“For rebellion is as the sin of divination!”
Samuel to King Saul, in 1Samuel 15:23a
King Saul earned that stern rebuke from the prophet Samuel by his self-willed actions. Saul had obeyed God’s command to attack the cruel Amalekites, but when it displeased some of his fellow Israelites for Saul to utterly destroy all that pertained to those Amalekites, as God had commanded, Saul rebelled against God and did as he thought best instead. Saul’s will was to please those around him rather than to please God. He knew the will of God, but he chose to do something else.
It is important to note that when Samuel confronted the guilty King Saul, the prophet said nothing about the people who had influenced Saul; he condemned and cursed only the King himself. And it is also important to note that Saul’s stubborn rebelliousness led him, in not too long a time, into complete madness. He made it a lifestyle of stubbornly resisting the will of God instead of resisting the unclean spirits about him, until they became his masters.
Every angel that was cast out of heaven with Satan was cast out because of self-will, and they are all insane. Without a body of their own now, they spend all their time looking for humans who will let them inhabit their bodies, and foolish humans receive them into their bodies by becoming self-willed, as those demons are. My friend, you are playing with fire when you know the will of God, but you choose to do things your own way instead. It may seem to you, as it seemed to King Saul, better to do things your way instead of God’s, but Solomon warned us that “there is a way that seems right to a man, but the end of it is death.” The world around you may try to make you think that God’s way is hard, but the truth is that “the way of the transgressors is hard.” Just ask King Saul . . . or a few believers that I have known.
In my time serving God, I have seen precious believers go completely insane, and in every case, stubborn resistance to the will of God was the root cause of their insanity. Fellowship with demons in self-will was the door that the demons used to enter their hearts and take control of their minds. Self-will is the way that humans conjure up demons from their place of damnation to come inhabit a new home, a human one. That is why God told King Saul, through Samuel, that rebellion is like the sin of divination.
Stay happy and free, and just do the simple, sweet will of God in Christ Jesus.
