Obedience: the key that unlocks it all

 
 That passage of scripture opens my eyes and catches my attention. Saul offered a sacrifice to the Lord but didn't obey what the Lord told Him to do and it cost him everything. God is more pleased with our simple acts of obedience than He is with our sacrifices!  How many times in my life have I disobeyed God and then sought to fix it with a sacrifice such as doing more the next time or fasting something etc? Or what about you, how many times have you rejected the voice of the Lord and in disobedience done something other than what the Lord has commanded of you? 
 
  This week has been an interesting week for me. A week of evaluation, a week of seeking answers, a week of growth. There isn't anything that I can pinpoint exactly because there has been so much that has transpired over the last 5 days. As a team we've spoken at 3-4 churches and seen numerous salvations, and seen God pour out His Spirit on people. One thing that we haven't seen much of this week is people being healed. Whatever your opinion is on healing is between you and God, but my opinion is based on the Word of God and that is the Truth that I stand on. The bible says that "by His stripes we are healed"(Isaiah 53:25, 1 Peter 2:24). it also says that we as believers will "lay hands on the sick and watch them recover"(Mark 16:18). Therefore I'll never stop praying for the sick, regardless of what my experiences is, the Bible is true and if God says it'll happen then I just need to keep walking in faith till my life reflects that Truth. 
 
 God is teaching me instant obedience because delayed obedience is simply disobedience and we only deceive ourselves if we try to justify our lack of obedience in any way. God is teaching me to hear His voice better, and to practice hearing His voice in various situations. I think that sometimes as christians we have this weird expectation that as soon as we become christians we are experts at everything. Or we have this thought that if God wants to speak or do something in our life then we'll just have this crazy encounter with God one night in our room and we'll be set. The truth of the matter is that God can do whatever He wants to, but while we should also seek Him out as much as we can and one way to seek Him is to practice hearing Him and discerning His voice. The Bible says in 1 John 4:1 to "test the Spirits to see if they are from God." I test the voice of God with small things so when big things come up I'm able to hear Him more clearly. One problem we have is knowing the voice of Our Shepard from the other voices that try to deceive Him and counterfeit His voice. I want to know my Shepards voice, because only His sheep truly it. Am I really one of His sheep if I don't know His voice?
 
This week we had the wonderful opportunity to hold a pastors conference and speak to almost 2 dozen Indian pastors about hearing the voice of God and humility. I kind of directed traffic for the team and assigned who would speak on what, but I had a slight opportunity to speak on both due to narrarating the meeting. What I spoke about in regards to humility came from Philippians 2. It says that Jesus was the perfect example of humility and He was obedient to God even to death. Humility is simply obedience to the One greater than you. Biblical humility is knowing God created greatness in you yet you submit to the greatness in Him because He is greater. I don't have time to go into it but God created us in His image and we are coheirs with Christ, don't practice false humility by talking down about yourself just always point to the greatness of God. 
 
Back to the point. Obedience is the key that unlocks everything that God has in store for us. Through obedience God is able to increase our favor and to trust us with more of Him. Have you ever thought that God only asks us to do things so we can draw closer to Him? Fasting is a great example of God asking us to draw closer to Him, yet many of us don't heed the voice of God and in return we don't get closer to Him. I personally want to increase my favor with God, and I want to be entrusted with more of Him. Jesus teaches us in Matthew 24:21 in the parable of talents that if we are faithful over a few things then we'll be in charge of many things. I want my life to be marked by my obedience to the Lord and I want Him to entrust me with more and more as I continue to reach those He sends me to. Remember that we've been entrusted with this gospel and only through obedience to Him will we find fulfillment in life and step into our heavenly destiny.