Revelation vs Obedience

Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterspouts: all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me. (Psalm 42:7)

I was thinking about this faith we share when I considered the depths we are able to delve into in our pursuit of maturity. Why is it that there are some things that seem strange, even foreign to a majority of Christians whereas they are openly and clearly evident to others? How come that some doctrines that are deemed to be so deep that people need extensive training before one can be entrusted with them are child’s play to others.

I then came to one realization, that revelation is directly proportional to obedience. But this is not a mathematics class. What I am saying is that only radical obedience can release deep revelation. If I am content with surface level obedience I should never expect ocean depth revelation. My level of revelation is thus dependent on my level of obedience.

A sea shell is not worth much because it is just picked from the beach. In fact it is the people who come from afar who seem to attach much value to them as they are not found where they live. Most of Mozambique lies on the coastline and therefore there is very little human traffic on the beaches. One day we went to such a beach and I was amazed at the number and variety of sea shells on the shore. You almost felt like looking for a truck to carry all of them as the natives chose only the very best to sell to visitors.

A pearl, however is another thing altogether. It is got from the depths of the ocean and so very few can access it as only the best divers can get to its depth. Due to that you can never get a discounted value pearl due to the sacrifice involved. The same is the case with minerals. The sacrifice in the mining and extraction is directly related to the worth of the mineral. It is the same with trees; a tree that takes the longest to mature is the tree that costs the highest.

What am I driving at? Simply that we can never get deeper in our revelation if we are not ready to become more radical in our obedience.

Nathan went to David with such an expectation. This king had committed adultery and killed the threat of exposure even before it became such. Would he tolerate a prophet who is bringing this secret to the surface? I do not think Nathan expected anything better than death when considering whether he should take God’s message to the king. And no wonder we see much more being entrusted to him!

For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more. (Luke 12:48b)

But here I am talking about what needs to be done before that much can be entrusted.

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)

That is the reason almost half of the New Testament books are from his pen apart from the revelations he enjoyed. He not only was ready to pay the ultimate price but he had all his life been paying the installments unflinchingly. 2 Corinthians 12 tells us some of those. It is no surprise when we see the amount of revelation he enjoyed.

God had to literally hide Elijah from the king due to the messages the prophet used to deliver. I wonder what he was feeling facing 850 false prophets in the sight of Israel after being a refugee for three years in Sidon. I do not think he really expected applause after dealing with them. I am sure he may have expected a quick death from the adherents of those idols any time after the confrontation. No wonder he needed just a word from the queen to flee. Yet he faced them anyway.

I will repeat that the level of my obedience is what will determine the depth of my revelation.

Imagine Apostle John in Patmos. He is an old man, at least eighty, yet he breaking rocks in a quarry (my assumption) for the testimony of Christ. He is so unflinching in his commitment that the authorities decide that the worst thing they can do is to take him to work in the quarries at that age. I can’t imagine the torture that was to such an old man. Yet he is unbowed in his commitment. And no wonder he is given the book of Revelation to write.

Daniel risked not only his life but that of his radically inclined friends by purposing not to defile himself. He was willing to be thrown to starving lions for his faith. And no wonder that he was able to enjoy not only immediate revelation but also revelations even of the times we are in.

Let me state here that only radical obedience is attractive enough to persecution and this because such obedience is an open rebuke to complacency in the faith. It also goes that such persecution will normally originate from people who understand that obedience but are not ready to pursue it. Even Jesus was killed by the politically correct spiritual leaders!

Surface level obedience is cool as its demands are comfortable enough for most. Just seeking to avoid offence as we obey will make most admire our life that does not ruffle any feathers. We might even be applauded for our sensitivity and inclusiveness. But such obedience is very offensive to God. Sample this

I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. (Revelation 3:15, 16)

But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death. (Revelation 21:8)

Being cool to all is a great offense to God. It is interesting that the coward is the first in the list of the people destined to hell, appearing before idol worshippers, witches and murderers. This tells us how God feels when fear to offend dominates my life.

