Then the LORD called to Samuel, and he answered, “Here I am.”Yahweh called Samuel. He said, “Here I am.”That the Lord called Samuel: and he answered, Here am I.that Jehovah called Samuel: and he said, Here am I.
4 sermons cite this verse
… and Samuel was lying down in the temple of the Lord where the ark of God was. And then the Lord called to Samuel, wait a minute. Verse 10 says he called to Samuel, as at other times. So watch this. For everybody who is frustrated because you feel like you didn't get it right the first time, watch what God is willing to do to call Samuel. The Lord called Samuel, and he said, Here I am, and ran to Eli, who was the priest, who was his authority, who was the only one he knew to go to, and said, Here I am, for you called me. But Eli said, I didn't call you. Lie down again. Go back to bed. You need some melatonin, boy? Get some sleep. It says the lamp had not yet gone out, so this is in the middle of the night. So I went and lay down, and the Lord called again Samuel. And Samuel arose and went to Eli and said, here I am, for you called me. But he said, I didn't call my son. Lie down again. …
"The LORD called Samuel, and he answered, Here I am!" 1 Samuel 3:4. SAMUEL was a model child. He was the son of a prayerful mother. Hannah is one of the most notable pietists mentioned in the Scriptures. She possessed a truly original mind, but she was yet more famous for her piety—a woman who knew how to take her griefs to the Mercy Seat and cast them upon her God. So Samuel came of good stock but, "that which is born of the flesh is flesh," and he would have been none the better for his godly parentage unless the Spirit of God had early in life renewed his heart. May our dear children all grow up as Samuel did. And that they may do so, may they in their early life be such children as Samuel was! It is to be noticed how obedient Samuel was to his guardian who stood to him in the place of a parent. We do not read of any disobedience or discourtesy to Eli. On the contrary, we see that the greatest respect and attention were paid by the child to the aged man who had the care of him. There is nothing in a child more beautiful than obedience—and a young Christian should be careful to keep his proper place—and the more he knows what his privileges are in being a child of God, the better should he fulfill his duty as a child at home. …
He was listening to God. Eli taught him how to listen to God. If you're going to listen to God, remember this, that listening is not a passive experience. Listening is an active experience. It's not that we're just going to sit and God's going to say it all. But listening is both not just passive, but it is actively experiencing God communicating with us. And to do that, there is an attitude involved. It's not just an attitude, but an attitude is involved. It's an attitude and an activity. So first of all, let's begin with the word expectantly. If I'm going to listen to God, I must come to Him expectantly. I must expect Him to speak to me, call unto me, and I will answer thee and show thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not. All through this book, you and I have the promise that God will indeed speak to us. Secondly, I must come to him quietly. Be still and know that I am God. …
And you know, I do believe that God does work in people's hearts and speak to them in such a way that sometimes they don't even realize he's speaking. You and I could go through the Old Testament, for example, again. He called Gideon to go and deliver the people from the Philistines. We could go to the New Testament and find Jesus saying to the disciples as he walked by the Sea of Galilee, he said, follow me and I'll make you fishers of men. Then you could go all the way to the book of Acts and find that here's Saul of Tarsus persecuting the Christians, throwing them in jail. and all of a sudden he is struck down on the Damascus Road, blinded. He hears a voice and God is calling him. Now, once in a while I'll hear somebody say, well, once when I was saved, I had a Damascus Road experience. Then I want to say, I'm grateful to God. He didn't have to knock me down and blind me to get me to listen to him. …