256. "Speak Lord, I am Listening"- Taking Notes From a Teenager Named Samuel (1 Samuel 3)

Hello, my friends.

Welcome to Holistic Hearts.

I'm your host and friend, Kristen Chadwick, and I am so glad you are here today.

A special hello to any of my new friends who might be listening from Albany, Georgia, and the surrounding area.

Hi.

Hi.

Hello.

I just got back from a conference down there hosted by a fellow podcaster and friend from my podcast Coaching days, Bethany Kemsey.

And there were about 80 women gathered in this beautiful space and ready to get rooted as women, as mothers.

And I had the honor of talking about how to listen and hear God's voice.

And I, on the first night, was able to open up the space to allow the Holy Spirit to speak to them through an encounter.

And then on Saturday, I had the joy of sharing my testimony of God's personal rescue mission on my own heart and speaking to my own heart.

It was just so dear.

The whole experience, the team that welcomed me, the house that I was able to stay at, the women that I met, the stories that I heard, it just filled my soul.

I just have been basking in all of what God did over the weekend.

And so the Lord has been stirring something within my spirit.

And it actually starts way back in November when he first pointed out this story in Scripture.

You know how that is.

Like, you read something and then it percolates, and then it just gets richer and richer over time.

And that's exactly what's been happening as I have been drawn to 1st Samuel 3, and so did it today, we're gonna dive into that scripture, and I'm believing that if you are listening to this, it is no accident.

So I wanna ask you something before we jump in.

When was the last time you felt like God might be speaking to you and you weren't sure if it really was him?

And I want you to hold that thought, because by the end of this episode, I think you're gonna see yourself in this story in First Samuel.

But before we go immediately to chapter three, I want to give you a little bit of a context, because the backstory matters, I believe.

And I'll briefly cover the first two chapters of First Samuel.

So you know how we're entering in.

So there was a woman who was married, and her name was Hannah.

She wanted a son so badly, but her womb was closed and she was desperate.

And so she went to the temple where the priest Eli was serving, and she prayed such raw, passionate mouthing, like quietly mouthing this passionate prayer in desperation.

And it was so intense that Eli actually thought she was drunk.

But Hannah responded and said, no, I'm actually just pouring out my heart and soul to the Lord.

And God heard her.

She became pregnant and she gave birth to a son.

And his name was Samuel.

Now, I need you to tuck this into your pocket because we're going to come back to it.

Samuel's name means God hears.

Okay, tuck that in.

Hannah had made a promise to the Lord that if the Lord gave her a son, she would give him back to the to serve the Lord.

And she kept her promise.

She nursed him, weaned him, and then brought him back Eli to be mentored and to serve in the temple.

Meanwhile, wild story of Eli and his own sons, because his own sons were really corrupt.

And I love how I was listening to one sermon, oh, I can't remember his name, but it was a Calvary chapel sermon.

And it was like a 30,000 foot overview of First Samuel.

And he talked about how this is such an example of just because you go to church doesn't mean that you're a Christian any more than it means if you go stand in the garage, you're not a car or something.

That I thought of was like, if you go to the gym and you just stand there, you're not going to physically get fit, right?

You have to actually do the work.

You have to participate.

You have to have skin in the game.

And Eli was the head priest in that time.

And these two sons were so corrupt, they were like sleeping with these women right outside of the temple entrance, dishonoring God's holy place.

And Eli, their father, barely addressed it.

And Scripture is clear there, there's a serious lack of discipline from Eli to his sons.

But here we go.

Here is Samuel, who is now given to Eli in his care.

This little boy and what they assume, he probably was about 4 or 5 years old when he was underneath Eli's mentorship.

And that's just.

It just says a lot about Hannah.

And trusting God knew that he would take care of him.

So verse 18 of chapter 2 says, But Samuel ministered before the Lord even as a child, wearing a linen ephod.

Every year, Hannah would bring Samuel a new linen ephod, a little bigger to fit his growing frame.

And there's something so tender about that image of a mama who trusted God with her son, still loving him from a distance, and a boy who is learning to be present with.

With God.

All right, so fast forward to chapter three.

Samuel is a little bit older and Eli is older.

His eyes, it says, his eyes are growing dim.

And Scripture says something remarkable right at the start of this Chapter, it says the Word.

Actually, hold on, let me start with.

Yeah, verse one.

Now, the boy Samuel ministered to the Lord before Eli, and the word of the Lord was rare in those days.

There was no widespread revelation.

Number one, he ministered to the Lord.

