Infinite Fellowship Ministries

The King In Me: Sermon By Deaconess Mary Kamau

Key Scriptures: Judges 13 – Judges 16

It’s easy to judge someone based on one circumstance rather than looking at their entire life. This is what we have done with the story of Samson.

After the leadership of Joshua, the Israelites rebelled and God raised Judges from among them to save them from their enemies and to point them back to God.

One expression of dominant sonship is as a judge.

There is a difference between a judge and a king. We shall explore this shortly.

Judgement or justice is incomplete without mercy.

The expression of a judge is one that excludes mercy and oftentimes doesn’t acknowledge the other side of the accused. Judges make reference to themselves first.

There’s also an expression of dominant sonship as a king. The best example is Jesus.

Throughout Jesus’ lifetime, He showed us how to make reference to God. No one knows the Father better than the Son. Jesus did and said what the Father did and said.

Samson’s story began with a barren woman who received a prophetic word of a child she would bear – he would be a Nazarite, set apart to God, and he would deliver the Israelites from the hand of the Philistines.

Therefore, be careful not to drink wine or [any other] intoxicating drink, and do not eat anything [ceremonially] unclean. 

Judges 13:4 (AMP)

These were instructions on how she should prepare.

And God listened to the voice of Manoah; and the Angel of God came again to the woman as she sat in the field, but Manoah her husband was not with her. So the woman ran quickly and told her husband, “Behold, the Man who came to me the other day has appeared to me.” Then Manoah got up and followed his wife, and came to the Man and said to him, “Are you the Man who spoke to this woman?” He said, “I am.” And Manoah said, “Now when your words come true, what shall be the boy’s manner of life, and his vocation?” The Angel of the Lord said to Manoah, “The woman must pay attention to everything that I said to her. She may not eat anything that comes from the vine nor drink wine or [any other] intoxicating drink, nor eat anything [ceremonially] unclean. She shall observe everything that I commanded her.”  Then Manoah said to the Angel of the Lord, “Please let us detain you and let us prepare a young goat for you [to eat].” The Angel of the Lord said to Manoah, “Though you detain me, I will not eat your food, but if you prepare a burnt offering, offer it to the Lord.” For Manoah did not know that he was the Angel of the Lord. Manoah said to the Angel of the Lord, “What is your name, so that when your words come true, we may honor you?” But the Angel of the Lord said to him, “Why do you ask my name, seeing it is wonderful (miraculous)?”  

So Manoah took the young goat with the grain offering and offered it on the rock to the Lord, and He performed miracles while Manoah and his wife looked on. 20 For when the flame went up toward heaven from the altar, the Angel of the Lord ascended in the altar flame. When Manoah and his wife saw this they fell on their faces to the ground. The Angel of the Lord did not appear again to Manoah or his wife. Then Manoah knew that he was the Angel of the Lord. So Manoah said to his wife, “We will certainly die, because we have seen God.” But his [sensible] wife said to him, “If the Lord had desired to kill us, He would not have received a burnt offering and a grain offering from our hands, nor would He have shown us all these things, nor would He have announced such things as these at this time.” So the woman [in due time] gave birth to a son and named him Samson; and the boy grew and the Lord blessed him. And the Spirit of the Lord began to stir him at times in Mahaneh-dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol. 

Judges 13:9-25 (AMP)

Do we respond to the prophetic word over our lives as judges (referencing to self first) or as kings (first referencing to God)?

God doesn’t always say things that make sense. Samson’s mother was barren. Birth wasn’t a possibility.

If your circumstances were already aligned to God, He wouldn’t need to speak. God speaks to decree order in our circumstances.

God spoke in Genesis 1 to bring order as the world was without form or void.

When we judge ourselves or make reference to ourselves when God speaks, we elevate our circumstances and shortcomings.

Our first reference should be of the King of kings.

Judging a prophetic word is judging yourself and judging God.

O taste and see that the Lord [our God] is good! Blessed (happy, fortunate, to be envied) is the man who trusts and takes refuge in Him.

 Psalm 34:8 (AMP)

We are to first taste so as to see the goodness of God. This needs trust. When we trust Him, we will see His goodness.

For many of us, there is an element of strangeness in so far as the things that God says to us. This makes us render invalid the things He has spoken in our lives because we don’t trust Him.

We need to look back on the faithfulness of God we have experienced in one area and plug it into another area.

