Tag: Character

Me, God and Obedience

I’ve been reading through the book of 1 Samuel over the last few days and I thought I should share some of my thoughts with you today.

As I am reading through, I realise that one of the biggest themes running through this book is Obedience. We first encountered this through the prophet Eli and his sons. Eli’s sons lived a very immoral life and did not follow the commandments of God. They disobeyed God in how they treated the sacrifices of the people. Eli was judged, because he did not caution his children. He shared in their disobedience by not disciplining them and by eating out of the portion of the sacrifice that was not meant for the priest. The consequence was that the priesthood was taken away from Eli and his descendants and death and suffering was introduced into the family. There was a generational curse that would limit the descendants of Eli, even though they had nothing to do with the initial disobedience. (1 Samuel 2:27-36)

Additionally, his disobedience caused the glory to be temporarily taken away from Israel. (1 Samuel 4:11, 21)

The disobedience continues with Saul after he became king. In his heart, he desired the approval and praise of men rather than the approval of God. His reign was so much about keeping appearances that he broke the protocol and made the sacrifice that was not his place to make. (1 Samuel 15:1-10 ;15:20-26)

He gives three reasons for his disobedience: (1 Samuel 13:8-11)

  1. The Philistines (his enemies) were closing in on him.
  2. The people were afraid and scattering away from him.
  3. Samuel had not arrived at the time that he said he would.

To be very honest and frank these are the reason that I also sometimes feel inclined or tempted to disobey God. We often go off and do things in our own understanding because God is taking too long. We are convinced that God is late – that he cannot tell time or that he doesn’t understand the pressure that we are facing. What is very interesting in that story is that Saul had already waited for 7 days. 7 days was the exact number of days he was instructed to wait (vs.8). It was on the 7th day when the appointed hour had come that he gave up the wait and made the sacrifice. The full instructions was that he should wait for the 7 days at which time Samuel would make the sacrifice on behalf of the people. To him it was a small thing but to God it was a big deal. Partial obedience is still total disobedience.

“Waiting reveals the content of the heart. The longer you are left to wait the more of you will be revealed. You cannot outsmart time.”
ACMorgan

Here are the three things that we need to remember when we find ourselves being tempted to disobey.

  1. God is Bigger that our problems and greater than our adversities.
  2. God’s approval is more than a thousand confident votes of people.
  3. God is never late – He is the creator and the controller of time and space.

If we remember these three truths we will make our decisions based on what God wants and thinks and not what our situation is telling us to feel and do.
We need to understand God’s heart in order to understand why he would tell us to wait and why he would give us the instructions and commandments he does. I find that it is much easier to follow him when we do. God cares for us. He loves us and feels what we are feeling. He never wants us to be afraid or intimidated by our problems and challenges. His thoughts and plans for us are good, to prosper and not to harm us (Jeremiah 9:11). When problems do come our way God’s commitment is to make them turn into situations that will prosper and profit us. But he needs our cooperation to do this.

God is a god of process and principles. He lays them down for us in order for us to measure and test our hearts against. Anytime you find yourself in conflict with what He has said, we can step back and check our hearts for wrong motives and hidden agendas. It’s important to check and correct ourselves instead of forcing it, because we not only make mistakes, but we also miss out on the opportunity to grow in our character. God wants to change us as He is changing our circumstances. He can’t have old you in the middle of the new thing He is doing (Mattew 9:17). So, He needs change in the inside of you too.

My Prayer for you today, is that you hear God in a new way and that you will have the grace and the contrite heart to obey His word and will for your life. I pray that you receive clear instructions today from above about what you should and should’t do, in Jesus name.

You don’t need another Sacrifice!

In the old days people made blood sacrifices to atone for their sins and to gain the approval of God. New testament Christians do not have to do this anymore as Jesus came as the final and ultimate sacrifice, forever taken away any accusations that stand against us, paying the price for our penalty with His precious blood, once and for all.

However, we even with this awareness still seek out sacrifices that we can make to gain the approval of God, often because of the guilt of hidden sins or unintentional sins that exist in our lives. John the Baptist addresses this whilst preaching against the Pharisees and the Sadducees. They had come to be baptised along with the multitude of others who also came to be baptised. John stops them and says to them,

Bring forth fruit that is consistent with repentance [let your lives prove your change of heart]. (Matthew 3:8 AMP)

His words come across as being quite harsh and uncalled for, seeing that they came for the exact same purpose everyone else came. They were not doing anything wrong so why scold them so heavily? The scolding came out of the fact that the religious leaders were simply coming to the baptism as another religious activity and by implication to win the favor of God by appearing righteous. Yet, they were not displaying a character that was consistent with repentance.

How many of us seek deliverance services, prophetic words and prayer meetings to deal with the issues in our lives and to cover the shame and guilt that eats at us inside? We often think that the solution is in coming to church regularly, participating in all the activities and shouting ‘Amen’ to every word will bring the transformation we want to see in our lives. We queue up for prayers and sign up for outreach events and volunteering, when what we really need to do is truly repent in our hearts and bear the fruits that are consistent with repentance.

All of these other things like attending prayer meetings and even seeking out deliverance and prophetic counsel are good and important. They certainly have their place. But more importantly, what God wants from us is that we bear the fruits of repentance. That means that when we repent we become aware of our position in God and walk in a way that reflects our spiritual statues. God gives us the position of sons and daughters, but it is our responsibility to represent and grow into this position as well as possible. He wants us to bear the fruits of the spirit, which is not measured by our ability to speak in tongues, but in our relationship and dealing with people.

For anything to bear fruit, it needs to be planted, watered, nurtured, the ground needs to be tilled and the plant needs to be watched and cared for as required. In other words, it takes active work and effort on our path to make sure we bear the fruits we are required to.

There is no amount of prophecy, word of knowledge, wisdom or deliverance that can make us bear the fruits of repentance that God requires to see in us to release the blessings that He has for us. A tree that is mature will bear the fruits of its type. An Apple tree that is mature will bear fruits every year according to its season. There are certain blessings God cannot give us not because, we aren’t delivered, or because we don’t participate in religious disciplines, but simply because we are not yet bearing fruits that are consistent with what we say. What we are declaring and confessing we are is not consistent with what we do and how we act towards others. God wants consistency from us.

Let us daily take sincere outward steps as signs of our inward repentance so that the fruits we bear can attract others to the knowledge of Christ. And faithful is He to keep us from falling or slipping in our demonstration of Him.