It started with worship, but we're going to come back to that.

The second thing is.

Does that sound familiar?

The word of the Lord was rare in those days.

There was no widespread revelation.

Has there been a season in your life where you felt like God was quiet or like revelation was rare?

I know for me, in my own life, it has its ebbs and flows where it's super thick and juicy and I can feel like I'm hearing his voice.

And revelations are going left and right and left and right.

And then there are seasons when it's just quiet.

That's the environment that Samuel was in, in that quiet.

The word of the Lord was rare in those days, and there was no widespread revelation.

And yet God still spoke.

And here's what's hap.

Here is what happened.

Samuel is going to bed one night, and he's asleep, and he's awoken by a voice that says, samuel, Samuel.

And Samuel gets up, runs to Eli, and he says, here I am.

You called me.

I can imagine Eli being so sleepy and kind of out of it, you know, Eli says, I didn't call you.

Go back to.

Go back and go back to bed.

I didn't call you.

And again it happens.

Samuel, Samuel.

And again he goes back to Samuel, I didn't call you.

Go back and lie down again.

Samuel, Samuel.

And that third time, he comes in to Eli, and Eli goes, ding, I get it.

Eli perceived that the Lord had called the boy.

That's verse eight here.

Here I am.

As.

So this is now Eli coming into the room, and he says, here I am, for you did call me.

So then Eli perceived that the Lord had called the boy.

And therefore Eli said to Samuel, all right, I want you to go back and lie down.

And it shall be if he calls you that you must say, speak, Lord, for your servant hears.

So Samuel listened, and he went back, and he laid down in his place.

Is there a moment in your life where you have heard him and somebody else is like, have you.

This is from the Lord.

Are you paying attention?

I know I have.

And it just happened so many times in my life, and I'm thankful for those mentors and people who have gone before me to say, hey, this is the Lord talking.

It happened a lot when my kids were younger, like I would be Praying about something.

There was one in particular about my son and how I was putting him to bed and I was like wrapping him up in this little swaddle.

And I remember asking the Lord, like, how do I help him?

How do I help him settle down?

And I thought that was the answer.

And I remember my mother in law, bless her, she said, hey, it's been on my heart, but I think that you need to stop swaddling him at this point.

And brave soul that she was.

But it was so confirming, because I was already sensing that there needed to be a shift in that area.

And so I had her to confirm that, yes, this is of the Lord.

This is how I could bless my son in his sleep.

So that's just a little story.

I want to know what your story is.

Can you think of one right now?

Thinking about a moment where maybe you didn't know that it was the Lord calling your name and you had somebody else come and confirm it, just like Eli did for Samuel.

As you think about that, remember I said at the beginning of the episode to tuck something into your pocket.

Remember I said, samuel's name means God hears.

And here God is calling Samuel's name.

The God who hears is calling the one whose name means heard by God.

There's something so intentional in that.

The more we know who God is, the more we understand who we are.

And he is a God who hears, and he is a God who speaks.

And we, his people, are created to hear his voice.

Jesus said it himself, My sheep hear my voice in John 10:27.

So this isn't just Old Testament history.

This story, this is our story.

He calls our name we love because he first loved us.

He is speaking.

So are we tuning in?

And I want to draw out three things that Samuel modeled for us in this chapter, because I think they are really deeply practical.

Number one, he started with intimacy and worship.

Remember back in verse one of three of chapter three, he says, now the boy Samuel ministered to the Lord before Eli.

And it actually says that two other times in chapter two it says, but Samuel ministered before the Lord even as a child.

Okay?

And then verse 26, and the child Samuel grew in stature and in favor both with the Lord and men.

And then, well, I guess that doesn't really say that he ministered before the Lord, but he grew in stature and in favor before the Lord.

And then the.

The third time here in verse one is that he ministered to the Lord.

And so it started with ministering to the Lord.

That word ministered is Verse one.

And it means to serve, it means to worship, it means to wait, and a humble, menial way.

That's what that word ministered means in Samuel.

He wasn't performing, he wasn't building a platform.

He was just showing up day after day, honoring his duties, honoring what Eli had modeled for him, and positioning himself in the presence of God.

And that is where it all starts.

Before the calling, before the voice, before the assignment, there is worship.

And I am learning this more and more each day that it starts with being in his presence with no agenda.

Oh, I needed to hear that.

I needed to hear that.

Okay, so the second thing that I want us to draw from this little section in 1st Samuel 3 is that Samuel needed Eli.

