Respect The Man Of God, Respect His Position

"So the king sent a third captain with his fifty men.  This third captain went up and fell on his knees before Elijah. 'Man of God,' he begged, 'please have respect for my life and the lives of these fifty men, your servants!  See, fire has fallen from heaven and consumed the first two captains and all their men. But now have respect for my life  The Angel of The LORD said to Elijah, 'Go down with him; do not be afraid of him.'  So Elijah got up and went down with him to the king."  2 Kings 1:13-15 (NIV)  (Read 1:1-18)

After the king fell through some lattice work and injured himself, he wanted to know if he was going to recover from his injuries.  He sent a messenger to go inquire to an idol god, but the prophet Elijah stopped the messenger and told him that the king would die.  Upon learning that Elijah had stopped his messenger, the king sent a captain with fifty men to bring Elijah to him.  When he reached Elijah, the captain ordered Elijah to come down from the hill and come with them to see the king.  Elijah called down fire from heaven and it consumed the captain and all fifty men.  The king sent a second captain and another fifty men, and the same thing happened to them.  The third captain humbly approached Elijah, bowed down before him and asked Elijah to spare his life and the lives of his men.  Then The Angel of The LORD told Elijah to go with the third captain and he went with him.

How we approach someone, what we say, and how we say it can determine the kind of response we will receive.  We need to be very careful in the way that we approach, and how we speak to God, and the man of God.  We may not like the person but we need to always respect who he represents.  Pastors are referred to as the angel of the church.  (Revelation 2:1, 2:8, 2:12, 2:18, 3:1, 3:7, & 3:14)  Even when King Saul was trying to kill him, David still respected Saul and would not harm him, even when he had to opportunity.  (1 Samuel 24:1-11)  The Bible says touch not My anointed, and do My prophets no harm.  (1 Chronicles 16:22 & Psalms 105:15)  You may not like all preachers, but be careful how you approach them, what you say to them, and what you say about them.  You do not want to harm them or harm their reputation.  Respect the man of God, and respect The God that he represents.