1 Samuel 28:1-25 KJV
1 And it came to pass in those days, that the Philistines gathered their armies together for warfare, to fight with Israel. And Achish said unto David, Know thou assuredly, that thou shalt go out with me to battle, thou and thy men.
2 And David said to Achish, Surely thou shalt know what thy servant can do. And Achish said to David, Therefore will I make thee keeper of mine head for ever.
3 Now Samuel was dead, and all Israel had lamented him, and buried him in Ramah, even in his own city. And Saul had put away those that had familiar spirits, and the wizards, out of the land.
4 And the Philistines gathered themselves together, and came and pitched in Shunem: and Saul gathered all Israel together, and they pitched in Gilboa.
5 And when Saul saw the host of the Philistines, he was afraid, and his heart greatly trembled.
6 And when Saul enquired of the LORD, the LORD answered him not, neither by dreams, nor by Urim, nor by prophets.
7 Then said Saul unto his servants, Seek me a woman that hath a familiar spirit, that I may go to her, and enquire of her. And his servants said to him, Behold, there is a woman that hath a familiar spirit at Endor.
8 And Saul disguised himself, and put on other raiment, and he went, and two men with him, and they came to the woman by night: and he said, I pray thee, divine unto me by the familiar spirit, and bring me him up, whom I shall name unto thee.
9 And the woman said unto him, Behold, thou knowest what Saul hath done, how he hath cut off those that have familiar spirits, and the wizards, out of the land: wherefore then layest thou a snare for my life, to cause me to die?
10 And Saul sware to her by the LORD, saying, As the LORD liveth, there shall no punishment happen to thee for this thing.
11 Then said the woman, Whom shall I bring up unto thee? And he said, Bring me up Samuel.
12 And when the woman saw Samuel, she cried with a loud voice: and the woman spake to Saul, saying, Why hast thou deceived me? for thou art Saul.
13 And the king said unto her, Be not afraid: for what sawest thou? And the woman said unto Saul, I saw gods ascending out of the earth.
14 And he said unto her, What form is he of? And she said, An old man cometh up; and he is covered with a mantle. And Saul perceived that it was Samuel, and he stooped with his face to the ground, and bowed himself.
15 And Samuel said to Saul, Why hast thou disquieted me, to bring me up? And Saul answered, I am sore distressed; for the Philistines make war against me, and God is departed from me, and answereth me no more, neither by prophets, nor by dreams: therefore I have called thee, that thou mayest make known unto me what I shall do.
16 Then said Samuel, Wherefore then dost thou ask of me, seeing the LORD is departed from thee, and is become thine enemy?
17 And the LORD hath done to him, as he spake by me: for the LORD hath rent the kingdom out of thine hand, and given it to thy neighbour, even to David:
18 Because thou obeyedst not the voice of the LORD, nor executedst his fierce wrath upon Amalek, therefore hath the LORD done this thing unto thee this day.
19 Moreover the LORD will also deliver Israel with thee into the hand of the Philistines: and to morrow shalt thou and thy sons be with me: the LORD also shall deliver the host of Israel into the hand of the Philistines.
20 Then Saul fell straightway all along on the earth, and was sore afraid, because of the words of Samuel: and there was no strength in him; for he had eaten no bread all the day, nor all the night.
21 And the woman came unto Saul, and saw that he was sore troubled, and said unto him, Behold, thine handmaid hath obeyed thy voice, and I have put my life in my hand, and have hearkened unto thy words which thou spakest unto me.
22 Now therefore, I pray thee, hearken thou also unto the voice of thine handmaid, and let me set a morsel of bread before thee; and eat, that thou mayest have strength, when thou goest on thy way.
23 But he refused, and said, I will not eat. But his servants, together with the woman, compelled him; and he hearkened unto their voice. So he arose from the earth, and sat upon the bed.
24 And the woman had a fat calf in the house; and she hasted, and killed it, and took flour, and kneaded it, and did bake unleavened bread thereof:
25 And she brought it before Saul, and before his servants; and they did eat. Then they rose up, and went away that night.

The story of familiar spirit, witch and a king. One might question what the purpose of this story. Perhaps we can understand it better if we examine that this one witch had survived the persecution of King Saul, and not was in fear of her life as Saul stood in her presence. She knew this was the one time she better give a performance that out shined maybe in the stars in the sky. She better be able to convince Saul to save her people by conjuring up the one man that Saul respected that was a godly prophet. She better do it so convincing that even his soldiers would believe.

There is time in everyone's life that you decide who side you are on and if you willing to wait on a response from that side to intercede. Saul was unwilling to wait to hear from God he went looking for away to reach God or at least the prophet he knew that spoke to God. He looked for an intercessor that was dead, and yet he desired him to be resurrected spiritually. He knew if anyone was with God it had to be Samuel. The witch played on Saul spiritual sickness to gain perhaps her own freedom maybe, by getting him to promise she would not die for helping him. I be truthful it is easy to look for intercessor when God does not seem to be answer the way we want him too. Two things as a believer in Christ, we learn we can go directly God, that the Holy Spirit will intercede and two that we truly need to ask God ourselves and seek his word for understanding. No one does this well. We all fall short in our prayer life no matter how much we want or desire to have God in the center of our hearts.

