If you want God to do a new work in your life, renew your mind, restore your passion and revive your soul - if you want all the blessings of God in your life, you must also ...
#2. Obey Him completely!
Not just immediately but completely. You don’t say, “I’ll obey this command and not that one... I like this command but I don’t like that one... I’m going to follow this one but I’m not going to follow that one.” You need to not be partially obedient, but totally obedient. Psalm 119:4 says, “Lord, You gave Your orders to be obeyed completely.” In order to do this, to obey God completely, you need to understand two very important truths.
1. God’s standard of right and wrong has never changed. It never has. It never will. If something was wrong 6000 years ago it’s still wrong today. If it was right 10,000 years ago, it’s still right today. Lying was wrong in the Ten Commandments. It’s still wrong today. Truth doesn’t change. Culture changes, popular opinion changes. Lots of things change but truth does not change. It is eternal forever. And what’s right is right and what’s wrong is wrong. Regardless of what the popular opinion polls say.
2. God has a bigger perspective than you. He sees things you can’t see. You trying to see from God's perspective would be like an ant trying to see from your perspective. It isn’t going to happen. You’re not capable of seeing it all like God sees it all. You need to trust Him. James 4:11 says “Your job is not to decide whether God's law is right or wrong, but to obey it.”
In 2 Kings, there is a story about a guy named Naaman. Naaman had leprosy. He went to Elisha and said, “I’m a very famous man but I’ve got leprosy. What do I do?” and Elisha said, “I’ll tell you what. Just to show your faith, God wants you to go down to the Jordan River and dunk yourself under it seven times.” Naaman says, “You’ve got to be kidding. It’s humiliating.” Elijah says, “Yes, it’s humbling yourself before God.” On the last time he comes up and he was cured of his leprosy. Was there special power in the water? Absolutely not. It was because he was obedient to God. He had faith. And he obeyed God completely.
Several years ago, a pastor friend of mine got this fax from one of his members. “Dear Pastor, in 1995 I opened up a video store as a side business. I decided to carry adult videos since they make up 35% of all rental revenues. But a couple years ago I began attending church. One day I told my wife, “How can I ask God to help our store if I don’t do what He wants. I’ve got to get rid of those adult videos.” My business partner said, “Are you crazy? We depend on that income.” But I knew we couldn’t expect God's blessing unless I obeyed Him so we got rid of them – all of them. The first weekend without the adult videos, something strange happened. I was flooded with new customers. And I didn’t now why. Then people told me that you told everybody to come in and rent a video just to support our decision. Boy, did they come. I had to call all of our employees in just to handle the crowds. I eventually closed that store but I haven’t forgotten that lesson about obeying God even when it doesn’t make sense. My life changed and I committed to doing whatever God wants.
Obey God immediately and completely. When we obey God's word like that, God knows we mean business. He sees we're serious about serving Him and following Him and His Spirit begins a new work in our heart. Will you decide today to obey God like this?
I pray so.
I love you guys. Stay faithful. Stay the course. ENDURE.
"But Samuel replied: 'Does the LORD delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the LORD? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams.'" 1 Samuel 15:22 (NIV)
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