Great Big Life: Don’t underestimate obedience

Don’t underestimate obedience

We teach a lot about the workings of faith and also about the principles of faith and patience in the life of the believer but we don’t teach so much on the working together of faith and obedience in a person’s life. It’s this thought that I want us to take time to look at.

We know that faith, defined simply, is the placing of your trust in God and His promises beyond what you see and know that may be contrary. Yet many Christians I have met trust God’s promises and have strong faith in God yet do not see the promises come to pass in their lives that they believe they should we need to ask why. I believe that a possible reason is that they see the promise but often overlook the thing that God asks them to do to release the promise.

Whenever you read about God giving a promise to someone in the Bible, or an account of God doing something miraculous for someone, it usually follows God telling them to do something. Maybe you have never seen this before. I challenge you to go back to the Bible and look again.

In nearly every instance God steps into someone’s world and says, “You can have this if you do this”. When the person did what God asked them in the way He told them, the promise became theirs. This is simple yet important for us to grasp.

The issue for many people who are not seeing what they know God has promised is not God’s unfaithfulness to His promise, but rather their failing to do what He said for them to release it. So maybe the issue is one of disobedience on our part not unfaithfulness on His.

God loves obedience

God loves obedience. Let’s face it, doesn’t any parent?! We can all sometimes get a little confused or deceived that God likes or appreciates our sacrifices and offerings more than He likes good old-fashioned obedience. Yes, of course, God loves sacrifice but never as an alternative to what He prefers: obedience.

I like my kids to give me nice offerings of hugs and kisses but I would rather they did what I told them to do. Jesus said: “If you love me you will do what I have commanded (asked of you).” John 14:15

To obey is better than sacrifice

There is a great example of what we are looking at in 1 Samuel 15. The background of this account is that Saul is still on the throne. Through the prophet Samuel, God tells Saul to go and attack Amalek and utterly destroy him and all his people and herds because of what they had done to the Israelites as they were leaving Egypt. God was very specific. In verse 3 He plainly instructs that Saul is to kill every man, woman, infant and every living beast. Nothing was to be spared.

So Saul went with his army to Amalek with a heart to obey God but on the way decided to change the rules a little bit to do what seemed wise to him. Firstly, he let some of the enemy go because he thought they weren’t that bad before he attacked those he thought deserved it. Then he and his men killed everyone else, except the king. Saul probably reasoned that he would be a good bargaining chip for God. Finally he decided to keep the best of the cattle to sacrifice to God at a later date rather than wastefully killing them. As you read through the account, it initially looks like he has been quite wise and made some good executive decisions. But the bottom line was that all he had done was disobey God!

It’s amazing how man can justify certain things and dress them up, yet they remain plain disobedience in the eyes of the Lord. If it is not done as asked, then it remains NOT DONE.

In verse 11 we see God speak to Samuel of His regret at having given Saul his position as king, and see Him instruct Samuel to go and sort him out. So Samuel the prophet goes down to see Saul and asks him how he had got on doing what God had asked him to do. Saul answers, “Yep, did everything God asked me to do.”

Samuel responds with almost a touch of sarcasm in his voice: “If you had done what God asked, why do I hear the bleating of sheep?” Saul then went on to try and justify what he had done. We pick up the story in verse 21.

“But the people took of the plunder, sheep and oxen, the best of the things which should have been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice to the LORD your God in Gilgal. So Samuel said: “Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, And to heed than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, He also has rejected you from being king.” 1 Samuel 15:21-23

It was shortly after this that Saul lost both his kingdom and his position and David came into kingship. If Saul had simply obeyed God’s instructions, things would have been different. We see from the end of that verse that it was his disobedience, or rejection of God’s ways, that cost him his God-given throne. We then see the prophet take a sword and finish what God had originally asked Saul to do. God will always find someone who will do it as He asked. These are the ones we normally get jealous of. Often they are the subject of complaints like, “Why does God give them everything?” Answer? Probably because they simply do what He tells them to.

This account shows us four things:

God loves obedience and always attaches a promise to the other side of it.
God values our obedience more than our sacrifices.
God views everything else as rebellion – pretty black and white but true.
Rebellion separates a person from what God intended for them.