You can benefit from another person’s journey and faith in God but that which you’re getting from another person (e.g. testimony) will be manna unto you (food for the wilderness to sustain the Israelites). Manna was temporal.

And Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone. 

Luke 4:4 (ESV)

God’s everyday words are our daily bread.

Manna is instant but temporal in nature whereas making bread is a process. It takes time and concerted effort.

You need to take charge of your personal walk with God. Your relationship with God will determine how you judge Him when you speak.

Manoah thought he would die after he received the prophetic word from God. (Judges 13:22)

We need to take the risk to taste so as to see that the Lord is good. At some point, you need to choose whether you’ll trust God or not.

When you trust someone, when you trust God, you will stay instead of running, you will journey with Him, you will taste and see His goodness.

It is equally important to trust in ourselves (this is the self that God refers to in prophetic words) as much as we trust in God.

Did Jesus become the Saviour of the world when He died on the Cross? The truth is, Jesus was always the Saviour of the world even when He was in the manger.

You have always been who God said you are. In the context of time, each day, you are manifesting and the layers of who God says you are manifest each day.

Many times we ask questions from the wrong heart position. Our posture is wrong because it’s a posture of doubt. This causes us to judge God and ourselves wrongly.

If we have wrong perceptions towards God, His words will be null and void. We will approach them as Manoah did – as a source of death.

The king in us should trust the word of God and the God of the word because we know and trust His heart.

Samson went down to Timnah and at Timnah he saw a woman, one of the daughters of the Philistines. So he went back and told his father and his mother, “I saw a woman in Timnah, one of the daughters of the Philistines; now get her for me as a wife.” But his father and mother said to him, “Is there no woman among the daughters of your relatives, or among all our people, that you must go to take a wife from the uncircumcised (pagan) Philistines?” And Samson said to his father, “Get her for me, because she looks pleasing to me.” His father and mother did not know that it was of the Lord, and that He was seeking an occasion [to take action] against the Philistines. Now at that time the Philistines were ruling over Israel. 

Judges 14:1-4 (AMP)

This was God’s will for Samson. Samson was not being rebellious. He was simply God’s choice vessel and doing God’s will.

The expression of Samson’s purpose as to how he would bring down the Philistines was unique to him.

We are so quick to judge Samson yet he was walking in God’s purpose.

How we express our sonship affects everyone around us.

What is your reference for the expression of God in a person’s life? Is it self?

We need every part of the Body of Christ to succeed so that we too can succeed.

If you hinder the purpose of God in another’s life, you are hindering an aspect of your breakthrough.

The expression of your kingship honours and respects the expression of someone else’s kingship even when it doesn’t make sense.

Redemption should be out of love and wisdom. This is the way of a king.

Like Samson’s life, some of the things that don’t seem to be of God are the very places where God is.

We should look at each other as kings not from the viewpoint of judges.

Then Samson called to the Lord and said, “O Lord God, please remember me and please strengthen me just this one time, O God, and let me take vengeance on the Philistines for my two eyes.” Samson took hold of the two middle [support] pillars on which the house rested, and braced himself against them, one with his right hand and the other with his left. And Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines!” And he stretched out with all his might [collapsing the support pillars], and the house fell on the lords and on all the people who were in it. So the dead whom he killed at his death were more than those whom he had killed during his life. 

Judges 16:28-30 (AMP)

And Jesus was saying, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.

Luke 23:34a (AMP)

In Samson’s death, he goes down as a judge. In Jesus’ death, He goes down as a king. In so doing, Jesus offered salvation not only to those who killed Him but to the entire world.

The expression of a judge (the carnal man that is dead) will lead to death and more death. The expression of a king (one yielded to the superintendence of God) will only lead to life and more life.

You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor (fellow man) and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love [that is, unselfishly seek the best or higher good for] your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may [show yourselves to] be the children of your Father who is in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on those who are evil and on those who are good, and makes the rain fall on the righteous [those who are morally upright] and the unrighteous [the unrepentant, those who oppose Him].

For if you love [only] those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do that? And if you greet only your brothers [wishing them God’s blessing and peace], what more [than others] are you doing? Do not even the Gentiles [who do not know the Lord] do that? You, therefore, will be perfect [growing into spiritual maturity both in mind and character, actively integrating godly values into your daily life], as your heavenly Father is perfect. 

Matthew 5:43-48 (AMP)