Being Saved from Selfishness and Disobedience and Building up the Kingdom of God

From the life of Saul the King we need to learn to crucify our flesh, be saved from selfishness, and reject any rebellion in following the Lord; our work is the work of the Lord, and it is the church as the kingdom of God that we build up, not our own kingdom.

As we review the life and work of Eli, Samuel, Jonathan, Saul, and David, we need to learn the life lessons and heed the holy warnings, and we need to see the spiritual principles which we can apply in our Christian life and church life.

With Jonathan we see someone who saw that David will be king but did not join himself fully with David; rather, due to his natural affection for his father, he remained in the old ministry and did not choose the Lord’s ministry.

In other words, this can be applied to us today in the respect that many believers see what the ministry of the age is and they get to benefit from it, but they still stay in the old ministry, even the old ministries, and do not join themselves to the Lord and to the ministry.

It is truly the Lord’s mercy that we can see something related to the ministry of the age, but it is our choice if we join ourselves to it.

In each age God has a particular work that He is doing, some particular recoveries He’s working on, and He has one ministry.

There may be more than one minister in this unique ministry, but the one thing the Lord is doing is His ministry.

In David’s time, you had to join yourself to David in order to be under the ministry of that age, and in Noah’s time, you had no choice except to join yourself to Noah, for he had the ministry of that age.

Sometimes the minister of the age is not perfect; rather, there are many flaws and even sinful things that he does, but no matter what, God has chosen him and His people had to follow him.

The only perfect age-turner is Jesus Christ, and He lives in us today.

The minister of the age may not be perfect, but we should still remain under the ministry of the age and honour the minister of the age.

Michal was David’s wife, but she disregarded and even despised him when she saw him dancing before the Ark as it was brought into the city of Jerusalem. Because of this, she had no part in the ministry of that age.

May the Lord have mercy on us so that we may see what is the present truth and remain in this present truth so that we may be up-to-date with God and do the work that He is doing today.

May we be those who choose to follow the Lord wherever He goes and do whatever He does, putting aside our self-interest and desires to be joined to Him in His enterprise on earth so that we may be part of the carrying out of God’s purpose.

Being Saved from Rebellion and Disobedience and by Enjoying Christ’s Life of Obedience and Submission in our Spirit

Saul was chosen by God and anointed by Samuel to be the first king of Israel (1 Sam. 9:1-2, 17; 10:1, 24).

We need to learn the life lessons, spiritual principles, and holy warnings from the life of Saul as recorded in 1 Samuel. Saul disobeyed the word of God at least twice so that he lost his kingship and his kingdom (13:13-14; 15:19, 23; 28:17-19).

In 1 Sam. 15 in particular, when Saul disobeyed God, he actually rebelled against Him.

God commanded him to destroy all the Amalekites, for He hates them because of what they did to the children of Israel while they were journeying toward the good land.

But Saul did not destroy the best of the sheep and the cattle, under the cloak of preserving their life to offer them as sacrifices to God, and he also preserved the life of the king of Amalek, Agag.

By not obeying the word of God, Saul rebelled against God, and this cost him his kingship and his kingdom. Samuel told Saul, “Rebellion is like the sin of divination, / And insubordination is like idolatry and teraphim” (v. 23).

To practice divination is to have contact with evil spirits, and this is evil in God’s eyes. What Saul did in rebelling against God was like the sin of divination.

Because he was not subordinate to God, he became an enemy of God, and as a result, he lost his kingship.

As believers in Christ, we need to be saved from rebellion and disobedience and learn to be obedient to God and submissive to Him.

We are rebellious by nature, for the fallen human nature is rebellious against God; the only way we can be obedient to God and submissive to Him is by enjoying Christ who is in us.

Christ is our life of obedience and being submissive. In ourselves, we can’t obey God and we don’t even want to; there’s no bone in our body that is willing to submit to God or obey Him.

But praise the Lord, the life of obedience of Christ is in our spirit, and when we turn to our spirit, His life becomes our life in reality.

We can contact the One who never disobeyed, who never rebelled, and who always submitted to God the Father even at the cost of His life.

By contacting the Lord and remaining in fellowship with Him, we can experience, enjoy, and appropriate His life of obedience and His life of submission.

Our need today as we read the story of Saul is not to try harder and be better in obeying God’s word, nor is it to promise God that we do this or that for Him.

Rather, we need to realize that in ourselves we can’t do it, but in Christ, we are more than able to be submissive and obey God.

When we are inwardly supplied and nourished with the words of the Lord which are spirit and life, we can live by another life, the divine life of Christ in our spirit.

This life within us is a life that spontaneously obeys God and submits to Him and to those around us.

May we learn to turn from our own efforts and struggling to the life within us, and may we learn to live by another life.

May we reject any rebellion and insubordination and, as soon as we sense it, may turn to our spirit. We can’t overcome rebellion in ourselves and we can’t be submissive by our own efforts.

But the life of the One who is always obedient to the Father and is always submissive to God is in us, and we can live by this life and express this life.

Lord Jesus, save us from being rebellious against You by not obeying Your word. We want to be those who turn to our spirit again and again so that the Lord’s life of obedience might be lived in us. Live in us, Lord, and be expressed through us. We want to enjoy, experience, and appropriate Your life of obedience. Lord Jesus, we treasure You and we treasure our birthright to be priests and kings in the kingdom of God. We don’t want to lose our kingship and the kingdom because of rebelling against God by being disobedient to Him. Oh Lord, though we can’t obey You nor can we be submissive to You in ourselves, we turn to You and we want to live by Your life of obedience in us!