What does that have to do with revelation?

The secret of the LORD is with them that fear him; and he will shew them his covenant. (Psalm 25:14)

It is those who fear God enough to stop caring what the others think of that fear that will easily get into His counsel. This is because He is confident that His message will not go to waste as the messenger negotiates with his image to his friends.

He is not God’s prophet who guards his image before he delivers the message. He does not represent God who parades his credentials to qualify his message. He is not from God when his CV becomes an essential part of his ministry. And he most likely is not from God if he is seeking worldly certification and qualification for his call.

Why do I say so? Worldly relevance does not add spiritual status. Spiritual things have spiritual certification and relevance.

Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. (1Corinthians 2: 13, 14)

I am therefore saying that the standards God has set are way above what humans have. I am not saying that human standards are sin or evil, although some are. What I am saying is that human success means very little, if anything in the eyes of God. Education is useful in this world, and it ends here. Trying to spiritualize it so that the most educated appears the most spiritual is abominable before God. Paul had it all. Yet look at what he said

But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith: (Philippians 3: 7 – 10)

That is what I call a radically connected believer. He realized that worldly usefulness and qualification ends up in the spiritual dung heap. His legal and theological PhD amounted to zero in his spiritual value spectrum.

What does this have to do with obedience? You may ask. Everything, I will say. When worldly acclaim is trashed in my scale of values, obedience will take precedence at all times. What God says will remain the only thing that will move me.

How does God keep revelation from such a person? When the offense of the cross becomes the only thing able to move me you can be sure that God will take me beyond the ordinary.

There is a verse that is being used very frequently these days

Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets. (Amos 3:7)

Can a prophet be an entertainer? Can he be a motivator? Can his word be devoid of rebuke even for open sin? Will that ‘prophet’ be able to access God’s counsel just because he calls himself a prophet? What level of revelation can he access?

A true prophet of God will rarely, if ever entertain. Above all a prophet is averse to sin, even secret sin. How come we have prophets who are blind even to open sin? Can he really represent a holy God? Is the revelation he enjoys really from a holy God?

A preacher of the Gospel (Good News) is simply a herald showing people out of their sense into God’s sense. It is Good News because not only because it is different from the worldly; it is totally removed and completely different from the world. There is simply no point of convergence for the two. And no wonder the Bible says

Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. (James 4:4)

Surface level obedience, though it seems alright to most is simply that, an abomination to God. Remember the rich young ruler? He was fine in all departments. He may even have been very prominent in the leadership of a synagogue, maybe even the temple since he was a success story to most.

And he said, All these (commandments) have I kept from my youth up. (Luke 18:21)

The comedy is that this is a young man who has kept the commandments from his youth up! This shows us the danger of surface obedience; it simply makes one content. Yet from the story we are able to see a man who could not be farther from God. He was simply content in his futility. Since he was not willing to go deeper than the surface, he left the presence of the Solution sad and farther from the Kingdom as he was formerly.

Compare him with another man

And Joses, who by the apostles was surnamed Barnabas, (which is, being interpreted, The son of consolation,) a Levite, and of the country of Cyprus, Having land, sold it, and brought the money, and laid it at the apostles' feet. (Acts 4: 36, 37)

This same man does not remain to be part of the consumption of his gift but leaves Jerusalem to take the Gospel to the nations, even having to work instead of accessing the support that was rightfully his. No wonder he is the only one who can see the genuineness of Paul’s conversion. No wonder he is able to see the value of deserter Mark when Paul decides that he will have nothing to do with him.

Contrary to popular teaching, ocean depth giving does not only open financial or physical breakthroughs. But even the teaching about giving never attempts to go below the surface. In fact most of it is man-centred. Give the ‘man of God’ and God will multiply that gift to you. Many times it starts like this, ‘do you need a breakthrough? Then give the man of God (or the temple of God, which many times is the same thing) and you will receive from God multiplied. The only time God comes to the picture is when He is dishing out this or the other.

