OBEDIENCE
Good intentions alone, are never good enough, but obedience to Gods Will leads all into His Love. If we are born again Christians, we are saved and shall enter into eternal life with God in heaven.
True.
So then, we don't really need to be obedient to His Will because we are already saved by His Grace and not by our works, right....(?) Well, it is true that we are saved by His Grace and not by our works, but this deals with only ourselves and our life that is to come. Even so, it is true. However, it is only right that we should want to do for other what He has done for us, to follow His example, just as He tells us to. We should desire to lead others to His kingdom, to take as many brothers and sisters with us into heaven as possible. We should also desire for His will to be done on earth as it is in heaven, right now, here on earth, in ou r lives. For by doing so, we become more Christ-like, more Holy, a true light for others to follow.Without the full submission and obedience of Jesus to Gods will, we never would have been able to become born again, saved, let alone obedient.
So it is fitting that we try with all our hearts, whilst we are in this world, to become more like Him, so that others may see His light within us and upon us
and so follow His ways. The only way we can become more like Him is to adhere to and obey His teachings.Thanksgiving and praise are both ways that we put
into action and display our worship to God. Thanksgiving, because of the most utterly kind and loving gifts that He gives us freely. Praise, because there has never been anybody more deserving and worthy of it. So back to that question....do we need to be obedient to His will? I would say, of course we do. I believe that by submitting ourselves to His ways and becoming obedient to His will is the only way we grow spiritually. It may not always be comfortable but
we shouldn't be afraid of being uncomfortable for a while, there's always some discomfort during growth of any kind, whether it be muscle growth whilst doing weights at the gym or pains in the legs of a growing child. All this as we all know is completely normal and we don't shy away from it. Why then should it be any different with spiritual growth? Indeed it is not.
Lets consider for a moment all that God has given
us . . .Err. . .Hmmm. . .Everything! Yes!
Everything! Wow! How can we comprehend that?
The Lord God our Creator has given us everything
we will ever need. First of all, He gave us life, free
will, freedom, love, understanding, wisdom, joy,
strength, grace, beauty. . .just to mention a few.
There is not enough paper and ink in the world to
record every gift that He has given us. He gave us
His only begotten Son, our Lord and Saviour,
Jesus Christ. He did all of this so that we may have
part in and share in eternity with Him. He didn't
give all this to us because we are filled with
brilliance, greatness and are deserving of such
gifts, but because He alone is filled with brilliance
and greatness, and in all His greatness, He chooses
to lavish upon us His glorious, holy gifts, His
design for life.
Thanksgiving then, is a most fitting response to
such an abundant, gracious, accommodating,
charitable, compassionate and loving gesture that
is His gift of life and all His promises that He has
given us. The only way to receive such an offering
as this is with thanks. It is acknowledgement and
appreciation, showing our gratefulness and
gratitude, for His gifts. It should be our first
response to His grace upon us. THANKS !! Give
thanks! Shouting aloud with joy from the depths of
our souls. Thank you Lord, thank you Lord, thank
you Lord!
Praise naturally and unstoppably (not that we
would ever want to stop it) follows thanksgiving.
Praising His Name, calling Him Holy, and above
all.
The most heartfelt, devout, wholehearted, sincere
and satisfying way to praise is to sing out aloud
our praises to Him in song. A real connection is
made by this action, a personal channel is formed
between ourselves and God. This makes me think
of one of my favourite scriptures;
Isaiah 12:5-6 Sing praises to the Lord, for He has
done excellent things (gloriously) let this be made
known to all the earth.
6 Cry aloud and shout joyfully, you women and
inhabitants of Zion, for great in your midst is the
Holy One of Israel.
Lets look at this closely.
Great in your midst. Great not sparingly. Great,
not meagrely. Great not thinly. In your midst, that
is, amongst, surrounded by, in the thick of,
enveloped by and at the very core of us, is the
Holy One of Israel. And His name is Jesus Christ
who is Lord. This is yet another reminder to us
that Jesus who is Lord is alive and living right
inside us. He is dwelling within us. He is our God
and we are His people.
