OBEDIENCE

The WAY to LIFE

“The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,
Arise, and go down to the potter’s house,
and THERE I will cause thee to hear my words”
JEREMIAH 18:2

Had not Jeremiah obeyed the voice of the LORD to go to the potter’s house, he would never have known of the Word of the Lord found THERE and only there. Obedience precedes the ministry of God’s LIVING Word. In our day we have many, many teachers; “revelations” coming forth from countless expressions. “Knowledge has increased” but with this increase in knowledge there has not been an increase in FAITH. Why is this? It is because much of revelation is taught as teachings that men may hold in the intellect without the corresponding call to OBEDIENCE. We hear a lot about “just believe” and God will bring it to pass; the prophecies given must come to pass for God has said it; the promises given are sure and true; just believe. But we must remember that God’s Word always requires obedience, faith and personal RESPONSE. Consider the prophetic words given to Timothy….

“This charge I commit to you, son Timothy,
according to the prophecies previously made concerning you,
that by THEM you may wage the good warfare”
1 TIMOTHY 1:18

Paul says concerning his own life…

“Do you not know that those who run in a race all run,
but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it.
And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things.
Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown,
but we for an imperishable crown.
Therefore I run thus: not with uncertainty.
Thus I FIGHT: not as one who beats the air.
But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection,
lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified”
1 CORINTHIANS 9:24 – 27

The purpose of all teaching and ministry is to set before the people of God, the MARK, the PRIZE which is the LORDSHIP OF JESUS CHRIST. The ministration of the WORD should be setting forth the true cry of the Holy Spirit to every believer to “Run in such a way” that the people of God MAY OBTAIN IT! May we be saved from the Gospel of believe-ism and be brought into the Gospel that is the POWER of GOD unto salvation because it is declared through vessels who know the weight of obedience, the ferocity of the fight of FAITH and the KEEPING POWER OF OUR GOD. Any ministration that does not include the accountability of the believer unto his God, the necessity of the fear of the Lord, and the call of God unto a life of obedience is lacking in vision. True revelation brings men and women into the place of beholding HIM and in the seeing of HIM we know the fear of the Lord and the awesome Glory of God.

“Moreover, brethren,
I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud,
all passed through the sea,
all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea,
all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink.
For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them,
and that Rock was Christ. But with most of them God was not well pleased,
for their bodies were scattered in the wilderness.
Now these things BECAME OUR examples,
to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted.
And do not become idolaters as were some of them. As it is written,
“The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.”
Nor let us commit sexual immorality, as some of them did,
and in one day twenty-three thousand fell; nor let us tempt Christ,
as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed by serpents;
nor complain, as some of them also complained,
and were destroyed by the destroyer.
Now all these things happened to them as examples,
and THEY WERE WRITTEN FOR OUR ADMONITION,
upon whom the ends of the ages have come”
1 CORINTHIANS 10:1 – 11

God is looking for disciples and soldiers; men and women who not only recognize the cost of following Jesus, but have found (or are in the process of discovering) that it is by the power of HIS LIFE operating in us that these become realities. Faith is the only means by which the teaching of discipleship becomes the everyday life of the believer.

Ω

“You are but a poor soldier of Christ
if you think you can overcome without fighting
and suppose you can have the crown without conflict”

John Chrysostom

Brian Troxel