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OBEDIENCE – NOT MY WILL, BUT THY WILL BE DONE Luke
6:46 And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say? God is calling for His children to a more intimate walk with Him. Obedience is needed for that intimate walk. God is calling for us to let go of things that hinder us from running this race. Obedience is needed to lay aside every weight that so easily beset us. God is calling for obedience. Not my will, but THY WILL BE DONE. So many times we think because we have sacrificed so much
that we have nothing to worry about. It’s
not the sacrifice that God is looking at; it is your obedience to His Word.
Behold it is better to obey than to sacrifice. If we are truly honest some of our sacrifices aren’t
really sacrifices, but an alternative to doing what God has told us to do.
God doesn’t want us substituting sacrifices for His what He has asked
us to do, He wants obedience. Not
only does He want it, His Word says that it is needed to enter into the Kingdom.
Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the
kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven
(Mat 7:21) Disobedience will cause you to miss your blessings, it will cause you to miss your inheritance, and it will cause death. Deny yourselves, take up My Cross and follow Me. Let’s look at what disobedience did for some of the men of God: Let’s start with Adam: Gen
2:16-17 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the
garden thou mayest freely eat: But
of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in
the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. God made it plain,
no parables. Don’t touch the tree
of knowledge of good and evil. If
you eat the fruit you will die. How
simple is that? Look what Adam allowed to happen and what is cost them. Gen 3:16-17 Unto
the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in
sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; (Ladies
what Eve did for us?) and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall
rule over thee. And unto Adam he
said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of
the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is
the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy
life; Gen 3:24
So he drove out the man; Adam, kicked out of the
Garden of Eden. He had everything
at his fingertips, and allowed a piece of fruit to get him expelled from his
kingdom. Was it worth it? No. Not my will, but Thy will be done
There
was Moses, the great intercessor: Num
20:7-8 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, How simple is that
request? Once again, no parable, a simple statement. SPEAK TO THE ROCK. Look at what Moses did: Num
20:10-11 And Moses and Aaron gathered the congregation together before the rock,
and he said unto them, Hear now, ye rebels; must we fetch you water out of
this rock? And Moses lifted up his hand, and with his rod he smote the
rock twice: and the water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank,
and their beasts also. Why didn’t Moses
obey? Why did he allow his anger for the people to cause him to disobey the
Lord? Look at what his
disobedience cost him. Not my will but Thy will be done. God never told
Moses to speak to the people or strike the rock. He told him to speak to the rock. Num 20:12 And
the LORD spake unto Moses and Aaron, Because ye believed me not, to
sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not
bring this congregation into the land which I have given them. Because of Moses disobedience he was denied going into the Promise Land. The Lord allowed Him to see it, but He was not allowed to journey in with the children of Israel. (Read Numbers 20:1-13). Moses prayed in hopes of changing God’s mind, after all he had done it before for the children of Israel, surely God would change His mind and allow him to enter into the promise land. Moses prayed, yet none of his prayers moved God. Finally the Lord said “Enough, speak no more to Me of this matter” (Dt 3:23-26). Can you imagine how Moses felt when God said “Enough”? You don’t want God to say enough. You don’t want to hear God say that. Or do you?
And
let us not forget what David did: 2Sa 11:2 –3..
and from the roof he saw a woman washing herself; and the woman was very
beautiful to look upon. And David
sent and enquired after the woman. And one said, Is not this Bathsheba, the
daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite? 2Sa 11:4-5 And
David sent messengers, and took her; and she came in unto him, and he lay
with her;..And the woman conceived, and sent and told David, and said, I am
with child. 2Sa 11:14-15 And
it came to pass in the morning, that David wrote a letter to Joab, and sent it
by the hand of Uriah. And he wrote in the letter, saying, Set ye Uriah in the
forefront of the hottest battle, and retire ye from him, that he may be smitten,
and die. It wasn’t enough that David had slept with the man’s wife and gotten her pregnant, now he wanted him dead. 2Sa 12:13-14 And
David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the LORD. And Nathan said unto
David, The LORD also hath put away thy sin; thou shalt not die.
Howbeit, because by this deed thou hast given great occasion to the
enemies of the LORD to blaspheme, the child also that is born unto thee shall
surely die. Remember what the
Word says: Jam 1:15 Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin:
and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. Look what one night
of passion cost him, he became a murderer and he lost his child.
Was it worth it? No. What will your disobedience cost you? Will it cost
you a love one? Not my will, but Thy will be done.