Thank You Lord for Your Gospel Truth, the holy
words that You give to us so that we may have
faith and grow up into the people that You created
us to be. Glory be to Your true greatness! Amen!
When I first started to express my thankfulness to
the Lord in singing out my heart to Him in praise
and worship for Him, His blessings started to come
into my life sure, steady, and step by step. He
clearly began to show me what I needed to change,
and what I needed to work on. This is where
obedience comes in. He gives me the strength to
comply and bend to His ways, precepts and will.
Every time I obey and take a step closer to Him, I
receive peace and joy in my heart. This peace in
my heart is all the conformation I need to show me
I'm on course. The moment I lose my peace and
joy you can bet its because I put the wrong foot
forward and stepped out of His Love, running
ahead through lack of patience, and wanting it all
now, and not waiting for His timing on things. But
such is His love that even when we step out of it,
He makes a way for us to step right back into it.
An incident comes to mind. . . Some time ago,
before I got more of a grip with obedience and true
submission to God, something took place that
showed me very clearly God was trying to guide
me and get through to me on the situation I found
myself in. But before I explain how this took
place, I need to give you some background into my
life at that time. Because of my disobedience to
God there was much more confusion and a lot less
understanding available to me in every area of my
life.
Even though I was a Christian and I loved and
sought after God, I was relatively new to being
saved and I thought I could run my life how I
thought best and that would be fine. After all, I
wanted to do what was right - always. The thing is,
I now know that it is only God who knows how to
do what is right - always, and we have to listen to
Him on everything and in every area of our life,
but at that time, I didn't. There is Gods way and
there is our way. If we choose our way how can we
say we are obedient to His will? I couldn't, and I
wasn't, not fully.
Because of this, my relationship with my husband
Scott, was nothing like it is now. If we had
disagreements, because of our lack of consulting
God first, our problems escalated quickly and
became extremely heated, both of us sticking and
holding fast to how we felt, thinking really only of
ourselves and how 'I feel' and how 'you're hurting
me'. Nowadays, our disagreements never turn into
heated, out of control arguments because we
consult God first. Now, we get to the truth of the
situation and we are not plagued by anger,
frustration and hurt. Instead, such discussions are
quite exiting because we both realize that God is
showing and teaching us what is the right course
we need to follow, and we both know that this
leads us into a happier, more fulfilled life, bringing
us closer to each other and God.
But back then we had been struggling more and
more frequently with each other and huge
tempestuous rows would more often than not
ensue. There was this one day that got totally out
of control. Satan was having a field day with us
and I couldn't seem to get out of the state we were
in. Like most arguments, it was over something so
small, but it quickly became something huge.
It started in the car, we hadn't even got out of our
cul-de-sac, but by the time we got to where we
were going - the local shops in town, which is
about a 10 minute drive at the most, I had such an
immense pressure in my head, I thought it might
explode. Scott was shouting at me louder and
louder and all I could think was 'I'm so sick of this,
no more, no more, no more'. It was like every
argument that had gone before this one was 'tagged
on' to it. It seemed mountainous. All I wanted to
do was get away from him, so as he pulled up in
the car park, I got out of the car and I just ran. He
of course ran after me and in the middle of our
local town we were screaming at each other. Scott
was grabbing hold of me trying to get me under
control. - That wasn't going to happen, not yet
anyway. I managed to free myself from him and
jumped on a bus. I was hysterical. Crying
uncontrollably all the way to my best friends
house! When I arrived I ran into the arms of my
best friend - Rachel, bless her, who was in shock at
what she found before her. I had come to the
conclusion that Scott and I were over. I didn't want
him anywhere near me, no matter what! I had
never felt that way before.
Scott called Rachel to see if I was there (as I
wouldn't answer my phone), she told him what I
asked her to, that I had been there but had left.
What else could she do? Her best friend was stood
in front of her an emotional, hysterical wreck.
