The cost of compromise.

As we wrap season 1, God wants us to audit our lives and check to see whether there is compromise. Whether we have deviated from His standards and compromised the anointing on your life. 

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Happy Monday, everyone. Happy new week. Happy new day. Welcome to the I'm Saved Now What podcast. I am Jaavonne Taylor. Welcome everybody to episode 10. Yes, I said it. Episode number 10. This is the last episode to wrap season one, and I cannot believe that we are already here. Like, wow. Like seriously, God, like, oh my gosh, seriously. We are at episode number 10. Three months and 10 official episodes plus a prelude. 95 cities, 24 countries, over 1,000 downloads. Who could it be but you, Jesus? Who could it be? God, I give you all the glory, all the praise, all the honor, and I dedicate episode number 10 to you. It's been a journey over these past few weeks, and I sit here and I'm just reflecting on the battles that I overcame in preparing each episode. The attacks on my voice, the attacks on my mind, the friendships that I had to release, the battles that I've faced, the things that I have had to grieve in this way. But all has been worth it. The nerves, the anxiety, my God. But it has all been worth it because the gospel of Jesus must be spread to the nations. The gospel of the Lord must be spread to the nations, and I can sit here smiling to say that I have been used by the Lord to spread his message across the world. And I am grateful, grateful, grateful. This journey has been worthwhile. And God, when I tell you, God planned everything, He planned everything. God planned absolutely everything. You know, He said, don't despise the small beginnings. And I didn't do that. Trust me when I tell you, like, this has been such an incredible journey. God gave me the right people, He gave me the right friends that stood with me in prayer, that encouraged me, that stood by my side, that ensured that the episodes came out every week. Like, let me tell you, God is a master architect. He would put the people in your corner. The moment you say yes, just know it's go time, and God is sending the destiny helpers. I have to thank my destiny helpers on this journey. I have to thank Tanisha, Kenisha, Rochelle, and Chris. My God. I mean, there are others, but these ones, they stood with me 10 toes down on this journey, and I am grateful, grateful, grateful to the Lord for them. And I pray that God opens doors of abundance and favor upon each and every one of you because you stood with me. You know, you stood with me, you stood in solidarity with me, you stood in prayer with me. You know, we stood together on this assignment that the Lord had commissioned me to embark upon, and you stood with me faithfully. And for that, I am eternally grateful. So last week we looked at daily surrender and we explored the necessity of surrender in our Christian walk. You know, not my will, but God's will be done. We must realize that or will come most of the time, or will comes from a place of self, self-preservation, self-exaltation, etc. But God's will extends beyond self and stretches to kingdom. God's will stretches you, it grows you and transforms you. But there is no way you can walk in God's will if you don't first surrender to Him. So, in case you missed last week's episode, last week, give it a listen. And I encourage you to share it with somebody because we can't be on this walk with Jesus without surrendering daily. It's a part of our new lives. So, on this or last episode for season one, the mandate from heaven is this don't compromise the anointing. The title of today's episode is The Cost of Compromise. Yeah, we're ending out season one heavy, but there's a reason for it. Today's episode is also likely to be long, as the Lord has impressed upon me the urgency of this message. He's saying there are many of us here, we're living compromised lives. We have compromised the anointing, and he wants us back in alignment. There are two stories that we were that we will look at in scripture today to help us to understand the cost of compromising the anointing. The first story we will look at comes from 1 Kings 13, and the second story comes from 1 Samuel 15. I am gonna encourage you to actually take out your Bibles as we go through, because there's some key things that the Lord does not want you to miss. And just in case you're listening to this while at work, on your way to work, etc., then you know when you go home, take up the Bible, go back through these scriptures because there's something that the Lord does not want you to miss in either of these. I was thinking to just do one scripture, and the Lord was like, No, we're doing both of them. So we're being obedient, we are honoring God's word, and so we are going to look at both scriptures. So, as a believer, I'm sure we have heard the word anointing countless times, right? We recognize that it is as it is significant to be anointed by God. It's not just a ritualistic practice, but to be anointed is to be chosen by God, to be designated by God, to be divinely selected by God, to be commissioned by God for his works and purpose on the earth. You've been marked by God, blessed by God, and set apart. And this is often represented by the placing of consecrated olive oil on the head of the anointed. Many of us are happy to receive our anointing from God, but how are we stewarding the anointing? How are we using the anointing? Are you doing precisely what God has said, or are you cutting corners? Are you making excuses or doing just enough to get by? Are you diluting the assignment? Are you deviating from God's plan? Are you justifying your