Do you understand what you do to the Lord when you disobey him, especially when we sin willfully? No, I don’t think you do. Let me share a story with you about how God feels when you sin willfully.
“LESSON IN OBEDIENCE FROM AN EARRING ” Once more I am sharing my personal life lessons with you. Hoping that you will realize how much God loves you and what you do to Him when you deliberately sin. In sharing this story, I had to talk with my son, because it was also his story. He was very willing to share what he calls his “EARRING STORY” with you. It was the year of my oldest son’s graduation, and it
was getting close to Grad Night. I
was so excited my first child to graduate.
To any parent this means a lot, but to me it was extra special.
As a single mother raising four kids, there was talk that they would drop
out of school without a man in the house. But
they didn’t know about the Man that lived in our house, His name was
Jesus, and with Him in our home nothing was impossible. My son and I had different views on things, as with most
teenagers. One thing we disagreed
on was men with pierced ears. My stand was not in my house, no discussion.
He knew how strongly I was against it.
I would always tell him that Jesus didn’t have his ear pierced.
I told him if he was going to get his ear pierced, he might as well get a
dress and high heels to go along with it. Still he would bring the conversation
about getting his ear pierced and how good he would look. No ear pierced in my
house and that was that, or so I thought. It was the day of Grad night and I was just getting home
from work. Usually when I get home
you could hear their laughter from the street, but this day as I pulled into the
carport I didn’t hear a sound. Maybe they were actually doing their housework, no too good
to be true. My kids spoke in a
quiet tone as I walk in the house, and they slowly eased their way to their
room. I didn’t see my oldest son
around so I assumed he was getting ready for grad night. As he came out of his
room a blinding light from his ear startled me.
It appeared to be the biggest diamond I had ever seen (I’m
exaggerating, it was the same size earring that babies get in their ear, you
know how we mothers get). I
couldn’t believe it, my son; my child had deliberately gone out and gotten his
ear pierced. He began to tell me
that he saved his lunch money to get his ear pierced, so he felt that made it
alright (it was still my money, he wasn’t working yet).
My first thought was to grab him and rip the earring out of his ear.
I stood there not believing that he had done this, after all the
conversations that we had had before. How
could he do this? My first thought was to tear in on his butt, however I
knew if I grabbed him then I would have killed him. Yes, I was just that upset.
The thought of my son willingly disobeying me was too much to bear. I
turned and went in my room not knowing what to do at that moment.
I fell on my knees that were the only thing I could think to do to calm
me down, because my chest had started hurting.
I came from the room and called my son. “Come here” I told him.
He stood there not moving. “Didn’t
you hear me? Come here” I said. My
son slowly moved “Momma you’re take the earring out of my ear” “ My
friends know I got my ear pierced, I want to wear it to Grad Night” he said. “ Boy if you don’t …” I started.
My son came over and with tears in both our eyes; I anointed his ear and
started praying. I can’t tell you
where the strength came from to pray, because I was so upset and so hurt over
what he had done. I felt as if my
heart was going to explode. I finished praying for his ear and told him to go ahead
and get dressed for Grad night. I
didn’t see the need to continue to rant and rave, we would finish this
tomorrow, my heart hurt too much to continue tonight. As I went in my
room, I could hear my other kids slowly coming out of theirs’.
I can laugh now, because it seems so funny that they stayed out of the
way the hold time the discussion was going on.
When I closed my room door, I could hear them talk to their brother about
what he had done. My younger son
saying, he couldn’t believe he did that. They all joined in on the
conversation, me all I wanted was for the pain I was feeling to leave. I opened my bible, but couldn’t read for the tears
still coming out of my eyes. I
couldn’t stop the tears from falling, and I couldn’t explain why it hurt so
badly. I fell on my knees again,
this time crying out to the Lord to stop the pain I was feeling. To help me understand why my child had willingly disobeyed
me. Asking the Lord to forgive him for being disobedient, and to protect him
while he was out with his friends. I
stayed in prayer before the Lord most of the night, crying out and trying to
figure why I couldn’t let this go. “It’s
only an earring, not the end of the world,” I told myself. Still the pain
continued. Somewhere around midnight the Lord spoke.
“My child what you are feeling is a portion of what I feel when My
children willingly disobey Me. I
feel what you feel, and yes it hurts. It
hurts when our children know the truth and yet they disobey.
