Of Rebellion and Rejection

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