wrongdoing? To be compromised means making concessions or lowering moral and doctrinal standards to accommodate the world or to avoid conflict, to accommodate the standards of others in place of the standards that God has outlined for you in your life or in your particular assignment. Now, don't get me wrong, compromise has its place, and we know we hear this word a lot when we talk about relationships and marriage, and we know compromise is about give and take, but let's be real. What exactly are you giving and taking if it is that you are refusing to fully complete God's assignment in the way that He has called you to do it? Who are you compromising with if you are deviating from what God has said? If you are making concessions to what God has told you, who are you compromising with? That's something that stuck out to me as I prepared for this episode. I kept hearing it, or rather, I heard it a couple of times, and it was, who are you compromising with? God wants you to understand this clearly. The compromise he is talking about relates to the lowering of his standards, the abandonment of his moral principles, and the weakening of your integrity. I keep hearing the word corrosion in my spirit, and I'm getting the feeling that God wants you to see the image vividly. You see, corrosion is the gradual destruction or deterioration of material, and God is saying that your compromise is gradually destroying you. So every time you compromise on what God told you to do, you are gradually destroying you, you're gradually destroying yourself, and ultimately, this destruction is going to lead to death. Compromise the ultimate cost of compromise is death and destruction. So, if you don't believe me, let's look at the scriptures, and we are going to start in 1 Samuel 15. And I'm reading from the NIV, and when I say start, I mean start because we're going through this entire scripture. So let's begin. Samuel said to Saul, I am the one the Lord sent to anoint you king over his people Israel. So listen now to the message from the Lord. This is what the Lord Almighty says. I will punish the Amalekites for what they did to Israel when they waylaid them as they came up from Egypt. Now go, attack the Amalekites, and totally destroy all that belongs to them. Do not spare them, put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys. So Saul summoned the men and mustered them at Telim, two hundred thousand foot soldiers and ten thousand from Judah. Saul went to the city of Amalek and set an ambush in the ravine. Then he said to the Kenites, Go away, leave the Amalekites so that I do not destroy you along with them. For you showed kindness to all the Israelites when they came up out of Egypt. So the Kenites moved away from the Amalekites. Then Saul attacked the Amalekites all the way from Hivilah to Shur, near the eastern border of Egypt. He took Agag, king of the Amalekites, alive, and all his people he totally destroyed with the sword. But Saul and the army speared Agag and the best of the sheep and cattle, the fat calves and lambs, everything that was good. These they were unwilling to destroy completely, but everything that was despised and weak they totally destroyed. Then the word of the Lord came to Samuel, I regret that I have made Saul king, because he has turned away from me and has not carried out my instructions. Samuel was angry and he cried out to the Lord all that night. Early in the morning Samuel got up and went to meet Saul. But he was told, Saul has gone to Carmel. There he has set up a monument in his own honor and has turned and gone on down to Gilgal. When Samuel reached him, Saul said, The Lord bless you. I have carried out the Lord's instructions. But Samuel said, What then is this bleating of sheep in my ears? What is this lowing of cattle that I hear? Saul answered, The soldiers brought them from the Amalekites. They spared the best of the sheep and cattle to sacrifice to the Lord your God, but we totally destroyed the rest. Enough, Samuel said to Saul, let me tell you what the Lord said to me last night. Tell me, Saul replied. Samuel said, Although you were once small in your own eyes, did you not become the head of the tribes of Israel? The Lord anointed you king over Israel, and he sent you on a mission saying, Go and completely destroy those wicked people, the Amalekites, wage war against them until you have wiped them out. Why did you not obey the Lord? Why did you pounce on the plunder and do evil in the eyes of the Lord? But I did obey the Lord, Saul said. I went on the mission the Lord assigned me. I completely destroyed the Amalekites and brought back Agag their king. The soldiers took sheep and cattle from the plunder, the best of what was devoted to God, in order to sacrifice them to the Lord your God at Gilgal. But Samuel replied, Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the Lord? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams. 