“22 Samuel said, Has the Lord as great a delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.
23 For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as idolatry and teraphim (household good luck images). Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, He also has rejected you from being king.” AMP
In our walk as Christians we are to grow in our knowledge of God and of the ways of His kingdom. This is a basic principle that helps us know and understand our way around as children of the Most High God and as citizens of heaven on earth. This relationship takes us to different levels and dimensions of His power and authority to advance as salt of the earth and light of the world through the revelations we receive that help us to progressively obtain the character of Jesus by operating in the nine fruits of the Spirit.
Matthew 5:13-14 says, “13 You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste (its strength, its quality), how can its saltness be restored? It is not good for anything any longer but to be thrown out and trodden underfoot by men.
14 You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.” AMP
As mentioned in other posts, when God makes promises to us, this means that He’s showing us the end from the beginning and His intentions for us to reach our destinies as long as we do it according to His timing, His will and His way. Just like some children may look cute and are allowed to get away with certain things that may be mischievous, but as they grow older those things do not look as cute and more is demanded of their obedience, the same happens to us with our heavenly Father. Some things may be permitted of us in our early walk as Christians, but every time the Lord gives us more knowledge and understanding of Him and of His ways, and we discover more of our relationship with Him so we can reach maturity and be entrusted with more responsibilities to advance His kingdom, more levels of obedience are demanded of us.
Luke 12:48 admonishes, “But he who did not know and did things worthy of a beating shall be beaten with few [lashes]. For everyone to whom much is given, of him shall much be required; and of him to whom men entrust much, they will require and demand all the more.” AMP
The reason for that is that everything we do small or big is connected directly or indirectly to the eternity of other people. The prayers, the giving of our time, of our finances and resources, or our connecting with others or even yielding so others can go ahead of us is always linked to the big chain of actions and requirements needed to advance God’s kingdom in the spiritual and natural realms.
Failure to obey the commands of the Lord in the time He has given us the grace to fulfill those assignments can put us in danger of becoming obstructers of God’s eternal plan and purpose for humanity and the salvation of those He’s calling to join His family of believers. Those doing the obstructing because of disobedience also become obstructed because they become stagnant and cannot move past the last command God gave them. They will not receive any more instructions or commands nor breakthroughs from God until they obey the last thing they were told to do, so if they start finding themselves stuck and with chaos in their lives it could be because they have obstructed themselves by disobeying the last command God gave them.
Sometimes it may take us time to obey because we don’t understand fully what God is asking of us, but that is no excuse to not take a step of faith and let God do the rest when we sense that He’s asking us to do things that may seem unorthodox and unusual. Every level that we reach in our walk with Him requires a different level in our obedience. The more we are growing in Him and are getting closer to reaching our destiny and see His promises fulfilled, the more He will ask us to obey greater things. When we don’t do that, we could be acting as stumbling blocks for others because our disobedience could cause another believer to also disobey until it reaches a ripple effect that could lead to an avalanche of rebellion when others that we influence see our rebellious ways as the right way to operate on behalf of God’s kingdom (Esther 1:9-22).
We can also become hinderers of the advancement of the gospel and the salvation of others when our part in God’s plan that we are not obeying causes other people’s unnecessary struggles, pain and suffering. This could lead us to be labeled among the wicked (those with twisted thinking) or even among evil people that purposely defy the ways of the Lord and obstruct His people from reaching their destiny in Him to save the lost or the backslidden. God’s plan for humanity is of redemption and prosperous security in Him, and for that He asks us to do the works that were preplanned from the foundations of the world as He works through us, His workmanship to accomplish these works on behalf of others even when we’re believing Him for things that will benefit us too.
Ephesians 2:10 explains, “For we are God’s [own] handiwork (His workmanship), recreated in Christ Jesus, [born anew] that we may do those good works which God predestined (planned beforehand) for us [taking paths which He prepared ahead of time], that we should walk in them [living the good life which He prearranged and made ready for us to live].” AMP
I remember a few years ago, my car was breaking down and having more and more issues until it quit completely. Around that time I had gone to a fellowship with other women and we were talking about things we were believing God for. I mentioned my car situation and sensed when the Lord had told one of the sisters there to buy me a car. I did not mention it to her, but prayed and believed for her to act on God’s command for her promptly because of my need for I was aware that she and her husband could afford it. I had been given an assignment that took my family and I away from the area we were used to, but my son continued to go to the school in our former neighborhood because the Lord had said to do that.
It took me 30 to 40 minutes to drive my son to school by car. It was a sacrifice, but it was for my son’s benefit because he needed to have the security of staying in something he was familiar with. Since my car broke down, it then took my son and I 2 1/2 hours to get on a bus and pray that we would make the connection to the next bus that would take us closer to his school and then walk the rest of the way. The same was true on the way back to where we were staying at that time. It was a serious struggle for us physically and financially. I had not heard from that lady during this time, but continued to believe that she would act on what I knew God had told her. A month had passed, and my son and I were feeling drained from all we had to do to get him to and from school, but I could not move him out of the school he was attending. Then finally one day I called a friend crying because I could not take the exhaustion of traveling to and from my son’s school and my son was feeling tired more often than before and needed more motivation to do his homework because he wanted to rest as soon as we got home.
I literally cried out to the Lord for help, and the Lord spoke to me and said that help was on its way. Sure enough the following day I got a phone call from the lady’s daughter who said that her mother wanted to talk to me. Our conversation was about the car God had told her to buy for me, so I finally got it the following day. Later on the lady told me that what took her time to obey was that she was afraid to tell her husband what she had heard God tell her to do, but once she told him, it didn’t take them time to act on it together. They even recruited one of their sons in law to help look for and examine cars before they made the purchase. You can imagine the relief my son and I felt to be able to drive him to school and even do more things with more ease. This also served as a testimony to the people around me that saw how good God is to His children.
I ask that you examine yourself and reflect on the last thing God told you to do because it is not about you alone, but it is something that fits in His redemptive plan for humanity whether it is something small as prayer, calling someone and give a word of encouragement, or as big as connecting with someone to fulfill a special task or assignment, or providing a need for someone else. Repent if you have hesitated to obey and yield to the leading of the Holy Spirit because God’s plan needs to continue for the sake of the lost and to provide freedom and deliverance for His people that have been oppressed and in bondage. To Him alone be all the glory.∎
