Some believers are allowing the smallest requests of obedience from God to be ignored. Ignoring these acts of obedience will open doors that allow spirits of darkness to influence our lives. We would never believe those things would come, but they do. They begin to lead us along a path that will result in a decline in our integrity and character. These influencers will produce an end we would never have imagined possible.

When Israel demanded to have a king like other nations, the Lord allowed it to happen, but it was a tragic mistake. A very wealthy and influential man named Kish had a son named Saul. Scripture tells us, “His son Saul was the most handsome man in Israel – head and shoulders taller than anyone else in the land” (I Samuel 9:2). Saul fit the part of a leader. The only problem was he did not have the character to match his image. 

The Lord finally gave Israel their king. Saul had every chance to succeed. After his anointing as king, the Spirit came upon Saul, and he was “changed into a different person” (10:6). As Saul walked away from the anointing ceremony, God “gave him a new heart” (vs. 9). Even though God had given Saul all the opportunity to become a great king, he allowed his brokenness to remain untouched and it began to control his life. The saddest of all indictments against Saul came when the Lord said to Samuel, “He has not been loyal to me and has refused to obey my command” (15:11). 

In the process of Saul’s spiritual decline, he became jealous of David’s success after David killed Goliath and Saul saw the increasing honor given to David by the men who followed him into battle. The final word of God’s rejection of Saul came from Samuel the prophet, “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” (vs. 15:23).   The continued and unchecked sin in Saul’s rebellious life revealed a spirit of divination at work and idolatry that would lead to his downfall and untimely death on the field of battle.

To not obey the voice of God, no matter how small that request might appear, will bring with it spirits of darkness desiring to attach themselves to our lives. It becomes a work of divination causing a person to feel immune to the consequence of their sin.

We can have it all together in the beginning like Saul who looked the part of a king but did not develop the kind of character and integrity required to become a truly great leader. That kind of leader would be seen in his successor, David, who was a man after God’s own heart. A person who follows after the heart of God will have their path of life marked with acts of obedience along with the humble confession of the sins that could jeopardize their faithfulness. Without those expressions of character and integrity, we will descend into dark places we never would have imagined when we first said yes to our calling to follow the Lord.