FLOW OF OBEDIENCE!
We need to be willing to walk God’s Way of Agape, even if our circumstances never change.
* “Though the fig tree should not blossom, and there be no fruit on the vines…Yet I will exult in the Lord, I will rejoice in the God of my salvation.”
Habakkuk 3:17-18
It is important that we understand the motive out of which our obedience
springs, because if the spring is not pure, everything that flows out of it
will be polluted.
The sad truth is that many Christians in these last days obey God only because they are afraid of going to hell.
* They fear their Father’s wrath and their obedience to Him is “legal” only.
*They have no genuine desire to please Him.
Hebrews 5: 8 Even though Jesus was God’s Son, he learned obedience from the things he suffered.
* If we persevere in this pain, daily and even hourly submitting ourselves to God obedience is born. Obedience is needed to live a clean and righteous life before God. No one will be perfect. But we must each run the race that is set before us without stopping.
Jesus did everything out of love and a desire to bring pleasure to His heavenly Father:
“Then Jesus said to them, When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and that I do nothing of Myself; but as My Father taught Me, I speak these things. And He who sent Me is with Me. The Father has not left Me alone, for I always do those things that please Him” (John 8:28-29).
*This was the rock, the foundation upon which Jesus built His life of obedience.
*It was the spring, the motive, out of which the flow of His obedience came. It is to be our rock, as well.
“For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me” (John 6:38).
Jesus shut Himself up in prayer on the mountaintops, in quiet places, often all
night long in fellowship with His Father. Jesus one great prayer was, “Father, what do You want? What will bring You pleasure? What can I do to fulfill the desire of Your heart?”
That is the attitude of a person who has the Spirit of Christ and that should be our attitude—that we might be one who builds on the rock.
* The foundational motive of all our obedience must be: “I do all things because I want to please my Lord; I want to bring Him great pleasure!”
“In the thirty-ninth year of his reign Asa was afflicted with a disease in his feet. Though his disease was severe, even in his illness he did not seek help from the LORD, but only from the physicians. Then in the forty-first year of his reign Asa died and rested with his fathers” (2 Chron 16:12-14).
What we learn from Asa is that whenever we place our trust and obedience in the Lord, God becomes our source for security and prosperity. However, when we move away from trusting God, that security is removed and we fail to receive those things God intended us to have.
We can’t give away what we don’t possess. We need to personally know the love of Christ in an experiential way before we try to share it with others. Let Him love you, and let His love flow through you to others. The world is hungry for love, real love.
Lord, Fill my cup of love to over-filling with Your Love– so I have some love to give to others. Amen