John 10:4  And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice.

John 10:5  And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers.

Saul began as a mighty man, a man of great reputation among his people, one who walked in the anointing of God.  Yet somewhere along the way he became aware of the seductive voice of the stranger.     

There is a progressve pattern in which sin will set into a life and proceed to destroy one’s future.  It has its humble beginnings in the form of a seductive spirit, a spirit that is enticing to fleshly desires.  It is that seducing spirit that beckons us to join in the pleasures of sin for a season.

Yet Saul’s end did not come at the hands of a seducing spirit, but was furthered when from that seducing spirit was birthed a spirit of rebellion.  He was no longer in hiding when it came to walking outside of the paths that God had ordained.  Saul no longer attempted to hide his newfound liberties.  They were rather paraded and flaunted to the point in which his rebellion took him to the house of a witch at Endor to conjure up the spirit of Samuel. 

Was this Samuel?  I don’t believe it was.  It was rather a familiar spirit disguised in the voice and likeness of Samuel.  Saul had allowed the voice of seducing strangers to infiltrate his mind to the point that he loved what God hated and hated what God loved.  What Saul recognized as a familiar voice was in fact the voice of a stranger to which he had become attuned over time.  

Saul believed it was Samuel because that spirit that had began with the simple seductive voice of a stranger had given way to becoming one of familiarity.  That voice of Samuel, the one who had anointed him king… that voice that was the tenor of a man who been his spiritual advisor… that voice that had represented the voice of God to Saul in his early years became as the voice of a barbarian to the point that Saul mistook the voice of a stranger for that of his once close friend.

There was a time in Saul’s life where rebellion was unfamiliar and witchcraft was sickening to his spirit.  There was a point when that manifestation of Samuel would have been easily discerned for what it was, but no more was this the case because the voice of a stranger had dulled his spirit to the point of apostasy. 

Saul hadn’t heard the voice of God in so long that the stranger had him fooled.  Beware of the seducing voice of the stranger.

1Corinthians 14:11  Therefore if I know not the meaning of the voice, I shall be unto him that speaketh a barbarian, and he that speaketh shall be a barbarian unto me.

—Jonathan Sanders