For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, he hath also rejected thee from being king. (1Samuel 15:23)
Consistent Bible readers will confess to having some
troubling concerns and questions as to some difficult ‘omissions’ or ‘contradictions’
in the scriptures.
Those of us who believe completely and thoroughly in the God
who released the Bible to us respond with an element of awe and expectation
because we know that God never overlooked any detail, however minute, when He
released His word. He will always explain the same when the time is right.
Others use the same as an affront to the validity of our
faith or even divinity, many times using it to justify the ‘fact’ that the
Bible as it is can not be from a God who is omniscient or even omnipotent.
It is with that that I would want us to look at this topic.
Have you like me wondered why Jesus, who was the only One
who knew that Judas was a thief, never rebuked, exposed or hinted about his
sin?
We see Him rebuking those closest to Him yet never even once
confronting the person siphoning the funds given to support His ministry.
In the same way we also do not see Him even once confronting
the Sadducees yet He was always having one battle or the other with the
Pharisees and scribes.
Again, those of you who have been reading my posts and books
know that I have always fearfully wondered at these verses.
Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not
prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name
done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you:
depart from me, ye that work iniquity. (Matthew 7: 22, 23)
How is it that God can tell people He spoke and performed
miracles through that He never knew them?
That is what I want us to look at today.
And we will look at three ministers, chiefly Saul the king.
Like most, Saul started very well. His humility and faith
were admirable.
Then came the trappings of power. Then came the expectation
of his host. And he started looking at his position as dependent on his person.
Another person who became like that was Jeroboam son of
Nebat.
Then the commandment of the Lord became a suggestion
depending on his interpretation of his present circumstances.
His first folly (call it fall) was that he decided that
since a king ruled over priests, there was no harm in playing priest to deal
with a crisis of monumental proportions. Again, we have Uzziah doing the same
though we do not know the kind of crisis he was dealing with.
According to the laws of Moses, someone usurping the
priestly role was supposed to be put to death.
We can comfortably conclude that Saul died in God’s eyes.
Since he was the anointed king, no one could legally kill
him. But that did not change his situation in God’s eyes.
His anointing could not be nullified since it came from God.
Let us have another verse to consider.
For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.
(Romans 11:29)
His rejection was therefore spiritual, or in the spiritual
realm.
Or do you not realise that probably only his general heard
(probably sensed) that rejection?
That means that God stopped dealing with him as the king as
He started raising another one.
But he continued serving as the king for twenty full years.
One thing that we realise, however, is that God never again
spoke to him, however desperate his situation became.
Again, we see enough instances of repentance, even very
tearful repentances, yet none of them reached God’s ears. We see the same with
Esau.
This is what must have happened to Judas.
He deliberately chose a cause against Christ’s teachings and
so was deregistered from Christ’s design.
Like Saul before him, he had been personally called to be a
disciple and so could not be unchosen.
He therefore continued serving though he had been removed
from the register in the spiritual realm.
That explains why all that teaching against covetousness
could not touch him.
See what threw him overboard!
He was incensed that a woman could pour a million worth of
perfume in worship to Christ.
To his rejected heart, Christ was not worth that much,
especially since it could have been translated to a tidy sum in percentage
earnings if it was converted to money since he knew the proper math to take
some of it. And that is why his next destination was the enemies of his former
Lord to sell Him.
We see the same with Saul.
His final act of rebellion was in desperation resorting to
the witchcraft that he had in his earlier years sought to eliminate to be able
to get a message from God through His long dead prophet.
Let us get to the other character who will help us
understand this topic even better.
That Balaam was a prophet of God is never in doubt. That he
heard clearly from God is also evident when we read his story.
Yet what happens when he is given an offer too hard to
resist?
He revisits God to seek an extra opinion on an earlier
order!
That seals his fate.
You see, lords and kings do not revise their orders. And we
know that God is the LORD of lords and King of kings.
In revising His orders, God removes Balaam from His
register.
He therefore leaves as a free agent, albeit an agent with an
anointing and gifting.
What God does on the way was not to give the prophet a
chance to repent. It was to demonstrate that he had overstepped his bounds and
so had become unregenerate.
And it was the same with Saul’s last assignment.
From then on, these men operated on cruise control, or what
in New Testament would be called walking in the flesh since the Holy Spirit had
‘left’ them. Let me say it in simpler terms, God’s presence and voice had
ceased to be part of their experience.
Yet God used Balaam. Even as He continued to use Saul and
Judas.
But He had removed them from His register, to say it in
terms we can easily identify with.
The conclusion of all their stories is the same because we
see Balaam advising Israel’s enemies to do the opposite of what the God he had
served all his years stood for since on enemy territory he had to somehow
survive and he had lost access to God’s guidance and presence.
Let us look for a short conclusion in this topic.
Someone is chosen by God and even serves Him for some time.
He then is given a clear order that in his wisdom he
disobeys.
God removes him from His register and stops all
communication with him though he will continue functioning in the capacity God
had placed him.
A time comes when he MUST hear from God and he discovers
that he has been removed from God’s radar though he probably never thought it
was that serious.
