Who Are You Praying to?

Talking to dead loved ones, horoscopes, social media games to tell you your future... There are all kinds of substitutes for talking to the one true and living God, but there are no replacements. When you look for another source to lead you or guide you in life, you will inevitably meet the same disappointment as Saul found in today's prayer.  Join us in today's prayer journey!

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#pentecostal 

#apostolic 

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Transcript

Press meets supply force. When God said press, prayer reaches every single situation. He gave us permission to apply force to every situation that we will go through.

And in this podcast, we are going to learn to apply force to what's applying pressure to us. Welcome everybody to the Press Movement Podcast. We are incredibly honored that you are here today.

I'm going to the book of 1 Samuel chapter 28. This is very much an unusual prayer to cover. It was not on the original list of prayers that I found.

This is something that I just stumbled upon when I was studying for next week's prayer. But the way it jumped out at me, I know it needs to be included today. And that is because this prayer is not to God.

It's not to Jesus. As a press movement, we have emphasized that prayer reaches every single situation. Whether you've been in our press clubs, press conferences, read the book, It's Too Quiet, or simply follow the podcast.

You know, we believe in talking to God, the God of the Bible, who was manifested in the flesh. And his name is Jesus. He is Emmanuel, God with us.

So that's who we talk to. That's who we pray to. That's who our hope and confidence is in.

And yet there is a trend throughout Christianity in the world that is trending towards finding guidance, hope, and direction in other sources. These things have always been, whether you're talking about your sign, or you're talking about horoscopes, or you're talking about calling somebody who can tell you your future. These things have always been true.

But what I'm seeing is a trend of it in the church where people say, well, it doesn't matter. You can look at your sage, or you can play games that predict your future, or you can post to your dead mother or dead father or dead friend telling them you miss them. All of those things sound so loving.

It's not necessarily coming from a bad place. But does that mean God doesn't see it as a bad thing? One of the first things that stood out to me in 1 Samuel 28 was actually at the end of the chapter. The woman that they call the witch of Endor, in many texts and references, after she has talked to Saul and responded to his request, which we'll go back to, the Bible says, and the woman had a fat calf in the house, and she hasted and killed it and took flour and kneaded it and did bake unleavened bread thereof.

And she brought it before Saul and before his servants, and they did eat. Then they rose up and went away that night. She was one who, when she saw Saul was on the verge of breaking down, and he didn't have any more energy, and he was hopeless, she fed him.

She took what she had. She gave it to him. She was eager to give, eager to host him, eager to help.

This is not the description we would make of somebody who's a bad person, except for, oh, she talks to familiar spirits. She's a witch. A lot of times we want the devil to look like the devil.

Like, oh my gosh, he's so mean. He's so ugly. He did this.

He did that. And that's just not the way he is. That's not the way sin presents itself.

It takes time for sin to always appear exceedingly sinful. Sin is based in the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life, according to John 2, 16. And the Bible also says, but every man is tempted when he's drawn away of his own lust and enticed, James 1, 14.

There's something about sin that's attractive. So when we take the position that somehow all sin is going to look ugly from the start, we're wrong. And yes, I'm using this to apply to things like, I've just mentioned the post to my dead loved one, going to their gravesite to talk to them, looking for answers in anything but God.

That is the crux of what Saul does here in chapter 28 of 1 Samuel. He is at a place where the Philistines are attacking Israel. They're coming to fight Israel again.

He has already had odds with David and has been pursuing him. So David is not going to be there to fight. Now the Bible records in multiple places that Saul had chased his thousands, but David, his 10 thousands, he's down a major asset when he's fighting David.

So he's going against the Philistines. He doesn't have his best man with him because he's chasing him too. And the people are afraid, not just the people are afraid, but Saul is afraid.

Verse five and six say, and when Saul saw the host of the Philistines, he was afraid and his heart greatly trembled. And when Saul inquired of the Lord, the Lord answered him not neither by dreams, nor by Urim, nor by prophets. And when Saul didn't get the answers the way he wanted them, he said, okay, I'm going to find an answer.

He said, find me a woman or a prophet that had had a familiar spirit that I may go to her and inquire of her. And his servant said to him, behold, there is a woman that had the familiar spirit at Endor. You know, you really don't need people around you that will help you be more wrong than you already are.

It's like they had just the right kind of wrong. He had gotten rid of everybody that had the familiar spirit, whether they were witches or wizards, but the people around him still knew where to find somebody to help him do wrong. So when Saul hears this in verse eight, the Bible says that he disguised himself.

And he went to this woman with the familiar spirit. And when he goes to her and says, Hey, I need you to contact somebody for me. And he's talking about somebody from the dead.

She says, you know, that Saul has banned this. And are you basically trying to get me caught up? She did not know she was talking to Saul, but the man who is Saul in disguise says, no, don't worry about it. There should be no punishment happened to thee for this thing.

He went as far as to say, as the Lord liveth, he pledged before the Lord, you're not going to be punished for this. What a mixed up man that now he is weaving God into his wickedness. He still hasn't forgotten the Lord.

And that word for Lord would be Jehovah. He has not forgotten Jehovah. He just brought him into his mess.

That's one thing about backsliding and watching people leave God. They think often that God is still with them. What made him think the Lord would answer him? He never repented when he was told the kingdom is going to be taken from you.

What makes him think he has the right to pledge anything before the Lord when he's standing here going against what he knew was wrong. He had gotten rid of the familiar spirits. He had gotten rid of the wizards.

This is completely going back for him. Why, when he's going back, does he think God should still be the same in his life? Anyway, the woman says to him, whom shall I bring up? He tells her Samuel. And when the woman saw Samuel, she cried with a loud voice.

