"When the Spirit of the Lord Hits You"

Scripture: “The Spirit of the LORD came upon him in power so that he tore the lion apart with his bare hands as he might have torn a young goat. …” –Judges 14:6, NIV

As I have grown over the past ten plus years, I have learned a lot of myself. One of the things that I have learned about myself is that when I am good and ticked off, I like to make the naysayers shut up. There was an instance where I did not think I was going to finish my PhD in four and a half years, but when I became good and ticked off, it fueled me to do it and do it in a manner where my committee members respected me more than they did previously. If truth were told, we all have “something” that causes us to go into another gear and get things done. That “something” might be fear of failure, self-motivation, reputation, etc. In the spiritual realm, that “something” should be the Holy Spirit. That’s the something that should make you love right, talk right, and other things. Today’s scripture provides another example of what can happen when the Spirit of the Lord hits you.

Today’s focus shifts to the book of Judges. This historical book talks about the twelve judges who served Israel after the period of kings within the land. Within Judges, you see a recurring cycle within each judge: Obedience, Disobedience, Forgiveness, Deliverance. Today’s focus chapter, Chapter 14, takes us to a man of great strength (physically) and one who was born for greatness. This man/judge was Samson. He was a Nazrite, which means his hair could not be cut because he would lose his strength and he could not partake of wine or other liquors. Samson, like most men, had an eye for women, in this case, a Philistine woman. His eye was so strong for her that he convinced his parents to go to Timnah and request her hand in marriage for him. If you read the first few verses of Chapter 14, we learn that this was a God-driven ploy to confront the Philistines. As Samson and his parents were in Timnah, a lion attacks him, which brings us to today’s scripture.

The text says, “The Spirit of the LORD came upon him in power so that he tore the lion apart with his bare hands as he might have torn a young goat”. What an awesome power from an awesome Spirit of God! The Spirit infused Samson with that kind of power to destroy the lion that was trying to attack him with his bare hands! Just like Samson, when the Spirit of God hits you, you can also destroy the lions that try to attack you! You can destroy the lion of depression! You can destroy the lion of low self-esteem! You can destroy the lion of “woe is me”! You can destroy the lion of financial instability! You can destroy the lion of health instability! You can destroy the lion of mental instability! You can destroy the lion of occupational instability! You can destroy the lion of spiritual instability! Jesus told His disciples that they had the power to walk over serpent’s heads! Just like He gave them that power, He infused you with that power as well and that power is driven by His Spirit!

In closing, there’s something that drives us to do bigger and better things. Well today, we have learned about what can happen when the Spirit of God hits us! We learned that through Samson’s example, as he tore the lion apart with his bare hands, we can tear apart our lions with our bare hands as well, through prayer, reading God’s Word, standing on His Word, and being doers of His Word and not hearers only! What are you going to do when the Spirit of the Lord hits you? Sit like a bump on a log or tear the head off of your enemies? You be the judge!