Samuel's Call: Finding Divine Purpose Amid Family Chaos

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Have you ever wondered if God still speaks today? Samuel's story reveals how divine calling works even in the most dysfunctional environments.

Samuel's very name—meaning "God hears"—carries profound significance. While we often encounter people who barely listen to us, God genuinely attends to our prayers with perfect understanding. But in this exploration of 1 Samuel 3, we discover something equally important: how we can learn to hear God's voice in return.

Young Samuel served in the temple during a spiritually barren time when "the word of the Lord was rare." Three times he mistook God's voice for Eli's, running to the aging priest before finally learning to respond with the transformative words, "Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening." What makes this encounter remarkable is its context—Eli's household was riddled with corruption. His sons abused their priestly positions as thieves, gluttons, and sexual deviants, while Eli failed to discipline them properly. Yet God bypassed this dysfunction to speak directly to Samuel, who would become one of Israel's greatest prophets.

This narrative offers profound hope for anyone who has experienced family dysfunction or difficult circumstances. God doesn't excuse negative environments, but He isn't limited by them either. Samuel's journey from confusion to clarity demonstrates that discerning God's voice is a learned skill that develops through relationship. Even if you've never clearly heard God speak, this story invites you to position yourself where His presence dwells and adopt a posture of receptivity that could change everything.

Whether you're struggling with your past, questioning your calling, or simply wanting to deepen your spiritual connection, Samuel's story reminds us that God can speak powerfully through imperfect circumstances. Listen to discover how you might recognize the divine whisper that's been calling your name all along. Share this episode with someone who needs encouragement that God is bigger than their broken beginnings.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
We've been looking into the book of 1 Samuel and
right now we're at chapter 3.
One of the interesting thingsabout the book of Samuel is that
it took about 100 years toactually live out this portion

(00:22):
of the book, samuel.
It's actually divvied up intotwo sections, 1 Samuel and 2
Samuel, but in its originalwriting it was one book.
It was one scroll.
The book of Samuel bears thename of Samuel, and the name

(00:48):
Samuel means God hears, or Godheard me, and that's a very
reassuring name to have the factthat God heard Hannah's prayer
and gave her son Samuel, who'sgoing to be one of the greatest

(01:11):
prophets in all of Israel untilthe time of Jesus.
He's equated with, at times,the same breath as Moses, with,
at times, the same breath asMoses, and so Samuel carries a
very large stick, even thoughhe's a man that was in a time of

(01:35):
transition.
He actually had to bow out oraway from being the premier or
primary leader in Israel so thata king could become the leader
in Israel.
The people no longer wantedjudges to judge them and

(02:02):
prophets to speak to them andGod to lead them.
They wanted a king like theother nations, and so God
granted them their wish.
And Samuel was the one who wasthe first one to anoint the
kings of Israel, saul and David,first two kings.

(02:29):
And so God heard Hannah'sprayer.
God hears our prayers.
That's a very significant thingto hear for all of us.
When we pray, god listens,unlike sometimes, people around
us we could be talking and theydon't hear a word we say, or if

(02:59):
we do say something, they reallycouldn't care less.
But God really listens.
In fact, there's an art tolistening and here's a little
secret in listening.
Good listening is not thinkingabout what you're going to be

(03:23):
saying next while someone elseis talking is a real good
practice in listening.
And the other little key tolistening is reciting back what
the person said to you.
There's little keys to justtuck away, but God hears, he

(03:47):
really listens, and so Samuel,his name, god hears, or God
listens.
It's significant.
But in this particular chapter,chapter 3, verses 1 through 11,
is what we're going to belooking at.
Samuel was going to be lookingat.

(04:07):
Samuel was going to learn howto hear.
God heard.
But now Samuel was going tolearn how to hear the voice of
the Lord and again, that is animportant thing for all of us to

(04:29):
learn how to know andcommunicate with God, to know
his voice.
And so in 1 Samuel, chapter 3,we pick up our study with the
scripture saying the boy Samuelministered before the Lord under
Eli.
In those days the word of theLord was rare.

(04:51):
There were not many visions.
One night, eli, whose eyes werebecoming so weak that he could
barely see, was lying down inhis usual place.
The lamp of God had not yetgone out and Samuel was lying

(05:13):
down in the temple of the Lordwhere the ark of God was.
Then the Lord called Samuel.
The Lord called Samuel.
Samuel answered here am I.
And he ran to Eli and said hereI am, you called me.

(05:39):
But Eli said I did not call.
Go back and lie down.
So he went and laid down.
Again.
The Lord called Samuel andSamuel got up and went to Eli
and said here I am, you calledme, my son.

(06:05):
Eli said I did not call.
Go back and lie down.
Now.
Samuel did not yet know theLord Interesting.
The word of the Lord had notyet been revealed to him.
Then the Lord called Samuel athird time and Samuel got up and

(06:31):
went to Eli and said here I am,you called me.
Then Eli realized that the Lordwas calling the boy.
So Eli told Samuel go, lie down, and if he calls you, say speak
, lord, for your servant islistening.
So Samuel went and lied down inhis place.

