1 Sam 10:6, Then the Spirit of the Lord will come upon you mightily, and you shall prophesy with them and be changed into another man. 
	In this passage, we have the prophecy of Samuel upon the man whom God had chosen to be the first king of Israel. It is the promise that the Spirit of the Lord would come upon this man mightily and change him into a man in whom the Spirit of the Lord would guide and direct His people on this earth. Saul, at the beginning of his call as the king of the Children of Israel was very much after the way of Jehovah in the course of his walk before God and before man. He did desire, to the best of his abilities, to honor both The Lord and man in the manner of how he dealt with the responsibility of leadership.
	In the very next chapter of this book of 1 Samuel, we find that Saul was truly honoring to the position before God unto which he had been thrust. Consider how he forcefully followed the leading of God and called the people together in order to do battle against the Ammonites. This was the victory with which God cemented Saul’s kingship over the nation of Israel! 
1 Sam 11:6+7, Then the Spirit of God came upon Saul mightily when he heard these words, and he became very angry. And he took a yoke of oxen and cut them in pieces, and sent them throughout the territory of Israel by the hand of messengers, saying, "Whoever does not come out after Saul and after Samuel, so shall it be done to his oxen." Then the dread of the Lord fell on the people, and they came out as one man. 
	This was a man who experienced the power of the Lord in his life because the Spirit of the Lord caused him to seek after God’s will in the manner in which he ruled. Sadly, this was only up to the point at which he forsook the guidance of God. Rather than wholeheartedly following the Lord, Saul allowed jealousy and envy to rule his heart and his mind. 
As long as he only looked to God and honored the Lord, his heart was open to what was needed in the manner of his ruling over God’s people. However, when he opened himself up to the spirit of selfish intent and the promotion of his place of honor and prestige over the needs of the people, that heart became a flinty stone hardened by anger and frustration and self-pity. 
As indicated in 1 Sam 13:11-14, Saul took upon himself the attitude and the demeanor that he now knew better than God how to deal with the course of his rule over the nation. Please turn to this passage and follow along.
	1 Sam 13:11-14, But Samuel said, "What have you done?" And Saul said, "Because I saw that the people were scattering from me, and that you did not come within the appointed days, and that the Philistines were assembling at Michmash, therefore I said, 'Now the Philistines will come down against me at Gilgal, and I have not asked the favor of the Lord.' So I forced myself and offered the burnt offering." And Samuel said to Saul, "You have acted foolishly; you have not kept the commandment of the Lord your God, which He commanded you, for now the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever. But now your kingdom shall not endure. The Lord has sought out for Himself a man after His own heart, and the Lord has appointed him as ruler over His people, because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you." 
	Because of this self-centered ambition of Saul, God tore the kingdom from him and gave it to David, the young shepherd boy whose heart was fully after the Lord. It was not that David was perfect, as we well know, but he had that heart which could not be satisfied without the knowledge of the Lord being upon him. He craved to know the way of the Lord above all else.
	Consider how the Lord even made that distinction known in the description of how the Spirit of the Lord coming upon David is distinctly different than as when the Spirit of the Lord came upon Saul. This is detailed so vibrantly for us in 1 Sam 16:13.
	1 Sam 16:13, Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers; and the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon David from that day forward. And Samuel arose and went to Ramah. 
	Notice that when the Spirit of the Lord came upon Saul, it was mightily, but with no mention of permanence. In both of the considerations of the scripture with Saul, there is only the depiction of mightily. However, with David, we have that declaration that not only was the Spirit with him mightily, but from that day on. …and the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon David from that day forward.
	Then, in the very next verse, we are told that the Spirit of the Lord was removed from Saul altogether. 1 Sam 16:14, Now the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord terrorized him. 
From that day onward, the self-centered spirit within Saul was the one that stirred him to jealousy and anger and hatred and seeking to kill David. Saul was haunted by this self-centered lust after keeping his place of power and prestige and honor at all costs. It was especially with respect to putting to death the one who was a threat to everything that Saul had accumulated. All the glory and reputation that Saul had manifestly gathered unto him was threatened. Therefore Saul would do everything in his power to hold onto it to the end of his days. 
