"Without Prophetic vision people run wild, but blessed are those who follow God's teaching." Proverbs 29:18 (GW)
 
We will begin this week's devotional with a verse that I used last week on the Door of God's House. The reason for the obvious repetition is because this lesson continues to deepen in the importance of adhering to the Word of God faithfully without doubting it, in order to realize God's daily blessings in our lives, otherwise we will run wild. This victory stance that we are to have is one that will require great concentration on our part to hold on to what God's Word declares that we have received in Jesus Christ, if in fact, He is the Lord of our life.
 
Over in the book of Samuel we will find a great story that will give us some insight on the grave consequences when we don't heed to God's Word. Everyone that is a believer desires God's blessings within their life continually, but I must dare say, there are too many Christians out there that simply do not fully enter into it. This is a sad observation to say the least when we witness our brothers and sisters live beneath their privileges in God.  There is always a consequence for our slackness or compromise when we deliberately disobey what God has spoken with such clarity to us.
 
Today's teaching therefore, we will look first, into the life of King Saul and how his life spun out of control as he disobeyed the voice of God and than repeatedly try to make an excuse to cover his real problem. This is a vicious cycle that has impending consequences that will affect our tomorrows if we fail to follow God's prophetic Word when it speaks to us today. Secondly, we will look at an event in the life of Jehoshaphat that will certainly put things into a perfect perspective as we compare it to King Saul and his disastrous attempt to embellish on what God had originally told him to do.
 
Our story begins with the prophet Samuel speaking to Saul about how God had sent him to anoint him as king over His people. Samuel proceeded to affirm the importance that Saul pay diligent attention to the prophetic voice of Words that the Lord had spoken to him. Here is how the story unfolds, and I do hope it will speak to you of the importance of following that prophetic voice when it speaks to you through the Word of God. The Lord said to Saul through the prophet Samuel that he was to go and destroy the Amalek people, and utterly wipe out every living thing that was associated with the Amalekites. It would appear that King Saul fully understood what the Lord had told him to do. Unfortunately, this was not the case, and we will see how this rebellion would be the eventual termination of King Saul and his throne.
 
1 Samuel 15:13-15 (KJV)
13 And Samuel came to Saul: and Saul said unto him, Blessed be thou of the LORD: I have performed the commandment of the LORD.
14 And Samuel said, What meaneth then this bleating of the sheep in mine ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear?
15 And Saul said, They have brought them from the Amalekites: for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen, to sacrifice unto the LORD thy God; and the rest we have utterly destroyed.
 
This Scripture certainly points out how the rebellious ideas of some men as they try to do things based on their own terms rather than on how God said it was to be accomplished, will end up in disaster. In this account of Saul we discover that he did not follow God's instructions. Therefore, God revealed to the prophet Samuel what king Saul had done and how God even repented that he had ever placed Saul as king over Israel. It was here that Samuel the prophet of God went to find King Saul. When Samuel arrived to where King Saul was supposed to have been, he was told that Saul had already left for Carmel to set up a victory monument in his own honor, and then he was headed for Gilgal. When the prophet Samuel found King Saul; Saul blurted out to Samuel, Blessed be the Lord: I have performed the commandment of the Lord.
 
Now isn't it amazing how King Saul was so quick to promote his own obedience when in fact, he had flat disobeyed what he was instructed to do by God. This sounds so much like the way many believers respond when God actually says in His Word what we should stay away from, or commands us to do; and yet we don't, and then we try to make or act like it wasn't that way at all. In other words, we make God the liar and present ourselves as the truth bearers. Wow! This is incredibly frightening to think that we can get to a place in our lives, where we would change the Word of God to fit the conveniences that best suit us, without comprehending the infraction that we have just committed against God's Word. Could it be that this is the reason that so many Christians are reaping the opposite of what Jesus came to bring to us? We can't neglect the details of God's Word and expect to receive the promises. If a man is double minded, let that man not think that he will receive anything from God. I didn't say this, God's Word did.
 