Being Saved from Selfishness, Crucifying our Flesh, and building up the Kingdom of God

In 1 Sam. 20:31 we see Saul’s tragic end; this was due to his not being properly related to God’s economy.

God wanted to build up His kingdom among His chosen people, so He brought Saul into His economy.

Instead of participating in God’s economy and cooperating with it, Saul was selfish and usurped God’s kingdom to build up his own monarchy.

Saul was not for the kingdom of God but wanted to build up his own monarchy, and he wanted to make sure Jonathan his son succeeded him on the throne.

He was filled with thoughts of the kingship, including thoughts about how his son would succeed him.

We need to be saved from selfishness and ambition to be something, for in the work of the Lord our focus is the kingdom of God and the building up of the church, not building up our own empire or kingdom.

In the church life in the Lord’s recovery, there is one unique work of God’s economy for the building up of the church, and all those serving God in the church are not here for their own little kingdom but for the kingdom of God.

May the Lord save us from using the materials in the ministry, the riches in the Lord’s recovery, to do a work that is not bringing in the King with His kingdom.

May we be saved from selfishness and crucify our flesh by the Spirit.

Saul was selfish and wrong to the uttermost to try to build his monarchy; eventually, God gave him up and cut him off, tearing the kingdom away from him (15:28).

Because Saul was given up by God, he was left alone, like an orphan, having no provision of help when trouble came. Oh, Lord!

Because of Saul’s selfishness, the people of Israel suffered defeat and were slaughtered in the fight against the Philistines, and Saul and his sons were killed (20:20-34).

Saul’s ambition to have the kingdom for himself and for his son, with his jealousy of David, confiscated and ended his enjoyment of the good land promised by God.

He didn’t enjoy the good land given to him by God, nor did he care for God’s kingdom; rather, he was selfish and lived in the flesh, so God rejected him and gave him up. Oh, Lord!

The collective death of Saul, his three sons, and his armour-bearer was God’s fair judgment on the one who had rebelled against Him, had usurped Him, and had become His enemy (1 Chron. 10:13-14).

May we learn from Saul’s tragic end to crucify our flesh and deny our selfishness – our self-interest and self-seeking (Gal. 5:24; Matt. 16:24; Phil. 2:3).

May we be those who do not usurp God’s presence for our interest but rather, those who are saved from selfishness and seek to do a work for the kingdom of God.

We shouldn’t try to build up our own “monarchy” or kingdom; rather, we should all do one unique work to build up the kingdom of God, the Body of Christ.

When we pray for our own prosperity, for our own welfare, without the view of God’s eternal economy, we usurp God.

Even when we pray for our own work for the Lord that the Lord would bless it and give us good results, but we don’t have His kingdom in view and we don’t aim at building up the church as the Body of Christ, we usurp God.

May we come to the Lord again and again and learn the lesson of crucifying our flesh and denying our selfishness, and may we seek to build the kingdom of God and nothing for ourselves.

All this is not for us to do in ourselves but for us to bring to the Lord, open to Him again and again, and allow Him to expose how much we usurp Him, how selfish we are, and how much self-interest and self-seeking we have.

When He shines on all these aspects of our self, we simply need to say Amen to His shining and be saved from selfishness and crucify our flesh by the Spirit.

Especially as we see Saul’s tragic end and realize the holy warning, we need to realize that we cannot play with God; we’re not here for our own kingdom, we cannot be selfish, and we need to reject any rebellion and disobedience.

Lord Jesus, shine on us and expose any selfishness, self-interest, and self-seeking. We want to be saved from selfishness and deny the flesh by the Spirit. Keep us turning to You, dear Lord, and keep us in our mingled spirit as we live our Christian life and work for You in the church life. Save us from building up our own kingdom within the kingdom of God. Save us from seeking anything apart from You. Save us from our selfishness and ambition to be someone or do something for You. We give ourselves to You, Lord, to do the one unique work to build up the kingdom of God, the Body of Christ. We are here for Your kingdom and for Your building.

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by brother Ed Marks, and portions from, Life-study of 1&2 Samuel, pp. 113-119, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization Study of 1 and 2 Samuel (2021 winter training), week 12, entitled, Spiritual Principles, Life Lessons, and Holy Warnings concerning the Enjoyment of the Good Land Seen with Five Major Figures in 1 and 2 Samuel.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – There is a foe whose hidden pow’r / The Christian well may fear, / More subtle far than inbred sin, / And to the heart more dear. / It is the pow’r of selfishness, / It is the wilful I, / And ere my Lord can live in me, / My very self must die. (Hymns #415)
  – I dwell with the King for His work, / I’ve part in His glorious plan / To bring in His kingdom to earth / And tell His salvation to man. / The world has its work and rewards, / I count them but folly and loss; / My business is only His work, / My message is only His cross. (Hymns #904)
  – In the stream! in the stream! let us work for the Lord, / By His mind, in His way, as revealed in His Word; / In the flow of His life let us work with His pow’r / For His Kingdom and Church in the time of His hour. (Hymns #909)