IlesanmiOpen Heaven Topic:
OBEDIENCE MADE SIMPLE
Memory Verse:
If I were hungry, I would not tell thee: for the world is mine, and the fulness thereof. – Psalm 50:12 (KJV)
Bible Reading:
1 Samuel 15:16-23 (NIV)
16 “Enough!” Samuel said to Saul. “Let me tell you what the Lord said to me last night.”
“Tell me,” Saul replied.
17 Samuel said, “Although you were once small in your own eyes, did you not become the head of the tribes of Israel? The Lord anointed you king over Israel.
18 And he sent you on a mission, saying, ‘Go and completely destroy those wicked people, the Amalekites; wage war against them until you have wiped them out.’
19 Why did you not obey the Lord? Why did you pounce on the plunder and do evil in the eyes of the Lord?”
20 “But I did obey the Lord,” Saul said. “I went on the mission the Lord assigned me. I completely destroyed the Amalekites and brought back Agag their king.
21 The soldiers took sheep and cattle from the plunder, the best of what was devoted to God, in order to sacrifice them to the Lord your God at Gilgal.”
22 But Samuel replied:
“Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices
as much as in obeying the Lord?
To obey is better than sacrifice,
and to heed is better than the fat of rams.
23 For rebellion is like the sin of divination,
and arrogance like the evil of idolatry.
Because you have rejected the word of the Lord,
he has rejected you as king.”
Open Heaven 13 March 2023 Message
If the richest man in the world gave you $100 and then later tells you to give him the money because he needs it for something, you are likely to give him immediately because he was the one who gave you the money in the first place and you know that he can give you even much more again.
This is why I am surprised when I see people who refuse to pay their tithes. The fellow who is asking you to bring 10% is the One who gave you the 100% in the first place.
He even promised you in Malachi 3:10 that if you give Him 10% of whatever He blesses you with, He will pour down a blessing so big that it would be difficult for you to contain it, yet you refuse to give Him the 10%; whose loss is it?
In Hebrews 11:17-19, the Bible says that when Abraham obeyed God by taking Isaac to the mountain to be sacrificed, it was because he got him from God in the first place and knew that if his son died, the Lord who gave Isaac to him could raise him from the dead.
Abraham knew that he did not produce the boy, so offering him back to the One who produced him was not difficult. It is the same with Hannah after she had Samuel and took him back to God (1 Samuel 1:24-28).
In all the cases where God asked someone for something and the fellow obeyed, God ended up giving the fellow more than He had asked for. It is obvious then that He is not really interested in what He asked you to do, but rather in your obedience.
God is very particular about obedience; if He asks you to give your car to somebody and you refuse but bought another car for the fellow, you would have missed the mark.
He is not as interested in your sacrifices as in your obedience. 1 Samuel 15:22 says: …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’s instructions are tough sometimes, but when you think about it carefully and realise that He owns everything you have, it becomes easy to obey Him.
Don’t become like King Saul who forgot his origin and ended up in disgrace- the same disgrace he was trying to avoid when he disobeyed God.
Open Heaven Hymn:
When We Walk With The Lord
Open Heaven Point:
When God gives you something and He says “I want to use it”, I hope you will be wise enough not to struggle with Him.
Bible in One Year:
Judges 1, Judges 2, Judges 3
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