The ABCs Of Christian Survival And Growth Reviewing 3A & 3B Obedience

I'm going to betray my outline a little here, because the messages regarding: He made it all & He made all of the rules and gave us a choice, are too inter-linked to separate. So I hope you'll forgive the length of this message. It's out of loving concern that some take these things too lightly that I offer it ...

Obedience ... a word not often associated by most children today with freedom, blessing or exciting promise. In fact, some adults regard it as optional or may even set themselves against it in defiance. In the world's perspective it's becoming something to be scorned and dismissed with arrogance as foolish boundaries imposed on personal freedoms and choices. In rebellion many live lives are set against it as though it were a challenge to their personal "rights" or a risky competition that adds "excitement" to life that is played out in their lives like a game of chance.

The record of God seems to show that these attitudes began with a being far more powerful and influential than we are. He was once great and powerful among the host of heaven far beyond any position we might hold in the earth. He had been blessed by our God to have authority and importance that far surpassed our own. But his spirit of defiance and self importance led him to rebel against the command for obedience and the requirement of humility before God. He's still so obsessed with his self supposed "rights" and importance that he continues to incite and promote those same attitudes and spirit in the earth among us now. It's his spirit that infects the earth and the hearts and minds of those who rebel against authority ... but only for a time. He's allowed for a time to tempt and test the spirits and hearts of men with his spirit of defiance, self importance and rebellion because it serves God's purpose.

But lucifers' fouled spirit possessed with his own self importance, self will and God given glory, authority and power immediately separated him from God. He created division among the host of heaven and rose up against our God to assert himself as a supreme power and authority - but he missed something. Something that men blinded by the same diseased thinking that lucifer possessed are missing today ... God gave it ... God can take it away.

What I'm about to say is heavy and in the face of those who are secretly of rebellious spirit even in small things, yet surface compliant. But it's with loving fear for their futures that I would point out that our Father watches with great discerning interest, our every motive and thought. There is only one supreme and true authority over everything that exists and it's He who has irrevocably determined right and wrong, good and evil.

There is only one with the power to give power and one authority to give authority. With all of the power and influence that lucifer possessed, he could not overpower the authority that gave him power - so of course, he lost. His rebellion got him kicked out of heaven. Instead of victory, his sense of self importance and self will got him stripped of everything God had given him and made him less than worthless. For all that he once held - given by God's grace, he's now worthless other than his worth to help bring about God's supreme plan. He even lost his name. However great lucifer was by God's grace is now equal to the negative value he possesses as satan today. However great his future in God's service was, is now equal to the negative value his future holds today. He lost everything, but not only did he lose what he had to be restored to a zero value as though he never existed, he now possesses a future that holds the exact opposite of what his obedience to God would have made him an heir to. He made himself an enemy of God by his attitude. Satan made a choice to be disobedient. It's the same choice that the same God - our God makes available to us now. We too have the choice to be diobedient, but with the same damning consequence made known to us as example. There is no other outcome because there is no other supreme authority than our God and He hasn't changed even one tiniest minutia of a fraction.

Our God is the ultimate authority. It's His way or the highway. There is no gray area, no other alternative and no allowance other than what He's chosen to make. It's black and white. night versus day, crystal clear and inescapable - get obedient to God or go to hell. Some choose to view the word hell as a dirty word - something we shouldn't say. My friends, I'm sure that satan views it as a dirty word too, but our Gods says it's a place. It's a place that God created as a reward for satan's disobedience - a place for him to "rule" with his self proclaimed authority and power. A place where he will rule over subjects who by choice, choose to have the same mindset of disobedience and non-compliance to God.

But our God is not negative. By examining His Word, we come to realize that in fact, our God is all things positive. It's His great hope and desire that we, who He created in His image will choose to magnify that image in our lives to become His fit companions - His family, forever in heaven. I believe by His perspective, that this IS NOT the life He created us for. By having the discipline to read His Word :) , I've come to realize that in fact, this existence we live now is only a moment of God's sorting, discerning who will choose to accept the position He gives us and adhere to what He's declared to be true. By choosing to accept and adhere to what He's declared, this existence then becomes a period of education and training - preparation for the life He intended for us. From the moment we choose, we begin to experience the fruit of the life we've chosen. Failing to choose or choosing to ignore is making a choice not to adhere to what He has ordained and we thereby become heir to what we have chosen our future to be. He's not negative, if there's anything negative, relative to our lives - we choose it.

Obedience ... a word not often associated by most children today with freedom, blessing or exciting promise ... but a key by which we choose our future. It's also a very important key to receiving all of those promises of God we've heard about. As I said in the introduction to this section " no good father rewards his children for disobedience and your true Father is as good as good gets!" So if we fail in our obedience, it's foolish to think we should receive His blessings and promises in our lives. "He's not going to stop being good, so in order to change this situation, we have to change. There's no other way."

I face the same dilemmas and tests of choice as any other and it shouldn't surprise any one that I confess truthfully that I'm not 100% successful either. But our Lord knows our weakness - it's part of His design to sort and test. We demonstrate our desire - who we are, by continually striving to do better in our obedience to His will and decrees ... even in the little things. By encouraging, supporting and reminding each other, we sharpen and help each other in our efforts and are judged in our compliance - our obedience, even in these things ...

I love you. Walk in His Spirit.

Jeff