1 Samuel 24:4-6 – “Then the men of David said to him, “This is the day of which the Lord said to you, ‘Behold, I will deliver your enemy into your hand, that you may do to him as it seems good to you.’ ” And David arose and secretly cut off a corner of Saul’s robe. Now it happened afterward that David’s heart troubled him because he had cut Saul’s robe. And he said to his men, “The Lord forbid that I should do this thing to my master, the Lord’s anointed, to stretch out my hand against him, seeing he is the anointed of the Lord.”
Saul was relentless in pursuing David because of his jealousy against David. David was hiding from Saul and he found himself inside a cave with his men and interestingly enough, Saul turned into the same cave to try to gain some rest, not knowing David and his men were in the inner part of the cave. The men saw an opportunity for David to take revenge on Saul and assert himself as king. After all, David had been anointed king already and was just awaiting the time to come for him to take his place, his approached Saul while Saul was resting and he cut off part of his garment. And he said to his men, “The Lord forbid that I should do this thing to my master, the Lord’s anointed.”
Now this is one of the most important principles of scripture and it is this principle of spiritual authority. David recognized this very powerful truth. We would all do well to learn the same lesson: once anointed, always anointed. Even though Saul had been rejected from being king and Samuel told him he was going to lose the kingdom, yet in the eyes of the Lord the Lord had anointed Saul and he would always be anointed no matter what. Let us remember this powerful truth: no matter the person, the office consecrates the individual, therefore a spiritual respect must be maintained to all those in spiritual authority.