Connecting The Dots Week 4 - Obedience

Connecting The Dots Week 4

             “Obedience”

Key Verse: “Has the Lord as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of theLord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams.” (1 Samuel 15:22)

 In God’s economy, “obeying the voice of the Lord” amounts to agreement combined with action, divided by what we can know through both His written and Living Word by the Holy Spirit. (Hebrews 4:12-13) (John 14:26)

“For there are three that testify: the Spirit and the water and the blood; and the three are in agreement.  If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater; for the testimony of God is this, that He has testified concerning His Son.” (1 John 5:7-9)

If we come into agreement with the “greater” testimony of God concerning His Son we now have a choice to make; act on what we know to be true when hear it, or don’t.

“But everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger; for the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God. Therefore, putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls. But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was. But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does.” (James 1-19-25)

God always Loves us and calls us to Love, His desire is always for our good and the good of those who Love Him. Our obedience is always blessing for us when we choose it. "What does God seek to accomplish through any of us?" is a simple question with a simple answer. Every single thing we do that aligns us with the desire of His heart, which is found everywhere in His Word, is a move toward that end and is effectually obedience. We have been given the mind of Christ to know it and the freedom to walk in it. (1 Corinthians 2:11-16) 

“But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the Lord, “I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,” declares the Lord, “for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.” (Jeremiah 31:34)

“For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died; and He died for all,so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf.

Therefore from now on we recognize no one according to the flesh; even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him in this way no longer.” (2 Corinthians 5:16)

 

Discussion:

What are some things that God says are True which may require our immediate action, or even sometimes our inaction?

                  (Michah 6:8)

What blessings have you seen in your own lives as a result of agreeing with God, then doing what He says?

                   (Jeremiah 29:13)