Following this divine prompting, Phillip met up with the Ethiopian eunuch traveling home on this desert road and gave him the Good News of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. God orchestrates divine appointments all the time for us…all we need to do is be obedient. But so many times we hesitate out of fear and doubt…or because our pride says, “I’m far too important to go down some barren desert road for the Lord…I want to go places where I can be seen and honored!” God said, “Go!” and Phillip didn’t question but rather obeyed…and a life was changed for eternity.
Tag: obedience to god
II Chronicles 31: 20-21 ” This is what Hezekiah did throughout Judah, doing what was good and right and faithful before the Lord his God. In everything that he undertook in the service of God’s Temple and in obedience to the Law and the commands, he sought his God and worked wholeheartedly. And so he prospered.”
King Hezekiah sought God’s ultimate plan and purpose in his life. He did what was right in the sight of the Lord and followed His Word carefully. It says that he sought the Lord wholeheartedly in all he did…and in doing so, he blessed many and in turn was greatly blessed by God.
Isaiah 1:11 ” The multitude of your sacrifices – what are they to Me? Says the Lord. I have more than enough of burnt offerings, of rams and the fat of fattened animals; I have no pleasure in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats.”
God looks carefully at what we offer Him. But He looks even more closely at what we don’t offer Him. Are you withholding some area of your life for fear He’ll tell you to stop it? Are you denying Him a corner of your world because you enjoy it way too much? What we offer up to the Lord is much more important to us than to Him…for what He’s looking for is a total surrender…a relinquishing of ourselves…and a giving up of control. As I Samuel 15:22 states, “To obey is better than sacrifice.” God’s looking for our obedience not some ritual.
II Corinthians 10:5 ” We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”
When we’re going through a time of spiritual confusion…there are only two ways we can go. We can argue or chose to obey. We can spend our time trying to reason and debate our way out of the disconcertment in our life…or we can yield and submit ourselves to the authority and supremacy of God. You can’t think your way out of spiritual confusion…the only thing you can do is to obey what God places in front of you…step by step, day by day. For Christ demands unquestioning obedience from us, even when the way is shadowed.
John 3:30 ” He must become greater; I must become less.”
Can you echo these same words that John the Baptist declared about Jesus and himself? What then is it that hinders us from making such a sweeping statement? In a single word – pride. Our selfish agenda pushes us to plunge ahead without God’s direction first. Our willful pride orchestrates our own plans, devoid of the Lord’s guidance. We want to remain on the throne of our life, rather than yielding to God. So what are we so afraid of? Are we fearful that as God increases in our life, our own personal identity will diminish to the point we’ll disappear? In a single word -Yes! But isn’t that what becoming a Christ Follower is all about? Our goal is to become less, as God becomes more. So how can we do this? It takes a conscious act of our Will and a yielding of our pride to allow the Lord to increase within us. And it also takes these words…”Yes, Lord. I ask for more of You and less of me.”
House Rules – If it rings…Answer it.
The next House Rule deals with listening and then obeying. The Scripture comes from Revelation 3:20, “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him and he with Me.” If you examine the famous painting depicting this verse, you’ll see that there’s no doorknob on the outside. Jesus stands knocking, but can’t open the door Himself…we have to. All throughout our Spiritual journey with the Lord, He’ll knock at certain doors…doors of opportunity…doors of ministry…doors that are so foreign, scary, and frankly, so far-fetched, that we can’t put our heads around what He’s calling us to do. It’s at that point that we must make the decision to obey…to open that door and allow Him and His plan for us to come in.
Luke 2: 51-52 ” Then He went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them. But His mother treasured all these things in her heart. And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.”
Even at twelve years old, Jesus had the plan and purpose for His life laid out in front of Him. But He was also the young son of His parents, Mary and Joseph, and He honored them by His submission and obedience. Many times in our own life we’ll encounter situations that we just don’t understand, but we know they’re of the Lord. That’s when we submit anyway…we obey anyway…we honor anyway.
We’ve got to live: Submissive in His authority.
Jesus Christ has all authority both on earth and in heaven. (Matthew 28:18)…so why is it so hard to yield our will to His? In our head we know He has supreme rule…but our rebellious nature would rather do things our way than submit…our pride and arrogance would rather rule than surrender. We need to remember that submission to God’s authority is the beginning of freedom not slavery.
Exodus 4: 11-12 ” The Lord said to him, ‘Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or mute? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.’ “
Moses had many excuses of why he wasn’t the person to go to the Pharaoh and demand release of the Hebrew children. But the Lord countered with an airtight defense of why Moses was just the right man for the job. We want to argue with God, but speaking from very personal experience…you’ll never win. We can object all we want, but God desires obedience exclusively. For if He calls you to something, He can and will give you whatever skill is needed to accomplish that task. With God, arguing will get you nowhere…obedience on the other hand, will move His Kingdom forward.
Colossians 3:20 ” Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord.”
Let’s look at this verse from the perspective of different generations. Read this verse to a young child and they’ll readily agree that they need to obey Mommy and Daddy…but the dance starts in the application of this into everyday living. As children grow, so does their autonomy. We draw a line in the sand and they push their big toe across it…just to see what happens! Let a teenager read this verse and you’ll probably get eye-rolling and an argument of every point…like, what exactly is the definition of obedience? And does everything mean “everything”? Finally, we read this as a parent or Grandparent, having gained a wealth of experience, wisdom, and insight… and we say, “Yes, Amen!” to this verse. For all those past experiences and circumstances have drilled into us the importance of obedience… not only to our parents, but to God.
Safetypinlove 