Those desperate measures eventually become the doom of him.
Let us translate this now to the mega apostles we see in
Matthew 7.
Have you wondered how someone can drink or take drugs to
deliver powerful sermons?
Have you ever wondered how someone can run from a whorehouse
to lead ‘worship’ calling God’s presence down?
Have you ever asked yourself how a man of God can lead
people into mass suicide?
Do you ask, like I once asked, whether God has any standards
when choosing and using ministers?
Do you ever wonder what happened to the conscience of some
ministers?
Well, here is your answer.
You see, God is bound to those on His register. Those are
His servants.
The rest are serving another master, a master opposed to
God. And you know that nobody can discipline another’s servant in case you
wonder at why God talks about disciplining those He loves.
If you asked me before God taught me this what Saul’s
greatest sin was, I would undoubtedly have told you that it was the putting to
death and destroying a whole priestly city. Imagine killing 85 pastors,
bishops, apostles and their families and property in one swell swoop as well as
sow their city with salt that it never be inhabited again!
Yet God did not seem to see that since it is not indicated
in God’s verdict.
I hope you understand what I mean by being removed from
God’s register.
God can only judge and discipline His servants.
So when you see a minister seemingly getting away with
murder, it is because he is walking in his past glory before his deregistration
from heaven.
When you see a believer appearing to have a dead conscience,
do not worry any more. You are probably dealing with someone already removed
from the annals of heaven.
God stopped dealing with them once their rebellion manifested.
Without God’s voice, we have nothing solid to count on since
even our conscience suffers the same fate.
Sadly, I have found no fallback plan for such people. I have
not found any route for repentance. I have not found any restoration for them
in the scriptures.
Sample this
For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened,
and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy
Ghost, And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to
come, If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they
crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.
(Hebrews 6: 4 – 6)
And this
For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the
knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, But a
certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall
devour the adversaries. He that despised Moses' law died without mercy under
two or three witnesses: Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be
thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted
the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and
hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace? (Hebrews 10: 26 – 29)
Does this scare you?
You see, there is a cure for sin. It is repentance.
But there is no remedy for rebellion but rejection
There is forgiveness for sin once repented. But rebellion
has overshot the reach of forgiveness.
That is why Judas committed suicide. That is why Saul
committed suicide. That is why Balaam more or less committed suicide by going
directly against God’s standards.
But the saddest for rebellion is that God becomes silent,
however desperate the rebel seeks to hear from Him.
This also explains the deceptions rebels thrive in.
You see, once God becomes silent especially to someone who
was used to walking in His counsel, it becomes very easy for alternative voices
to be heard by those ears, especially because God is absent to confirm or deny
the sources. Some of those voices could as well be creations of his own fertile
mind to fill the vacuum lack of God’s voice creates.
It becomes worse because the performances continue as usual.
One can hear God’s voice to prophesy. He can hear God’s voice to deal with demons
and he must hear God’s voice to release the miraculous. The only thing he cant
do is hear God’s voice concerning himself.
It is therefore very easy to convince oneself that the voice
they are creating is actually God’s voice when it isn’t.
But Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah went near, and smote
Micaiah on the cheek, and said, Which way went the Spirit of the LORD from me
to speak unto thee? (1Kings 22:24)
There is also the danger of jumbling of sources of the
prophetic, especially when self interest takes charge as I suspect had happened
to this prophet. He had no idea when he lost touch with God to the point that
he was punishing the actual voice of God for speaking lies in God’s name.
The ministers who over the years and lands have been taking
their followers on suicidal missions are the clearest manifestation of such a
spiritual reality as are those who will preach their followers to poverty in
their zeal to over give God. Incidentally their preaching very rarely, if ever,
touches their hearts to do as they guide their followers to do.
Even their definition of sin changes and morphs into what is
unconformable to their deceived hearts devoid of the voice of God.
That is why such people will hate family and friends if they
do not agree with their deceptions.
In short, a cult is a group of goats (rebels) being led by a
chief one and not sheep led by a wolf.
Once in a while a sheep may stray into their enclosure but
their connection with God will very swiftly require them to be kicked out or
the voice of God will lead them out.
This is because God will never allow someone seeking Him to
be lost in the error of the one who was deregistered from His book. That is
what omnipotent and omniscient means in actual terms.
Be careful therefore if you are always being drawn into
questionable groups and ministers/ ministries. It could very easily mean you
are walking in rebellion or walking towards it. That is why the goats are
becoming very attractive to you because that is in your makeup.
For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and
lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts, Ever
learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. (2Timothy
3: 6, 7)
Otherwise explain to me why fishy pastors do not lose their
pastorate one exposé after the other yet there are many churches with pastors
without reproach. Goats flock around their own.
For the time will come when they will not endure sound
doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers,
having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and
shall be turned unto fables. (2Timothy 4: 3, 4)
Let me close with this.
Stilling God’s voice willingly may mean God stilling His
voice towards you forever.
If that does not chill you to your bones, I wonder what
will.
God bless you
