I Samuel 15:22 NKJV
So Samuel said: “Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, As in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, And to heed than the fat of rams.
Beloved,
As notably seen in the lives of believers in this generation, many Christians struggle to obey God in certain areas. The devil loves to give alternatives to exact obedience to God. He will do his best to confuse man into thinking an instruction is more complicated than it actually is or that it doesn’t matter how serious we take the instruction given. There are especially three kinds of instructions he takes his time especially to distort or minimize.
Difficult instructions to obey:
1. Instructions that come with what appears to be potential negative consequences. Such instructions cannot be avoided, you just have to pray for and obtain grace to go through that season. God instructed Abraham to leave all that was familiar to him for an unknown place. God instructed Hosea to marry a prostitute to drive home a point. Daniel and his friends refused to bow to the golden statue at the risk of being burned alive. It may have been difficult for these people to obey God, but God gave them the grace that made it easy. Instructions are precious gifts from God so we must not avoid them.
2.Instructions that are personally communicated to you from God.
Because the communication that brought that instruction is between just you and God, it is easy to ignore since others cannot verify its validity. God may ask you to be waking up between the hours of 1am-3am every day to pray for the next 3 months, but because you love your sleep, you are silent about God’s instruction so that no one will hold you accountable.
God may instruct you to give a substantial donation towards a kingdom project, but because you have been eyeing a particular car/apparel/house/jewelry/whatever, you did not disclose that instruction to anyone until that burden quietly leaves by itself. Don’t train yourself to disobey what God has instructed. Your obedience to that instruction when nobody sees or knows pleases God and compels rewards.
3. Instructions void of immediate gratification or results tend to be disobeyed. The characteristic and quality of believers is in trusting the One we cannot see yet we believe exist. The instruction of God to the children of Israel to walk round Jericho without a sound definitely wouldn’t make sense to them or even their spectators, but they ‘foolishly’ obeyed, and God brought them a mighty victory.
The instruction of God to the children of Israel to apply the blood of a lamb to the doorposts and lintels of their houses may not have made sense to some. But by morning, those who disobeyed that instruction regretted it. Our obedience to God is proof of our love for and our devotion to Him. So if you claim to love God, let it not be hard for you to obey Him in those areas highlighted.
I commend you to God and to the word of His grace.
I call you blessed. I call you NATIONS.
