You are currently browsing the tag archive for the ‘obedience’ tag.
"its hard to fight for something you’re not passionate about." Kim walker-smith (Jesus Culture)
get a revelation of God’s love for you and get passionate about Him and living for Him and then fight against all the crud trying to distract and diswade you from following Him…
what keeps us on the narrow road and obeying jesus? knowing His love and grace and loving Him in return.
what keeps us choosing to follow Him every day? knowing His love and grace and loving Him in return.
what keeps us pursuing holiness instead of satisfying the desires of our flesh? knowing His love and grace and loving Him in return.
what keeps us pure? knowing His love and grace and loving Him in return.
what keeps us wanting to know Him more? knowing His love and grace and loving Him in return.
what keeps us pushing and transforming? knowing His love and grace and loving Him in return.
Jesus says “if you love me you’ll obey me” john 14:23
what keeps us fighting and choosing Him and His ways above the world and ourselves is that passion fueled by the revelation that He loves us and saves us and gave His life for us, dying on the cross to pay the penalty for our sin.
make knowing God your priority.
make it your passion.
be so in love with Him that nothing can shake you.
Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples. He went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem. As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?"
"Who are you, Lord?" Saul asked.
"I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting," he replied. "Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do."
The men travelling with Saul stood there speechless; they heard the sound but did not see anyone. Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes he could see nothing. So they led him by the hand into Damascus. For three days he was blind, and did not eat or drink anything.
In Damascus there was a disciple named Ananias. The Lord called to him in a vision, "Ananias!"
"Yes, Lord," he answered.
The Lord told him, "Go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying. In a vision he has seen a man named Ananias come and place his hands on him to restore his sight."
"Lord," Ananias answered, "I have heard many reports about this man and all the harm he has done to your saints in Jerusalem. And he has come here with authority from the chief priests to arrest all who call on your name."
But the Lord said to Ananias, "Go! This man is my chosen instrument to carry my name before the Gentiles and their kings and before the people of Israel. I will show him how much he must suffer for my name."
Then Ananias went to the house and entered it. Placing his hands on Saul, he said, "Brother Saul, the Lord-Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here-has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit." Immediately, something like scales fell from Saul’s eyes, and he could see again. He got up and was baptised, and after taking some food, he regained his strength. Saul spent several days with the disciples in Damascus. Acts 9:1-19
This is one of my favourite passages in the bible. not just because of Saul’s salvation but because of Ananias’s courage and obedience despite what circumstance told him.
sometimes it takes one act of extraordinary courage to be the tipping point to bring change ~ Andy Stanley
Ananias is a man of courage and faith. He was at home and had a vision from God. His response, – YES LORD.
in essence, here am i, send me.
how often have we prayed those famous words from isaiah 6 – but then when God calls us and sends us we hesitate or get spiritual amnesia (who me?) and doubt that we’ve really heard God.
Ananias heard God and heard God send him to the most feared destructive man in their world. I would dare to say that Saul was their enemy, their joseph kony, their osama bin lama… Saul spent his time hunting down christians and having them tortured and killed.
i bet Ananias wondered if he was QUALIFIED to do this mission.
i bet he thought he wasn’t spiritual enough.
had he ever prayed for anyone to receive their sight before?
had he ever prayed for someone to be healed before?
did he wear out his carpet pacing?
or did he just go?
did he know that this one act of courage would be the tipping point for changing the world, that saul would go from persecutor to passionate preacher and church builder?
did he know that his one act of courage would change christianity as they knew it?
there was something in Ananias that rose up and enabled him to fight the fear and doubt and to cause him to go. Jesus. the Holy Spirit.
Ananias put his trust in God and his trust in the Holy Spirit in him and through Him.
Ananias put his trust in the power of God that when he prayed that God would work, that God would do something supernaturally remarkable.
Ananias put his trust in God, expecting Him to as He said He would.
in our lives we can have that same confidence.
If God says GO and DO – we can GO and DO in confidence of God’s power and might to perform mighty acts through us and in us.
Where God leads, He has gone before us.
Lets be people of courage who step out and follow God and see extraordinary things happen for His glory.
jonah ran from God. yes we know that.
but the main thing is he turned back towards God.
the message of jonah is that God is full of grace, full of mercy.
there is always an infinity + one chance with God.
no matter how far we run, God pursues us.
there were steps that jonah took to return to God including making a choice what voices to listen to.
jonah had to make a choice to listen to what he knew to be right vs listening to the sailors.
who are the sailors in your life?
telling you to stay put? to not be so radical? that God cant help you? that there are other ways to solve the problem? that we’ll work it out together?
who are steering you in the wrong direction?
who are you giving a voice to?
who is influencing your life?
even though there was no boat to take him back to land jonah knew what direction he should have been going… back towards ninevah. he stepped out of the boat and into the water – just as peter did. and God provided a whale.
(Sin) is a cheap, temporary, momentary joy. Being obedient to the Word of God is eternal, lifelong, full joy… the kind of joy that can’t be taken from you by circumstance.