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. Then Saul said to Samuel, I have sinned, I violated the Lord's command and your instructions. I was afraid of the men, and so I gave in to them. Now I beg you, forgive my sin and come back with me so that I may worship the Lord. But Samuel said to him, I will not go back with you. You have rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord has rejected you as king over Israel. As Samuel turned to leave, Saul caught hold of the hem of his robe and it tore. Samuel said to him, The Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today, and has given it to one of your neighbors, to one better than you. He who is the glory of Israel does not lie or change his mind, for he is not a human being that he should change his mind. Saul replied, I have sinned. Please honor me before the elders of my people and before Israel. Come back with me, so that I may worship the Lord your God. So Samuel went back with Saul, and Saul worshipped the Lord. Then Samuel said, Bring me Agag of the Amalekites. Agag came to him in chains, and he thought, Surely the bitterness of death is past. But Samuel said, As your sword was has made women childless, so will your mother be childless among women. And Samuel put Agag to death before the Lord at Gilgal. Then Samuel left for Ramah, but Saul went up to his home in Gibeah of Saul. Until the day Samuel died, he did not go to see Saul again, though Samuel mourned for him, and the Lord regretted that he had made Saul king over Israel. We've just read thirty-five verses. But Saul compromised his reign. And God could not allow him to continue in that position. When we look at verse three, God gives very clear instructions to Saul through Samuel. Go attack the Amalekites and totally destroy all that belongs to them. Do not spare them. Put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys. God's instruction was to kill all, destroy all, eradicate all. That was the command. That was the instruction. When we get to verse 9, what do we see? So between verse 3 and verse 9, we see Saul going into the enemy's camp. We see Saul waging war. We see Saul taking the foot soldiers. But when we get to verse 9, what do we see? We see a deviation from the instruction. We see compromise beginning to appear. But Saul and the army spear agag and the best of the sheep and cattle, the fat calves and lambs, everything that was good. They were unwilling to destroy completely. But everything that was despised and weak, they totally destroyed. So what did they do? They compromised the instruction. God's instruction said destroy everything. But here comes human intelligence saying, But why would I destroy this? This is good, these are good things. And so they insert compromise into the instruction. So we see a deviation from God's directive. So instead of totally destroying everything as the Lord commanded, Saul and his men make a concession. They make a concession, they concede. He said, destroy all the men, and Agag was not killed. So we see here that there was disobedience of God's instructions. But what is crazy is the fact that Saul didn't see it, you know. Saul did not see it, he was blind, he was convinced that he was obedient to God. But when we look at it, he only complied partially with God's instructions. He did not comply completely, and that, ladies and gentlemen, is disobedience. That is the compromise. You see, compromise is the partial compliance with God's instruction. Partial compliance. Not full compliance, partial compliance. So he would have done the major thing. He would have gone in, he would have gone into the city, he would have gone, he would have killed off most of the people, right? He killed off most of them. He destroyed most of the of the cattle and the animals and stuff, right? But the good ones he kept back. But a gag he did not kill. Compromise is like the cousin of disobedience, or I call it the gateway of disobedience, you know. Right? Compromise is disobedience is gateway. Saul started to justify and make concessions. God gave him a particular way, he told him what to do and how to do it, but he didn't do it that way fully, he did it partially, and then what was crazy, because for me when I was reading it, what was crazy to me is that he was so convinced that he was obedient at verse 20, he says, But I did obey the Lord, I went on the mission the Lord assigned me, I completely destroyed the Amalek. And brought back Agag their king. So, in the very sentence that he's saying he complied, he's also showing that he didn't comply fully. Because why would Agag have been brought back? Didn't God tell you to kill everybody? Then he says the soldiers took sheep and cattle from the plunder. So here it is that he's passing off responsibility to the soldiers. Aren't you the King Saul? Aren't you the one that the Lord gave the throne of Israel to? Didn't he give you the commission and the responsibility to lead? Didn't you he didn't he entrust you, Saul, with these people? You are to lead them, you are to command them, and he gave you a prophet to advise you as to what he wants you to do and how he wants you to do it. But you have deviated from that, you have compromised the assignment. That's what we're seeing here. Saul has compromised the assignment. He didn't do it God's way. He went to the war, he fought the battle, he won it. But it was not done in the manner which God told him to do it, and that costed him his anointing. He was anointing as king, and in that moment, in that moment of compromise, he loses his anointing. Instead of leading the people as king, he allowed the people to lead him. He compromised his anointing to win the favor of the very people that God had already anointed him to lead. He thought his idea, or their ideas, rather, was better than God's plan. It costed him the throne. Why should God continue to use a vessel that is compromised? And it wasn't so much the fact that he was compromised, that he was disobedient. You do realize how much times, how many times he justified his actions. He justified his actions. He was trying to get Samuel to agree that hey, what I did wasn't bad. It wasn't a bad thing. And Samuel is like, listen, brother, and that can't tell you for dough. That's not what God said. Before we got to the place of Saul seeking forgiveness, we saw him first justifying his wrong. Saul was more concerned about his image as king to the people of Israel than he was about honoring and