It's Not About the Donkeys
“But as for your donkeys that were lost three days ago, do not be anxious about them, for they have been found. And on whom is all the desire of Israel? Is it not on you and on all your father’s house.”
1 Samuel 9:20 (NKJV)
“The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and He delights in his way.”
Psalms 37:23 (NKJV)
Saul’s father, Kish, ordered Saul to look for his lost donkeys. Saul, faithful to his father’s instructions, set out on a journey to find his father’s donkeys by looking for a seer. At this time, God told Samuel that a man from the land of Benjamin would be sent and that Samuel should anoint him as the commander of Israel. The man God was speaking of was actually Saul.
Saul was on a prophetic journey, and he didn’t even know it. Saul’s steps were being ordered by the Lord even though he didn’t perceive it. Saul believed he was merely looking for his father’s lost donkeys, but he was actually on route on his prophetic journey to become the first king of Israel.
Faithfulness is the on-ramp to the prophetic highway that God has for us. Saul was a faithful son. His father didn’t have to remind or plead with Saul to go look for the donkeys. If we are going to live in the adventure of the journeys God has for us, it is going to require faithfulness and obedience in the mundane things of life.
It's often the losses in our lives that God uses to put an inward motivation inside of us to move in a direction that we wouldn’t have moved in if we hadn't suffered that loss. To get us to move, God blesses us with the “blessed subtraction.” Change is painful, and we rarely change voluntarily. Oftentimes, God has to allow some things to walk out of our lives. God’s math is not our math. God’s way is not our way. God has a way of adding to our lives through subtraction. Whether we feel like we are winning or losing, we are still in God’s plan. The loss can be the greatest thing that happened to us. It can push us forward in God’s vision for us. It's not about the losses. The losses were just there to get our attention so we could take the first steps in our journeys.
God goes before us in our lives. We can look at stories like this. We can look to the people who have gone before us too. We can draw revelation, strength, and insight when we are on the path God has for us. Saul didn’t know Samuel, but Samuel knew Saul. God puts people on the path we are on to help us and encourage us.
If we are on a prophetic journey, then what are the actions God is asking of us?
In the Gospel of Luke, Zacchaeus climbed a sycamore tree to see Jesus as he passed through Jericho. Jesus noticed Zacchaeus, and he declared he would stay at Zaccheus’s house. This act ultimately changed Zaccheus’s life.
Could it be that God made sure a sycamore tree found its way in that exact place years before Zacchaeus’s moment? Maybe God even sent people to water that tree. Maybe He knew Zacchaeus would not have been able to see Jesus if not for the tree.
God has a plan for us. If we stay faithful and obedient on our journey, we will see the purpose God has for our lives.
Prayer: God, we are grateful for life, even with its challenges. Father, help us to find growth in the losses. Help us to see what you have envisioned for us. And guide us as we lay the sycamore seed for others so that they may grow on their journeys too. In Jesus’s name. Amen.