The Answer 11

The principle of obedience is revealed in four ways:

Through nature

Through our created likeness and image of God

Through the work of Christ

Through a personal call from God

The fourth principle of obedience is revealed through a personal call from God.

When you stand before God, you can say that you didn’t understand that nature was a revelator, or that you didn’t really recognize the likeness of God to man or that you didn’t quite get the connection that Christ died so that you could live out a life of obedience to God - but what will you say about having heard the voice of God call you by name?

John 6:44

 44.  No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him:

John 3:17

 17.  For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

KJV 1 Timothy 2:1-4

 1.  I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men;

 2.  For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.

 3.  For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our

Saviour;

 4.  Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.

I believe that God has called you, just as He has called me, to obey Him.

I believe that God has spoken to you personally and addressed the issue of obedience.

Here’s the issue at hand:

The small still voice of God beckons you, (by the indwelling Holy spirit) to obey Him - and this message is received by your faith ears.

      The world’s voice is not a still small voice, but loud and obnoxious, and the message is, obedience to God is hogwash - and this message is received by your natural ears.

It is not an issue about which message you are hearing, because the believer is hearing both messages clearly, it’s about which message you are going to obey.

Here’s what happens.  Once you obey the message you get from God, i.e., (His call to obedience), you more easily recognize His voice.

Once you recognize His voice, you then can hear with clear direction all the other messages that He has been trying to tell you all along. 

The true battle is not in the hearing, it is in the doing.

James 1:22-25

“But be ye doers of the Word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.

V23 For if any be a hearer of the Word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass.

V24 For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgeteth what manner of man he was.

V25 But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continue  therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.”

God has spoken to you.  He has called you to a life of obedience to Him.  In this life of obedience can see clearly. 

Your direction becomes plain. 

Your priorities get straightened out.

Your life becomes one with God through obedience to God.

Future generations are relying on you to stand firm in the faith in which you were called.

Let’s obey God for no other reason than because He is God.

Has your heart been stirred to give the call to obedience to God a chance?"

Excerpt from The Answer by Keith C. Powell Copyright 2016