(06:52):
Then the Lord came and stoodthere, calling, as the other
times, samuel, samuel.
Then Samuel said Speak, foryour servant is listening.
And the Lord said to Samuel see, I'm about to do something in

(07:13):
Israel that will make the earsof everyone who hears of it
tingle.
Verses 1 through 11.
Now we got to rewind a littlebit.
Now we got to rewind a littlebit and remember that the house

(07:40):
of Eli was not in the best shape.
Eli had two sons, hophni andPhinehas, who were thieves,
gluttons and perverts, sexualdeviants, and Eli was a glutton
himself and he was not reallyvery good at disciplining his

(08:00):
sons.
And so let's just say it was adysfunctional household.
It wasn't functioning all thatwell, and Samuel was brought

(08:27):
into that household to be raisedas a priest before the Lord,
under Eli's tutelage.
Eli couldn't even take care ofhis own two sons, let alone a
three-year-old, and yet Samuelturned out to be one of the
greatest prophets in all ofIsrael.
How does that work?
You see, here's how it works,even if we're raised in

(08:51):
dysfunctional homes, god isbigger than the dysfunction in
our homes.
Praise God.
God was bigger than thedysfunction in Eli's house.
Now, he didn't excuse it inEli's house.
Now, he didn't excuse it, buthe was bigger than it.
And God doesn't excuse thenegative things that go on in

(09:14):
our homes, but he is bigger thanthem.
And if you've been raised in adysfunctional home, it doesn't
necessarily mean that you haveto be a scarred person.
Granted, there might be thingsthat need to be taken care of to
renew your mind so that you cansee things differently.

(09:34):
But you can become a greatservant of the Lord, even if
you're raised in a dysfunctionalhousehold.
That's good news, man.
God is bigger than dysfunction.
Now, eli was to his credit.

(10:00):
Eventually Eli was able todirect Samuel in the right way
by saying Eli, I mean Samuel,that's probably God talking to
you, which, again, that was arare thing.

(10:22):
The word of the Lord, propheticwords, were not common.
At that time they were rare,and even sometimes these days,
prophetic words can be rare,visions can be rare, because
things need to be purged in theland, sometimes within our own
fellowships.
But if they have been rare,that means at one point in time

(10:44):
they were prolific and alsothat's good news and we can look
forward to some real times ofprophetic ministry good, solid,
real prophetic ministry.
Not fake phony stuff, notfabricated, but straight from
the heart of God, his word, hisways, his vision.

(11:08):
Samuel was the recipient of God, his word, his ways, his vision
.
Samuel was the recipient ofthat.
In a dysfunctional household,stepbrothers or whatever you
call them when you're adoptedstepbrothers, I guess Eli's sons
, I mean, they were sleepingwith the women who would be

(11:32):
tending to the things in thetemple.
They were having affairs withthem, adulterous and fornicating
affairs with those women, andstealing food from the altar of
God to line their own pockets.
They treated the ministry likeit was a profession, like it was
their cash cow, and we'vealready talked about the fact

(11:55):
that some people are doing thattoday and I'm not going to
belabor that point, but I amgoing to underscore it one more
time.
If that's you, man, turn, turnfrom that.
Ministry is servanthood, it'sservant leadership.
It's not a way to have a job soyou can have some sort of

(12:16):
security for your retirement.
It's more than that, for yourretirement.
It's more than that.
It's a calling God calledSamuel, and some of you are
being called.
I remember the day that I wascalled by the Lord.
He spoke to my heart and saidI've called you into the

(12:38):
ministry.
And he said it several timesand I wanted to make sure.
So I went into it fast, where Iwasn't going to drink any water
or sleep, until I really heardthe Lord say to me emphatically
that that's what he wanted me tobe as a minister of his

(13:00):
completely.
And a friend of mine who lives30 miles away from me, one day
during my fast, called me on thetelephone and said David,
whatever it is you're doing andwhatever it is you need God to
say to you, here's the answer.
The answer is yes.

(13:20):
Here's the answer.
The answer is yes, he goes.
I almost fell off my bike withGod telling me call David and
tell him, yes, he goes.
I don't know what that means,but maybe you do.
And I knew exactly what itmeant and I said thank you,
kenneth.
His name is Kenneth, thank you,kenneth.

(13:42):
Hung up the phone and then Iwent and had a bite to eat,
celebrating the fact that I knewfor a fact God had called me,
called me, called me.
I was the one who had created adysfunctional household and in

(14:04):
the midst of that, god called me.
God's bigger than dysfunction,and I think that point is well
made in this passage, becauseSamuel was called by God in a
dysfunctional household andbecame a prophet of God.

(14:24):
That was one of the chief onesfor all Israel and for us today.
The word of the Lord came tohim and through him, and we have
it today and it still lives andit is having effect in the

(14:46):
world that we live in.
Praise God, let's pray Father.
Thank you that you're biggerthan dysfunction, that you could
take things that were intendedfor evil and you could turn them
around and they become goodbecause they're in your hands.

(15:11):
I love you, we love you, wehonor you.
Holy Spirit, I invite you tocontinue to mold and shape us
into the very likeness of Jesus.
Jesus, we lift high your nameand we consider you King and
Lord, savior of our lives.
We place our faith in you andwalk in your steps, and in your

(15:36):
steps and in your name we sayamen, amen, amen, amen.
All right, folks, we love you.
If you have any thoughts,questions, concerns, please feel
free to drop us a line atlifearoundthefire at gmailcom.
That's our email address or youcan type in lifearoundthefire

(15:57):
and look us up on the web, checksome things out.
We'd love to hear from you Inthe meantime.
God bless you.
Adios amigos.