99.99%

Well, now that I have your attention, I hope I can keep it. 
I am really not one on statistics or numbers, they usually give me a headache, but this one is significant.
I have been listening to some teachings lately by John Bevere.  Tonight it struck me that this is a lesson that I really need to pass on.
Missing the mark or 99.99%.
Saul was a mighty king.  God had anointed him and appointed him to be the leader over all of Israel.  It is said that he stood head and shoulders above the people.  He was a big man. 
Samuel loved God and was His messenger.  God told Samuel to tell Saul to do something.  It was a big something.  He told Saul to destroy Amalek (1 Samuel 15).  He did not tell him to beat them up.  To take any spoils.  To keep any remainder nor a reminder.  He told Saul to destroy all of Amalek.  All the children, women, men and all the animals because of what they had done to Israel.
Saul didn't hesitate.  He gathered an army beyond measure and went and destroyed Amalek.  He destroyed them utterly.  Excepting for King Agag and the best of the sheep, the fatlings, the lambs and all that was good.  But everything else they destroyed but good.
Saul was so proud of himself.  He had done what Samuel had said God wanted him to do.
Now Samuel was in his prayer closet when the word of the Lord came to him.  He was not pleased with what Saul had done and He told Samuel that He regretted ever making Saul king.  He accused Saul of turning his back on God.  On being rebellious.
Now Samuel cried out to the Lord all night it says and early the next morning he went to confront Saul with these accusations.
Saul was so pleased with himself.  He met Samuel with, "Blessed are you of the Lord.  I have performed the commandment of the Lord,"
Now one of them was wrong.  God or Saul.  God had told Samuel that Saul had not obeyed and Saul is telling Samuel that he had obeyed.
Samuel said to Saul, "Well if that is true then why do I hear cattle?"
You gotta love a leader that will throw his people under the bus.  Saul said, "The people wanted me to spare them so that they could sacrifice them to the Lord."  It makes me think of Adam, "That woman you gave me."  Everyone else's fault but their own.
Samuel was livid and he told Saul that God regretted making him king and that the kingdom would be taken from him.  Again Saul argued with Samuel trying to convince him that he had done what God had wanted him to do.  And if you look at what all Saul had done you might think to your self, he did do what God told him to do, just not all of it.  He did 99.99% of it. 
Oh isn't that just like us.  So many times we are like Saul.  We think that because we are following some of the things that God has set forth for us to do that He should not be concerned with the things that we are not doing.  We are doing what it talks about in Proverbs.  We are doing what is right in our own eyes.  But the end of that is death and destruction.  That is what happened to Saul.
I am sure that is how Saul felt.  "I did everything but these two little things.  I killed all the people but one, and I destroyed all the animals except the best and I was going to use them as a sacrifice."
His disobedience cost him everything that day.  His kingdom, his son, his peace of mind but mostly his covering.  He was no longer under the covering of the almighty God.  And really it wasn't even his disobedience that cost him everything it was his rebellion against the rebuke of the Lord through Samuel.  When he tried to justify his disobedience.  If he had just confessed when he was confronted about his sin but he rebelled against the reprimand and that is when the Lord took away His covering from over him.
Samuel told Saul that day a lesson that we should all learn and heed.  Obedience is better than sacrifice.  God would rather have us obedient than to make sacrifices to him.
Our disobedience is rebellion against God.  We think, "Well God may have said this but I am sure He didn't mean all of what He said.  So I will do the part I like and the rest I will just leave alone."  Doing what is right in our own eyes.  The Holy Spirit convicts us of the sin but we continue to try and justify it.  Having a hardened heart.  A rebellious heart. 
Or we sit in church and sing and worship God.  We are like the James 1 man.  We listen to the Word of God, we are hearers of the Word.  But when we get up and leave the Word does not come alive in us.  We are not doers of the Word.  We turn a deaf ear to what He calls us to do.  We will sacrifice our time and money but we will not lay down our lives and walk the walk that He calls us to.  We deceive ourselves.  We rebel against God.  And as Samuel told Saul, rebellion is witchcraft. 
Our disobedience that leads to rebellion to the Lord is a door that gives legal access to demonic oppression and depression. 
We live in a world of choices.  It was Joshua who said, "Choose you this day whom you will serve.  As for me and my house we will serve the Lord."
It is the same with us.  We are no longer under the law but under grace.  But that does not mean that we can say we are Christians but then not live it out.
Romans 6 talks about just that thing.  We will either be a slave to sin or a slave to righteousness.  It can't be both at the same time.  In Revelations God said that he would that we be either hot or cold but not lukewarm as He would vomit us out of His mouth.  We try to be lukewarm Christians.  Straddling the fence.  99.99%'ers. 
But it is either all or nothing.  Not 99.99%.
If you are wondering how do I know if I am a 100%'er or a 99.99%'er and what do I need to do to get to that 100% mark?
READ THE WORD!!!!!  AND DO THE WORD!!!
Start in Galatians.  Paul is talking to the church in Galatia, not the sinners, not the ones who had never been told, not the ones who had never asked Jesus into their hearts, but to the church. 
In Galatians 5:16, "I say then, (you 99.99%'ers): Walk (be doers of the Word) in the Spirit (you know the Holy Spirit, your helper that has come), and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh (you won't have a rebellious heart any more, full of disobedience, you will be counted at 100%)."