complying with God's directives. God interpreted Saul's actions as rejection, and in turn, God rejected Saul. And we know that Saul lost the throne, and he lost that throne because of compromise. Saul wanted to please everybody instead of pleasing God, and it costed him everything. So now let's look at the scripture in 1 Kings 13. I'm looking at the New Living translation in this one. I want to confess something before I jump into the scripture. So the first couple of times I read this scripture, I didn't like it. I did not like it. I thought God was harsh. I thought he was really harsh on the main character in this scripture. And it really took me a long time, like years actually, to see what God was saying. It took me years to see what God was saying. A couple of months ago, that the Lord began to open my eyes and to reveal to me the importance of this scripture and to show me that, listen, you cannot compromise. So in 1 Kings 13, God commands a prophet from Judah to go to Bethel to deliver a message to Jeroboam, the leader. Jeroboam was worshiping idols and doing detestable things. He built altars on high places, installed unauthorized priests, and theologians say he created a cult to prevent the people from going to the south to worship in the temple, the temple that Solomon had built. So, in essence, Jeroboam had created a counterfeit system, and that will become important very soon. That word counterfeit. So let's jump into the scripture. The Lord sends a prophet from Judah to deliver a message to Jeroboam. At the Lord's command, a man of God from Judah went to Bethel, arriving there just as Jeroboam was approaching the altar to burn incense. Then at the Lord's command, he shouted, Oh, altar, altar, this is what the Lord says. A child named Josiah will be born into the dynasty of David. On you he will sacrifice the priests from the pagan shrines who come here to burn incense, and human bones will be burned on you. That same day, the man of God gave a sign to prove his message. He said, The Lord has promised to give this sign. When King Jeroboam heard the man of God speaking against the altar at Bethel, he pointed at him and shouted, Seize that man! But instantly the king's hand became paralyzed in that position, and he couldn't pull it back. At the same time, a wide crack appeared in the altar, and the ashes poured out, just as the man of God had predicted in his message from the Lord. The king cried out to the man of God, Please ask the Lord your God to restore my hand again. So the man of God prayed to the Lord, and the king's hand was restored, and he could move it again. Then the king said to the man of God, Come to the palace with me and have something to eat, and I will give you a gift. But the man of God said to the king, Even if you gave me half of everything you own, I would not go with you. I would not eat or drink anything in this place. For the Lord gave me this command You must not eat or drink anything while you are there, and do not return to Judah by the same way you came. So he left Bethel and went home another way. As it happened, there was an old prophet living in Bethel, and his sons came home and told him what the man of God had done in Bethel that day. They also told their father what the man had said to the king. The old prophet asked them, Which way did he go? They showed their father which road the man of God had taken. Quick, saddle the donkey, the old man said. So they saddled the donkey for him and he mounted it. Then he rode after the man of God and found him sitting under a great tree. The prophet asked him, Are you the man of God who came from Judah? Yes, I am, he replied. Then he said to the man of God, Come home with me and eat some food. No, I cannot, he replied. I am not allowed to eat or drink anything here in this place, for the Lord gave me this command. You must not eat or drink anything while you are there, and do not return to Judah by the same way you came. But the old prophet answered, I am a prophet too, just as you are. And an angel gave me this command from the Lord Bring him home with you, so he can have something to eat and drink. But the old man was lying to him. So they went back together, and the man of God ate and drank at the prophet's home. Then while they were sitting at the table, a command from the Lord came to the old prophet. He cried out to the man of God from Judah, This is what the Lord says. You have defied the word of the Lord and have disobeyed the command the Lord your God gave you. You came back to this place and ate and drank where he told you not to eat or drink. Because of this, your body will not be buried in the grave of your ancestors. After the man of God had finished eating and drinking, the old prophet saddled his own donkey for him, and the man of God started off again. But as he was traveling along, a lion came out and killed him. His body lay there on the road, while with the donkey and the lion standing beside it. People who passed by saw the body lying in the road and the lion standing beside it, and they went and reported it in Bethel, where the old prophet lived. When the prophet heard the report, he said, It is the man of God who disobeyed the Lord's command. The Lord has fulfilled his word by causing the lion to attack and kill him. And we're gonna stop at verse 26. This is where we're stopping. Wow. So this one is very sobering, extremely sobering. It's it's as I told you before, it was one of the ones where I said, Boy God, I feel like you're harsh. I feel like you're so harsh. I feel like you could have given him a lie. Like literally, that's what I was thinking. I said, God, I think you could have given him a chance. Because God, he