Obey: means to carry out instructions; to be guided or controlled.
In Acts chapter 9, as most of you know Saul is converted on the road leading to Damascus. The Lord Jesus Christ appears to him in a bright light which leaves Saul blind. He eventually is lead into the city to the house of a man named Judas (not Iscariot) and remains there for 3 days and nights; he doesn't drink or eat anything for those 3 days. Meanwhile, the Lord Jesus appears to a man named Ananias, who he instructs to go to a certain street, to a certain house and inquire about a man named Saul from Tarsus.
Now, Ananias is a follower of Jesus Christ, and knows of Sauls' reputation. When instructed by the Lord to go and heal him, he did what Moses did, when instructed to go to the Pharoah. He made up an excuse. In his words he says "Lord, I have heard by many of this man, how much evil he hath done to thy saints at Jerusalem: And here he hath authority from the chief priests to bind all that call on thy name"
Now, the funny thing is Ananias wasn't telling the Lord anything he didn't already know about. I think alot of us, including myself, try to inform God of our fears and problems when He knows very well of our weaknesses. Despite his excuse the Lord tells him: "Go thy way: for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel: For I will shew him how great things he must suffer for my name's sake." Suffering is a tool God uses to teach obedience (Hebrews 5:8)
So Ananias goes to the house of Judas, and when he goes in he finds Saul praying. Now this is the best part so read carefully, the first thing Ananias says to Saul is "Brother Saul". He loved Paul like a brother, despite what he had done to his fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. Ananias obeyed the Lord, and the result was the making of one of the greatest Apostles of Christ, that has ever been. All because someone obeyed what they were told to do.
How often are we controlled by emotions? How often do our emotions make us give in to things that we wouldn't normally do? If you are like me, many times. But the Bible teaches us some valuable things about obedience, and how to overcome our emotions so that we can obey what is right . . .
First, we must change our desires. All of us are going to have wants, and needs but we fool ourselves by thinking that we can fulfill all those with material possesions. In Psalm 73:25 the psalmist says "Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee" Above all things we must desire God.
Why? because an evil act always begins with an evil desire, Psalm 141 :4 says "Incline not my heart to any evil thing, to practise wicked works with men that work iniquity: and let me not eat of their dainties" Paul says in the New Testament "James 1:14 But each one is tempted when he is drawn awayby his own evil desires and enticed." It is clear that our desires must change.
You must make your desire for God top priority. Acts 21:13-14, Paul and many others in the Bible sacrificed their lives, because God's desire was different than their own. Jesus knew God's desire was for Him to die on the cross, so he yielded His own desire, and did the will of the Father.
The Bible also warns us not to give in to ungodly desires (Jude 1:18-19)
So it is clear that their desires gave birth to their obedience. The sad fact is, we desire our own wants and needs so much, that we eventually fall back into sin. But we can change that, by asking God to replace our old desire, with a desire to please Him only. Like the old saying goes "You don't break a habit, you just replace it with a new one"
Jesus Christ in John 14:15 says "If ye love me, keep my commandments." Basically what he is saying is, if you love me, then prove it. What are we saying about ourselves if we tell people we are Christians yet, we don't do what the Lord Jesus commanded us to do? Proverbs 19:16 says "He that keepeth the commandment keepeth his own soul; but he that despiseth his ways shall die" How can that be? because when we obey the Lord Jesus, our soul is secure, but when we revert back to our old selves, then we will die. Jesus said to make every effort to enter through the narrow gate of repentance.
Romans 6:16 says "Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?" In other words, if you are a slave to sin, then God is NOT your Father. Jesus said in John "if God were your Father, you would do the WORKS of God" If we habitually sin and call God our Father, we decieve ourselves. Luke 11:28 says "But he said, Yea rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it." We are blessed if we keep the word of God! why? because it puts us on the path of righteousness, which leads to purification. 1 Peter 1:22 says "Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently" our souls are purified through obedience, why? because when we obey the word of God, we do the works of God, which means God is our Father and He abides in our hearts.
Jesus commanded us to "love eachother, as you love yourself" why? because Romans 13:10 says "Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law." Love fulfills the Law. One of the things that really hit me is James 2:26 "faith without works is dead" if we have all the faith in the world and have not works, we have no faith at all. Paul said, "if I have faith to move mountains, but have not love, I AM NOTHING"
What are the benefits of obedience?
Matthew 5:8 says "Blessed the pure in heart, for they will see God." In Psalm 37:25 it says "I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread." two things are promised in that passage. The righteous will never be forsaken, and we will have all of our needs met. James 5:16 says " Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much." the prayers of a righteous person is powerful and brings forth fruit! and Hebrews 6:10 says "For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love, which ye have shewed toward his name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister." we will be rewarded for our obedience.
This is the final statement I will make in this thread. In 1 Peter 2:24 it says "Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed." That we being DEAD TO SINS, should LIVE UNTO RIGHTEOUSNESS. Our job is to pursue righteousness and the only way to do that, is by obeying Jesus' commands.
Jesus paid a debt He didn't owe, because we owed a debt we couln't pay.
God bless all of you,
Matt