This was all at the supreme cost of his relationship with the Lord God, Jehovah. God had divinely chosen Saul for the purpose of showing the difference between a king whose heart was after earthly glory and praise as opposed to a king whose heart was after the glory and the praise and the honor of God above all else.
	The Lord protected David throughout the whole time in which Saul was seeking his life. There was the divine Hand of God Who worked to stop every effort of Saul from destroying the testimony of the Lord in this anointed shepherd boy. Consider how even Saul was personally hindered by the Spirit of the Lord from this vile action as detailed in 1 Sam 19:18-24.
	1 Sam 19:18-24, Now David fled and escaped and came to Samuel at Ramah, and told him all that Saul had done to him. And he and Samuel went and stayed in Naioth. And it was told Saul, saying, "Behold, David is at Naioth in Ramah." Then Saul sent messengers to take David, but when they saw the company of the prophets prophesying, with Samuel standing and presiding over them, the Spirit of God came upon the messengers of Saul; and they also prophesied. And when it was told Saul, he sent other messengers, and they also prophesied. So Saul sent messengers again the third time, and they also prophesied. Then he himself went to Ramah, and came as far as the large well that is in Secu; and he asked and said, "Where are Samuel and David?" And someone said, "Behold, they are at Naioth in Ramah." And he proceeded there to Naioth in Ramah; and the Spirit of God came upon him also, so that he went along prophesying continually until he came to Naioth in Ramah. And he also stripped off his clothes, and he too prophesied before Samuel and lay down naked all that day and all that night. Therefore they say, "Is Saul also among the prophets?" 
	To Saul, the loss of the presence of the Spirit of the Lord was not a huge thing. He felt that he could function on his own without the guidance and the direction and the need to honor the Lord. Everything about Jehovah became just a ritual and a custom, such as when he offered the sacrifice to the Lord without the authority to do so. He took upon himself the ritualistic behavior to satisfy the tradition and the routine that was required by the people. Then he felt that all was OK since the ritual before going into battle was done. It really meant nothing more than that to him.
	However, to David, the presence of the Lord meant everything. He was completely lost without that relationship being in place. He was devastated when he did those things which meant that the Lord would withdraw the conscious presence of Himself from the mind and the soul and the spirit of David. Consider, as just one example, what we have expressed from the heart of David in Ps 51:10-13.
	Ps 51:10-13, Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Thy presence, And do not take Thy Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Thy salvation, And sustain me with a willing spirit. Then I will teach transgressors Thy ways, And sinners will be converted to Thee. 
	Notice David’s cry to the Lord to not leave him. It was of paramount importance and urgency to this Psalmist to not lose the working ministry of God in his life. He wanted that clean heart, that steadfast spirit after the Lord no matter what the cost in terms of earthly fame and fortune. 
The whole purpose of seeking after the work of the Lord in his life was in order that he would to be able to share the truth of Who God was and all that He did with others. This would be in order to lead them unto the worship and the praise for the glory of the Lord. 
It was not just a matter of how things would affect the course of David’s life, but rather how Jehovah would be glorified and honored by so many others. That was what the heart of David sought for with all his being. The presence of the Holy Spirit was treasured above all else in this life for the sake of the name and the praise of Yahweh. 
	This brings us to a dramatic shift in the course of our consideration. We have looked at how one king felt no allegiance to the value of the presence of the Holy Spirit within the course of his life. Saul looked for the things of this age to be his all in all. This self-centeredness caused him immense pain and stress in terms of the affliction of his egocentric altitude and demeanor. 
But in terms of turning his heart over to the Lord for the cleansing work of the Holy Spirit to be preeminent, Saul had no use for that type of life. He was craving the riches and the acclaim that would never be his because of the self-absorbed walls of anger and jealousy and resentment and frustration and self-righteousness in which he had trapped himself. 