was compliant for most of the part. He was compliant. But God had to clock me and he checked me. As I told you, it took me a while to get it. But when he when he when I got it, I got it, and God had to check me. So let's just examine the scripture a little bit. So we don't have a name for the prophet, but we just know he's a prophet from Judah. And we know that God sent him from Judah to Bethel. God sent him, so he's not from that place, God sent him into that space. God sent him into that space to deliver a message to the king, and he does that. The king then invites him to eat with him. Well, we let me be fair. I'm skipping out a few things. So he delivers the message to the king. The king was not very impressed with that message. The king was upset by the message first, and we see that the king's hands got paralyzed, his hand got paralyzed. And then we see the prophet from Judah. We see him praying, and the king's hand comes back, and then we see the king inviting him to the palace to eat. And he says, No. The prophet says, No, I cannot do that. He tells the king God's word and he leaves. He stands on the word of God and he leaves. He said, God said, Do not eat and drink from the land and do not come back from the direction that you entered from. So he says this to the king and he proceeds to comply with the instruction. So we're seeing compliance. We're seeing that he goes in, he delivers the word. The king entices him to come. He says, No, that's not what the Lord commands me. And he exits and he exits from a different way. So we're seeing compliance. So we're seeing compliance. But here's where it gets a little interesting. So he complies with the king. So the king is inviting him and he says no. He complies with God's word and he leaves the king. Now we see this old prophet hears that he is here. So the old prophet comes to find him. And the old prophet finds him sitting down under a tree. So to be honest, my first question was like, Why are you still in Bethel? Because even though the scripture does not say it, my view is that God sends you into somewhere, he says, Don't eat and drink here. And don't do not come back from the same way you entered. So in my view, my understanding, this is me speaking completely. I'm saying, okay, so God wants you to get in and to get out. That's my understanding of it. Don't stay there, don't tarry there. Just deliver my message and come out. Get in, get out. That's that's what that's my understanding. So the old prophet comes, the old prophet sees him, and he tells the old prophet invites him to come and eat. And the prophet from Judah tells the old prophet, No, I cannot do this. The Lord says I cannot. He affirms what God says. But what happens after? The old prophet comes and says, Well, like you, I am a prophet. I'm a prophet just like you. I'm a prophet too. And then he says, An angel told me that the Lord said, I must invite you back to come and eat with me. And so the prophet from Judah proceeds to follow the old prophet from Bethel and goes and eats and drinks from him. And in the process of this eating and drinking, this old prophet actually gets the word of the Lord. And the word of the Lord is angry and telling him, You have disobeyed me, and you will die as a result of your disobedience. Listen, when I tell you that I grappled with this scripture, I fought with it for a while. I was like, God, why is this thing so heavy? Why would you do this? But God wanted me to understand something and He wants me to share it with you. He says, or compromise usually takes place in situations of familiarity. Now, just listen to what I'm saying. The prophet from Judah knew expressly that Jeroboam was the enemy, so he didn't compromise there. When he meets the prophet, he says to the man, I can't come and eat with you. God says no. But what does the prophet do? The prophet says, But I too a prophet. The prophet has now created an atmosphere of familiarity. Here, this is where the compromise comes in. We are compromising. The prophet from Judah began to compromise because this man is like me. So he didn't know him personally, but the man said he's a prophet and I'm a prophet. So hey, he started to compromise. And what was crazy, if you look back at the text, what is crazy is the fact that the prophet from Judah got his word directly from the Lord. The Lord told it to him directly, like he heard it directly from God. And here comes this old prophet, somebody you don't know, telling you that God's, he got God's word, but he got God's word through an angel. Right? And God's word was contradicting the word of God that you got directly from God. But because he was looking at the familiarity, he was looking at the fact that, well, hey, you're a prophet, I'm a prophet too. He completely ignores God's word. He heard God's word, you know, he knew God's word, but he didn't abide by God's word because of the familiarity. He got comfortable, he he was now compromised. This old prophet came and gave him this kind of well, he gave him a fictitious account. He gave him a fictitious thing, and he told him an angel said, No, let us be real. How does an angel rank higher than God? If you are hearing directly from God, how does an angel outrank God's directives? Remember, God does not contradict himself, he is not a God of confusion, and usually where there is a competing word to say God said, Hey, there has been some interference. God's word was compromised. God's word was compromised. So he's an old prophet. So old is not just referring to age here, I'm discovering. Old is also being used to refer to a former state. Because don't you find it interesting that there is a prophet in Bethel, but God had to send a prophet