We fight maybe not to even share our heart with God over things we feel we ourselves can control. Yet when we do share our heart with God are we truly seeking his response. Are we truly wanting to hear God. It be much easier to here what we want to hear from another who is most likely only going to tell us what we want to hear. Saul prayers and God not seeming to answer Saul, and for this reason he seeks someone that can make him believe that she can raise the dead to speak or intercede for him. Despite whether she in ability conjured up Samuel Spirit which I doubt, God may of answer Saul through the medium in which he understood, despite his desire to destroy that medium. It maybe more simple to understand that Christ himself spoke to Moses and Elijah. To ask can spirit or being really speak from beyond the grave. There some that will say why not if there be real evil spirits. Perhaps because Satan has no power over the children of God. Was it evil spirit that came up out of the ground that the witch saw, or did God do something that maybe even scared the witch. The word Elohim is used to define the word gods in hebrew in verse 13. This is not God the Father, but god of the witch in regard to her understanding of who her god was.

Samuel told the witch who was cloaked and in disguised. Samuel told the witch the outcome of the battle. That King Saul and his Son would die. She prophesied death and destruction. One might ask was Saul going to heaven or to hades. Was Samuel really conjured up. Who disguised himself, was the prophesy true. Lord allowed Samuel to appeared to the witch and Saul this way it was to teach them who he truly was. If Samuel was evil spirit pretending to be Samuel, he used the prophesy to get even with Saul, and proclaim his death. Witchcraft when believed can have a very bad effect on a person. The witch doctors of the jungles of even today know their power to control the people by their curses upon the people. You can make anyone believe anything good or bad if you know how to use trickery and deceit. The witch had no reason to want Saul to live, or to protect him in anyway for he had killed many of her people. Saul in his foolishness came seeking the wrong path to speaking to God. Just like his sacrifice not being received by God because it was not God's way. If we want to pray, we need to seek him and not the physics, the witches, the soothesayers, but Jesus/God's word, his way, not the low road to hell. Was not the people of the Tower of Babel(Genesis 11) in trouble for seeking God their own way? Saul was determined to reach God but if God would not answer he find another way to talk to God. Saul thought he could order God around. That the biggest mistake anyone ever thought. You can not control God/His Spirit. You can not command his Spirit to heal, deliver, or provide. You have to seek God his way, must come humbly before the throne of God in prayer. Seeking him on hands and knees, either figuratively, but definitely spiritually. One must seek him with their own hearts.

How many things do we declare is God and is not but is truly part of natural forces of healing, death, and so forth. How many things we know is an act of God and is answer to prayer. If we pray we can contribute whatever the outcome to God, but if we seeking the prophet, the teacher, the leader, the people that pray and not seeking God ourselves will we still believe it is God. Saul definitely believe there was a God but his problem being he wanted to control how he reach God. He wanted to pick up the phone on his terms and not do things God's way. He thought he could force God to respond. Did God used evil to prophesy truth of Saul and his son impeding death. Samuel power to deliver prophecy was not his power, and Samuel being dead had no power to return unless God intervened. So you decide was what the witch conjured up an evil spirit, or actually the prophet Samuel? However God commanded us not to play with witchcraft, seance, tarot cards, astrological prophesies and so forth. To destroy these things, but just throwing them away. Have nothing to do with evil, for they can not speak for God unless God controls a person speech like he did Baalim a false prophet. God can have even the devil to do his will, so why not a witch?

Dear Heavenly Father let us seek you, not demand from you a response, but seek you knowing that when you respond, it will be your free will to do so. That when we pray we know that if ask anything according to your will in Jesus name you hear us. That when we seek you on your terms through your intercessor who is Jesus, that you receive us. That your Word/Son Jesus is the only intercessor. In Jesus precious name, Amen.

Continual Scripture Study: 1 John 2:1-29 KJV
1 My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:
2 And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.
3 And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments.
4 He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
5 But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him.
6 He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.
7 Brethren, I write no new commandment unto you, but an old commandment which ye had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which ye have heard from the beginning.
8 Again, a new commandment I write unto you, which thing is true in him and in you: because the darkness is past, and the true light now shineth.
9 He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness even until now.
10 He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him.
11 But he that hateth his brother is in darkness, and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth, because that darkness hath blinded his eyes.
12 I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for his name's sake.
13 I write unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning. I write unto you, young men, because ye have overcome the wicked one. I write unto you, little children, because ye have known the Father.
14 I have written unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning. I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one.
15 Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.
17 And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.
18 Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time.
19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.
20 But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things.
21 I have not written unto you because ye know not the truth, but because ye know it, and that no lie is of the truth.
22 Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son.
23 Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father: (but) he that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also.
24 Let that therefore abide in you, which ye have heard from the beginning. If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son, and in the Father.
25 And this is the promise that he hath promised us, even eternal life.
26 These things have I written unto you concerning them that seduce you.
27 But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him.
28 And now, little children, abide in him; that, when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming.
29 If ye know that he is righteous, ye know that every one that doeth righteousness is born of him.