SUNDAY, JULY 3
Scripture: 1 Samuel 15:9-11

1 Samuel 15:9-11 says, “But Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep, the oxen, the fatlings, the lambs, and all that was good, and were unwilling to utterly destroy them. But everything despised and worthless, that they utterly destroyed. Now the word of the LORD came to Samuel, saying, ‘I greatly regret that I have set up Saul as king, for he has turned back from following Me, and has not performed My commandments.’ And it grieved Samuel, and he cried out to the LORD all night.” I would hate to ever hear these words on judgment day concerning myself or any person that I had the opportunity to teach. It would be such a grief to me that I could hardly bear it. Now Samuel was grieved because God was grieved. And God was grieved because the individual He chose, would not step into the office of the King. This is precisely the issue we have spiritually with the church. But the example for us in the New Testament becomes a spiritual one. We have the same hesitation to declare God’s justice/judgment on the head of perpetrators as Saul did in refusing to bear the sword. What Saul did physically, we do spiritually, all the time. We refuse to strike with a rod of iron. Jesus has a two-edged sword coming out of His mouth and with it, He strikes the nations. But not us, we would not strike anything. Good Christians do not do that. Deceived Christians do not do that. Real Kings understand the necessity to rule! The enemy has completely neutered the church because we refuse to war with Jesus. Because our mentality is totally Priestly, it precludes the Kingly side of who Christ is. Consequently, we cannot go there – our theology prevents us from going there. The result is that we forfeit victories God would like to give. Let God arise and His enemies be scattered!