Spirit comes, Spirit goes?

I guess I need to stop making ANY promises. I still don’t have internet service as there’s apparently a problem with the phone-jack wiring in my little studio. My efforts to connect last night were unsuccessful. AT&T won’t be able to come out and fiddle with things until Sunday.

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In I Sam. 10:6, Samuel says to King Saul, “And the Spirit of the LORD will come upon thee, and thou shalt prophesy with them, and shalt be turned into another man.” One chapter later, Samuel writes, “And the Spirit of God came upon Saul when he heard those tidings, and his anger was kindled greatly.”

Once you arrive at I Samuel 16:13, we’re told “Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the midst of his brethren: and the Spirit of the LORD came upon David from that day forward. So Samuel rose up, and went to Ramah.
[14] But the Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the LORD troubled him.
[15] And Saul's servants said unto him, Behold now, an evil spirit from God troubleth thee.”

Notice the Spirit DEPARTED from Saul and suddenly he was troubled by an evil spirit!

“Can you understand why people believe you can lose your salvation?” says Jordan. “I mean, if the Spirit of God came and regenerated Saul, and planted eternal life in his spirit and justified him, and then he lost it?! If he was sealed by the Spirit, like you and I are, then he lost the seal. If God’s dealing with Saul the same way He deals with us, what does that tell you about your sealing? Is it permanent? It wasn’t for Saul. How can you know it is with you?”

Of course, many misinformed Christians under the all-too-popular “performance system” would answer, “The way you know is if you don’t do all the bad things Saul did.”

Jordan says, “But what if you try hard to obey all the rules of the Bible and then break some? God might take His Spirit . . . you see what kind of conundrum you get into when you don’t put things where they fit?”

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Another example is in Judges 16. Samson was a Nazarite who had the Spirit of God come on him, giving him tremendous power and ability, but then Delilah cut his hair, and the sad verse in Judges 16 says, “Samson wist not that the Spirit departed from him.”

It was just like with Saul, but with Saul the Spirit came on him, left and never came back. With Samson, the Spirit came on him, left because of his disobedience, but then came back on him and empowered him and he brought the house down, if you remember.

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Then you have David. I Samuel 16:13 says the Spirit of God came on David and never left even though there were times David thought it might.

As David pleads in Psalm 51:11, “Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me.” This was part of his confession after the sin of adultery with Bathsheba and the killing of her husband Uriah to cover up his sin. And, of course, the death of the baby.

Jordan says, “You talk about a terrible, terrible thing. You know, we get all mad and fired up about politicians. I mean, here’s the chief executive of God’s nation—an adulterer and a murderer in the king’s palace. And yet David prayed, ‘Take not thy Holy Spirit from me.’ He knew God had every right to do it but He never did. (Confused Bible students read that and say, ‘Bejeebers, what am I going do with all that? How do I decide which one of those fit me?’

“Well, the truth of the matter is none of them fit you because it’s God dealing with Israel in time past. You make a cardinal, fundamental mistake if you take that and try to apply it to us today.”