THE ROAD TO OBEDIENCE (3)

THE ROAD TO OBEDIENCE (3)

Many Christians struggle day by day with their obedience to God's will and his ways. 

A tested and sure roadmap to ensuring our obedience to God's Word and therefore His will and hearts desire for how He would want us to live godly lives, is for us to: 

1. Always start our day with the Word of God, 

2. Meditate on imbibe and understand the portion of scripture below, that helps us to understand the process of our obedience to the Wors of God, and by so doing grow one's faith to the point that it causes God's Holy Spirit to empower us to supernaturally abide by it because we have chosen to yield our lives to Him. 

In Proverbs 6:20 to 23, it is written thus: 

20. My son, keep your father's command and do not forsake your mother's teaching. 

21. Bind them always on your heart; fasten them around your neck. 

22. When you walk, they will guide you; when you sleep, they will watch over you; when you awake, they will speak to you. 

23. For this command is a lamp, this teaching is a light, and correction and instruction are the way to life. 

Keeping the Fathers commands and not forsaking His teachings can only be achieved by our sincere love for God and our fellow man and not by using our finite wisdom or our flesh to live by the Law which will always be burdensome for by flesh shall no man prevail. 

This is why in 1 John 5:3, it is written thus: 

"In fact, this is love for God: to keep his commands. And his commands are not burdensome," 

Binding God's Commands and Teachings (which guide us on how we should live godly lives) to our hearts refers to imbibing the Words of God that they may guard and guide our hearts and minds and by so doing, ensure that our actions reflect our obedience to the Word of God and not useless things we may otherwise take in from the world. 

Fastening God's Word; His Commands and Teachings around our neck has to do with making the Word of God a yolk; a guide that compels us to do God's bidding alone and restrains us from ungodly things that are contrary to God's will for our lives. 

Imbibing the Word of God as frequently as we can ensures that: 

1. When we walk, they will guide us in God's ways, 

2. When we sleep, God's Word that we have faith in with regards to our security in life will literally watch over us by guiding and protecting us from all evil. 

A testimony of this in Psalm 3:5, spoken by King David goes thus: 

"I lie down and sleep; I wake again, because the Lord sustains me." 

If we truly believe what it says then our faith in it will ensure our safety throughout the night and when we are spiritually weak. 

3. When we awake, the Holy Spirit will bring to our remembrance God's Words that we have imbibed into our hearts and by doing so He will be able to speak to us as a friend that sticks closer than a brother, and guide us in how God would have us live the new day. 

Finally, 

God's commands act as a lamp that illuminates directly around us so we know the do's and don'ts of where to go and where not to go with regards to the godly lives God expects us to live, while His teachings are a light that illuminates our future, therefore guiding and helping us know how we should live our lives, for such corrections and instructions are the way to the abundant life Christ has ordained for us here on earth and the eternal life hereafter, when we leave this ephemeral world for God's abode in heaven. 

Shalom.

The Road to Obedience (2)

The Road to Obedience (2)

The human nature we were all born with is the fallen nature all mankind inherited from the original sin of disobedience of our forefather, Adam. 

A disobedient nature that is predestined to always have the propensity to crave for and follow Satan's manipulation of this fallen world and therefore perpetually fall into sin. 

The Road to the obedient nature that is ours in Christ Jesus, which is a supernatural inclination to obey God's Word, His will and His ways which is His good, pleasing and perfect will for our lives, that far outweighs any outcome we can ever decide for ourselves, is based on choices we make on a moment by moment basis; to let the dictates of the Spirit of God rule our thoughts, speech and actions rather than our innate human desires, that are diametrically opposed to God's will for our lives.

The Road to Obedience requires a moment by moment, conscious effort to imbibe God's word by meditation and prayer so that we beat our bodies and make it our slaves, and by so doing subject our flesh to the dictate of God's Holy Spirit resident within us, so that we may not be disqualified from the ultimate prize of making heaven as a result of our lack of self control. 

God's promise of our deliverance from disobedience, that we can anchor our hope on and keep confessing till we begin to see it's manifestation in our daily lives as in Ezekiel 36:26 to 28, goes thus: 

26. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. 

27. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. 

28. Then you will live in the land I gave your ancestors; you will be my people, and I will be your God.

In this ironclad promise that God made, He not only assured us of: 

1. giving us His Holy Spirit which is the only remedy that can empower us to overcome sins allure, to reside in us but also that 

2. He will - by Himself, supernaturally cause us to follow His decrees and be careful to keep His laws that we may fulfill His hearts desire of being His people, like the people of Israel are and He will indeed show Himself to be our God. 

Why, you may ask? 

Because the God who gave the command is the only one that can ensure it's fulfilment, simply by our faith in His pronouncements concerning it, as in 1 Thessalonians 5:24, "The one who calls us is faithful, and he will do it."

Ezekiel 36:26 to 28 however is a Covenant as in many other pronouncements God has made concerning His promises to mankind, and as a result requires an action on our own part, which is not only for us to have total believe in his capacity to bring what He has said to pass but also to constantly feed His resident Holy Spirit within us, with His Word so that the Holy Spirit will constantly have the upper hand over our fleshly desires to ensure our victory over sin, the world and the devil. 

Receive the grace for obedience as you consciously feed your spirit with God's Word, as you ought, in Jesus name. 

Shalom