Was this not also the case with Adam and Eve? In the beginning of time, God created a paradise for them to reign over and gave them incredible liberty. There was only one restriction – ‘the tree’. Genesis records that instead of revelling in what they could do, they did what they were told not to. They disobeyed God and it was this disobedience that separated them from the God-designed plan for them. So the actual issue in the garden of Eden was simply one of disobedience! In the same way, disobedience will always separate us from the life God has designed for each of us.

Just maybe

Maybe we are not experiencing certain miracles or promises because we’re not going after them the way God is telling us to. You can go through the whole Bible and see this principle in operation time and time again.

Noah was given a clear promise of salvation for himself and whoever else wanted it but it was according to a very specific set of directions. These included building a boat to a set of precise blueprints, people management and specific timings and instructions; he could not simply do ‘his own thing’.

Moses received the promise of a freed Israel but had to follow God’s clear directions concerning how to approach Pharaoh, how to separate an ocean and how to feed a nation.

God said that Naaman would be healed of leprosy if he dipped in the Jordan seven times. Naaman would not obey because of his pride. When he came to his senses and obeyed God the promise of healing became his instantly.

To a widow, desperate for provision – the prophet first asked her to give him the only food she had left – the cake she and her child were going to eat before they died. Another widow, as the prophet directed, borrowed dozens of pots from neighbours before using her remaining, apparently impossibly-small pot of oil to fill them all.

God gave them all a certain promise but also the directions on how to release it. It was actually the obedience to the bizarre requests that was their faith in action.

It would be nice to think that things changed and got easier in New Testament times. Well, they didn’t. God continued to use these principles when dealing with people’s needs as indeed He does today. Read for yourself:

The first ever miracle when Jesus turned the water into wine followed a very detailed directive on what to do.
The ten lepers were not instantly healed. Jesus told them to go show themselves to the high priest and as they went, they were healed. If they had simply gone home, they would have stayed sick!
Was the blind man, in whose eyes Jesus put the mud and spittle, healed instantly? No, he had to first go and wash himself in the river. As he obeyed and went, the promise became his.
To the fisherman before their great catch – Jesus directed them to push out from the shore again and to lower their nets. What if they had not obeyed? They would not have had the great haul of fish.

We could go on and on with this but I believe that by now you can see the principle in action. When God promises you something He normally gives you clear direction on how to make it happen. It is this that is normally challenging and takes faith to do.

One area everyone can relate to would be the subject of His promises concerning financial blessing. It is easy to wave promises around like ‘I will be the lender not the borrower’ but what about the instruction in Malachi to tithe? Surely it is obedience to that very clear direction that truly releases the promise?

Or the classic promise every good Pentecostal uses from Proverbs 3:10 ‘so my barns will be filled and my vats overflowing’. Go back a verse and you will see that the promise actually follows the specific instruction to honour God with your possessions and first fruit of your increase.

What if …?

What if Naaman had kept on being stubborn and refused to go to the Jordan? The sad reality is that he would have died of leprosy. Would that have been God’s fault? Or what if the widow who was threatened with having her two sons sold into slavery had got annoyed with the prophet and told him to clear off? What if she had not taken time to bother her neighbours for their empty vessels and play the prophet’s silly mind games? She would have lost her sons and stayed broke. Would that have been God’s fault?

What if the fishermen had said to Jesus: “We have been out all day and caught nothing. You’re a carpenter, what do you know? We’re not going out any more, we don’t care what you ask us to do”? Then they would have remained fishless fishermen. Would that have been God’s fault?

Just maybe for someone reading this – you have been waiting for a promise for years and the release of the promise is actually connected with you doing something that you know God has told you to do.

For one this may mean forgiving someone, for another it may mean a commitment to the principles of tithing, to another it may mean humbling yourself. Who knows? You do! Every man knows what God is repeatedly saying to Him if he truly searches his heart. It’s then having the courage to do it.

It could well be time to revamp the way we pray in this area of our life; to stop continually begging God for things you know He promised you and begin to ask Him what He wants you to do to release it into your lives. Then have the faith and courage to do what He tells you – to obey is better than sacrifice.

Hope this helps. Love ya.

Don’t underestimate obedience

God loves obedience

To obey is better than sacrifice

Just maybe

What if …?

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