Trust And Obey – Our God Demands Obedience

Christianity is such a simple faith but we complicate it. Believers have complicated it so badly now that we who ought to be the custodians of The Word, barely understand it. As His children, God already gifted us with the understanding of His word yet the truth of it appears to be lost on us. Even when we manage to understand it, maybe this only happens in the part of the world where I live, we don’t feel the need to be conformed to it. When we study, it is sometimes to show others that we also have a good knowledge of the word and at other times, it is so that we can be appointed to “positions of honor” in church; and some of the best of us study so we know the confessions to make to activate the release of “our blessings” because we know that making the right confessions facilitate the release of blessings but we forget that obedience to His word is also a prerequisite for receiving these blessings.  

Mathew 7: 26 “But anyone who hears my teaching and doesn’t obey it is foolish

In truth, we don’t do ourselves good by being disobedient because simple as the word is; the fulfillment of most of the promises of God is firmly rooted in obedience to the accurate word of God. If we don’t obey His word, we struggle endlessly to activate these promises and are never able to. One of the things that happen when we give our lives to Christ is that we receive power to obey Him but if we receive the power and our preference is for a life of disobedience, we have a problem; a problem which isn’t fixed by having demons cast out of us but by a decision to be obedient. Sometimes we think we are better off because we are obedient in some areas but our God requires total obedience. As I heard a preacher say, “The word of God is not a buffet so we can’t pick and choose” what word we prefer to obey. This is a full meal served by God and we must obey it all.  

Isaiah 1: 19 “If you will only obey me, you will have plenty to eat.

Proverbs 7: 2 “Obey my commands and live! Guard my instructions as you guard your own eyes.

Unfortunately, at the end of the day the loss suffered from disobedience is ours. We suffer untold loss of blessings because we are obstinate. God dislikes disobedience so much He likens it to witchcraft. So why would any adult believer think it is okay? Saul lost an entire Kingdom just for partial obedience. Like a lot of us, he may have thought he had outsmarted God by obeying some of His instruction. Just like us, he may have thought after all why would God be so mean as to punish him when he obeyed most of His instructions? I am certain that Saul never thought his action would cost him his crown. Who would have thought that the loss of the Kingdom could be the consequence of his action?

1 Samuel 15: 23 “Rebellion is as sinful as witchcraft and stubbornness as bad as worshipping idols. So because you have rejected the command of the Lord, he has rejected you as king.”

We have suffered too much loss to continue like this. We either choose to obey God or leave pursuing a life in Christ. Obedience is one of the requirements of following Him and God already counsels that we must count the cost of following Him before we make the decision for Him. It is not being fair to ourselves if we choose a faith we cannot enjoy the full benefits of. God has made His desire clear; He desires to bless people who would trust Him enough to obey Him. God desires children who don’t think they are wiser than He is so they obey Him instead of attempting to modify His instructions to suit them. Such people, thinking their way is better; insult God, albeit unwittingly, and are never able to conform to His image so that they end up looking nothing like God.  We must accept to submit to the Lordship of Christ so that we can be like Him here on earth.