Not long after Scott's phone call to Rachel, she
noticed him pulling up outside her house. 'He's
here' she said. I was out of the back door in a flash
but I couldn't go anywhere so I hid myself right at
the top of the back of the garden, crouched on my
knees (quite fittingly), between brambles, dirt,
thorns and concrete!
Rachel let him in and maintained the story that I
had been round earlier, but had soon left. (How I
feel for her when I think of how she must have
felt). He asked to use her phone because he didn't
have one, but Rachel didn't have a land line and
her mobile was out of credit. He had used all his
change on his phone call to Rachel earlier. By this
time he was hysterical too, and crying
uncontrollably, believing that he had lost me for
good. Rachel wanted to tell him I was close by but
what could she do? She had never seen us like this
before. She searched around her house in the hope
that her husband Jay, had left his phone behind,
not something he would usually do, but looking for
a phone that may not be there must have been
more appealing than looking at her other best
friend and telling him she didn't know where I
was.
Before I go on, I need to tell you about some
attributes that I added to my phone some time
before this day. One day I was fiddling with my
phone and assigning different pictures to some of
the names in my address book, so that when the
chosen named person rang me, a picture would
pop up on my screen. I was completely random
with the pictures I chose and the people I assigned
them to. I thought no more of it.
Back at Rachel's, it just so happened that Jay had
52
left one of his phones behind, (he'd not long got a
new phone and another number) so Rachel handed
it over to Scott.
Meanwhile, at the back of the garden, I was still
adamant that I didn't want to see him ever again,
and then my phone rang, and when I looked at the
screen, my heart nearly jumped out of my chest,
(quite literally) I was immediately moved by the
Holy Spirit within me. The feelings I felt towards
Scott just moments before were gone and they
were replaced by my real feelings for him - love.
My heart broke and I couldn't believe the spot I
found myself in, crumpled behind hedges and
brambles on my knees.
I had never seen that picture pop up on my screen
before because Jay and I rarely speak on the phone
and he had also got a new phone and number so he
wasn't even using that one anymore.
So what was the picture? It was a photo of a
picture I drew that is on my living room wall. The
picture is this: - Scott and I are face to face, (both
side profile) and our Lord Jesus is behind us, (face
forward) with his hands touching the temple area
of our heads. I did this drawing in 2004 and it is
only now, (2010) as I've written about it, do I
realise what it truly represents. And it is this, it
represents our unity to each other and our unity
together with God. With His hands upon us we are
joined together by and through Him. It also shows
His anointing upon us by the laying on of His
hands, ever so fittingly, upon our temples.
For that picture to be assigned to that phone
number was most definitely orchestrated by God. I
only ever saw it come up on that one occasion
because at that time Jay had changed phones and
got a new number, so consequently he stopped
using that phone to which the picture was
assigned.
I love the simple and gentle way in which the Lord
gave me a 'nudge', a reminder, a reality check, and
yet how powerful that simple and gentle 'nudge'
really was. Something as simple as a picture on a
phone, brought with it the awesome power of the
Holy Spirit, and it moved me massively, in truth,
it's a good job I was already on my knees for if I
was on my feet, I'm sure I would have fallen to the
ground. Not only did He provide for me a way
back into His love, but He also showed me the
importance of keeping Him first and final authority
over every issue and area of my life. Much
heartache can be avoided if we are prepared to
listen and obey what God tells us. Thankfully,
even when we don't listen and obey, and it all does
go wrong, He gracefully and lovingly leads us
back to where we need to be, as well as teaching us
and laying before us an invaluable lesson.
Lets take a closer look at the word obedience in the
dictionary -
The quality or condition of being obedient.
A sphere of ecclesiastical authority.
Compliance, yielding, submission, respect,
conformity, reverence, deference, observance,
subservience, submissiveness, docility,
complaisance, tractability, dutifulness,
conformability, unquestioning obedience to Gods
Will.
Every one of these words leans to God's way, and
leans away from our own way. Every one of them
take us away from selfishness and into selfless-
ness. They all concentrate and focus on that which
is greater than ourselves. And that thing is the
omnipotent, omniscient, almighty supreme and
sovereign power of the Lord Jesus Christ who is
God and Lord of all.