~ Matt Chandler
@louiegiglio Don’t settle for less that what Christ was raised for.
@casey_doss Always remember, you can never manufacture real fire. It either burns in you, or it doesn’t.
@BurkParsons Jesus wasn’t simply born to die or remain sinless, he was born to live and fulfill the law so that his death would secure our redemption.
@BurkParsons What makes me beautiful to God is Jesus. Tim Keller
@nickygumbel I believe in the poetic genius of a Creator who would choose to express such unfathomable power as a child born in straw poverty. – Bono
@MatthewBarnett The attitude of the dreamer determines the altitude of the dream.
@ChristineCaine There is something profoundly liberating about choosing to not allow the fear of man to dominate your life, decisions & choices. #obeyGod
@followsmitty Facts can change people’s minds but only the manifest presence of God can change hearts and minds
@DailyKeller "In our work we are God’s hands and fingers, sustaining and caring for his world."
@DailyKeller "What God gave us at Christmas was not just his Son…What God gave us at Christmas is a whole new life."
@MarsHill Faith is an inward conviction that is demonstrated with an outward action. #Godwithus
@PaulTripp The manger should remind us of how deep our need is. God must go to this extent to restore us to himself and fix what’s broken inside us.
@PaulTripp He came as the Son of Man. He revealed himself to be the Son of God. He now reigns as the conquering King, all for our salvation.
@bobgoff God doesn’t call us failures when we fail, He calls us His beloved. We’re defined by our joy, not our success @lovedoes
@abracamanda That feeling of operating in your gifts for God’s glory… there is absolutely nothing apart from it that compares. Reignite your passion.
@soulsupply "There’s a crack (or cracks) in everyone…that’s how the light of God gets in." – Elizabeth Gilbert
and me
@fireball3316 Nice to be home 
"Each ‘small’ step of surrender that we take confirms that God is worthy if our trust and prepares us to trust Him with bigger surrenders that may be required down the road."
~ Nancy Leigh DeMoss
.
"its hard to fight for something you’re not passionate about." Kim walker-smith (Jesus Culture) @ the Intimacy Worship Conference 2010
get a revelation of God’s love for you and get passionate about Him and living for Him and then fight against all the crud trying to distract and diswade you from following Him…
what keeps us on the narrow road and obeying jesus? knowing His love and grace and loving Him in return.
what keeps us choosing to follow Him every day? knowing His love and grace and loving Him in return.
what keeps us pursuing holiness instead of satisfying the desires of our flesh? knowing His love and grace and loving Him in return.
what keeps us pure? knowing His love and grace and loving Him in return.
what keeps us wanting to know Him more? knowing His love and grace and loving Him in return.
what keeps us pushing and transforming? knowing His love and grace and loving Him in return.
Jesus says “if you love me you’ll obey me” john 14:23
what keeps us fighting and choosing Him and His ways above the world and ourselves is that passion fueled by the revelation that He loves us and saves us and gave His life for us, dying on the cross to pay the penalty for our sin.
make knowing God your priority.
make it your passion.
be so in love with Him that nothing can shake you.
Early in the morning, Jerub-Baal (that is, Gideon) and all his men camped at the spring of Harod. The camp of Midian was north of them in the valley near the hill of Moreh. The Lord said to Gideon, "You have too many men. I cannot deliver Midian into their hands, or Israel would boast against me, ‘My own strength has saved me.’ Now announce to the army, ‘Anyone who trembles with fear may turn back and leave Mount Gilead.’" So twenty-two thousand men left, while ten thousand remained. But the Lord said to Gideon, "There are still too many men. Take them down to the water, and I will thin them out for you there. If I say, ‘This one shall go with you,’ he shall go; but if I say, ‘This one shall not go with you,’ he shall not go." So Gideon took the men down to the water. There the Lord told him, "Separate those who lap the water with their tongues as a dog laps from those who kneel down to drink." Three hundred of them drank from cupped hands, lapping like dogs. All the rest got down on their knees to drink. The Lord said to Gideon, "With the three hundred men that lapped I will save you and give the Midianites into your hands. Let all the others go home." So Gideon sent the rest of the Israelites home but kept the three hundred, who took over the provisions and trumpets of the others. Judges 7:1-8
i love how God works. just as He had an out of the box victory plan for Joshua at Jericho, He has an out of the box victory plan for Gideon.
its not usual battle strategy to send most of your men home. most military advisors would advise to man up, weapon up and that there is strength in numbers. they would seriously question sending ANYONE home. let alone reducing their army to just 300 against such a formidable enemy.
Realistically, numerically, logically and physically, Gideon’s army was not going to win the battle. However, when you bring God into the mix, the normal is pushed aside and the supernatural comes into being.
but it was God’s strategy and Gideon was obedient to listen to it and to do it.
