If God gives you a direct command do you start squirming? Do you doubt? Do you get fearful?
Do you ask God to use you and then when He commands for something to be done you do half of what He asks you to do? You act like your obeying and it even looks like your obeying, but your really doing things your way, doing your own thing.
If we think when the Lord gives us commands to obey we can just obey part of it we have another thing coming, because it does not work like that.
PARTIAL OBEDIENCE IS DISOBEDIENCE…NO MATTER HOW YOU LOOK AT IT…
If there is any story in the bible that shows partial obedience to God’s command I would have to say that would be the story of SAUL in the book of
(1 Sam Chapter 15) Please read it
As you read in that chapter Saul did what Saul wanted to do……He went and did some of what God asked of him to do but not all of what God asked him to do. In God’s eyes Saul disobeyed Him and He regretted even making Saul king.
God gave Saul a direct command, go and attack and destroy the Amalekites and all that they have and spare no one and nothing. God was clear and direct in His orders. The Amalekites were an enemy to the Israelites. When God told Saul to destroy Amalek this was a declaration of war on sin, Satan, and the kingdom of darkness.
Saul was rebellious in Gods eye’s to His authority, and the fear of God was not in Saul’s heart; this fear spoken of is the fear which is of Honor and Respect; . And Paul says to work toward complete holiness because we fear God (2 Corinthians 7:1).
So it’s clear from these passages, that fearing God is good because it saves us from caving into our own sinful nature. That’s why hearing someone is”Godfearing” actually makes us trust that person more. If they fear God, they are more likely to keep their word and treat others with kindness. In fact, Romans 3, a classic chapter on sin, says that our chief sin is that we “have no fear of God at all” (Romans 3:18
The fear of the Lord will keep us from compromising God’s truth for the pursuit of personal gain. Then we will obey God’s word no matter the cost.
It all started when Saul spared king Agag (the leader of the Amalekites) When he spared the king he just started sparing everything that looked good in his eye’s regardless of what God commanded.
Saul thought for some reason that his idea was better than God’s but when he was confronted by Samuel the prophet he said “the people spared the best”.
Nowhere in that story did I read God giving Saul or his men special permission to spare anything or anyone. For Saul to take it upon himself as if God gave him special permission to break the rules of His commands and act like God was going to be cool with it……………..Saul knew he was wrong anyway because look at what he did” blamed it on the people”.
You have to be ready to face the consequences of your choices when you willfully disobey God. You can play all the games you want to and try to convince yourself that you were fully obedient to a command you were only partially obedient to.
We all know that the end result of sin is always death. Many think they can cheat Gods ways of doing things, but the wages of sin is always death (Rom 6:23)
Saul lost his promising future as king and he had the kingdom ripped right from under him because of his disobedience. Disobedience never pays it will always result in death spiritual / physical. If you read over in (1 Sam. 31:4-5) Saul winds up killing himself….(Therefore Saul took a sword, and fell upon it)
Samuel’s words to Saul by God were clear and to the point. Saul had reasoned a way of disobeying God’s clear command. He claimed to spare the best to sacrifice it to God, but just as Samuel told Saul that God wanted his obedience more than his sacrifice ( 1 Sam 15:22) 22 And Samuel said, Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.
God will not continue to tolerate our repeated partial obedience (why) because it plays into the hands of the enemy. The word says that it is like the sin of witchcraft (1Sam 15:23) 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. That means that our lack of submission to God places us in enemy territory.
It may have seemed it was an order too big to fill through Saul but that was not the case in God’s eye’s, it wasn’t until Saul disobeyed that made God feel like He regretted making Saul king.
Psalm 51:17
17
My [only] sacrifice [acceptable] to God is a broken spirit;
A broken and contrite heart [broken with sorrow for sin, thoroughly penitent], such, O God, You will not despise. So, to all of you that thinks it is hard to live in complete obedience to God all the time just read this scripture – Galatians 2:20
20 I have been crucified with Christ [that is, in Him I have shared His crucifixion]; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body I live by faith [by adhering to, relying on, and completely trusting] in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.
God seeks our hearts….He wants us to surrender to Him daily and claim His righteousness. We are to fully and completely throw ourselves at His feet in submission, then and only then will He become all we will ever need, our hope, our life, our joy, and our peace…..
There is also another story that comes to mind as I sit here. When you read the story of the kings of Judah and Israel you find comments about their lives. One of which is about king Amaziah. He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord but not wholeheartedly –2 Chronicles 25
25 Amaziah was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned for twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Jehoaddan of Jerusalem. 2 He did right in the sight of the Lord, yet not wholeheartedly. 3 When his kingdom was firmly established, he killed his servants who had struck down his father the king. 4 But he did not kill their children; for he did as it is written in the Law, in the Book of Moses, where the Lord commanded, “The fathers shall not die for the children, nor the children die for the fathers, but each shall be put to death for his own sin.”
Eventually Amaziah turned away from the Lord and lost his life. It’s vital when God speaks to us and shows us from His word how we should live and how we should be obedient and not deceitful so that we do not compromise with partial obedience for when He does call on us.
Each of our lives matter to God and we compromise our trust to Him when we obey with partial obedience. What are you substituting for obedience in your life today? Are you subtly resisting God’s call to live fully committed to Him and for Him?
There is absolutely no way you can ever improve His plan for your life and those who think they can will only live powerless lives because partial obedience is disobedience…………..point – blank – period – ………..Ponder on that………
Be Blessed ( empowered to prosper)
Host Of Angels 