Deuteronomy 4:1 AMP
NOW LISTEN and give heed, O Israel, to the
statutes and ordinances which I teach you, and do
them, that you may live and go in and possess the
land which the Lord, the God of your fathers, gives
you.
So here we have another promise from our Lord.
An instruction to learn and understand His ways,
His statutes and precepts. We can do this by
'getting into' His word. By diligently seeking His
ways through study of the Bible, the Gospel of
Jesus. However, study on it's own is not enough.
We must put into action and practice the things
that we find and learn. Only by knowing Gods
ways and practising them can we enter into the
promises that He has made for us in this life, here
on earth, from the beginning.
Deuteronomy 28: 9AMP
The Lord will establish you as a people holy to
Himself, as He has sworn to you, if you keep the
commandments of the Lord your God and walk in
His ways.
Again, a reminder of our Lords promise to His
people. To become Holy unto God is to become set
apart from the ways of the world, to become
consecrated. By the time we get to heaven
everyone of us will become consecrated, that is,
live Holy in every way, seeking grace with every
step, never letting God slip from our thoughts. By
keeping Him first in our thoughts, in front of our
eyes, every move we make will surely be Holy.
Every step will be in line with His Will for us. So
keep the commands of our Lord and take every
step in Love. Wrap every thought, deed and action
in His love, being brought up Holy, and belonging
to Him. In this way, the light you shine will show
all and testify that He is in you and will be as a
lamp to guide the way for all.
I know that this may seem impossible and certainly
we are bound to fall short sometimes, but as long
as we aim high we will keep climbing and when
we do fall, we should pick ourselves up quickly
remembering that we can't follow in His ways
whilst we are in condemnation and feeling sorry
for ourselves. When we do fall, the best thing we
can do is to admit our mistake to God and ask for
His forgiveness and His help to get straight back
up and continue where we left off. Remembering
that God already knows exactly when and how we
will fall and He still loves us. Nothing we will ever
do can surprise Him, He is after all - God
almighty! So never wallow in self-pity and always
quickly get straight back up and back to work
where you left off.
Romans 5:5-6 AMP
5It is through Him that we have received grace
(God's unmerited favour) and [our] apostleship to
promote obedience to the faith and make disciples
for His name's sake among all the nations,
6And this includes you, called of Jesus Christ
and invited [as you are] to belong to Him.
So not only have we been given grace, but also
apostleship. To be given apostleship means to be
given a post. A position. A role. The position of an
apostle is to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ our
Lord and Saviour. We are given everything we
need in order to fulfil this position to the full, for it
is the Holy Spirit that does the work in and through
us, and not ourselves; all we have to do is listen,
follow and obey. We literally become the 'carrier'
of the Holy Spirit, the vessel if you will, that
spreads over the earth into the hearts of the elect,
bringing them out of bondage and into everlasting
life.
Grace, as we all know, comes from God above. It
is tender, loving and delicate, yet oh so strong, it
carries with it elegance, poise, and is filled with all
manner of loveliness. It is holy and straight, direct
yet gentle, honest and true.
We must strive to be filled with grace just as our
Lord is filled with it. Grace has the beauty and
ability to deliver even the most hurtful and painful
of truths with love and caring, desiring only to
build up the receiver in faith and truth, enabling
spiritual growth and never to judge and condemn.
(John 3:17 )
A truth by itself can knock you to the ground
leaving you helpless and not knowing which way
to turn, but when it is partnered with grace that
same truth may still knock you to the ground but it
also holds out a loving, helping hand, leading and
supporting you along the way. When God convicts
us of our sin, He does so with an abundance of
grace. By giving His son who gave His life on the
cross for us so that we may be saved and free from
sin for all eternity. This gift of salvation couldn't
be more gracious, it is the reason why we don't
need to feel condemned when we are convicted.
Such amazing grace ought to be received
gracefully with thanks and as we take it in, we
need to grow in it and build ourselves up in it,
praying to be abundantly filled with it so that we
may overflow in it and pass it on to others,
lovingly and joyfully just as He has passed it on to
us.
