This is by far one of the scariest and most sobering subject that the Lord has dealt with me about. Throughout scripture, we are warned of the dangers of rebelling against God, and what the results of such actions might be. This is a warning, a part of a wake up call being sent forth to God's people. This is not for babes in Christ, but for those who have attained some stature.
One cannot walk in rebellion against that which God tells you... without first having walked in a relationship. For many years now, God has been calling His people out of the systems of men. There are many individuals, worldwide, that God has called out to follow Him. Many have walked through the fire that they might be purged... that they might be made into vessels of honor which the Lord God can use to set the captives free in this present day and time.
Men with carnal thinking have made blanket doctrines that lump everyone together. God chooses and selects leaders for His people... men whose hearts are pure and who have proved that they will walk in obedience. All the blanket doctrines men have tried to create will be brought to nothing. We need to press in to our own personal relationship with God, that we might know the truth and not be deceived. There is one Gospel... Every word that Jesus spoke. This warning is aimed at those who have received light... and are not walking in it. These are the individual members for whom this alarm is sounding. All others may glean what they can according to their growth in Christ.
The people who lived during the days of the Old Testament lived in a much different world than we do today. Yet in many ways they had much more knowledge and understanding than we do... in relation to understanding Who God Is. These people were very much aware of the awesome power of God's Holiness. Many of them knew firsthand the consequences of obedience and disobedience.
Joshua 1:18 Whosoever he be that doth rebel against thy commandment, and will not hearken unto thy words in all that thou commandest him, he shall be put to death: only be strong and of a good courage. Right here is a very good reason why the people of old should have known better than to walk in rebellion. They were people just like you and I, and yet we see all through the Word that even though they saw the awesome power of God manifest in their midst and on their behalf... they still had members who rebelled against God's word to them... just as we have in our midst today.
Joshua 22:18 But that ye must turn away this day from following the LORD? and it will be, seeing ye rebel today against the LORD, that tomorrow he will be wroth with the whole congregation of Israel. Everyone in the camp knew what the commandments of the Lord to them were... and when one or more individuals walked in rebellion... they removed the rebels from their midst... lest the wrath of God come against the entire congregation.
Sadly, the fear of the Lord is seldom if ever taught in Churches today. The fact that this is often ignored however, does not diminish or alter the reality that our "God is a jealous God... and a consuming fire." "God is the same yesterday, today and forever." Unlike modern man, God does not operate in the murky gray of ever-changing moral values. With God it is either black or white... either you obey or you disobey. Christ walked in total obedience to the Father... we are called to do no less.
1 Samuel 12:14-15 If ye will fear the LORD, and serve him, and obey his voice, and not rebel against the commandment of the LORD, then shall both ye and also the king that reigneth over you continue following the LORD your God: But if ye will not obey the voice of the LORD, but rebel against the commandment of the LORD, then shall the hand of the LORD be against you, as it was against your fathers.
There is a very old and established pattern we can follow all through the Word of God, revealing to us the dangers and repercussions of walking in rebellion. It is not something new reserved for the end of the ages. It is one of the most basic and fundamental of sins. Satan was the first to commit it, when he rebelled against God in heaven and was cast out from God's presence. He is the motivating force behind all rebellion. When we begin to entertain rebellious thoughts... a warning bell should sound in our spirit. We are treading on very dangerous ground when we begin to 'think' in our hearts that our way is better, or that we know more than God regarding any given situation.
Moses was all too familiar with people who were rebellious. He said in Deuteronomy 31:26-29 Take this book of the law, and put it in the side of the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God, that it may be there for a witness against thee. For I know thy rebellion, and thy stiff neck: behold, while I am yet alive with you this day, ye have been rebellious against the LORD; and how much more after my death? Gather unto me all the elders of your tribes, and your officers, that I may speak these words in their ears, and call heaven and earth to record against them. For I know that after my death ye will utterly corrupt yourselves, and turn aside from the way which I have commanded you; and evil will befall you in the latter days; because ye will do evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger through the work of your hands. Even Moses prophesied that in the latter days, God's chosen people would do what is evil in the sight of the Lord.