And the woman spake to Saul saying, why hast thou deceived me for thou art Saul? She does have insight. She does have some power. She does conjure up the spirit of Samuel from the dead.

When this happens, Saul bows. She tells Saul, I see as it were gods with the lowercase g ascending from the earth. And I see a man covered by a mantle.

And Saul does not see him at that time. But Saul just bows and he's like, oh, it must be Samuel. And Saul puts his face to the ground and bows himself.

And Samuel said to Saul, why hath thou disquieted me to bring me up? And Saul answered, I am sore distressed. For the Philistines make war against me and God is departed from me. And answereth me no more, neither by prophets nor by dreams.

Therefore, I have called thee that thou mayest make known unto me what I shall do. In other words, when God's not speaking to me, I'm coming to ask Samuel to help me. This is so twisted because the source of Samuel's insight is and has always been God.

You don't get to go to God's servant and get God results without God. God is the source of the answers. It's a funny thing about when you make God optional.

Whenever you make God optional in your life, you will always choose a different option. There will always come a time where you don't feel like he's moving fast enough or he's talking loud enough or he's there. And so you'll look for your options.

When you decide God is not optional in your life and you're going to follow him no matter what and you begin to take all your options off the table, then you don't move until he answers, leads, or responds. Because you recognize I can't even do anything without him. Even if I make my own answer, even if I create my own way, it will not accomplish in the end what I want it to.

Samuel prophesied for the last time from the grave. He says in verse 16, Wherefore then dost thou ask of me, seeing the Lord has departed from thee and has become thine enemy? And the Lord hath done to him as he spake by me. For the Lord hath rent the kingdom out of thine hand and given it to thine neighbor and even to David.

Because thou obeyest not the voice of the Lord nor executest his fierce wrath upon Amalek. Therefore hath the Lord done this thing unto thee this day. Moreover the Lord will also deliver Israel with thee unto the hand of the Philistines and tomorrow shall thou and thy sons be with me.

The Lord also delivered the host of Israel into the hand of the Philistines. Then Saul fell straightway all along on the earth and was so afraid because of the words of Samuel. And there was no strength in him for he had eaten no bread all the day nor all the nights.

Saul gets his answer but it seems he wishes he hadn't. You don't get to go around God. You don't get to circumvent him.

You don't get to cut him out and find his results a different way. God has to be the source of our strength and he does not compete. He does not allow for other options.

He is a jealous God. He is the one true living God. We'll see later in text how many times he says I am the Lord and beside me there is no other or things of that nature pointing to his own deity and he has the right to be confident in his deity.

There will never be another. But what does this have to do with those that are going to grave sites or that are just spending time at night talking to your dead loved one or just whispering mom I wish you were here to help or to their dead friend I miss you? Doesn't that sound harmless to many? The bible says when it describes the word familiar spirits one definition of that word familiar spirit is necromancer or one who evokes the dead. It's from the Hebrew word obi, the ideal of prattling a father's name.

That means to invite, talk to, or talk pointlessly to. So you're just going to talk you just miss them and you just want to share or if you're asking for something directly this word includes that. That is the ideal behind a necromancer.

That is what they do. They communicate with the dead and the Lord hated it and Saul knew it and that's why from the beginning Saul got rid of the necromancers. He got rid of the wizards.

He got rid of those who tried to take the place of God. The devil has always been a great imitator of God. Not even great in terms of accomplishment, great in terms of quantity for trying.

He's always trying. He's always wanted to be like the most high. He's always wanted to be his equal.

He wants to be where you go for your answers. He wants you to play a little harmless game on social media that says oh in two years you'll be doing this or in five years you'll be doing that. He wants you to be so tied to the past that you don't let God heal the vacancies when you lose a loved one so you have to keep talking to them.

He wants the place that only God can feel. Today do not be like Saul. Do not go to another source because you don't have the answer you want.

It cost Saul his whole eternity. It cost Saul the kingdom and his relationship with God once he started looking for other ways. You have to recognize that God is the way the truth and the life.

Jesus is that door. He is the way. He is the way we get to God.

No man cometh to the father but by him. It is necessary that you go to God for God results. There's no person dead or alive who can help you if God does not.

Today if that's you who taking on the games and taking on talking to somebody just because you miss them, repent. I started this by talking about the woman with the familiar spirit at Endor and how she wasn't a bad person by our standards. You can see that.

You can see that in the way she received him. You can see that in the way she was apt to take care of Saul and his whole crew and how quick she was to do that without a thought. You can see that we wouldn't have thought oh she's terrible or that's the devil unless you knew she was a wit.

Don't judge what you do by thinking I do a lot of good so I just do this one thing or most people would say I'm okay. I'm a good person. It doesn't matter.

Everything that's good in our eyes is still not God. We measure it by what we think of people and how we perceive they should act. That is not how God looks at it and at the end of the day what matters is he's God.

He has the right to make decisions. He has the right to his position and he is irreplaceable. Don't go to another source.

Cut off every other source. If you've been doing it repent today. Don't fall into the traps of our hour that are leading to so much witchcraft because God still will not be replaced and when you pray to God the true and living God his name is Jesus Christ and prayer still reaches every single situation.

Join the movement. Join the community. Like, share, and subscribe to this podcast.

Visit us at PressToPray.com or find us on Instagram or Facebook. Did you know that when you are quiet your voice is missing to God's ears? I know some of us have prayed and were wondering how long should I pray about this? Why should I pray if God already knows how will I know God is answering and what do I do when I feel like God's not listening? But God is listening for your voice. It's too quiet in this world for the troubles we have.

You have to raise your voice and God wants to hear from you. It's Too Quiet, a book about prayer, is designed to answer your prayer questions and build your faith. Visit PressToPray.com.

Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai. Go Unlimited to remove this message.