Saturday, February 1, 2014

Obedience

Radical obedience always precedes the miraculous. 

When He had stopped speaking, He said to Simon, “Launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.”  But Simon answered and said to Him, “Master, we have toiled all night and caught nothing; nevertheless at Your word I will let down the net.” And when they had done this, they caught a great number of fish, and their net was breaking. Luke 5:4-6

How many times have we heard the Lord and balked at His request?  Simon did but he still obeyed.   Look what happened.  They caught so much fish there nets were breaking.  Radical obedience always precedes the miraculous! 

 That is the key……. Hear and obey or is it trust and obey?  Here is the deal.  We all hear the Lord, but it is a matter of doing what He says.  Think back for a moment how many times we have chosen not to obey and everything messes up.  Think back for a moment how many times you have obeyed and powerful things happen in your life.

What is the Lord calling you to do today?  Have you done it?

HAVE YOU DONE IT?

Below is one of my favorite readings from Oswald Chambers on obedience.

We do not grow into a spiritual relationship step by step— we either have a relationship or we do not. God does not continue to cleanse us more and more from sin— “But if we walk in the light,” we are cleansed “from all sin” (1 John 1:7). It is a matter of obedience, and once we obey, the relationship is instantly perfected. But if we turn away from obedience for even one second, darkness and death are immediately at work again. 

 All of God’s revealed truths are sealed until they are opened to us through obedience. You will never open them through philosophy or thinking. But once you obey, a flash of light comes immediately. Let God’s truth work into you by immersing yourself in it, not by worrying into it. The only way you can get to know the truth of God is to stop trying to find out and by being born again. If you obey God in the first thing He shows you, then He instantly opens up the next truth to you. You could read volumes on the work of the Holy Spirit, when five minutes of total, uncompromising obedience would make things as clear as sunlight. Don’t say, “I suppose I will understand these things someday!” You can understand them now. And it is not study that brings understanding to you, but obedience. Even the smallest bit of obedience opens heaven, and the deepest truths of God immediately become yours. Yet God will never reveal more truth about Himself to you, until you have obeyed what you know already. Beware of becoming one of the “wise and prudent.” “If anyone wills to do His will, he shall know . . .” (John 7:17).