Biblical Examples Of Biblical Teachings

Biblical example
A Biblical example of this was King Saul. Saul was threatened by David and tried to kill him. He used various tactics hoping to kill David, but without success, because God was with David. The entire story gives us many insights into what some refer to as "the control spirit" which is active in many segments of church life today, including the Pentecostal/full gospel/charismatic circles.
Saul's downhill progression began when he felt compelled to offer a sacrifice himself - something beyond the scope of his God-given authority. Christian leaders today can get into problems when they seek to take on an activity or ministry which God has not called them or authorized them to do. What is begun in the power of the flesh can only
be maintained by the power of the flesh, and this gives an opening to much evil.
Saul had become king through the prophetic actions of Samuel, so he knew Samuel was a true prophet of the Lord.
Nevertheless, he did not heed the voice of the Lord through the prophet Samuel. He had been instructed to destroy everything pertaining to the Amelekites he was assigned to destroy.
Saul, by sparing the Amelekites king and the best of the sheep in contradiction to the prophet's instructions, disobeyed God and further compromised his leadership. As Samuel explained, "Rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft" (1 Samuel 15:23). Once a leader willfully disobeys the clear instructions of the Lord, the door is opened to evil spirits.
On that day Samuel the prophet told Saul, "The Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today, and has given it to a neighbor of yours, who is better than you" (vs. 28). Even so, it was many years before Saul's death and David's coronation. Yet as far as God was concerned, Saul had lost the kingdom.
God sent Samuel to anoint David king over Israel. At that moment, the Spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward. At the same time, the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul and he was instead troubled by a distressing spirit. David was brought in to sing in the presence of Saul. This music, combined with the spiritual anointing now on David's life, caused the evil spirit to leave, so that Saul could function
normally.
We see here that God made Saul dependent on David, who in fact now had the anointing necessary for leadership. In the same way, some leaders with the control spirit rely on the anointing and gifts of those under them in order to operate. They can quickly become jealous and protective of their position when those under them start to receive more recognition than they themselves.
This is what happened in the case of Saul when later on the women of Israel sang, "Saul has slain his thousands, but David his tens of thousands". This is what made Saul hate David and seek to take David's life.
Having lost God's blessing on his leadership through disobedience, Saul was nevertheless intent on keeping his position at all costs. He began to jealously watch David suspecting he might be the "neighbor" to whom Samuel had referred, the one who was going to receive the kingdom in Saul's place.
David eventually had to flee from the presence of the king to save his life. It is interesting that David left alone. He did not seek to create a faction or divide the kingdom, though he had much popular support. David repeatedly resisted temptations to promote himself into that role which
God had promised Him. This is a major reason why God so honored David and gave him so much spiritual authority in the end.
In the same way, as we wait upon the Lord and serve him in the roles we have been given, we must not seek to promote ourselves to our eventual calling and ministry. Everything should be done in humble dependence on the Lord. If we foster a spiritual rebellion against existing leadership that we might gain influence and expression, we are sowing seeds for our own demise.
Those with the control spirit do great harm to God's true ministers. Saul killed many true priests of the Lord because they had innocently sheltered David. In the same way, those with a control spirit will seek, if possible, to kill the ministry of anyone they perceive to be helping those of whom they are jealous. This can be done by bad-mouthing or simply by expressing unjustified reservations when asked for their opinion by others with influence. Because the motive is impure, the politics which comes out is also corrupt.
Saul became obsessed with keeping his hold on power and stamping out David, whom he perceived as a threat. This murderous spirit was the same kind which operated in Cain's life, inspiring him to murder his brother Abel. "For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another, not as Cain who was of the wicked one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his works were evil and his brother's righteous." (1 John 3:12).
I have seen and heard of many cruel things done by ministers of the gospel to other ministers. In some nations where the government has been hostile to the church, church leaders have reported independent Christian groups they cannot control to the authorities and their leaders go to prison and suffer for many years. Some even die. At the same time, these leaders often receive much public and international acclaim. It is the control spirit, the love of money and the desire for acclamation and influence which are ultimately behind such actions.
The link to witchcraft in Saul's life is seen again in the fact that he actually spent his last night in the house of a witch.
Ultimately, witchcraft is about obtaining power contrary to God's expressed will. It does not have to be by using incantations and spells. Leaders and church members who seek to obtain power and influence by illicit means are guilty of using witchcraft, as Saul did.
The control spirit has done a lot of harm in hindering moves of the Holy Spirit as they have been starting. We can see that the control spirit was effective in slowly killing the true move of the Holy Spirit in the post-apostolic church. When teachings started appearing saying "Do nothing without the bishop", and bishops began to fight and squabble over doctrine, liturgy and personal power it wasn't long before the Holy Spirit was grieved and marginalized within the very church of God. They may have referred to Him in their creeds and liturgies but He was either taking a back seat in the church or not even there.
The church became prostituted to the interests of temporal power and the Orthodox and Roman Catholic systems were the results. The leadership got so bad at some times in some places that when the Muslims later took over the Christians actually preferred the new leadership to what existed before. Islam would never have gotten off the ground had the church not been so corrupted by the 7th
century.
I've observed in some places that even Pentecostals have gotten to the place where it seems they could function very well without the leading of the Holy Spirit. The gifts of the Spirit are not practiced in the church. There is a program and system in place which serves the interests of maintaining the church. People fall in love with the familiar and resist change. If the fire of God starts to burn there are plenty of volunteers to immediately pour cold water on it and put it out.