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1 Kings 13: Lion, Lying in Wait

Read 1 Kings 13. It is about a young prophet whom God uses to deliver a great message from the Lord to the king of Israel. He then stops for dinner with an older prophet and is killed by a lion.

God uses the young prophet to do some amazing things before the king. He obviously has full confidence in what the Lord has told him to do as he is standing before the king. The king then tries to detain him but the prophet tells the king that the Lord told him not to delay in returning home. The young prophet then begins his journey home...

On his way home an older prophet seeks him out and invites the younger prophet to have dinner with him. The young prophet tells him that God told him to go straight home and not even stop to eat until he gets home. The older prophet then lies to him. He tells him that an angel told him to have the young prophet over for dinner. The young prophet then doubts what he knows was God's message to him: Go home and don't stop even to eat! The young prophet instead of believing what God told him believes the old prophet when this senior prophet tells him that God gave him a different message. The young prophet, in deferring to the senior prophet, neglects what God told him to do and suffers the consequences: in this case, being killed by a Lion.

I am a member of the clergy in an hierarchical organization. I have made the mistake of the young prophet before (praise the Lord my life was spared); have you? I have known that God operates in a certain way and thus wanted me to do a certain thing and then wrongfully deferred to another. There are consequences. Have you ever known that the Lord has asked you to do something and then doubted and/or disobeyed God by wrongly deferring to someone's influence or authority? Have you ever second guessed your own relationship with God because someone appearing to represent God - by words or Office- has - by accident or design - given you false direction?

This I think is an important lesson. Sometimes pastors, leaders, and officers can be wrong. Sometimes pastors, leaders, and officers can lie (hopefully very rarely!). If you know that God is telling you to do something, do it. Do not be deterred. Who knows? Your obedience to Christ may even provide a path to experience the full blessing of the Lord's salvation to your pastor, leader, officer, or another with spiritual position.

Let us all resolve to keep close to God  so that we can tell what is from Him and what is from something else.And when we know God has given us direction let us not shrink back from following it, no matter what tricks the Enemy may employ or who he may even unwittingly press into service.

Let us pray: Lord help me to stay close to You and always follow Your leading and direction in my life. Amen,
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