You're In the Army Now

# 171 - Today's Du-votional comes from: 1Sa 13:14 "But now your kingdom shall not continue. The LORD has sought for Himself a man after His own heart, and the LORD has commanded him to be commander over His people, because you have not kept what the LORD commanded you." ( 1 Sam 13:14) Commandment, commanded, commander. These words show up 5 times in verses 13 and 14. And according to the Zodhiates Hebrew/Greek Key Study Bible the word has strong military connotations. It is the picture of a superior giving a verbal communication to a subordinate. We typically think of the word commandment as a law, but maybe we need to rethink this. Maybe we need to think of them as orders from a Superior. Laws are made to be broken but, orders are given to be followed. Do you see the difference? Saul's great sin was his disobedience of a direct order from His Superior. His punishment was fitting. He would be stripped of his command, and mustered out of God's Army. There is no room in God's army for the persistently non-compliant. God's commander in chief had to be someone who had the military heart of God. Someone who understood the chain of command, and would willfully submit to it. It's interesting that even though David didn't know it at this time, the orders for him to be made commander in chief had already been cut in heaven. Friends, are you aware that we are at war? A supernatural battle of epic proportions! And I think we are getting our butts kicked right now because we are a sloppy outfit, that refuses to take orders. We rebel against anything that seems inconvenient or nonsensical. We lack the spiritual discipline necessary to stand against the foe. Pray for the heart of a soldier. O God, give us the heart of David. Change our attitude about taking orders from You. Thankfully, God does forgive our sins through faith in Jesus Christ, but wouldn't it be better for us and the army of God if we sought to carry out His orders? God's not interested in our excuses, He is looking for people who respond with “Yes sir”