MONDAY, JANUARY 30
Scripture: 1 Samuel 7:12-13, 12:1-5

In 1 Samuel 7:12-13 we are told, “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.’ So the Philistines were subdued, and they did not come anymore into the territory of Israel. And the hand of the Lord was against the Philistines all the days of Samuel.” Samuel paid the price to walk in the anointing that subdued the Philistines. In 1 Samuel 12:1-5, he tells us how and it is the same way that Daniel brought Nebuchadnezzar under the authority of the King that Daniel served. Samuel 12:1-3 says, “Now Samuel said to all Israel: ‘Indeed I have heeded your voice in all that you said to me, and have made a king over you. And now here is the king, walking before you; and I am old and grayheaded, and look, my sons are with you. I have walked before you from my childhood to this day. Here I am. Witness against me before the Lord and before His anointed: Whose ox have I taken, or whose donkey have I taken, or whom have I cheated? Whom have I oppressed, or from whose hand have I received any bribe with which to blind my eyes? I will restore it to you.’ And they said, ‘You have not cheated us or oppressed us, nor have you taken anything from any man’s hand.’” He had not taken and he had not hurt. Samuel first said yes to the Word over his own flesh. And from the relationship of obedience/the hoop-os-tas-so of bringing himself under the authority of God’s Word came the authority to subdue the Philistines.