Obedience isn’t some mysterious thing. It is saying “Yes” to the things God asks us. They may be things from The Bible. They may be more direct and personal things that God asks of us… to go here… to serve there… to give this… to not do that… to read this… to sacrifice that… Sometimes obedience doesn’t make sense… well not to our eyes, or the eyes of those around us. But to God who knows our steps and the perfect path to walk… it makes perfect sense and is part of the jigsaw of our life…
Obedience can be painful. Obedience can strike at the heart of the things we want to hold onto the most. It can cause us to walk in a direction we hadn’t planned on, and maybe even don’t want to. Obedience can put you in a circumstance and place that stretches your heart and faith. Obedience is an expression of my faith. I believe and trust in God, therefore i obey Him and go where He leads and do what He says.
”You will never attain to the mountain of internal peace If you govern yourself according to your own will. This self nature of your soul must be conquered. Your directions, your judgement, your disposition to rebel must be subjected and reduced to ashes. How? In the fire of obedience, for it is there that you will find out if you are truly a follower of Divine love or self love.
One of God’s servants once said:
It would be better that you gather dung by obedience than be caught up into the third heaven by your own will.
What is true obedience? Obedience, to be perfect, must be voluntary; it must be pure and cheerful. But most of all it must be internal. I would add that it must also be blind and preserving.
Molinos from 100 Days in the Secret Place
His pleasure is not in the strength of the horse, nor his delight in the legs of a man; the LORD delights in those who fear him, who put their hope in his unfailing love. Psalm 147:10-11
and when you look at who left: it was those afraid and those who “drunk unwisely” – those who were not aware of where they were or their purpose as an army, those who were not alert to the seasons and times. those that positioned themselves properly stayed and were part of this amazing victory. their lives were changed from that point as they were the men God used to bring deliverance to their people.
this passage also reminds me that whatever enemy i face in my life – what every opposition or trial – that God has a strategy for me to get through it victoriously. it may take some change and some sacrifice and some surrendering and some obedience, but if i follow Him, He will lead and guide me.
“No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.” 1 Corinthians 10:13 NIVUK
It is God who arms me with strength and makes my way perfect. He makes my feet like the feet of a deer; he enables me to stand on the heights. He trains my hands for battle; my arms can bend a bow of bronze. psalm 18:32-34
Then God spoke all these words, saying, "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. "You shall have no other gods before Me. Exodus 20:1-3
I have always seen the ten commandments, or i should say, after getting saved i saw that the ten commandments were wise ways to live. given by a loving Father wanting to protect and bless His kids, wanting His kids to live their best lives. Boundaries are good things for children, they protect and nurture, rather than restrict and bind. Follow these rules and don’t let them be burden because they ate given to us to protect us and to help us follow Gods will and do that we may prosper and live the best life we can.
And i think this is the proper order: revelation of WHO God is first and then an understanding of His loving boundaries and guidelines. without the revelation of love they may seem like rules and confinements, misunderstood into a context of hardship and law, instead of understood with love and grace.
Before we come to “the Ten Commandments”, we have these great words, “ I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery” (Exodus 20:2). Grace comes first. Holiness follows on from grace. Obedience is a response to grace.
Exert taken from my notes from Code Orange Revival – Matt Chandler:
- God is ferociously about my joy, because the more i enjoy him the more his grace is gloried in, God is not after me “i better do what he says or he’ll send me to hell.” God wants me to enjoy Him.
- that’s why He gives me the law. we talk bad about the law and the Pharisees but david delighted in the law, he sung about the law. because God is for God and not our begrudging submission all the commands of God are ment to lead us into greater life and greater joy and to line us up with how He designed things to work rather than our way which doesn’t work
- God doesn’t suggest things, because he knows how things work, because he created it… aka rest, money, marriage, sex etc
- greater life (john 10:10) is found in our obedience to how He wired the universe to work, rather than how we think the universe should work
- we are own worse enemies, we are the problem
- God’s law leads us into life
- we believe his law and commands leads to greater joy and life
If you love me, you will obey what I command. John 14:15
He who does not love me will not obey my teaching. John 14:24
We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands. 1 John 2:3
This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands. This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, 1 john 5:2-3
Now Joseph was handsome in form and appearance. It came about after these events that his master’s wife looked with desire at Joseph, and she said, "Lie with me." But he refused and said to his master’s wife, "Behold, with me here, my master does not concern himself with anything in the house, and he has put all that he owns in my charge. There is no one greater in this house than I, and he has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How then could I do this great evil and sin against God?" As she spoke to Joseph day after day, he did not listen to her to lie beside her or be with her. Genesis 39:6-10
sin is sin.
no matter who sees it and how public it is. it is sin.
and it has consequences.
between us and God.
joseph had an open door to sin. his masters wife invited him to sleep with her.
but joseph said no. because even though he was a slave he was a man of integrity and obedience unto God.
this passage teaches me to have my priorities right and to make a decision BEFORE i am in a position of temptation. the easy road for joseph would have been to sleep with her, but he chooses to deny his flesh and selfishness and to obey God’s ways. He priorities God’s pleasure and favour above that of his masters wife.
Recent Comments