30 Days of Encouragement - Day 13

As Believers in Jesus Christ, we work diligently on ourselves. We do all we know to do. We examine ourselves and treat others right. We are loving, forgiving, and we fix the holes in our souls, we love the Lord.

We are humble, we are giving, we stand on the Word, we use our faith, we break the power of the devil, and we serve others. So now, what is the hold-up on the blessing? Where is my stuff?

Christians come in all sizes, shapes, and colors. There are more denominations than can be counted and as many accompanying doctrines. All based on scriptural interpretation.

Whatever our differences our commonality, the thing that makes us Christians is our un-denying belief that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, that He died for our sin, that He rose from the dead, and if we put our trust in Jesus Christ, we will have everlasting life.

This is the bond that makes us Believers; not shoes, stockings, make-up hair, food, drink, movies, or television. This commonality of believing the resurrection power through the shed blood of Jesus makes us one.

Just as we have a common bond that makes us 'Believers', we have a common mistake that costs us dearly. Many who are weak in the faith faint because of this simple mistake.

What is this mistake? What is it that shipwrecks some? What robs us of our zeal, our passion? It is the subtlety of disobedience. Now, let's be realistic, none of us are perfectly obedient. This is why I am talking to mature believers.

Mature Believers, understand the purpose of the blood and the redemption through Christ.

You understand that we need the wisdom that is freely given and the power of the Holy Spirit to obey and follow the leading of the Lord.

I am saying Believers who have been in the Word for a while, Believers who know, the voice of the Lord, and who know when He is giving specific instructions; when we do not obey them when He gives them, we are disobedient. [I include myself in this... I am good for saying, "Wait till I finish this..."]

The babe in Christ is just learning, and this is not for them. This is for us old-heads who declare that we know the voice of God and we know the leading of the Holy Spirit. We prophesy, speak in tongues, lay hands on the sick, lead congregations, but are disobedient to His voice.

Mature Believers have no excuse. We have the Romans 5:1-5 experience. We KNOW some things. We know tribulation works patience, and patience hope. We know hope makes us not ashamed because the LOVE OF GOD is shed throughout our hearts by the Holy Ghost who is given to us.

When we choose to disobey, we cut off our blessing. Doing it on our time, acting like we don't hear the instruction, and ignoring the instruction are all acts of disobedience.

We don't know what act of obedience is tied to what prayer. For example, If I am believing God for finances, He may tell me to do something that in my mind is completely unrelated. But, if I don't do it when He tells me to, I can be the hindrance to receiving the answer to my prayer for finances.

We don't know what blessing is tied to our obeying God. When He says call your mother today and tell her you love her. It would be best not to try and figure out why He wants you to make the call, just make the call.

Maybe you are not on good terms with your mother, and obeying this instruction will be difficult for you. But, instead of going to the Lord and talking it over with Him, instead of asking Him to give you the strength to perform the task. You play around with it, taking your time to obey. You put it off. You are disobedient.

We have to recognize that our finances, our health, and the victory for our teenagers may all tied up in obedience to this one instruction.

God rarely asks us to do the easy stuff. If it were easy and if we could do it under our power, we would take the credit for it.

God wants to demonstrate His power to us through our faith, our confidence, our obedience to His Word. We won't let Him, because we won't obey His instructions.

I hear preachers ask, "Where are the miracles of the past?". And, I am sure the Lord is asking, "Where is the obedience of the past?

Being half obedient is being fully disobedient. We miss our blessing because we don't move when and how we should.

What do we tell God? "Right now, I am busy". "I am scared", "I will do it later." "Why do I have to do that?".

I know that we forget that God is who He is. [Thank God for His mercy and grace]

Now means, right now. Just like you expect your children to move when you say move and not when they feel like it, that is how we should move when the Lord gives us instructions.

We’ve all seen the movies. The good guys and the bad guys are fighting. One of the bad guys sneaks up on a good guy. He aims his gun at one of the good guys. The good guy's partner sees it and yells, "Duck Henry!" POW! the bad guy fires the gun.

The scene goes into slow motion as we watch he good guy Henry. He doesn’t think. He trusts the voice of his partner, he obeys his voice. He quickly moves his head. He is saved! YAY!

Not obeying his partner would have meant, splat, bullet right in the face. Immediate obedience saved his life. Do you see the analogy?

We should be like Henry and just obey. But, no, we still want God to move for us in the realm of our understanding. Many things He tells us to do don’t make sense to us. But why should it?

He knows the end from the beginning, we don't. He sees everything at the same time and knows what should be done by any of us at any point in time, we don't. We see and know in part. We should practice listening and obeying His instructions.

Without faith, it is impossible to please God – when we obey God and do things His way, we are using our faith. The result will always please God and give credit to God and God alone.

We have missed receiving husbands, wives, children, material things, emotional peace, fantastic discoveries. All because we didn’t move when God told us to move.

Let's start today working to improve our obedience.

Be Blessed [Deuteronomy 28:1]