Barnabas did not give to the apostles. Like I have said elsewhere people laid their giving at the apostles’ feet and not hands and that is the reason the apostles gave the administration of that giving to others.

Surface level obedience deals with trifles. Just look at the issues Christ had with the spiritual leaders. Most, if not all were dealing with temporal issues. Many times it was the gentiles who approached him for spiritual things and in a spiritual way. No wonder He said

Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof. (Matthew 21:43)

That is the result of surface level obedience as it does not inspire a craving for anything other than the temporal however much it pretended otherwise. Simply said God is offended by such obedience.

When was the last time God gave you a crazy order? What did you do with it? Do you realize that He stopped giving you any other order until you obeyed that one? Could you be operating on revelations that have come after you defied that order? I am sorry to tell you that the probable source of those revelations is the evil one, however spiritual they may appear.

Let us look at some of the crazy orders God gave His servants (and the word servant denotes unquestioned obedience)

·         Isaiah, a prince walked completely naked for three years though he even had a wife and children

·         Jeremiah was imprisoned, even tortured. He bought land after knowing that the land will be captured and he did not even have a family to plan for

·         Elisha refused the support of a wealthy convert

·         Abraham was ready to sacrifice his only son

·         Jephthah sacrificed his only child yet he did not even have a wife to plan for another

·         Amos left his occupation to risk his life taking God’s message to a distant rebellious king

·         Jonah took God’s message to Israel’s cruelest enemy

·         Hosea married a practicing prostitute

·         Gideon chased over 99% of his army to face an army that was many times bigger than even his original one

The list goes on and on. I just wanted us to appreciate the fact that the people we celebrate and identify with did not get where we know from surface level obedience. The depths they ventured in obedience opened the doors to greater revelation.

What has God told you to leave? What has He told you to take? Where has He ordered you to go? What and who has He told you to forsake?

And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it. For what is a man advantaged, if he gain the whole world, and lose himself, or be cast away? (Luke 9: 23 – 25)

That is the kind of obedience we are called to.

If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple. (Luke 14:26, 27)

And no wonder that he calls on us to count the cost in the following verse. The only cost one incurs in surface level obedience is correctness and comfort which is no sacrifice at all. Being the favorite of the world in your obedience is rebellion to God as we saw earlier.

Thou therefore gird up thy loins, and arise, and speak unto them all that I command thee: be not dismayed at their faces, lest I confound thee before them. (Jeremiah 1:17)

This is not a comfortable position for the young prophet, yet that is the true to any minister that has responded to the call of God. He will most times speak at cross current to the world that will include the apparently spiritual people. And that is the reason it calls for much more than surface level obedience.

But one thing is certain, you can never get to the depths of obedience and fail to access the depths of revelation.

My aged mother never went to school and therefore can’t read. But her commitment to Christ is beyond question. She just needs to know what God wants her to do and she will unquestionably do it. She used to amaze me when I was young as she used us to read the Bible for her. She would just give me the Bible and ask me to read passages from all over, some even from books I never then knew were in the Bible. Yet never in all those times did she give me a verse or chapter not in the Bible, something she does even today. How could she know the Bible she has never read more than people who can read? Obedience.

One of my greatest challenges is to have a Kimeru audio Bible so that she and others like her can listen to the Bible any time they need without depending on others who may not be as available especially when all their children leave the nest as happened with my mother. Pray and listen with me. We have been praying about raising a team that will foresee that and a radically obedient and available reader.

But the point I was making is that radical obedience will enable one to get ocean depth revelation. Only my mother’s obedience to whatever revelation she accessed was able to open her to precise direction to the actual passages she (and sometimes us, her children) needed for whatever situation there was.

Yet she is not alone. I have gotten in contact with many others like her.