King Saul thought in his own mind that he could manipulate things on his own terms while disregarding the Word of the Lord and not reap any consequences. How dumb can you be and still breathe. Yet, this is the foolishness that Saul entered into as he thought that he could outsmart God without Him ever knowing what he had done. The difficult thing about this story is that so many Christians operate just like this. God can do extreme work in us if we are more impressed with Him and His Word, rather than with ourselves and our own ideas. The big spiritual question here should not be whether Saul did what God said to do, that's obvious he didn't; but whether he would do it the way God said for it to be done and then not act like he did.
 
The prophet Samuel had something to say about King Saul's false portrayal of appearing to have obeyed God's command. Samuel asked Saul, What does this mean when I hear all the bleating of the sheep and the lowing of the oxen? Immediately, Saul began to try and paint a satisfactory response to the prophet Samuel of how they had only spared the best of the sheep and oxen that they may sacrifice them to God. Saul quickly added, and the rest we have utterly destroyed just like God said. But Samuel began to tell Saul, I will tell you what the Lord has spoken to me even this night. Saul must have been really out of his mind to think for one moment that God would accept a partial obedience to what He had commanded, when He actually demands complete obedience to His Word, if there is to be success in it.
 
Now, we find King Saul hurrying to establish a backup plan to cover up his disobedience to the command of the Lord since now that the prophet Samuel obviously knew about the spoil that had been taken. What does Saul do? Saul simply tells Samuel the people kept these things so they may offer them up as a sacrifice unto the Lord. Can you see how Saul is trying to justify the outcome by throwing the blame to someone else rather than taking ownership of his own disobedience? However, Samuel protested that Saul had disobeyed the voice of the Lord, and substituted it all through his lust that he may gather up the forbidden spoils that were to be utterly destroyed. Samuel proceeded to pronounce a prophetic Word: Does the Lord delight in offerings and sacrifices at the expense of obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice! Do you not see that rebellion is the same as witchcraft, and stubbornness is the same as iniquity and idolatry?
 
It was here that Saul reasoned within himself that he had been caught in his own web of deception and therefore, conceded to Samuel that he had disobeyed the command of the Lord, and to the words of the prophet Samuel. It was here that Samuel told King Saul, that he would not continue with him because of this quest that he had chosen, and because he had rejected the Word of God. What was the penalty for this violation? God had rejected Saul from being the king over His people. This does not say that God rejected Saul, but that Saul would not have a part in the original purpose through which he had been destined to fulfill. Can we affect our purposes negatively? I believe we most certainly can when we continue to disobey the voice of God; for it will bring consequences that will have a domino effect on our future.
 
Am I saying that God cannot use us if we make such a blunder in life? Absolutely not! However, I do believe it changes our ability to influence and impact people in certain callings as others interpret our lives through these failures. God is forgiving, and a God of many chances, but people aren't so easily to accept that same response to our short-comings, thus affecting our impact negatively. Our story now takes us over to 1 Samuel 28:3 where we will discover that the prophet Samuel had died. It is a terrible thing when our Agent of revelation seems departed from our lives. This happens due to our own disobedience to the Word of God, and because of that disobedience it obscures our vision where we start making rational decisions that are not filled with wisdom. God wants us to be in agreement with His vision; therefore, we need to be diligent to follow it, even when we don't completely understand the purposes of it. To ignore the command of the Lord is to become overwhelmed with a spirit of fear which breeds confusion into our lives.
 
1 Samuel 28:5-7 (KJV)
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.

 

When we become afraid and confused we will seek a word caring little to where it comes from even if it's the devil himself in disguise. Therefore, Saul summons for his servants to find a woman with a familiar spirit that he may inquire of her over his dilemma. Who do they find? They find the witch of Endor. Whenever we are in disobedience to God we get careless and do not think straight; and when this happens our choices diminish immensely. Desperation creates haste, and that can be costly when we do not seek God alone. Saul could not hear from God because he had not made any attempt to repent of his disobedience. Because of this, Saul's sin had separated him from the presence of God and this is the place where he had arrived to in his life. Saul rejected the Word of God by choice; therefore, he had no one to blame but himself. It is a true statement that everyone needs a daily divine revelation within their life. This is Scriptural because the Bible teaches that man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that precedes from the mouth of God. We were made to be dependent on God as our Source in life. Unfortunately, we still want to call the shots and when they collapse around us we wonder why God let it happen.
 
