Judges 16:15 – And she said unto him, How canst thou say, I love thee, when thine heart is not with me? thou hast mocked me these three times, and hast not told me wherein thy great strength lieth.

Judges 16:16 – And it came to pass, when she pressed him daily with her words, and urged him, so that his soul was vexed unto death;

Judges 16:17 – That he told her all his heart, and said unto her, There hath not come a razor upon mine head; for I have been a Nazarite unto God from my mother’s womb: if I be shaven, then my strength will go from me, and I shall become weak, and be like any other man.

Judges 16:18 – And when Delilah saw that he had told her all his heart, she sent and called for the lords of the Philistines, saying, Come up this once, for he hath shewed me all his heart. Then the lords of the Philistines came up unto her, and brought money in their hand.

Judges 16:19 – And she made him sleep upon her knees; and she called for a man, and she caused him to shave off the seven locks of his head; and she began to afflict him, and his strength went from him.

Judges 16:20 – And she said, The Philistines be upon thee, Samson. And he awoke out of his sleep, and said, I will go out as at other times before, and shake myself. And he wist not that the LORD was departed from him.

Judges 16:21 – But the Philistines took him, and put out his eyes, and brought him down to Gaza, and bound him with fetters of brass; and he did grind in the prison house.

Hello readers, when you don’t realize the power’s gone. That’s what happened to Samson. We live in a Christianity today where Christians have their strength. Samson lost his strength. Christians today have no power, because they’ve surrendered it. Samson surrendered his power. He thought he could keep his power and forsake his God. He couldn’t. Christians today have lost their salt and light. They are good for nothing just as Jesus said. Samson found himself good for nothing. The great deliverer of Israel ended up grinding in a Philistine prison… that’s pretty good for nothing. We are born to such a higher purpose and yet find ourselves good for nothing. Christians today don’t realize their strength is gone, and they are sleeping just as Samson slept in Delilah’s lap.

You know the only person that did changing in this story was Samson. And not for the better either. So often Christians get out into the world and they’re the only ones that change. They don’t have power to change anyone, because they’ve departed from the faith and from the source of their strength… and instead they’ve become just like the world. Samson said if he was shaven he would be like any other man. He actually wanted to be like any other man. Boy it’s hard being a Nazarite, I’d rather be a Philistine. You see, if you are saved, you aren’t like any other man, and you shouldn’t want to be. He went from a God called man to just like any other man. He did all the changing. That world, Delilah and so on… they all stayed the same. Notice how the church has done the changing while the world has never changed. Christians change while the people they are saying they are reaching don’t. Strength actually comes from separation from this world unto the Lord Jesus Christ. You’ll impact more people by not being “like any other man”. Samson was utterly useless by the time Delilah was done with him.

You know, we kinda get to thinking it was his hair being shaved off that was the reason God departed from him. But that was just a symptom of the actual issue. The issue was Samson loved Delilah. We are meant to love the Lord God. Isn’t that the first and greatest commandment? If we just got that commandment down everything else would be ok. We have done a blog before about Absalom stealing the hearts of the men of Israel. Satan knows if he can get your heart, and he may well get it without you realizing he’s got it, he’s got you whipped. You can’t serve two masters, Samson thought he could love Delilah… a woman who caused him to depart from God’s word… and have God too. Turns out you can’t have both. We can find ourselves thinking it was God’s fault, but the Spirit departing from him was because Samson chose that. He gave his heart to Delilah, which meant he was no longer following God. Consider this verse…

Galatians 5:6 –For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love.

Faith which worketh by love. Faith in God and loving God are inseparable. Love makes it work, it’s pretty empty having faith without loving who you have faith in. Love is a great motivator and help to faith. Love and faith went out the window in Samson’s life. Delilah is any person or anything that causes our love and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ to go. Solomon had Samson’s problem, he loved many strange women, and they turned away his heart after other gods. The problem with Christians today is their heart has been enticed from truth. Just like Samson divulged his secret, they’ve given up their faith to follow Delilah. You see in order to get Delilah, you have to check your faith at the door. It’s funny, because Delilah was sold out to the Philistines, they had made a deal with her. Why wasn’t Samson sold out to his God? Why do we do all the selling out? Oh how Christians claiming to be so have sold out on everything. They’ve surrendered their Bible, their faith, their God as tamely as puppy dog Samson did. They’ve started following Delilah, not the Lord, because their heart is now with the strange woman. And God is not in it. God’s not going to dwell with that or honour that. That path is the path of loss of eyesight and prison house grind.

