You’ve Got to Give God a Target
From Guest Speaker
by Casey Pollard on September 13, 2015
Jewish religion considers several books of great importance, the Talmud, Midrash, and The Book of Legends. The latter contains transcriptions of oral traditions from 1,000 of years of rabbis, documenting miracles seen and heard, of which were never recorded in the Bible. These texts mention a man named Honi.
During many years of drought, Honi walked into the heart of Jerusalem with nothing but a six foot staff, and proceeded to draw a circle on the ground. He prayed to God to send rain—and he vowed never to leave that circle until the God sent forth the rain. God heard Honi’s prayer and it began to rain.
Honi drew yet another circle with his staff. He prayed to God to send abundant rain—and again vowed never to leave the circle until the Lord sent forth abundant rain. God sent a downpour in response to Honi’s prayer. Finally, Honi drew a third circle with his staff and prayed that God would pour out an anointing upon his is life. He vowed never to leave until God sent that anointing. God too responded to his prayer.
We can learn many valuable lessons from this account. If God’s people will humble themselves and pray (II Chronicles 7:14), God will hear and answer! But, we should never be satisfied with a little bit of God’s presence—we should always seek for more. We don’t want just a little rain of God’s presence in our life, but abundance! If we hunger for heavenly things, we will never experience a season of drought but always experience a season of overflow.
Honi physically drew a marker on the ground—a target—to get God’s attention. He not only called upon the Lord for an action, but made himself a vessel that the Lord could work through to bring a miracle to the land of Jerusalem. Per Honi’s last request, God was also able to send forth anointing in his life. We need to set a target for God.
Samson was called of God from his mother’s womb (Judges 13:5) and was destined for greatness. He operated in the power and authority of God, but was dissatisfied in his flesh. He didn’t feel valued, and he didn’t feel loved. He failed to realize the call God upon his life and the love associated with it. He mistakenly laid aside the love God was pouring out in his life and went to find an (ungodly) wife.
Samson fell victim to his wife’s deception and revealed the source of the power and strength in his life (Judges 16:17). Delilah devised a way to shave his head, and loosed the Philistines upon him. He was overtaken and his eyesight impaired, and was set to grind at the mill for the rest of his days.
As Christians, we need to be cognizant when our spiritual sensitivity is no longer where it used to be. If we no longer are making ourselves available for the Lord to do a work—becoming a target—we will be overcome by the devil and our sin.
If we do find ourselves seemingly conquered by the enemy, chained to the mill, this can in essence be our place of opportunity. We have time to reset our target with God. While Samson was chained to the mill, walking in circles, he had time to pray and ask God for a return of the power and anointing in his life. He once again became a target for the Lord. His hair began to regrow (Judges 16:22) and the Lord restored his strength. As it was, in the day of Samson’s death, he killed more than he did during his entire life (Judges 16:30).
We need to continue to pray today and ask God to pour out his blessing in our life. If we make ourselves available and a “target” that God can work through, we will experience the outpouring of God in our life that we’ve always been looking for.
