The Lord Revealed By The Word of the Lord
1 Samuel 7:3 Then Samuel spoke to all the house of Israel, saying, “If you return to the LORD with all your hearts, then put away the foreign gods and the Ashtoreths from among you, and prepare your hearts for the LORD, and serve Him only; and He will deliver you from the hand of the Philistines.”
The Word of the Lord came to Samuel and revealed to him the Lord. In his prophecy we see patterns of the cross of Jesus and the Lord is revealed to us.
“If you return to the Lord with all your heart”, then you will do three things as evidence. It is at the cross that your whole heart is purchased by his shed blood. So then, as his purchased possession you manifest that reality in three ways.
First, by faith you “put away” all the competing affections. Anything that seduces you attention from him as Lord is crucified with Christ.
You “prepare your heart for the Lord”. Your heart is conditioned and tuned to Him and His purposes. It is at the cross you are forgiven and thus made fit to receive the Spirit of Jesus whose heart is always prepared for knowing, loving and obeying the Father.
Also, you “serve him only”. In the power and leading of the Holy Spirit, with heart and with hands, you live for Him exclusively — in the pattern the Lord Jesus did even to His obedient death on the cross.
As for God and his doing, ”He will deliver you” — from sin, from the bondage of self, from fear, guilt, anger, disease, futility and even death itself. And how an He do this to such as you and me. Because of the cross!
Because of the cross we can return to Him with all our hearts. All your heart belongs to Him. Halleluia!
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