are only forms of confirmation of your salvation. Remember those who went before us, Peter and John were intimidated not to preach in the name of Jesus lest they are beaten and imprisoned but they were never cowed into submission but were more vigorous and bold in their preaching of message. What sideshows are you subjected to? What intimidations are you facing? These are not going to define you but to refine you; the choices are very few here and you cannot afford to remain neutral, if you do it will be your death-trap; moving forward and calling the name of the Lord will make Him root out your adversaries one after the other, and your testimony shall be this far the Lord has helped me!

Let’s pray: Father, in the name of Jesus I thank you for these special readers; may you lift them to next level of faith; when they will jubilantly declare before the whole world that you’re the Ebenezer in their lives, both individually and collectively. Help them to see your ever available help compared to the forces that are discouraging them. Allow them to see how much you have surrounded them with your protections and love.

This devotional was written by Bishop Joseph Koburu Mukiira of Maximum Victory and Joy Worship Centre Nairobi Kenya and brought to you courtesy of Journey 2 Joy International Ministries Inc. USA