How To Truly Receive From God - 2 (Obedience)

Activity: Sunday Sermon

Anchor Scripture: Gen. 26: 1-33

Scripture References: Acts 17: 17-24, Matthew 7: 20-25, 1 Samuel 15: 1 - 30

Introduction
"You cannot eat your cake and have it" is a popular saying. And except one wants to deceive oneself, the veracity of the saying is incontestable.

Most of the natural laws are cause-effect in nature and practice; that is, if you did this, you get that and if you did that, you get this. Following these rules religiously guarantees profitability from them in lieu of regrets.

As humans, most of us have set the minimum standards we expect from people in our relationships with them. And whenever they fell below these standards, we are always neither at peace with ourselves nor with the 'lawbreakers.'

Likewise, most parents have set certain rules for their children, which they are not, under whatever circumstances, expected to break. And whenever they transgressed, because of whatever reason, they get punished. Commonest amongst these punishment is withholding of entitlements (e.g. pocket-money) or a refusal of the parents to grant certain requests of such a erring child.

These kinds of treatment, it is believed, will put some senses in the erring people and thus reorder them back to the normal track and restore the good relationship that preceded the 'breakup.'

Message
The book of 1 Samuel 15:23 tells us that obedience is all that God crave from us because He sees every act of disobedience as a form of treason. So as far as God is concerned, everyone who disobeys Him has planned to topple His eternal kingdom.

Our God, the God of heaven, who made heaven and earth, is very magnanimous in all His dealings towards us. He is ready to give us anything at any time, over and over again.

However, we often fall short of his grace to receive from Him because of our fear of what we see and or hear. In the tumult of worries and anxieties that often rule our hearts, we are always oblivion of His divine presence with us and utterly deaf to the small still voice that whispers in our ears to give us directions. 

Just like Simon Peter (Matthew 14:30), many of us sink in our problems, not necessarily because we don't believe, but most times, because of the enormity of the problems surrounding us, our attentions often shift from our Maker, such that all we hear is the roar of our adversary, not the voice of Him who says in Isaiah 43:2 that "When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee."

In our anchor scripture today, Isaac was faced with a damming famine, right there in the very land that God promised his father, Abraham, to give to his offsprings; "a land flowing with milk and honey." How come then that the land did not even have ordinary wheat? So, like many of us, Isaac packed his things and was ready to go back to Egypt, but GOD STOPPED HIM and unlike many of us, he hearkened to the voice of God. Thus, he remain in Gerrar! He remained in the land where there was a raging famine. He remained in a hopeless situation, just because God says so! Isaac's case here is similar to that of the widow of Zarepath (1 Kings 17: 10-16). She had no hope anymore, but she chose to hearken to the voice of God through His prophet, Elijah, despite the ugliness of the situation.

I always say something: if, as a believer, you discovered that the distance between you and God had widened, guess who moved. It must have been you, definitely, not God (Psalm 89:4). In contrast, if God must reveal His magnanimous Self to us, we need to maintain our positions, relative to Him, just as He is maintaining and had vowed to maintain it. We share many characteristics of God because the Bible affirms that we are made in His image (Genesis 1:26-27). So, just as we human, who are unrighteous, can not tolerate disobedience from our children or lesser beings, so also, our righteous Father can not and will not tolerate disobedience, in whatever forms from us. Therefore, if we must truly receive directly from Him, we must, as a matter of necessity and at all costs, obey His voice. It is only in this that we could be truly blessed.

In the book of Matthew 7:24-27, our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ compared two men: the one who hears his words and obeys and the one one who hears but does not obey. And in  John 14:21, He says,   "He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him." Without deceiving ourselves, our blessings and prosperity, good health, achievements and so on, are all but the manifestations of God and His Jesus Christ to us for it is so written in John 3:27 that John "A man can receive nothing, except it be given him from heaven."

Brethren, forget whatever you have ever heard or taught, nothing draws the hand of God as much as obedience to the voice of God. Refusal to obey the voice of God is considered a challenge of His authority. Nowadays, we draw much towards God with our mouths, but our hearts are so faraway from Him. That is why many of us don't even hear His voice when He speaks and that is why He doesn't even bother to speak to many of us. Many of us have wondered why David turned out to be the "man after God's heart." Many look at his sins and say David wouldn't have qualified to be so called except for God's mercy. I say NO! You are very wrong there! David qualified to be man after God's heart because he was very obedient to God. There was never a time he was given an instruction by God, and he disobeyed. He always obey to the last letter. Little wonder then that God established his dynasty over Israel forever. The same goes for father Abraham; he always obey God, even in his old age. That was why God vouched for him to teach his children to obey God. That is what we saw and read in the life of Isaac.

As we round off brethren, Isaac hearkened unto the voice of God and in verse 13 -14 of that Genesis 26. The Bible says, "And the man waxed great, and went forward, and grew until he became very great: For he had possession of flocks, and possession of herds, and great store of servants: and the Philistines envied him." That happened to a man who obeyed the voice of God even when there was a great famine in the land. Aside this great blessing, God also made room for him such that his ere adversaries saw his God on his life and confessed it so (Gen. 26: 26-28). That was why he called God "Jehovah Rehoboth!"

Conclusion
Before God, brethren, obedience is a sign of humility. We can do nothing to attract Him except we obey Him! The reason many Israelites perished in the wilderness was because they refused to obey the voice of God and they murmured.

Our sincere prayers is that God, in His infinite mercies will equip us with a heart that obeys God in Jesus Christ mighty Name. Amen.

Till we meet again in His Divine Presence, keep keeping on in Him!