	Then we briefly considered King David, the once humble and insignificant shepherd boy by the standards of this realm. Yet, to David, the Lord and His presence meant everything! He valued that relationship above all else in his life. Everything was centered in the manner in which he could present the love of the Lord to all those around him. 
Again, we are not saying that he was perfect by any stretch of the imagination. We know that David got himself into deep and severe manners of horrible sin. The difference, however, was evidenced in David’s earnest contrition before the Lord. This made David change the course of what he did and how he dealt with others in repentance and in the alteration of his earthly walk. 
It was vital, to David, to obey Jehovah in order to bring back the joy of the Lord into his life. He valued God in the presence of His Holy Spirit to the complete abandonment of all other desires and issues of the humbled and repentant depths of his heart. 
	As a direct result of his earnest beseeching after the forgiveness of the Lord and the restoration of the relationship that he had with Jehovah, even as a shepherd boy, we have been given so many Psalms in Scripture. God has provided these so that we can join ourselves with the expressed heart of contrition when we are seeking the forgiveness and the restoration of our divine relationship with Jehovah after we have sinned. 
We can hold ourselves before the Lord and join in with all those cries to forgive us, to cleanse us, to change us and to make us pleasing witnesses of the truth of Who God is and all that He has done! This is for the sake of being effective witnesses unto others of His so great love. The entire tremendous psaltery that is laid before us by this humbled king after the heart of God is of immeasurable comfort and assurance to us. We know that God hears and that God forgives and that God desires for us to seek Him as fully and vitally as did David. 
	This is where we are in our fellowship, right now. I find myself before the throne of God’s grace over and over and over again, asking Him to work in my life that heart as David had after Him. I am beseeching the Lord to guide our continued consideration of the so valuable passage of this morning. This is with regard to what heart do we have unto Him! 
What value do we put on the presence of the Holy Spirit within us as we walk on this earth? What does it mean to know the presence of God via the manner in which the Spirit of the Lord comes upon us mightily? Are we simply satisfied with the status quo? Are we content with just the customs and the rituals with which we come together to worship our God? Is there no real hunger after the increasing depth of the knowledge of the reality of God that can only opened to us through the active, moment by moment relationship with The Holy Spirit? 
	You see, we are at a cross roads at this precise time! There has been something welling up within the course of the studies regarding the relationship that could have been for Saul, if that was where his heart had been centered. It was the course of the walk of the man whose heart was fully after God, David. The choice is very clear and set in this Word of God! It is the Holy Spirit Who works mightily in the hearts of those who are seeking Him without any strings, without any preconceptions, without any limitations as to the road of obedience which we walk in this realm! 
	Please stand with all of us in the prayer that the Lord will prove Himself glorious and triumphant in the hearts of each one here this morning. We are about to venture into a deliberation which will test the every fiber of our spiritual relationship with God. It is one which will concisely and definitively prove the course of each heart before the throne of God’s grace and mercy and right standing in Jesus Christ!
I do not venture here lightly and without forethought and without earnest prayer, which is absolutely coveted as our walk together in Christ unfolds. The reality of the Spirit of The Lord coming upon us mightily is going to test the very foundation of our walk on this earth as well as my responsibility before God for the care and the keeping of the flock for which the life of the shepherd must be forfeit!
	It is only by the work of the Holy Spirit that we can forge together into the full measure of the knowledge of our risen Lord Jesus Christ! If we fail to do so, we fail Him Who died for you and for me! We must willingly be brought; through all the manifest outpouring and tremendously mighty working of the Holy Spirit, into the reality that Christ Jesus Alone is our source, our goal, and our glory. So be it!	
Then the Spirit of the Lord will come upon you mightily, and you shall prophesy with them and be changed into another man. Amen.
			
This morning’s benediction is 1 Sam 2:2. "There is no one holy like the Lord, Indeed, there is no one besides Thee, Nor is there any rock like our God. Amen.