from the outside to deliver the message to Jeroboam? Why didn't God use the old prophet? Since that prophet was already in the land, why didn't God use the old prophet to deliver the message to Jeroboam? Why didn't he do that? Could it have been that God didn't do that because everybody and everything in the land was tainted? Everybody and everything in the land was already compromised. Could it be that God told him not to eat and drink and fellowship with anybody in that land, but to leave because the place was compromised? There was already a prophet in the land, and God did not use that prophet. Remember, I told you earlier that Jeroboam being the king was creating a counterfeit system. He was creating a counterfeit system. So in the south, in Judah, they were worshiping the Lord at the temple that Solomon had built. They were worshiping the Lord there, giving offerings to the Lord there. But because there was no split of the kingdom, so Israel was in the north and Judah was in the south. There was a split, right? Jeroboam did not want his people going down to the south and not coming back, going down to Judah and not coming back. So what he did, he basically tried to mirror what was happening down in Judah, right? He tried to create a mirror of what was happening. So he created a counterfeit system, he created a cult system. So he was having his own festivals, he was doing his own sacrifices and all of that. But guess what? They were not sacrificing to God. It was a God, but it was not our God, it was not El Shaddai. So God, knowing all of this, knowing that up there is tainted, sends a specific word. And the word he sends is not with the old prophet in Bethel, who was very comfortable with lying. He sends it with someone who is not connected at all to the land. And that man turned out to become compromised. He was compromised and he was compromised. He did what God told him to do initially. He went, he delivered the word, he was exiting in the same manner God told him to exit. But what did he do? He turned back and went to eat and drink in the place God told him not to eat and drink in. And it resulted in his death. God's instructions, God's directives must be fully complied with. People and he took him off the throne. This prophet from Judah lost his life because God said, Do not eat and drink from them. It is not just about the action that God called you to do, right? It is not just the action. But you have to comply fully. This man went in, he delivered the message, but the assignment was not complete. The assignment is not complete until you do it in the way that the Lord has told you to do it. Partial obedience is compromise. God is saying, do what I tell you to do in the manner I have told you to do it. Obedience is not just what is not just doing the action. So what God says is the action. How he says it. So the method he says to use, you use that method when he says to do it. So the timing and the duration is important. Where he says there's a particular location for you to do this thing. And with who, who are you partnering with to do this? The act alone is insufficient if you have not complied with the specific instruction. If God says to you, wake up at 3 a.m. every day for the next three months and pray for 30 minutes. And you pray for 30 minutes for three months, but you do it at 5 a.m. You have actually compromised God's instructions and you have disobeyed him. Partial obedience is disobedience. It is compromise, and God cannot afford for his name to be tainted. Many of us are doing the work of God, but is that the assignment God has for you? Is that what he has commissioned and anointed you to do? It is a good thing that you're doing, it is a good thing what you are doing, but is it what God commissioned you to do? Have you deviated from God's design? Imagine if Noah did not build the ark in accordance with the directives from God. That ark would have sunk. Have you begun listening to other people instead of complying with God's instructions? It may sound like God, but was it God? Is it God? Because God told you to do something and you know within yourself what he told you to do. Have you written the manuscript yet? Have you recorded the song? Have you started the business? Have you applied for school? And if you have started these things, are you fully compliant with how he has told you to do it? Are you walking it out in the way that God has instructed you to do it? What the scriptures above have just revealed is that compromise, compromise, and deviation from God's instructions leads to destruction, it leads to death, it opens doors, it gives the enemy access to you. Who are you compromising with when it is that you're not fully compliant with God's word? Who are you compromising with? Sinning in the dark is compromise, guys. And I know we know this, but there's an emphasis that the Lord wants me to draw to this. Do not compromise your anointing. Too many of us have been playing with the anointing. And because we are still operating in our respective gifts, we're still prophesying, we're still ministering, we're still singing, we are still doing the work, and we're still receiving. You know, God is still allowing us to walk in these graces. We feel like, oh, we are okay. But God is saying that these things are tainted by compromise. He says you will not walk effectively in your anointing if you are compromised, if you are continuing to live in compromise, you are compromising the anointing and he will remove his hand. Just because a public does not know what you're struggling with in private doesn't mean you're not compromised. If you have a porn addiction, Lord is the Lord is saying to you, release it.