Rebellion is open defiance against God... but when we teach others to do the same, to join us in our rebellion... the sin is compounded.
Jeremiah 28:15-17 Then said the prophet Jeremiah unto Hananiah the prophet, Hear now, Hananiah; The LORD hath not sent thee; but thou makest this people to trust in a lie. Therefore thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will cast thee from off the face of the earth: this year thou shalt die, because thou hast taught rebellion against the LORD. So Hananiah the prophet died the same year in the seventh month.
Isaiah 1:4 Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward.
Isaiah 1:13-15 Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them. And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood.
Isaiah 1:26-28 And I will restore your judges as at the first, and your counselors as at the beginning; afterward you shall be called the City of Righteousness, the Faithful City. Zion shall be redeemed with justice, and her [returned] converts with righteousness (uprightness and right standing with God). But the crushing and destruction of rebels and sinners shall be together, and they who forsake the Lord shall be consumed (Amp.).
God will not be mocked. We cannot use scripture to blackmail God into giving us what we want, and anyone who tells you that you can is a liar. Some today make a practice out of picking certain scripture promises in God's Word and claiming them. All of God's promises to us are yea and amen, as we walk in obedience. God is not obligated to give us the desires of our heart, particularly when those desires are contrary to His desires. To teach others to rebel against God... for any reason... is to bring destruction upon your own head. We cannot remain in HIS Household when we take part in rebellion of any kind. He will cast us out just as He cast out Satan. That certainly isn't the company any of us want to find ourselves in.
When we embrace and hold the doctrines of devils disguised as "light," we are in rebellion. When we try to add to or take away from the Gospel of Christ, we are operating in rebellion. We are putting ourselves in the company of Saul, and everyone else that decided it wasn't necessary to actually obey God's directives to them.
1 Samuel 15:23 For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as idolatry and teraphim (household good luck images). Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, He also has rejected you from being king.
We would like to think at least... that none of us would knowingly participate in witchcraft. Yet here we just read... there is no difference between rebellion and witchcraft, except in our own carnal reasoning. God sees them both in the very same light. Have we ever considered that being stubborn and wanting our own way is no different than practicing idolatry? God requires obedience. We want His protection and blessings, well then we had better start paying closer attention to our attitudes. It is only man that has divided up actions and external things into levels and categories of bad, worse, worst. In the eyes of God... Sin is Sin... we can go to hell for little petty sins just a quickly as we can go to hell for being a serial killer. Disobedience, rebellion and stubbornness are right up there with mass murder. In a way, it is murder... It's the only way we can destroy our relationship with God. When we choose to reject the Word of the Lord to us, we are placing ourselves in a very dangerous position.
Jude 1:11 Woe to them! For they have run riotously in the way of Cain, and have abandoned themselves for the sake of gain [it offers them, following] the error of Balaam, and have perished in rebellion [like that] of Korah!
For those of you who are not familiar with Jude's reference to Korah, turn in your Bible to Numbers 16, and read the entire chapter. Korah, with 250 princes or leaders of the congregation, all men of renown and distinction, gathered together against Aaron and Moses and said, [vs.3] And they gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron, and said unto them, Ye take too much upon you, seeing all the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the LORD is among them: wherefore then lift ye up yourselves above the congregation of the LORD? These men rebelled against God's appointment of Moses and Aaron to lead the Israelites. Subsequently, God made an example of them before all the congregation. [vs. 29-33] If these men die the common death of all men, or if they be visited after the visitation of all men; then the LORD hath not sent me. But if the LORD make a new thing, and the earth open her mouth, and swallow them up, with all that appertain unto them, and they go down quick into the pit; then ye shall understand that these men have provoked the LORD. And it came to pass, as he had made an end of speaking all these words, that the ground cleaved asunder that was under them: And the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed them up, and their houses, and all the men that appertained unto Korah, and all their goods. They, and all that appertained to them, went down alive into the pit, and the earth closed upon them: and they perished from among the congregation.