1 Samuel 28:8 (KJV)
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. 
 
As  we read this I hope you will see how far we will stoop when we become confused about our situations that show up in our life because of our disobedience to God's Word. This passage we just read shows us that Saul disguised himself along with the two men that were with him when they came before the witch. Let me ask you something: If you are seeking revelation from a wrong place that has you dressing up in a disguise to keep your identity hidden, don't you think that you are fully aware of what you are doing? Saul was demonstrating that he was unwilling to repent unto God and have his life restored. This is why God repented that He had ever put Saul over His people, because God knew Saul would not repent of his disobedient actions. I have witnessed other people around me over the years that would present themselves to be one thing only to discover that in some other venue I would learn they were nothing like they had portrayed themselves. They were disguised and therefore, are hiding something. We need to be true to who we are in Christ and refuse to hide that identity in Him. Now, I realize this has gotten lengthy but there is so much here that it has to be said. I will close with our second example with this next passage of Scripture and make a few responses to its content.
 
2 Chronicles 20:20 (KJV)
20 And they rose early in the morning, and went forth into the wilderness of Tekoa: and as they went forth, Jehoshaphat stood and said, Hear me, O Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem; Believe in the LORD your God, so shall ye be established; believe his prophets, so shall ye prosper.

 

In this final observation, I want to use King Jehoshaphat to bring this teaching into full view so that we may understand its intended message. We know Saul disobeyed the command of the Lord and would not repent, but only kept providing excuses. But here with Jehoshaphat we will find a man who obeyed the command of the Lord when it was hard to get your mind around it. It would take a lot of trust to follow this Word I assure you. What do I mean by this? God told Jehoshaphat that he was to go up against his enemies, but that he was not to fight the battle, but to stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. They were to appoint singers that would sing praises before Jehoshaphat's army as they headed towards their enemy. I don't know about you, but this would have been a much harder Word to follow through with than the one that Saul had received from God, which was to destroy utterly everything and take no spoil from the Amalekites. I imagine there were some of those soldiers in Jehoshaphats army that secretly were packing arms as thought about facing an enemy and not do anything but sing praises. Naturally speaking, that would be insane. 
 
Yet, Jehoshaphat trusted his God in that he would do exactly what He had commanded him to do. Therefore, Jehoshaphat stood and declared to the people: Believe in the Lord your God, so shall you be established. But he also said something else that was very important here as well. What was it? Believe also his prophets! God puts people in our lives that are gifts to the church so as to speak things into our lives when we most need to hear a revelation from the Lord. I cannot tell you how many times I have received a Word from the Lord on someone's behalf and shared that with them and have them turn right around and do just the opposite of what that Word declared even though they acknowledged that it was a good Word when it was given. Friends, when God gives us a Word no matter how hard it may seem in light of what you are facing, don't quit on it. If you will follow that Word without changing it or putting your own two cents on it, then it will produce a harvest in your life that will take days to gather up the spoil. Yes, obedience is much better than sacrifice indeed!
 
2 Chronicles 20:25 (KJV)
25 And when Jehoshaphat and his people came to take away the spoil of them, they found among them in abundance both riches with the dead bodies, and precious jewels, which they stripped off for themselves, more than they could carry away: and they were three days in gathering of the spoil, it was so much.

 

The rewards of the prophetic belong to the diligent that stay the course by which God declared them to go. If you are neglecting to walk in that pathway which is expressed through the prophetic voice of words from God and His prophets; make the decision right now to recover yourself from that snare of the devil that holds you captive by acknowledging the truth that they speak. That truth will make you free, and reward you with all of its benefits in God your Father. Amen!