We must delve beyond the surface to access the depths. There are no two ways about it. And obedience is the route, the only route to revelation.

Suppose I take the comfortable route, the one afraid to confront? Let us look at one example.

King Saul was afraid of the army forsaking him that he decided that waiting was unimportant and his kingdom became shaky. He later bowed to the pressure of the army exchanging what was meant to be destroyed for sacrifices and he was rejected as the king. Later when he really needed to hear from God he discovered that the door to revelation was closed long ago, however hard he tried. Simply said he refused to heed God’s order because he feared disconnecting with his crowd. Then when he really needed to hear from Him he discovered that the train had left the station and was completely out of sight.

That is how dangerous it is to walk in surface level obedience. We set ourselves up for blackouts in as far as God is involved. Will I make the right decision to go as far as is required of me as concerns obedience?

This obedience will touch all areas of my life as we see in the Bible characters. The main thing is that God was given unquestioned authority. Nothing is left untouched by that obedience.

Many times God will issue the order that will take you to the position where you will have to make a definite decision. It is more like what He told the rich young ruler. Then you will have no excuse for disobedience. You can’t feign ignorance.

Once you get through that hurdle successfully you will open yourself up for another command. Such commands will deal with your prejudices, preferences, upbringing and security. They are aimed at getting me to the position where God holds unquestioned authority in my life. They will lead me to place my life totally on Christ without caring about my other support structures. In fact the main thrust of the command is to give me the chance to demolish the structures that have held me up all my life. Like Abraham I am given a chance to leave all that I know and trust, in fact have trusted all my life to go to the direction God points to, not shows the destination.

They will touch on my finances and wealth (rich young ruler, Zacchaeus and Barnabas), character and esteem (Isaiah and Hosea), safety (Jonah and Amos), posterity (Abraham and Jeremiah) and even the future (the disciples and Paul). I might appear to be completely out of mind as I follow that order. I might even be taken to a mental institution as that order many times appears as if inspired by insanity. But the clarity of the order will increase once I decide to obey it.

That is the reason someone resigns from a job many can only dream about to go to the desert with God. That is the reason another can wind up a very solvent business as if he does not think about his posterity. That is the reason someone will go through a legal border without a passport, leave alone a visa. That is the reason someone can start a journey by going to a bus stage without any transport money, let alone other journey expenses.

Is there an order God has issued to you lately? Have you trashed it as senseless and insane and unimplementable? Revisit it one more time. Like Gideon look at it from a servant’s side; as an order to be obeyed. Ask for clarification or lay a fleece like Gideon did. But it is absolutely essential that you decide to obey once God has made it clear. Then wait for God to make the order clear. He will make it undeniably clear. Then you can obey with confidence knowing that God will watch over that word (order) to fulfill it (Jeremiah 1: 12).

Probably like I said earlier there was an order you trashed because it did not make sense. Repent and start afresh. There is abundant grace for that as we see in the Bible. But settle it in your heart that you will go the whole distance when the order is made clear to you as we know that God does not delight in the sacrifice of fools (Ecclesiastes 5)

Probably it was sin that like David you fell into and was better than him in covering up. Probably it is some oversight you exercised to cover up for a brother when he thus sinned. It could be that you refused to speak up for fear of the majority like Saul did. Or maybe you did the same to preserve unity in the fellowship though it was clear at least to you that the course being taken was clearly not in the direction God wanted. You may have compromised God’s standards for marriage or business success. You may have very slightly altered your credentials to access that promotion or business deal.

Get back to the cross. Decide to join David in the shameful situation of repentance and restitution so that you can start on a clean slate with Him as He will never take us deeper before we get into His river through repentance (Psalm 32; 51).

You may have gone through very tough times as you sought to obey the orders Christ gave. Keep on as that is the key to even deeper revelation.

These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world. (John 16:33)

Let us release ourselves to God to take us to the depths of His revelation as He issues deeper commands to obey.