When we listen to Jim, Floyd and even Joe they always hammer on the principle and importance of obedience. And even though we agree with them, yet we struggle to enforce it personally, corporately and as a discipline to others.
What we need to realise is the true importance and gravity of obedience and the massive role it plays in the kingdom of God. We’ve not spent time thinking of that much.
Heb 5:8-9 Even though Jesus was God’s Son, he learned obedience from the things he suffered. In this way, God qualified him as a perfect High Priest, and he became the source of eternal salvation for all those who obey him.
Jesus, even perfect, came into the world as a man and had to LEARN obedience. And he learned this obedience through suffering and hardship.
1 Peter1.22 You were cleansed from your sins when you obeyed the truth, so now you must show sincere love to each other as brothers and sisters. Love each other deeply with all your heart.
True obedience in the face of hardship has no discontent, murmuring or moaning in it. Think of the Israelites travelling through the wilderness. Their moaning angered the Lord. Even though they obeyed the Lord to some degree, they did it begrudgingly. And this reveals a heart that has not yielded everything to Jesus. Obeying in this fashion is the same as not obeying at all. Soon this moaning and discontent builds up to a place where we refuse to go forward and it ends up in rebellion or a disregard for the authority of God or the people he has place as authority above you. In their case Moses. Disobedience is an indication of disregard for authority.
The best way to reveal disobedience in our hearts is hardship and suffering. Let’s think of the past year. Hardships we’ve endured. We don’t have to think too far. The difficulty we sometimes face with the children at school, seemingly over full programs, the logs… and I have to repent. Many times I’ve moaned or murmured… even if simply under my breath. This reveals a heart that is not fully yielded to God. It reveals disobedience, being upset because of the instructions of those in authority above me. And mostly, disobedience to God, because He is the one who has delegated authority over me, placed me here in the first place and determined the path I should take.
In the wilderness this disobedience delayed the entrance into the Promised Land and a whole generation had to die out before they could claim the land.
In today’s terms the Promised Land is the Kingdom of God and God wants to establish his kingdom on the earth. Shortly defined the Kingdom of God is the place where his will reigns supreme and everybody honours his authority. In other words it’s a place where the subjects of the Kingdom- us- all fully obey him. “May you will be done, my your Kingdom come…”
But what is the vehicle God chose to use to establish his kingdom? Us, the church. We are the ones to establish his kingdom on the earth. But first the kingdom of God needs to be established in the church before we can establish it in the earth and in the nations.
Watchman Nee, Spiritual Man, says: “The Kingdom must be found in the Lord Jesus, before it can be established in the church; it needs to be implanted in the church before it can be secured among the nations. There can be no church without the Lord Jesus, and there can be no further extension of God’s kingdom without the church.”
We asked for the nations, haven’t we? God answered our prayers by giving us church. We cannot receive the nations before becoming church. Nowhere, not in the school, not in the expeditions, not in Brand On, Timion, Lxp… nowhere. Because the church is God’s way of reaching the nations.
The point is, just as the Israelites delayed their entry into Canaan. So we can delay our entry into the nations by not learning to be obedient in the church.
This is the gravity and seriousness of it all. And I believe this is what God called us for, and this is what we need to work at. It’s time to stop playing pretend church and become the church that God intended for us to be. Remember, our point of departure for church is in the different house churches. Regard that as if God himself ordered you to go there.
Obedience revolves around a healthy regard and recognition of authority. If our call to obey does not come directly from God it comes from those to whom he delegated as authority. To disregard delegated authority is to disregard God’s authority. Remember, Jesus was even obedient in the small things like paying temple and Roman tax.
We need to recognise when God gives someone the authority and we need to obey gladly, willingly. And not by moaning.