Then he said to him, “Come home with me and eat bread.” And he said, “I may not return with you, or go in with you, neither will I eat bread or drink water with you in this place. for it was said to me by the LORD, ‘You shall neither eat bread nor drink water there, nor return by the way that you came.”     1 Kings 13:15-17 ESV

This is just a clip from a very sad historical narrative about a man of God who confronted King Jeroboam. King Jeroboam had been worshiping idols and had gotten into all kinds of pagan practices. He had been making people priests that had no business being priest. He was confronted by a man of God. When he went to put out his hand to stop the man of God, his hand dried up and became stiffened or paralyzed. God showed Jeroboam who was in charge. Jeroboam then thought, “I could use a guy like this on my side.” So, he tried to entice this man to come to his palace and eat and drink with him. But this man of God had specific instructions from the LORD not to do this and to go back home a different way from which he had come. Now there was a false prophet in town. By false prophet, I mean he had true prophetic gifts but had gotten into worldly self-promotion. He lied to the younger prophet to get him to stay in Judah with him, then announced his doom to garner favor from Jeroboam.

The man of God replied to the false prophet the same as he had replied to the king. But the older prophet told the younger prophet that he had received a word from the LORD that the younger prophet was to return with him. The younger prophet foolishly ignored his command from the LORD and trusted the older prophet.

He ended up being killed by a lion on the way home. What was unusual was that the lion did not eat the carcass and the man’s donkey stayed there by him. Both of these signified that his death was the work of God.

Now I will admit when I read this, I thought God had been harsh on this younger prophet. He was a man of God. He had gone and done most of what God had told him to do. He had slipped at the end and let the older prophet fool him. But if we think about it when God calls us to do something partial obedience is not what He’s looking for. He doesn’t want us to do a halfway job. He wants complete obedience.

My friend if God is calling you to do something and you are trying to halfway do it, you might want to rethink that. As you can see, it didn’t work so well for this young man of God. God told him to go and confront Jeroboam about his evil practices and to let him know what would happen if he continued his evil ways. He did that. God told him to leave Bethel and not go the way he had come. He did that. God told him not to return to the town and eat or drink with anyone in that town. He failed on that one. He paid with his life.

When we ask God to bless us, we don’t want a partial blessing right? We want a complete blessing. When we pray for certain things in our life, halfway won’t be good enough. Well halfway won’t work for God either.

This young man of God let the older prophet distract him. He let the older prophet convince him that he knew what God wanted more than the young man did. Have you been distracted? Has the devil told you that God wants something different from you? Has the devil told you that you are not capable of doing what God has called you to do? Has the devil told you that it will never work out and you must be mistaken about what God wants from you? The devil will do all he can to mess you up.

Don’t let anyone or anything distract you or stop you from doing what God has called you to do. If God calls us to do something, He will work it out. Trust in Him and obey Him completely, because halfway just won’t work.

Have a great day!