As we become filled with His grace, we ready
ourselves for our apostleship, that is our position,
our place, our path that God has carved out for us
to follow and fulfil in our lifetime, our destiny if
you will.
Every Christian that decides to seriously follow
Christ, and strives to become totally obedient and
submissive to Him becomes an apostle, and every
apostle is led by Jesus through the Holy Spirit and
unto God, 'making disciples of nations’. This then,
is our apostleship; that we seek, listen, obey and
actually do the will of God by diligently following
the prompts of the Holy Spirit in Christ Jesus our
Lord every day until we are reunited by His return,
and full completion is attained by His holy work
through the body of Christ, that is, ALL Christian
brethren within the church of God.
Romans 5:19 AMP
For just as by one man's disobedience (failing to
hear, heedlessness, and carelessness) the many
were constituted sinners, so by one Man's
obedience the many will be constituted righteous
(made acceptable to God, brought into right
standing with Him).
By one mans disobedience - this refers to Adam.
Right back at the beginning when Adam fell from
grace, he lost his connection to God, and all that
came through and therefore after him were the
same as him. Generation after generation man was
born into sin, but when Jesus was born, because
He was conceived of by the Holy Spirit, God
'simply' made it be that Mary was pregnant, this
broke the line from Adam and the line went
straight to God Himself. After all, He made
everything in the whole universe! It's not at all
surprising or unlikely that just by His Will, Mary
became pregnant, it is however, very lovely and
amazing. So then, Jesus was the first born Son of
God. He had no sin from the beginning, therefore
He had full connection to the Father, and He also
had the love, grace and obedience to do exactly as
the Father commanded so that by His actions and
presence here on earth, man would be saved. By
accepting, believing in, and loving the Son, man is
brought back into line with God, consecrated and
made Holy, belonging to Him and earning
Sonship, this is the title of the sons and daughters
of God.
2 John 1:6 AMP
And what this love consists in is this: that we live
and walk in accordance with and guided by His
commandments (His orders, ordinances, precepts,
teaching). This is the commandment, as you have
heard from the beginning, that you continue to
walk in love [guided by it and following it].
So the most important thing we must do then is to
walk in Love. Because it is of utmost importance
we must make sure that we are really doing it
right. It is easy to say I walk in love, I love God
with all my heart, soul and mind, I love my
neighbour as myself, I put love before everything I
do.....But what does it really mean? How is this
love manifest in our lives? Our walk in love needs
to be more than just a declaration of how we feel.
We must and will show that we are walking in love
by our every action and deed. It all starts with a
thought.....
We need to first understand what love really is.
Well, that one is simple. Love is God and God is
Love. But lets look a little deeper.
Love is patient so as to be understanding of other
people's short-comings.
Love is gracious so as to be giving without want of
something in return.
Love is merciful so as to be endlessly forgiving.
Love is kind so as to be a joyous and happy giver.
Love is compassionate so as to truly feel for all.
Love is steadfast so as to be always unfailing.
Love is slow to anger so as to give time for others
to learn.
Love is ready and willing to forgive without
holding any bitterness or resentment so as to be Holy.
Also love is never without Honour. In Honour
there is worship and allegiance. So if we love God,
we must also honour Him. We must have
allegiance to, and worship Him only. By
honouring Him we trust in what He tells us and we
act upon his commandments. To be obedient to
His will is an act of our worship and evidence of
our allegiance to Him.
So then, we see that Love has great weight and
substance. It is far more than just a feeling. It is a
way of life that will bring us closer to the
resemblance of our Lord right up to full fruition.
We all need to actually make the decision every
day that we are going to walk in love, obedient to
the will of our Lord. We cannot wait until we feel
like walking in love, because this way we are sure
to fail. There would inevitably come a point when
we simply wouldn't feel like it. We must meditate,
think over and over and purposefully decide to
walk in love, to put love first in everything we do,
remembering that God is love, and that love is the
greatest and most important commandment from
our Lord Jesus Christ.