Not only did Korah and the men that sided with him against Moses and Aaron pay for their rebellion with their lives, but the 250 princes or leaders of the congregation who took censer's with fire and incense were also consumed with fire that came forth from the LORD. These men were leaders among the Israelites. The stand they took, and the claim they made, was that all of the people were equally holy... and all shared in the same standing with God. (Sounds an awful lot like the way a lot of today's leaders are talking, doesn't it?). Obviously... they were wrong in their assumption... and God's judgment of them was quick and decisive. I believe it would be fair to say, that God was using them to make a point. Rejecting God's ways and God's words to you is a very dangerous thing to do. Rebelling is asking for judgment. God is incredibly longsuffering and patient with us, but there is a limit to how far we can presume upon His Grace and Mercy.
1 Samuel 15:20 And Saul said unto Samuel, Yea, I have obeyed the voice of the LORD, and have gone the way which the LORD sent me, and have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites.
Even though in Saul's mind, he thought he had obeyed, in reality he had only partially followed God's instructions. What in fact he did was allow himself to be swayed from total obedience... doing instead what seemed right in his own eyes. Korah and all the men that sided with him, were very confident in their calling as the chosen people of God. They never would have risen up against Moses and Aaron if they had thought for one minute that God would utterly destroy them for doing so. The important point here is that we can be wrong. We can take ourselves out from under God's protection, and put ourselves in an adversarial position... against God. We do this by rejecting God's word to us (disobedience)... by wanting things our way (following our own will, using our own judgment)... by letting our guard down and entertaining thoughts that contradict God's Word (listening to other voices. Saul listened to the people with him..."why waste all this good stuff?").
God will not change the rules of His Household to accommodate our wants. The enemy of our souls is ever present to try and cause us to slip and fall, to step off the path we have been called to walk... and sometimes we make his job way too easy. We do this by exercising self-will. We have the responsibility to believe, to obey, and to walk in the fear of the LORD. If we fail in any of these areas of our walk, it will be by our own choice.
James 4:7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
1 Corinthians 10:12-14 Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it. Wherefore, my dearly beloved, flee from idolatry.
Rebellion against God begins in our thoughts. We have to change our attitude to accommodate these thoughts. When we do that... we take ourselves out from under God's protection. The scary thing is... that as we do this, we convince ourselves that it's O.K., that we aren't really rebelling. We can become just like Saul. He was one of God's anointed. Yet when he did what seemed good in his own eyes, and in the eyes of the people, it was rebellion. The price he paid was loosing the anointing of God... God came to him no more. 1 Samuel 16:14 But the Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the LORD troubled him.
We may be living in a different time and place than these examples given us in the Old Testament, but God has not changed... His requirements have not been altered. We can benefit from the life lessons presented here, we can choose not to make the same mistakes. Peter warned us to "work out our own salvation with fear and trembling."
Hebrews 9:28 Even so it is that Christ, having been offered to take upon Himself and bear as a burden the sins of many once and once for all, will appear a second time, not to carry any burden of sin nor to deal with sin, but to bring to full salvation those who are [eagerly, constantly, and patiently] waiting for and expecting Him.
Philippians 1:6 And I am convinced and sure of this very thing, that He Who began a good work in you will continue until the day of Jesus Christ [right up to the time of His return], developing [that good work] and perfecting and bringing it to full completion in you.
Hebrews 12:2 Looking away [from all that will distract] to Jesus, Who is the Leader and the Source of our faith [giving the first incentive for our belief] and is also its Finisher [bringing it to maturity and perfection]. He, for the joy [of obtaining the prize] that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising and ignoring the shame, and is now seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
May we all examine our own hearts. What thoughts are we entertaining? Are we grounded in the Word... and walking in all of the light that God has given us? 1 Peter 4:17 For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? I pray that the seriousness of this issue has begun to impress itself strongly on your spirit. The time Peter refers to here is even now at the door. Judgment is at hand. Right now is when we need to "bring our every thought into submission to Christ".
REBELLION