You Can Possess Samson's Great Strength

Holy Spirit

Q. How can you be empowered with great strength, as Samson, to undertake the mission of God?

Samson's Lion by James Tissot, 1896-1900

Samson's great source of strength was not his bulging muscles. His body, arms, neck, and legs may have appeared thick. He was certainly a big man to extend his arms around those pillars and pull down Dagon's pagan temple. His great exploits were beyond the scope of nature.

His strength flowed from the Spirit of God, as ours should.

The angel of the Lord instructed his parents, Samson must be consecrated to God as a Nazirite. His purpose in life was to deliver Israel from the Philistine oppressors.

The angel ascended to heaven in the high blazing flames of the cooking fire. Samson's father, Manoah, and his mother bowed their faces to the ground, overcome.

Samson loved a beautiful Philistine girl.

On his travels to court his love, a young lion viciously attacked him, roaring. The Spirit came on Samson, and he easily tore the lion apart with his bare hands.

Later, he discovered a swarm of bees and honey in the lion's carcass. He ate some of the honeycomb and shared the sweetness with his parents.

Thirty Philistine men attended Samson's bridegroom party and in play he proposed a riddle to them.

“Out of the eater, something to eat; out of the strong, something sweet” (Judges 14:14 NIV).

After seven days, the men, frustrated, threatened his wife, to kill her and burn down her father's house unless she would coax the answer from Samson for them.

That evening the men reported back to Samson.

“What is sweeter than honey? What is stronger than a lion?” (Judges 14:18 NIV).

As a result of the forced deception, the Spirit came on Samson and he killed thirty other Philistines. He awarded the party companions the dead men's clothes as a prize for answering the riddle.

The angry Philistines gave 

Samson's wife to another man.

The battle was on! At the time of the wheat harvest, Samson, now infuriated, captured 300 foxes and tied their bushy tails together in pairs. Again, this is not by natural strength.

He tied a flaming torch to each pair's tails and set them free to run through the wheat fields, the vineyard, and the olive groves causing great devastation.

In retaliation, the Philistines burned Samson's wife and her father to death. Samson returned and slaughtered many, and he retreated to a cave alone.

By now Samson was the talk of the town.

3000 Israelite soldiers from Judah, fearing attack from the stronger Philistines, found Samson and asked him to surrender peacefully to the enemy.

The Philistines arrived shouting at Samson. Once again, the Spirit of the Lord came on him as he broke the ropes that bound him. He grabbed the dry jaw bone of a donkey lying on the ground. And he later proclaimed his victory.

“With a donkey's jawbone I have made donkeys of them. With a donkey's jawbone I have killed a thousand men” (Judges 15:16).

Of course, Samson's exploits continued until the end when the Philistines dug his eyes out. Blind, he destroyed the pagan temple of Dagon with 3000 people in the rubble.

As a Christian disciple, you can possess Samson's great strength, the anointing power of the Holy Spirit.

• All true ministry or mission comes through prayer.
• Learn God's assignment for your life.
• The Lord provides for what he truly assigns.
• The Lord alone gives the Gift of the Holy Spirit (books).
• Discern and obey God's assignments whole-heartedly.

Samson (books) followed the assignment God gave him. The Spirit of the Lord empowered him to accomplish his mission. He obeyed God whole-heartedly, even to the point of giving his life.

– Bill Hunt © 2010