Of Obedience as Bait

I write this to get us appreciate that God calls on us to obey Him simply because He is the Lord and not for what He does to and for us.

Over the years we have heard, read and seen ministers plodding people to do this or the other act of obedience because then God will be bound to do something for them.

The prosperity (I call it poverty) gospel did not start with our generation. And it is activated when we teach obedience as something we do to compel God to do something for us.

We obey because He demands our obedience. We worship because He is the only One worthy of our worship.

If you worship to feel good, how different are you from the drug addict who does it for the same reason? If you give so that God multiplies what remains, what is the different between you and the one who corrupts to get undeserved services?

We are very unscriptural. And it is because we do not care to consider what obedience cost Bible characters?

Do you remember Joseph was thrown in prison for choosing obedience as opposed to feeling good and accessing favor? Do you remember Paul and Silas being thrown in prison and fastened on the stocks for their obedience?

We obey because God who created us is our Master and therefore demands our unwavering obedience.

That is the running thought of the book of Leviticus; I am the Lord.

No other reason is worth our obedience because it would then stop being obedience. No other reason is worth our worship, because it would not be worship to the Lord.

Whatever He does after our obedience is none of our business.

Lack of that is the reason we cringe at persecution, even creating doctrines to explain it away.

But it is a very short lived doctrine. Reality always trashes those doctrines.

You will vehemently argue the doctrine until it comes to your doorstep and the choice becomes plain; sin or suffer the consequences.

Say for example you are looking at a promotion then the boss brings a condition; sleep with them or lose it. You refuse and instead of just missing on the promotion you get the boot. And you do not get another job quickly. The same boss continues to pester you to give in to get back the job and promotion.

I remember a song we used to sing as children.

I am a soldier in the army of the Lord. If I die let me die in the army.

That is what obedience means.

Obedience does not insulate against persecution. It actually attracts it.

Jesus said something I think we never want to consider. If the world loved Me, they will love you.

Why do you expect our obedience to Him to attract favor from the world that killed Him?

We struggle in our Christian life because we are not willing to take our obedience to the cross. We want our obedience (if it can be called so) to bring us to great comfort. We want it to attract more than enough resources. We want it to make us favorites to everybody.

In short, we want God to be obedient to our obedience. We want Him to submit to our submission. We do not even care to look at the implications of our distorted theology.

When God orders, we have only one choice as His children; unwavering and unquestioning obedience.

Paul is one person who exemplifies this.

The first questions he asks Jesus on the Damascus road are, ‘who are You, Lord?’, ‘What do you want me to do?’

The second question becomes the driving force of his life and ministry. No wonder he introduces himself in the epistles as the bond-slave of the Lord. Just look at this statement

Then Paul answered, What mean ye to weep and to break mine heart? for I am ready not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus. (Acts 21:13)

Comfort to him was secondary and not even a consideration for obedience. That is why he is able to sing in prison when he was bound on the stocks, probably the most uncomfortable position one can endure. And instead of running from prison when God opens it, he starts sharing the Gospel to anybody who had ears, even baptizing a family past midnight.

That is why when he is stoned for dead and is prayed back to life he just moves to the next town to do what he was stoned for.

Remember in Hebrews 11 where we have some refusing to be released from prison?

We obey because Christ is the Lord, period.

We do not get baptized for a new experience, a new thing. We get baptized because Christ commanded it. What He does with our obedience is none of our business.

Remember Mary choosing infamy to be the Lord’s servant? Remember Joseph taking a girl expecting a child who was not his as a wife?

Zechariah lost his voice because he sought to debate with the Lord’s messenger.

We struggle with guidance for that simple reason. Our obedience is conditional on its outcome. We will only obey when it brings us profit. And we still expect God to guide us!

Many times I am invited to teach on how to hear God’s voice. And I teach lordship because God will only speak clearly to someone completely sold out to His commands. He will not speak so that you hear His voice. He will speak to the one who is rearing to follow that voice irrespective of where it leads.

That is why I will always challenge many of the popular doctrines and practices of our days; they are man-centred and have no place for that lordship.

It is also the reason I continue to assist believers to consistently read the Bible and not portions because they will get the whole picture as opposed to the dicey portions their teachers serve them. Only then can they know how to evaluate any voice to know whether it is God’s. And of course they will have enough examples to encourage them to full obedience.

We will experience God’s full life’ victory, joy, fulfillment when we are sold out to His Lordship.

Otherwise we may have everything we want and still die a life of complete emptiness and futility because we lost His spark in our lives.

Will you obey the Lord?