If only they knew, if only they knew. Your pain is great, never forget
this night, and the pain that you feel, it will keep you close to my heart. I
will heal you of your pain. I will
remove it, I will remove it. Rest
now, all is well. I stayed on my knees thinking of what the Lord had said.
Tears continued to fall from my eyes as I thought of the many times I did
things, knowing that they were wrong. Thinking of the pain I had caused my
Savior. To be honest I never thought of God having feelings, I never thought of
how He felt about the things I did. I didn’t know, I just didn’t know.
I closed my prayer asking forgiveness for the times I caused Him pain.
Asking for wisdom to keep me from hurting Him again. I know that I
wasn’t perfect, and that I would make mistakes again (For we all have sinned
and fallen short to the Glory of God), but I didn’t want to deliberately do
anything to cause Him pain. When I came out of the room, my children were still up
watching TV. They wanted to know if
I was all right. My younger
promised that he would never get his ear pierced (to this day he hasn’t).
I watched TV with them for a while then went to bed. The next day, my older son and his friend that had spent
the night awakened me. I heard my son saying, “What happened to my earring?”
“Where is my earring?” .
I his friend replied, “ I don’t know”.
“Momma, you told God to close up my ear,” he said.
“What are you talking about?” I asked.
The strangest thing had happened. When
my son when to sleep the night before, his left ear was pierced.
He had gone to sleep on his left side (I guess to keep me from going in
the room and taking out the earring) When he got up the next day he found his
earring across the room, over to the right, opposite of where he had slept.
The backing was still on the earring, and his ear was completely closed.
He and his friend had tried to put the earring back into the ear, but
there was no hole. They stopped
trying after moments of pain and blood came from the ear.
“Momma you told the Lord to close up my ear,” he repeated.
“No, I asked the Lord to heal your ear and keep it from being
infected” I told him. I don’t
think he believed me because he once more repeated,” You told Him to close it
up”. His friend said “ Man
I’ve got to go, I’ll talk with you later”
My children spent the rest of the day talking about the
earring incident and tried to figure out how it happened.
I thought back to my prayer with the Lord and the words He spoke the
night before. When He said, “ I
will remove it, I will remove it”, I thought He was talking about removing my
pain. Could He have been talking
about the earring? Only God knows. My son still tells this story today about the day God
closed his ear. (Oh yes, my son didn’t get his ear pierced again while he
stayed under my roof) Talk about
the power of God.
Please take a good look at your life. You don’t want God
to say to you “Enough”. You
don’t want your disobedience to cost you your life, or the life of a loved one.
We all want to hear the Lord say: Well done, good and faithful
servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over
many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord. (Mat 25:23). Remember the things
I have spoken unto you. Not
every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of
heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. (Mat 7:21)
See that you honor My Will, not your will.
Surrender your will to Me. So
that you may boldly say “ It is no longer I that liveth, but Christ lives in
me” God gave His only
Son for us, He gave us His best, and all that He asks is that we love Him with
all of our hearts, soul and mind. If
we love Him according to His Word we would obey His Will.
What has God
asked you to do that you haven’t done? What have you done, that He didn’t
ask you to do? Repent and renew your vows to the Lord. He is waiting; it’s not too late. Hasn’t He suffered enough for us? Wasn’t His Son’s blood enough? Not my
will, but Thy will be done.
Have you made Jesus weep? Deny
yourselves, take up My cross and follow Me. I will be
with you through the storms; I will be with you when no one else will.
What they offer is only temporary it won’t last.
My love for you will last all eternity. I
need you to follow Me. Let go of
all your past mistakes, they can’t hurt you anymore.
I need you to
be ready, many things are going to happen, don’t be concern with the cares of
this world. I need you to be ready,
ready to follow Me. Stay focused on
what I have told you, it will come to pass.
Pray the way will open, pray and fast for your strength, pray and fast to
break the yokes. Stay with Me, Seek
Me, Seek My Face. Come sup with Me. I
want you to seek Me in the inner courts, in the place of intimacy.
Don’t be content to stay outside, but come, come into My presence, to
sit at My feet, to hear My voice, you must know My Will.
I am calling you into a life of obedience; I am calling you into My inner
courts. Rise up early and come. Come,
be refreshed, be changed, I will make you new; I will transform that broken
heart, transformed in My presence. Transformed by My Will,
Transformed by My Way. LET MY WILL
BE DONE IN YOUR LIFE.
If you were arrested for being a
Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you? NEWSLETTER - ISSUE # 18 2/24/03 |