It’s amazing how easy we let our heart go. It’s amazing how quickly our heart goes after a false god. It’s amazing how little our estimation of the Lord is in the deep of our being. God didn’t sell Samson out, Samson sold God out. It’s so horribly revealing if we judge ourselves (as we are commanded to do) and really be honest with what our heart is after. Often we are so lost in the mire of sin because really we just love sin… and we don’t truly love God. Jesus said that on these two great commandments of loving God and loving our neighbor hang all the law and the prophets. If we could just get loving God down! What makes a man love God? When he is forgiven his sin. He that is forgiven little, loveth little Jesus said. What transforms our love is God’s love first to us, we need to find out God’s great love to us, it’s much easier to obey God if you love him versus just “having to”. Right? We can’t change our hearts, only Jesus can, why do you think David prayed “create in me a clean heart”. He knew that that sin with Bathsheba was just a result of a heart that had grown cold on God. Against thee and thee only have I sinned he wrote in Psalm 51… but we know he had wronged a lot of people, but he just knew that because of that sin of not loving God, all of his adultery and murder was just a symptom of that fact. Amazing what comes out from the heart.

Proverbs 23:26 – My son, give me thine heart, and let thine eyes observe my ways.

Proverbs 23:27 – For a whore is a deep ditch; and a strange woman is a narrow pit.

Proverbs 23:28 – She also lieth in wait as for a prey, and increaseth the transgressors among men.

Well this is pretty self explanatory? The Bible says it better than I could ever say it. See, we lose a heart for truth, for righteousness, for God’s word… for God. Revelation talks of leaving your first love, having a little strength … and progresses all the way to Christ being outside at the door knocking. Samson just did an us, he gave his heart to Delilah. You know, Jesus dwells in our heart by faith. And that’s a separate place. Spiritual circumcision because God carves out a place to dwell in us. He’s holy. You can’t serve two masters. You can’t love God and love Delilah. It’s one or the other. You can’t expect to have Delilah and have the Spirit of God there. You want Delilah, well that’s the way of blindness and grind… you want the Lord God in your heart? That’s deliverance from sin. Remember, Israel was in the state they were in because of their sin. Do you want deliverance from sin? He was raised a Nazarite, but the problem was in his heart, and his parents couldn’t force him to love the God he was dedicated and separated unto.

Proverbs 5:8 – Remove thy way far from her, and come not nigh the door of her house:

Proverbs 5:9 – Lest thou give thine honour unto others, and thy years unto the cruel:

Verse 9 is quite incredible, because following another god, another way, another truth… it is throwing your years away. It’s giving years to the cruel, it’s wasting your life. Delilah didn’t love him. She used him for financial gain. She exploited him. Why would we ever forsake God. Is sin that great? Is it THAT much fun? We’ve chosen to depart from God. Because we love sin. We get enticed because we are drawn away by our lust. There’s seemingly nothing we won’t sacrifice for our sin, yet we struggle to bring any sacrifice to God. Life out of faith, out of relationship and fellowship with God is a grind. God didn’t stop caring for Samson, but God won’t force you to love and believe and follow him. Sure Delilah looked better than following God. She had the looks, and when we go by looks rather than by God’s word… it’s trouble time. The Philistines be upon thee Samson. People have grown cold on God. They try their way. They go their way. Samson ended up with a ministry without any delivering power. Because he wasn’t even delivered. If you aren’t personally delivered from sin, how is God going to use you in the deliverance of others? With your heart will go belief in God’s word. When the love for God goes, the faith does to. Many people say they love God, but their heart is with Delilah, and their head in her lap… and they’re asleep.

Samson didn’t know things had changed. It’s sad when Christians don’t even realize something is different. They are so spiritually cold that they don’t even realize the strength is gone. The Holy Spirit is gone. He’d departed from Samson. You can’t expect to sell God, to garbage bin faith and love in Lord, and have the perks as well of deliverance just when you want it. Samson really only needed God when he needed to escape the consequences of his sin. Sounds like us right.

Samson didn’t realize things had changed. Hair grows over time. That hair had grown from his birth. You may have built up a life of knowing the gospel of knowing truth, and it just took a Delilah to shave the lot from you. We have a lot of Christians who have had a clean shave, the whole lot is gone. Their strength is gone. Their witness is gone. Their testimony is gone. Their Bible’s gone. Faith is gone. Love of God is gone. Everything’s gone. Something took your heart, your faith, your salt, your light… and it was all your choosing. You chose that. It’s not like God didn’t show Samson enormous amounts of undeserved grace and mercy, and he even answered his prayer of faith after all this. What has shaven you of your strength? New Bible versions? You got sucked in by the enticement and seduction of Delilah. Something said hey come over here, and let’s take your faith and obedience to God’s word. You see, God’s word was on the line. Samson knew God’s word, he knew what God’s word commanded, and he threw it away. He surrendered it, it’s the equivalent to you taking God’s word to you, and trading it in for something else.

Before Samson knew what was going on, he had lost his eyes. You mess around in sin and that’ll affect your vision. You reject and disobey God’s word, you’ll have no vision. How is it to grope and fumble around in darkness? People don’t know right from wrong, truth from lie, what to do, where to go, who God is… anything. Their eyes have been put out. They can’t see for themselves, they need to be led around like Samson was. It didn’t need to be this way. We shouldn’t underestimate our enemy, those Philistines were lying in wait in the chamber all the while Samson was in Delilah’s lap. Sin lieth at the door, when we get away from God we are sitting ducks.

