Text: 1 Samuel 15:13-23
Memory verse:
”So Samuel said: “Has 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 heed than the fat of rams.“
‭‭I Samuel‬ ‭15‬:‭22‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

Many years ago, I was led to reject a gift someone brought to me. He was an active member of the church and, at least, financially comfortable, but he was a traitor and a rebel. Every month, he brought me a handsome prophetic offering. On this particular month, while he stretched forth the gift to me and with a smile, respectfully, I told him that I won’t accept it anymore. He asked why? I told him that you only give prophetic offering to one whom you have received with honour and you submit to and not someone you rebel against his authority (Matt 10:41). He learnt a lesson of life!
Do you also know that God doesn’t accept all offerings, gifts, sacrifices, and services? Some people think that they can bribe God with what they give or do. Never! While God wants you to bring an offering to Him, He doesn’t just judge the offering at face value, but He pays great attention to the nature of the offering. He wants to know if the sacrifice or service was offered in obedience to His established order and offered under authority.
According to our text today, God gave a clear order to King Saul, which was to utterly destroy the Amalekites (1 Sam 15:3). Saul violated the order and rationalized his disobedience with the excuse that he brought the fat animals to sacrifice to the Lord. God rejected it, and Samuel called his disobedience a rebellion. Anytime you act in opposition to God’s established order, it doesn’t matter how appealing your reason may be, you are in rebellion and it is likened to witchcraft or divination (1 Sam 15:23). Obedience is the greatest demand of the scripture, and it is absolutely honouring to God. Rebellion is not governed by the will of God but by self-will, that is, what one thinks is right to do and not what God commanded. For example, some people use their tithes to meet needs they choose, even ‘reasonable’ needs in the church or outside, contrary to God’s order to bring ALL the tithe to His storehouse (church) (Mal 3:10). Like Saul, you have done well in your own eyes, but you have done it outside authority and in flagrant disobedience to divine order.
As a worker in the church, you should not just serve, but you must always ensure that your service is done under the authority of the church. It must not be as being right but as being done according to order. Are you subject to authority, or you are working independently of authority?
May your sacrifice and service not be rejected in Jesus’ name.

Prayer points
1. Father, please, open my eyes to all the good things I am doing in Your name but ignorantly doing them outside authority and in disobedience, in Jesus’ name.
2. Father, I subject myself to Your established authority, and I renounce the spirit of rebellion in Jesus’ name.

Today’s declarations
1. I won’t offer any sacrifice or service to God, outside His authority or order.
2. Rebels have ‘witchcraft’ spirit and heady people are idolaters, so I dissociate from them.