Mensa Otabil - Inquiring of The Lord
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Welcome to a brand new week. It’s the second week of our 40 days of power, and this is day number five. This week, we will be focusing on guidance and the leading of the Lord as we wait on Him. It’s important for us to hear what God wants to communicate to us, so I’ll be teaching on issues related to guidance and hearing from God.
We go to 1 Samuel chapter 30, verses seven and eight. Then David said to Abiathar the priest, Ahimelech’s son, «Please bring the ephod here to me.» And Abiathar brought the ephod to David. So David inquired of the Lord, saying, «Shall I pursue this troop? Shall I overtake them?» And He answered him, «Pursue, for you shall surely overtake them and without fail recover all.»
When we inquire of the Lord, it simply means that we are addressing our questions or our queries to God. There’s something bothering us, something that we need an answer to, and we are asking God those questions. That’s what David did in this situation. He was at a very low point in his life. His home had been ransacked, his military base taken away, his wife, children, and everything he had, along with that of his army, had all gone. The Amalekites had come for them, and so he returned from a journey after a battle and realized that home was gone. The people were very distraught; he was distraught. The people were thinking of actually killing David; his own troops wanted to kill him. David had questions to ask God about what the next step was.
In this season, many of us are thinking, «What should my next step be? Something has happened. What should I do? The enemy has attacked. Does God want me to respond? What does God want me to do in this circumstance?» That is what inquiring of the Lord is all about—trying to find out what God wants me to do.
Now, David is able to inquire of the Lord because he has a very personal relationship with God. David is a worshiper, and he spends time with the Lord. So, it’s not difficult to inquire from the Lord when you already have a relationship with Him. Many times, we wait until there’s a crisis, then we accelerate our spiritual activities and want to have a false relationship with God. But you build that relationship and cash in on it, and that is what David does. Unlike Saul, who in a time of crisis turned to a witch doctor, to a medium, David goes to the Lord. That shows you the difference in the relationship David had with God and the relationship that Saul had with God. When people have a bad relationship with God in a time of crisis, they will go somewhere else and seek whatever help, and they don’t care who is providing the help. But David is very careful; he inquired of the Lord.
The thing you learn about David is that he knew how to hear from God directly. If you look at the sequence of events, David is not a priest. He is not a priest, yes, he is anointed, and he is a worshiper, but he is not of the priesthood line. The priesthood line is the one that inquires of the Lord for the people. But David took the ephod from Abiathar the priest and said, «I want to hear from God myself.» If there’s anything you want to learn this month during these 40 days of power, it is that you should hear from God yourself. It’s great for your pastor or a prophet to tell you what God is doing, but you have to have the means of inquiring from the Lord yourself. David took the ephod from Abiathar and asked God directly.
Thething about God is that He doesn’t want people to be intermediaries between Him and us. He wants us to come boldly to the throne of grace. He wants us to come boldly into His presence and inquire of Him. This whole season of waiting on the Lord is a moment for you to go directly to God and inquire of the Lord, and the Lord will answer you as He answered David.Letus pray. Say with me, «Heavenly Father, show me what to do in every situation. Lead me one step at a time into Your perfect will. In Jesus' name, Amen.»