God’s word said not to shave his head. But his head got shaven all the same. It was Samson’s fault. He chose to love Delilah, a love that involved throwing away faith in God’s word and love for the Lord God. We settle for such a poorer love. Here’s Jesus Christ who loves us so much he died on the cross for us. Delilah’s love was hardly self sacrificial, indeed she just enticed Samson to make money out of him. God’s love is a proven love, he’s proved it by sacrificing his own Son, the absolute best of us, to save miserable sinners like ourselves. Why do we throw away things that are proven? God’s word is proven, yet we throw it away in a heartbeat. Anyone and anything that causes you to disobey God’s word, to sell out on truth… they don’t truly love you. Mark it down. Doesn’t matter what they say, Delilah put on a good act didn’t she, she exploited Samson’s love for her.

The reason Samson gave up his secret was to prove to her that his heart was with her. Satan is after the source of your strength. Delilah wanted to know his secret so she could take it. It wasn’t even a secret really was it? Yet to this world Jesus is a secret. This world doesn’t know the Lord Jesus Christ. Wherein thy great strength lieth. Samson obviously believed the flattery as well, how often we mistake our ability for God’s ability. Remember that little song Samson made about his victory with the jawbone? Nothing like a victory to make our head swell. How easily we get lifted up with pride when God wins a victory through us. But Christian, remember this, our strength comes from the Lord Jesus Christ. We actually have none of our own, without him we are indeed just like any other man. You depart from him, you have none, because he has all the power. If he dwells in your heart by faith, then you have the Holy Spirit, that same Spirit of of might (Isaiah 11) in you. It’s Jesus who conquered sin in the flesh, we haven’t and can’t. You can only overcome sin, your flesh, this world, Satan, death… through Jesus Christ. Because Jesus Christ overcame, we overcome.

Don’t let someone or something seduce you, entice you, fool you, deceive you, draw you away from God. Samson got drawn away by his own choice, by his own love for a strange woman. Why do you think the Bible warns so much against the strange woman in Proverbs? She is more than just representative of a physical woman. Samson thought he could beat the Philistines without the Spirit of the Lord. Ah it’ll be just like all those other times. But God’s Spirit was gone. If you’ve decided to go after another god, after or someone or something else, well then all the best trying to deliver yourself. What can man in his own strength deliver himself from? Can a man deliver himself from sin? From death? From hell? By himself? Hardly.

Samson gave up his strength. Because he gave his love and faith to Delilah. A love that came at a cost, a love that meant he forsook the word of God, a love that cost him his love and faith in the Lord God. So many Christians today are like Samson. They live spiritually dead lives like him. They enjoy the grace of God. But the strength is gone. They have no deliverance power in their own lives or in other lives. They end up being castaways, good for nothing, spiritually blind and just grinding life out in the prison that’s been made for them. Their lives end up a mockery and glorifying Dagon, not the Lord God. They are trophies in the temple of the enemy. Delilah is a deliverance taker, not a deliverance giver. Who really should you give your heart to? The Lord God… or the devil? Truth or lies? The way of salvation or the way of the flesh? There is strength in Christ, power to be saved, power to live a victorious life, power to obey God. But in Delilah there is powerlessness, there is darkness, there is slavery, there is imprisonment, there is no freedom. We should really think about who our heart is with. We should go beyond skin deep. The way of repentance and faith in Jesus Christ is such a better way than the way of lust and pride. So many of us are in Delilah’s lap rather than in the arms of Christ. Who is the better person to give our heart to? See, when you see the love of God to you through his Son, it shouldn’t even be a choice. But our sin draws us away from that love James 1:14 style. We need to pray to God for deliverance, because the prayer of faith was Samson’s way back, and we can be very far gone, but the humbling Samson copped was what he needed to bring him back to the Lord God. God gives grace to the humble. How low do we need to go before we finally come to ourselves?

Many people have given up their strength. They don’t even realize the power’s gone. The Holy Spirit is gone. Their strength didn’t get taken away so much as they first voluntarily gave it up. They gave it up because their heart had forsaken the Lord God. That’s where it all goes wrong. In the heart of man. And they don’t know the power’s gone. Because they’re sleeping in Delilah’s lap. Samson got to thinking it was his own strength, but we have none. It was the Spirit of the Lord that delivered him each time. Without the Spirit of God we will have no deliverance, no victory, no power in our lives. Maybe you expect to have the Holy Spirit while disobeying God’s word, while forsaking the Lord. Nuh uh. We like to cherry pick what we can take or leave. But it doesn’t work that way. And we end up with no power to believe, live and do as God’s word says because the Spirit of God is gone. Israel often was like that, the glory had departed… sure they had religion, but God was not in it. Many Christians today have had a shave, the devil has shaven them of their strength, firstly because they took their heart. The power is gone, all because they traded in God for the love of a stranger. It’s time for us to wake up. It’s time for us to love the Lord Jesus Christ, to love his word, to believe it, and to obey it. Because if we love him, we will love his word and we will want to obey him, because the way of victory and deliverance is so much better than slavery grinding in the prison house of unbelief and sin.

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