Obedience, the Conclusion of Everything

Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. (Matthew 7:21)

I want us to examine our faith with the view of establishing the essentials of the same.

Have you ever wondered what is the only thing that will take a believer to heaven?

Has it ever occurred to you that the many things and activities we get involved with in the name of ministry and church have no capacity at all of leading us heavenward?

But I am getting ahead of myself.

Have you ever wondered why obedience is never taught in church circles? That only a mention here and there is adequate to fulfil righteousness?

We teach discipleship and prophecy and eschatology and all those other logys.

We teach giving and fellowship and sacrifice for the church.

We teach deep doctrines of this or the other subject. We teach counselling and psychology and family therapy to ensure our relationships are perfect.

We teach Greek and Hebrew to help believers understand the Bible in depth.

We have age relevant ministries to reach out to people where they are.

We even have strategies to reach the outcasts and rejects appropriately.

But has it ever occurred to you that there is literally no school of obedience in all this mix?

Have you like me realised that there is literally nowhere in church circles where obedience is emphasised?

I know someone will shout about grace and the fact that Christ paid it all.

If it is as simple as that, why then will there be people in hell?

Salvation is a choice we make. It is a decision we make to agree with God’s diagnosis of our condition.

Agreeing that I am sick does not automatically make me well. I must be willing and ready to take the medication for my condition.

Remember John the Baptist saying this?

Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance: (Matthew 3:8)

Though repentance is good, it is not the complete package. It is the start of a journey; the journey John the Baptist was painting here.

Leaving everything at repentance and reception of grace falls way short of God’s requirement.

Otherwise explain some consistently appearing verses in the scriptures.

Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity. (Matthew 7: 22, 23)

Where had grace disappeared to?

Afterward came also the other virgins, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us. But he answered and said, Verily I say unto you, I know you not. (Matthew 25: 11, 12)

Had anything happened to grace between their invitation with the five other virgins and this time He tells them that He did not know them?

What I am saying is that grace is a door we go through and not the destination.

It is impossible to get into that path without grace. Meaning that it is impossible to get to the destination without grace. It is impossible to keep on that path without grace as well.

But on the other hand, we are required to walk the road if we were to get to the destination that door opens us to.

I have written very widely about Saul and Balaam as indicators that grace is not the end game of our faith.

You see the two tearfully repented, repeatedly, yet were unable to access grace (call it forgiveness) because they were not willing to walk the road repentance indicated. Esau is also looked at alike.

And we see the same with Judas for those who will argue about me dwelling on the Old Testament.

Obedience is the only qualification for a walk with God.

And by obedience I am not talking about a set of rules set by whoever and from wherever.

I am talking about a walk with God where I am constantly pursuing the knowledge of His will so that I can walk in it.

But let me get to definitions first.

What do I mean by obedience?

My most basic definition of obedience is the moment by moment walk in the revelation God releases to me.

This in a way ties with my last post about hearing God’s voice.

I am unable to walk in obedience if I am disconnected with that moment-by-moment guidance.

What about the commandments? I know someone is shouting.

The commandments are the framework, the foundation on which that obedience is built.

I can’t talk about walking with God if my passions are not under control.

For example, I know ministers who are very good liars. Good because they would rather lie than offend. They would rather lie that leave their parishioner with terrible dreams truth may open them to.

There are prophets whose greed is on another level. There are pastors and bishops whose pride and entitlement crushes everything and everybody who stands in their way.

There are evangelists and apostles who must sample any new sister who joins their team.

Incidentally, they continue being ‘used’ of God, some of them tremendously.

These are the characters being addressed by my most quoted verses, Matthew 7: 22, 23.

Their ministry overshot the commandments. Their powerful revelations nullified the basics.

You therefore cannot speak about obedience outside the commandments.

However, obedience makes the commandments almost invisible since their observance is automatic.

You see, I cannot receive a higher order before I have effectively and conclusively fulfilled a lower one.  I cannot be given a promotion before I have excelled in my present position.

At no time do we read about Samuel dealing with commandments or temptations. We do not see him in the nitty gritties of his faith

We only know him as someone who walked with God and followed His voice faithfully.

But we are able to clearly see his relationship with the commandments when he was getting out of the scene because he challenged the whole nation to stand in judgment of him for any breach of the same. And none could.

I hope you are getting at what I am saying.

Obedience does not speak about commandments because it surpasses them.

For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5:20)

This means that looking at the observance of the commandments is way off the mark of obedience.

We look at the observance of the commandments because we are not really seeking to walk in obedience.

We can almost say that a pursuit of obedience means that we have outgrown the observance of the commandments, more like what happens in our studies.

No one pursuing further studies ever remembers counting one to ten or reciting the alphabet. Nor is he asked whether he can write his name.

They have become part of his makeup so that he will do them without thinking.

... touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. (Philippians 3:6)

This means that in dealing with obedience we are not dealing with the observance of the commandments, not because we are overlooking them, but because we have observed them to the point that we do not even notice it.

I therefore cannot be talking about obedience when I am dealing with exaggeration in my preaching. Or when I have issues with relationships with women and girls surrounding me or the moneys passing through my hands.

But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints; Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient: but rather giving of thanks. (Ephesians 5: 3, 4)

I hope you can grasp what I am saying.

Simply that obedience is the product of walking with God. We can comfortably say that obedience is the actual walking with God. It is the fellowship someone has with the divine.

That is why it is beyond rules. Because rules do not enrich relationships.

But it directly implies intimate knowledge of what the divine wants us to be because we have consistently sought to know what He is like through the already existing revelation (the Bible)

As an example, if a king should visit you or you are invited to visit his palace, it is essential that you intricately know protocols and etiquette required for such visit because a breach could be catastrophic for that relationship.

But once you are in fellowship, you will be able to talk about anything without restraint.

Yet that does not minimise those protocols and etiquette. It just surpasses them.

It means that you are rightly and justly in the presence of the king.

What I am trying to emphasise is that obedience is not about commandments, though that is because it has flown higher than their requirements.

Talking about fellowship and obedience, it is important to say that fellowship indicates a uniting of hearts. Or simply hearts that are growing into a likeness.

Anybody can tell you that people in love not only start behaving alike, they also start looking alike.

That is what communion with God creates, hearts that start beating in synch with His.

A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. (Ezekiel 36:26)

You may realise that Saul tried to do God’s will and was rejected whereas David sought to do God’s will and was accepted.

In fact, David was called someone in pursuit of God’s heart. And his life demonstrated that.

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, (Luke 4:18)

One main disconnect between God’s heart and ours is in our relationship with the vulnerable.

That is the point at which most disconnect from His heart in obedience.

Yet from this verse it seems to be the whole purpose of His anointing, meaning that His assignment was pivoted on that.

I suspect that prophet was sent to hell because he decided to take his prophecies to more fruitful fields, the exorcist decided that the poor did not have adequate returns for his ministry and the miracle worker thought the vulnerable were below his radar in Matthew 7: 22, 23.

And we see the same thing in Matthew 25 when Christ is separating us like a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. Where do the vulnerable rate in your heart?

Obedience means that my heart slowly becomes like God’s, my thoughts slowly starting becoming like God’s and my character slowly becomes like God’s.

Saul was finally rejected because he refused to carry God’s anger (heart) against the Amalekites, choosing instead to use the spoil to give God a sacrifice.

Phinehas was commended for rescuing Israel because he employed God’s wrath (heart) on blatant sin in Numbers 25.

It simply means that the more aligned and alike my heart is to God’s, the more able am I to do God’s will.

Conversely, it means that the more obedient I am growing to be, the more my heart starts becoming like God’s.

To some I think this sounds confusing, way higher than the clouds.

I will therefore seek to bring it down to a way we can easily grasp it.

What is God’s will? Where is God’s will? How can we access God’s will.

I have talked about the fact that obedience does not deal with commandments because it is beyond them.

But there are those who do not even know those commands.

I will therefore get us to the basics of our faith since someone does not just start walking and talking.

Most birds do not just fly. They will need a runway, however short.

As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby: (1Peter 2:2)

It is only the person who started his journey in the faith right who can be able to grow to clearly understand God’s will.

It is only the person who is immersed in the word of God who will be able to graduate into the person who has God’s heart. It is only the person who is sold out to God’s word who is able to walk according to God’s will.

You see, no revelation surpasses the one already written. No word nullifies the word already spoken.

Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5: 17 – 19)

Knowing what is written is therefore pivotal to knowing the intricacies of God’s will. Walking according to what is written will shape us not only to behave as God has prescribed, but to also become as He has intended.

Incidentally, that is what sets David apart.

You also remember that the same thing happened when Josiah discovered God’s word and aligned himself with it?

Allow me to summarise, though as usual I do not intend to close this post for the purposes of you digging deeper in the topic for greater enrichment.

Ther are two building blocks to the kind of obedience that pleases God.

The first is a complete and unwavering commitment to God’s word.

You must know who He is before seeking to know what He wills.

You can’t be obedient if you are casual with God’s word.

And this goes beyond knowledge.

That is why I am talking about being immersed into the scriptures so that they then shape everything you are, not only do.

The second is a reverential relationship with God guided by the same word.

I must at the personal level seek to know Him beyond what I read in the scriptures, again guided by the same word.

I must develop habits that will align me with His word ‘effortlessly’.

My prayer and relationships must be guided by His revelation, among all other aspects of my life.

We can call this a sold-out life, meaning a life completely sold out to God and His agenda.

I hope I have challenged someone to aim higher in their relationship with God.