He needed an Eli.

Samuel heard the voice, but he didn't recognize it was God.

He needed someone wiser, he needed someone further along to say, that sounds like the Lord.

Go sit with him.

Who are your Eli's?

Who are the people in your life that you can look at what you're sensing and say, that sounds like God.

Go listen.

Just like I gave the example with my son, I had an Eli in my life to say, that sounds like the Lord.

Go after that.

Or maybe in your situation it's different.

Maybe it's you're sensing that he's calling you to do something brave, but you need somebody to come along side and say, that sounds like the Lord.

Go sit and be with him in his presence.

We are created to hear his voice and we are designed to be in community together for mentorship and for someone who can help us discern the voice of the Lord.

Number three, the thing that I want you to draw from is that God answered.

When Samuel finally understood and Eli explained to him that it was the Lord calling, Samuel whispered and spoke back those words, speak, Lord, for your servant hears, not speak.

And I'll decide if I really want to or if I like it or if someone else thinks that's okay.

Not speak and I'll think about it.

Samuel's response was, for your servant hears.

That is a position of surrender.

It's a position of availability.

So I invite you right now, even as you listen, to whisper that prayer, just say it quietly.

Just say, speak, Lord, your servant is listening.

Let's just take a breath together.

And as you begin to sit and increase that time of listening at his feet, you will discern a feeling or get a picture or scripture or someone will come to mind and you will begin to exercise that muscle.

It's a muscle.

It takes time to build up So I encourage you to keep practicing that and just responding like Samuel did.

Speak, Lord, for your servant hears.

Okay, then it says in verse 10 that the Lord came and stood and called, as at other times, Samuel, Samuel, he stood the Lord.

I love that.

I. I can actually, like, picture Jesus at the foot of Samuel's bed, just present Yahweh.

There he is, present, calling Samuel's name tenderly.

And this time Samuel answers, speak, Lord, for your servant hears or listens.

And God downloads into Samuel the destiny and the calling of Israel and of his life.

And Samuel grew.

Verse 19 says, the Lord was with him, and let none of his words fall, fall to the ground.

All of Israel, from Dan to Beersheba, knew that Samuel was established as a prophet of the Lord because it all started with a boy in a position of worship learning to hear the voice of God.

There's one more passage that I want to bring in here, and I think it connects so beautifully to everything that we've been talking about.

Acts 13:2.

Let me turn there in my Bible here, and I wanna do another deep dive on this phrase on ministering to the Lord, because I find it so absolutely fascinating.

And.

All right, let's see here.

So it says now, in the church that was at Antioch, there were certain prophets and teachers.

Barnabas, Simeon, who was called Niger, Luscious, or Lucius of Cyrene, Manian, who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul.

As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, now separate to me, Barnabas and Saul, for the work to which I have called them.

Then, having fasted and prayed and laid hands on them, they sent them away.

So this group of prophets and teachers of Barnabas and Paul and Simeon and Lucius and Mannion, and they were worshiping, they were fasting, they were ministering to the Lord.

And that was the moment that the Holy Spirit spoke and said, this is what you're supposed to do.

I need you to separate Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have already called them.

So they were.

They heard the voice of the Lord in the middle of worship and fasting.

And God speaks when we position ourselves to receive what he wants to say.

So here's what I want to leave you with today.

How are you positioning yourself?

Are your affections turned towards him?

And I'm asking this of myself, friends.

Am I ministering to the Lord even in the small, seemingly unimportant moments?

Are you in a place where you can hear your name being called?

Because I believe that he is calling you.

He is calling me.

And maybe you felt it like a nudge or scripture that keeps coming back like this first Samuel 3.

How it keeps coming back for me.

Maybe it's a picture.

Maybe it's a deep stirring.

Maybe it's the encounter that you experienced listening to this podcast or or going to a retreat.

I encourage you not to run past it.

Stop.

Pay attention.

Listen.

What is he saying to you?

What is he saying to your heart?

And find your Eli's.

Get in the room with people who can help you discern his voice and answer.

Speak, Lord, for your servant hears.

Thank you so much my friends, for being here.

If this episode stirred something in you, I'd love to hear about it.

You can come find me on Instagram, at Kristen Fields Chadwick, or on Facebook and tell me, what did God speak to you today?

If this episode was meaningful, would you share it with a friend?

Maybe someone who needs to know that God is still speaking, still calling names, still whispering within hearts.

Send it to that person.

Until next time, keep your ears and your eyes open and your heart soft.

He is speaking.