“For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft…” (I Samuel 15:23 KJV).
Sometime during the latter part of the 1980’s, I went with a team to Nicaragua, where I served as a translator in the medical clinic. It was extremely hot, as we were working in a building with a tin roof and very little circulation. Soon, the heat got to me so that I became very ill.
I asked the team captain to relieve me from my post. However, that was easier said than done since at that time we did not hire local translators, but rather relied on the few bilingual team members that came on the teams.
Finally, I became so sick that I had no choice but to walk out of the clinic to lie down. I was diagnosed with an extreme case of heat exhaustion which would bother me for years to come if I became too overheated.
When the team left Nicaragua, I flew to New Orleans with them. However, when I arrived in New Orleans, I received word that I needed to fly to Honduras in order to pick up a baby who was scheduled for surgery the following week in Houston. I immediately flew from New Orleans to Honduras to pick up the baby, and then on to Houston the very next day. I stayed in Houston until the baby was stable following surgery.
There are no words to describe the weariness that I felt both physically as well as spiritually when I finally arrived back in New Orleans. Yet because I did not feel that I could pay for an overnight stay in New Orleans before driving home from New Orleans to Hattiesburg, Mississippi, I made the fateful decision to drive to Mississippi the same day I had flown in from Houston.
Due to my weariness, Satan used the chance to take control of my thinking. As I drove, I began to dwell on an important decision that I needed to make in my personal life. I had prayed for months for God to give me direction, wisdom and discernment in my decision, but I felt that I had not received a response from God.
While I was driving, I petulantly said, “Lord, if you are not going to answer my prayer, then I am going to make a decision, and if it is not your will, I really don’t care.”
As soon as I spoke those words, my car hit a bridge with my cruise control set on 75 miles per hour. I can assure you that God immediately got my attention! Thankfully, He was merciful and my only injury was a severely bruised arm and ego!
When God’s children are rebellious, there are consequences, because decisions that are His bring glory to Him, and as the Scriptures say in Isaiah 42:8 "…my glory will I not give to another...” (KJV).
Are you going through a period of rebellion? Are you allowing Satan to gain a foothold in your life and cause a rift in your relationship with God, or are you allowing God to work in your heart and life so that He, and He alone, receives the glory? As children of God, there is simply no room in our lives for rebellion.
