OBEYING

OBEYING

                Obeying God in some instances is cut and dried. The Word says, “Do” or “Don’t do” and we can either obey or not obey. But if we are Spirit filled Christians, then the Holy Spirit lets us know when we are disobeying God or going against His will in some way and we really can’t live with ourselves until we repent and turn back.

                The Bible is full of instructions and principles in every area of life and so we can pretty much live our lives according to the patterns that God has established. We know when we have crossed over any of God’s lines, because the Holy Spirit is right there to let us know and if we are walking with God, then we are obliged to confess and repent and turn back to Him.

                But there are other kinds of obedience that are not so cut and dried. For instance, when the Lord spoke into my heart and told me that my last mission in life was to be a father and a grandfather, this represented huge change for us. It meant pulling up our roots, leaving our dear friends and the purposes which we have served by divine appointment over the last 5 or 6 years and to move 2600 miles away. We feel very much like Abraham and Sarah right now… too old to give birth to a new “adventure.”

                And this move represents a different kind of obedience. It is one for which you cannot find a clear biblical mandate. There is nothing in scripture that says anything about moving to Tennessee per se. However, in principle, we see men and women of God throughout scripture being called out by God to go, to do and to become. We are all called out of Babylon even now and as we know, this in itself makes us pilgrims and strangers in this land for we are now citizens of a different kingdom in which our old citizenship has become hostile to us. Light and darkness do not peacefully co-exist.

                There is one mandate which the Lord has shown me concerning this move and it is no small mandate, if one cares at all about God’s prophetic agenda. It concerns the very last days just prior to the great and terrible day of the Lord. And as I observe situations in the world and I observe God’s signs in the sun, moon and stars, I firmly believe that we are about to enter into those final events and so now may be the very time when we should be returning to our fathers, our sons and daughters and even to the original blueprints of salvation to see if maybe we have gotten off track.

                Malachi 4: 5, 6 says: “Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord. And He will restore the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the land with a curse.”

                God wants to reunite sons and daughters with their fathers. He is even calling Jews and Gentiles into oneness right now for that is a part of His plan. (Eph. 2:14-22 and Romans Ch. 11) He is calling His family on earth to be reconciled and to become one. BUT THIS IDEA OF UNITY COMES WITH A VERY BIG WARNING SIGN. THIS UNITY THAT GOD IS CALLING US TO IS NOT THE KIND OF UNITY REPRESENTED BY THE “COEXIST” BUMPER STICKERS.

                Listen carefully for Ephesians 2:14-22. Our unity can only come through Jesus Christ. The two are made into one new man in Christ through the cross… sharing one Spirit… built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Himself being the corner stone in whom the whole building is being fitted together into a temple in the Lord so that we can become a dwelling of God in the Spirit. So let me put it into a visible graph for us:  Our true unity can only come in one way if we are to belong to Christ.

1.       Both groups, Jews and Gentiles are to become one in Christ. (Eph. 2:14)

2.       This was accomplished as He abolished in Himself the enmity which is the Law and the ordinances. (Eph. 2:15, Rom. 7:4,6, whole book of Galatians)

3.       That He might reconcile both groups to God through the cross.

4.       We all have access to God through one Spirit… the Holy Spirit. (Romans chapter 8)

5.       We are built upon the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. ( Luke 24:27)

6.       As such we become temples of the living God.

                Now on point number two we need to understand something very clearly. The ONLY way out from under the Law is through death. That death is achieved through the cross and the cross only. But it doesn’t stop there. We must be born again by the Spirit of Christ so that Christ Himself becomes our new life. (Gal. 2:20, 21) As such, the Law will be fulfilled in us who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. (Romans 8:1-4) IN other words, everyone who has not entered into Christ’s death through His cross and been born again by His Spirit as new creatures in Christ is still under Law. The Law still has jurisdiction over every soul that is not born again… Period!  And when we ARE born again, the Law will still be fulfilled in us who do not walk by the flesh, but by the Spirit.

                So, even though we as Christians are not under the Law for we have died, yet the Law will not be broken in our lives as we live unto Christ by His Holy Spirit.

                In this we can see that those who preach the Ten Commandments are not really preaching the Gospel and yet at the same time we are identified as those who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus. How can this be? It is because love is the fulfillment of the Law and those who live by the Spirit of God will produce the fruit of the Spirit which is love, with all of its component parts: Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Gentleness, Faithfulness and Self-control. Against these things there is no law. The Law is fulfilled by our supreme love for God and for each other.

                Even concerning the Sabbath it can be said that as servants of the Law, we keep the Sabbath, but as sons of God through Jesus Christ we enter into the REST that the Sabbath pointed forward to.

                We who love the Sabbath and the Law need to learn what it means to walk in the Spirit… while those who claim to walk in the Spirit need to understand that the Holy Spirit will never lead us contrary to the Law, but will fulfill that Law in us who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.

                Well, as usual, I have gotten off into the theology of faith and the New Birth and the Spirit filled life. Surprisingly though, all of these things tie into our walk in the Spirit of God. We are in training to hear His voice and there are important guidelines when it comes to walking in the Spirit. There are plenty of crazy or misguided people in the world who think they are hearing from God.

                They have many crazy visions and dreams that don’t line up with the Word of God. They make predictions about the coming of the Lord such as setting dates and such, in spite of the fact that the Bible clearly says that no man knows the day or the hour. People think they have developed a special formula by which they can give us the day or the hour, but time after time these predictions have proven to be false.

                And yet we are called to walk by the Spirit. So how are we to keep from being misled?

1.       We must know the Word of God.

2.       We must study how God has led His people in the past.

3.       We must know the Spirit of God.

4.       We must have died to the flesh and have been truly born again by the Spirit of God.

5.       We must understand that the Spirit of God will never lead us contrary to the Word of God.

6.       We must learn to separate His voice from the many voices that try to influence our lives, of which the flesh tends to speak the loudest.

7.       If you are sensitive to the Spirit of God, you will soon know if you are on the right track or not, because God will either give you peace about it or no peace.  And this is not such a mystery. We know right away if we lie, or cheat, or steal or commit adultery or even think about doing so seriously. God will not let you get by with it and you will have no peace until you have confessed it and repented of it and turned back to God.

8.       Everyone wants to hear God’s voice when in fact His voice is the most powerful force in our lives if we are Christians. We can’t avoid hearing it and we can’t live with ourselves if we do.

9.       Those who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are the children of God and we know by the Word of God that we live by both Spirit and Truth. They MUST go hand in hand.

10.   God is speaking to us all of the time. In our pride we think that our thoughts originate only with ourselves, but God is creative and the Originator of all that is good, even our thoughts. HE calls us to worship many times a day. He lets us see His hand in creation moment by moment. He is renewing us moment by moment. He is our life and day after day we learn how to live by that life rather than by the life that is derived from the flesh. In this the Spirit and the Word work together. Even our creative impulses come from Him and we can either give glory to Him, or become proud. Remember, Jesus said, “Without Me you can do nothing.” Well, what does this mean exactly?

                What it means is that there are eternal things and there are temporary things. We are able to do the temporary things maybe even out of our own cleverness or creativity, but even in those things we should give glory to God. But only an eternal God can do eternal things, so as we live by the Spirit, He is busy building up those eternal things in our spirit. They don’t always make sense to the flesh, but that is because eternal things have a much bigger view in mind. We are in training to reign.

                In my next article I am going, by God’s grace, to talk about the difference between servants and sons. Meanwhile I hope and pray that this has blessed you in some way today.  As much as possible I try to be guided by the Lord and anointed by His Spirit. Shalom.