Speaker 49:08

You are compromised, you are compromised.

Speaker 1 49:16

Do not justify your wrong, do not sit in your wrong justifying it. Release it to God, repent. Unrepentance sin is a gateway for the enemy. Unrepentance sin is compromise. It is a gateway for the enemy. Anytime you see yourself justifying sin, realize that you have compromised your anointing and you have come into agreement with the enemy. Counterfeits are compromise, guys. God promised you something very specific. He promised you something very specific. Let's say he promised you a five-bedroom house with three and a half bathrooms and a swimming pool in Cherry Gardens, Jamaica. That's the promise, right? And that's what he says, and that's what you're believing him for, and that's what you're praying for, because that is the promise and the revelation he gave you. But then as time goes by, you see a property in Russell Heights, and it's a five-bedroom house, but it has two and a half bathrooms and it has a pool. It's similar, right? It's still a good house. The area is beautiful, it's it's it looks great, but it is not what God has promised you. It is not what God has promised you. It is a counterfeit, it is not the real thing. It may look like it, but it is not the real thing. It is not specific to how God said it would be. God said cherry gardens, and here you are in Russell Heights. And when you look even further, it is even more different than just the location because you wanted three and a half bathrooms. God said three and a half bathrooms, and this one has two and a half. Many of us have accepted counterfeit things, and we are calling it God's blessing and God's promise. And God's saying, God is saying that counterfeit is not my blessing, the counterfeit is not my promise, the counterfeit is compromise. That is not my blessing. God promised you marriage, but you're living with a man and you're not married, you're a common-law spouse. That's compromise, and I can speak from that experience, I can speak from that position because that was me. Yeah. God promised you a marriage, God said marriage, but yeah, but yeah. God promised that you will be a millionaire, but yet you're out here scamming people to make millions, you're selling them a product that is tainted. Why on earth would God's promise cause you to sin? Why would anything that God has given you cause you to do the very opposite of what he told you to do? Why would God's blessing cause you to compromise? Anything that is causing you to compromise or is asking you to compromise is not God. If it is similar but not the same, it is a counterfeit. It is a counterfeit. It could be a counterfeit relationship, a counterfeit business opportunity. Yes, thank you, Holy Spirit. God is saying, do not compromise the anointing. He says, audit your life. Look at what it is that you are doing, what you are going through, the people that you are around. And he says, ask yourself the questions. Is this what I told you to do? Is this where I told you to be? Is this when I told you to do this? Is this how I told you to execute this? Is this what I promised you?

Speaker 53:43

God is saying that there is a cost for compromise.

