Obedience, Key to Godly Living Part 1
Obedience Defined:
Ye shall walk after the LORD your God, and fear him, and keep his commandments, and obey his voice, and ye shall serve him, and cleave unto him. Deuteronomy 13:4
Obedience is the willingness to submit to the authority of another and to actually do what one is asked or told to do, whether to God or to a human being. It is also the positive, active response to what a person hears. Obedience therefore, is to observe, to do, to keep and to heed. In scriptures, the word is used repeatedly in the sense of submission to God’s Word, His will and commands. To obey means: to hear and positively heed or respond accordingly. It is imperative to understand that obedience is not perfected without a positive response. Apostle James in his epistle states that, we should be doers of the Word and not hearers only, which indicates obedience as an active response to God’s Word.
Obedience, Key to Godly Living:
This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success. Joshua 1:8
Here we see Joshua after the death of Moses was entrusted with the responsibility of leading the children of Israel into the promise land, a colossal assignment, a task beyond his capabilities, but God saw and still sees beyond our human frailties. God having communed with Joshua on what He would have him to do. He gave him the final instruction which he was to observe. This instruction was to determine if he would prosper in his ways or not, as well as the successful accomplishment of his given assignment. Consequently, obedience to God’s Word is a vital key to living a godly and victorious life, hence, obedience to God and his word is fundamental in order for us to fulfil God’s will and our individual and collective prophetic destinies. However, it is one thing to hear God’s Word and it is quite another thing to heed that Word. Obedience to God’s Word is one of the greatest demands of God to the patriarchs of old, His chosen people, and still is His demand for us today.
“And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” Genesis 2:16-17
After the Lord had created man, He placed him in the Garden of Eden and gave him a command to eat of every tree in the garden including the tree of life with the exception of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. It is important to know that, God made provision for man’s wellbeing that was necessary for him to enjoy and live a godly life. God’s command to Adam was to dress and keep the garden, that is, to cultivate and guard the garden from intruders. However, he failed in keeping the garden from the intruder. The intrusion of the enemy and accommodating his lies sabotaged man’s obedience to God’s Word. The same is true for the Christian believer today, if the enemy and his lies are unrestrained, obedience to God’s Word, which was and still is the key to living a godly life and enjoying the fullness of God will be sabotaged. The drama of how our first parents disobeying God’s command (His Word), and the consequences, no doubt reveals to us the inevitable aftermaths that await whoever is cut in this web of satanic manipulation.
God expressly said to Adam the day you eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, you shall surely die, but notice that when Adam ate of the tree he did not die physically in the sense that he no longer existed as it were, but died spiritually being cut off from the source of his livelihood. Thus indicating when you disobey or go contrary to God’s Word you cease to experience and enjoy the miraculous. In the scriptures as well as now, whenever a man disobeys God and His Word, he ceases to enjoy the fruit of God’s labour instead living and hardly surviving with the fruit of his own labour as the case was with Adam. It is conclusively clear that disobeying God’s word cuts us from God’s divine supply.
The scripture declares in Genesis 3:1-3 that: “Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.” What the enemy did was and still is to attack God’s Word and cast doubt in their minds and ours causing us to question the integrity of God’s Word, which ultimately results in disobedience to God’s Word.
Whose report will you believe?
posted by Richard ONEBAMOI at 1:27:00 PM
1 comments
