
28 May Obedience
I have been in a season of practicing, hearing God voice. A few years back I discovered that I could hear him myself and it changed everything! I didn’t have to go visit a prophet for encouragement, communion or direction in my life, when God is right in front of me. Just takes time and does not happen overnight but it’s worth the wait and mistakes that sometimes happen along the way.
With my children, it would be very difficult to communicate with them if they chose to only listen to me through somebody else rather than take the time to understand what it is I am saying to them directly. (just ponder that for a while)
The Bible says in John 10 that we as his children, hear his voice. I could go on and on about this subject but today I want to touch on OBEDIENCE.
I used to view obedience as something I ‘HAD to do’… And if I did not do, then there would be a consequence… Almost like a control thing. A fear kind of relationship. It was as if I was seeing obedience through children’s eyes versus the eyes of a parent. But I am now beginning to see a whole new perspective to obedience that I had never seen before.
Obedience- compliance with an order, request, or law or submission to another’s authority.
As a parent, when I Give direction to my children, it is for their own good. When I tell them to put on their seatbelt or not to jump on the bed it is not because I’m trying to be bossy and see if they will listen to me. It is because I love them and I want to protect them. Very often orders that I give them is for their protection and when they make the choice to disobey, they are no longer under that protection. Other times commands that I give them are for learning. How would they know what I expect if I didn’t tell them what to do?
We as humans have been given a choice to listen and obey God or not. We can choose His path for us by being obedient to the direction he leads us in or we can choose our own way (which normally ends in us asking for His direction anyway).
Another thing that I’ve been learning about obedience is how ‘in tune’ I have to be. Learning to discern whose voice I am hearing… When given direction on how to get to someone’s house and I do all of it correctly, I then reach the destination that I was looking for but if I make the wrong turn (even if it is just once out of 99 directions) then it doesn’t matter how many RIGHT turns I have taken, I am NOT going to get to the place I am looking to be at, in the time that I was looking to get there.
In the book of Judges, I was reading about Gideon and how God gave him clear direction in saving Israel. Yes, there were times that Gideon wondered if he was hearing directly from God or not. Gideon also was fearful throughout most the process, as his trust in God was not 100 percent complete but God still worked through that as well. And in the end, Gideon and his army received the victory! (I could give a whole sermon on this paragraph as well, lol)
Something else that he’s been showing me as well is how important it is to go to God FIRST and allow him to direct you where it is that you are supposed to go NEXT. Many times he will direct you to another person or process or answer and it is important to get clear direction as to what steps you need to take next. When we go to someone else like a friend or counselor, they may mean well but sometimes not know all of the details ( take for example Job and the wisdom of his friends as they believed that he was going through everything he went through because he sinned, lol) but if God sends you to an individual or leads you thru process himself, then direction can be clear and specific. (this can cut your desert time and half, lol)
When you go to God himself and he gives you a word about something, then it doesn’t matter anybody else says (including doctors), because nothing else matters! But when you choose to go to others, only to hear God’s voice and it does not come to pass then it can be a huge disappointment!
If Aiden (my son) were to go to Faith (my daughter) and tell her that ‘we are going to the grocery store to get a cookie today’, and Faith never comes to ask me and confirm the truth, then all day she waits for us to go to the grocery store and get a cookie but then time goes by she begins to get discouraged. She then starts asking a lot of “why” questions… By the end of the day she is angry and frustrated with ME for not going to the store when she never even came to me in the first place…. Does any of that sound familiar?
And in saving the best for last… Thru Obedience comes power, favor and blessing. Power comes from doing what God asks you to do when he asks you to do it (down to every small detail) I have seen this to be true in many different ways. There will be some times that you don’t agree or understand but the key is doing it anyways!
When I tell my children to do something and they do it without arguing with me, oh what blessing awaits them! The other side to this is the child who constantly fights and argues with you about every little thing you say and constantly tells you why they disagree (which for a parent can get very frustrating)
Praying today, that God has and will, continue to open your eyes to a new way of seeing obedience. That you would hear and recognize his voice and experience great intimacy, Joy and direction thru your circumstances today. And that through obedience, you would see the Father’s love for you in a way that you have never seen it before!
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