Speaker 1 53:50

One thing that stood out for me with respect to both of these stories today, especially the last one in 1 Kings, is that the prophet from Judah, there is no sign of him repenting. After the word of the Lord comes up on the old prophet and he gets the revelation that he disobeyed because he knew. He says when he had finished eating and drinking, there is nowhere in that scripture where it says he fell on his knees and he repented and he asked the Lord for forgiveness. There was nothing there, there was no repentance in that instance, right? And when we look at Saul, Saul didn't start at repentance. Saul started at justification of his wrong. There are many of us that run the risk of losing our anointing because one, we're justifying our wrongs, or two, we are not repenting when the wrong is called out to us. The world needs the anointing that the Lord has put on your life. Don't lose your anointing because of compromise. Compromise leads to death and destruction. The Holy Spirit cannot dwell where there is sin and compromise. The Holy Spirit cannot dwell in tainted spaces. The Holy Spirit cannot dwell in you. A part of the anointing is the presence of the Spirit, it's the presence, and it's not that he has departed, it's just that he cannot fully function in compromise. Hallelujah. Thank you, Lord. As we wrap season one, as we wrap episode 10, I am going to pray and I'm gonna ask that Holy Spirit you take over this prayer. Less of me and more of you, Lord. Most righteous and heavenly Father, Lord, I come before you today as a humble servant. God, I thank you for all you've done, all you are doing, and all you will continue to do. I thank you, Lord, for your revelation. I thank you for your mercy. I thank you, Lord, for giving me this task. I thank you, Lord, for giving me this assignment today to speak on the cost of compromise and to remind your sons and daughters not to compromise the anointing, myself included, not to compromise the anointing. God, you're reminding me that sometimes compromise is subtle. Sometimes it is subtle, and other times it's not so subtle. But you're saying that we cannot afford to compromise our anointing. Father, I pray for those who are on this podcast, who have strayed, who have compromised, God, who have accepted counterfeit versions of things instead of the real version. I pray for those of us, Lord, who have become tainted, who have made concessions for ourselves, who have made concessions for those closest to us, who have watered down and diluted your word because, God, we were believing more in others, believing more in ourselves than we were in you. We thought our idea was better than your instruction. And God, I pray that you have mercy on us, Father. Have mercy on us, Lord. Have mercy on our souls, have mercy on our lives, have mercy on us, Lord. God, we come before you with repentant hearts. In the name of Jesus, we come before you with a repentant heart, Lord. Mighty God, I pray, Lord, that everything in us that is corrupt, everything in us that is corroded, anything in us that is compromised, every thought, every action, every behavior, everything about us, God, that is compromised. God, we pray, oh Lord, in the name of Jesus, God, that you would remove it from us, Lord, in the name of Jesus. We humbly surrender ourselves, Lord, and we repent from our deviant behavior. We repent, Lord, from our compromise. We repent, mighty God, for partial obedience. We repent, Lord, in the name of Jesus, mighty God, for not completing the mission and the assignment in the manner and in the way that you have called us to do it. Father, in the name of Jesus, God, I pray, Ur mighty God, that you will continue, oh Lord, mighty God, to open our eyes for us to see that God, if we have missed the instruction and the directive, Lord, mighty God, we will circle back in Jesus' name. And God, we will repent, mighty God, before it is too late. God, we will not taint the anointing, we will not compromise the anointing, Lord, but we will be fully compliant with the word of God. A karabashata. We will be fully compliant with your word in our lives, mighty God, in the name of Jesus. In the assignments, God, we will do it properly. We will do it in accordance with your way. Lord, we will not insert ourselves or insert anything else. We will not add or subtract, we will not delete, we will not modify, but we will do it in accordance with your directive and in accordance with your way. Lord, in the name of Jesus, God, as I close out season one, God, I thank you for all you have done over these past three months. I thank you all you've done in the lives of your people. I thank you, Lord, for the work that you have done in them, for the miracles that you have worked, God, for the eyes that you have opened, for the hearts that you have freed, mighty God, in the name of Jesus, Lord, I pray for them as we depart, Lord, mighty God, as we move from being around each other on this podcast for a season, for a limited time. That God, you will still cover them and you keep them, Lord. That God, they go back and they re-listen to these episodes and your voice marinates in their mind, in their hearts. Lord, mighty God, we pray for effectual change in the name of Jesus. No longer will we live in a state and a position of compromise, but God, we will live in a state of obedience. God, we will be obedient and fully compliant with your word in the name of Jesus. We will comply fully, we will surrender fully. Mighty God, we will commit fully to the task and we will walk it out and we will do exactly as you've called us to do. God, you are the God of the exceedingly abundantly above all we can ever ask, think or imagine. So, God, help us to lay down our way for your way, God, to get let go of our idea, to walk and follow through with your idea, your mission, your commission, your mandate, your assignment. I give you thanks, Father, for all you've done, all you are doing, and all you will continue to do. I thank you, Holy Spirit. I thank you, Jesus. I thank you, merciful Father. Have your way, Lord, have your way in their lives. I give you thanks, Lord, both now and forevermore. Amen. Amen. Amen. We have come to the end. Episode 10. The end of season one. Wow, God. We have come to the end of this season. And I couldn't have made it here without you. Thank you guys for joining me on this journey. Thank you for listening. Thank you for sharing. Thank you for your kind words. Thank you for the encouragement. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. So we're on a break for this summer, and we will return in season two. And until season two, I believe it's September, that's the word I'm hearing in my head. And until season two, this is Jaavonne Taylor. And you're listening to I'm Saved Now What? Bye.