All throughout this week I was asking God: “What should this week’s blog article be about? Won’t you tell me Jesus?” I was getting concerned as the week was quickly ending and I still had not clearly heard from Him about what I should write and post as a video on my YouTube channel. However Jesus came through with this message that I’m about to share with you. We often say that we want to walk in the perfect will of God for our lives. However do we really know what that means? Are we ready to surrender all our lives to Him? Are we ready to be blindly obedient to Jesus Christ?
The Story of King Saul
The scripture that I received is 1 Samuel 15, but let’s do a little background first. The Prophet Samuel had anointed Saul to be Israel’s first king, as Israel was ruled by judges before. Saul had all the trappings of kingship: he was physically taller than anyone else, he even prophesied when the Holy Spirit came upon him, and he was a man of valour.1 As far as anyone could see, Saul was an excellent king. However we know that Saul had an obedience problem. I think that he thought that since he was king, his word was the final say. Saul “forgot” that he ultimately answered to God.
God gave the instruction through Samuel that Saul should completely destroy the Amalekites – a persistent enemy. Instead Saul decided to spare the heathen king Agag, the best of the animals, and riches. This was a flagrant disregard of God’s instruction to utterly destroy everything of the Amalekites.2 Samuel came upon the camp at Gilgal and discovered Saul’s disobedience – even though Saul lied and said he had done according to God’s instruction. Even when Saul was accosted about his disobedience, he did not repent. He instead tried to blame the people as the reason for his disobedience. However that would never work, because Saul was king and his word would have brought everyone into alignment with the divine instruction. The result was that God removed Saul from being Israel’s king. Here’s the scripture:
“So Samuel said:
“Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices,
As in obeying the voice of the Lord?
Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice,
And to heed than the fat of rams.
For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft,
And stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry.
Because you have rejected the word of the Lord,
He also has rejected you from being king.””
1 Samuel 15: 22-23, NKJV.
Walk in Holy Reverence of a Holy God
We need to have a holy reverence for the divine instructions of Jesus Christ. As children of the living God, we cannot treat these instructions as a matter of choice. God is not calling us to make extravagant sacrifices. We must avoid walking in the sin of disobedience – which is as the sin of witchcraft. In order for us to walk in the perfect will of God, we must be obedient. Let’s consider some key lessons:
1. You Must Have a Relationship with Jesus Christ
The first step to obeying Christ is to have a personal relationship with Him. You cannot begin to receive of Jesus Christ until you have committed to having Him as your own Lord and Savior. If you have not established your relationship with Jesus Christ as yet, please pray this short prayer:
“Lord Jesus, I believe that You died on the Cross of Calvary for my sins;
I believe that You are the only One who can save me and make me whole;
Please forgive me of all my sins, I repent of them and I will do them no more.
Please wash me and make me clean;
Help me Jesus to walk in newness of life with You;
I accept You as my Lord and Savior and I surrender my life to You alone;
I thank You Jesus for loving me and accepting me into Your Presence.
Amen.”
If you prayed this prayer from a sincere heart, then you have made the right start. I encourage you to find a Bible-believing church where you can learn more about Him. You will also need to be baptised in water in Jesus’ name. Most importantly you must receive the Fire of the Holy Spirit inside of you to empower you to live a Christ-centred life. 3 I encourage to continue living all for Jesus.
2. You Must be Able to Clearly Hear His voice
You need to hear and know what Jesus is telling you all the time. I sometimes hear people say: ‘Well, God never talks to me!” That’s not true because He never forsakes us and He is always speaking to us. The problem is that when you are far away from Jesus, then you can’t detect His voice, so you cannot communicate with Him. You must accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior and then spend time in communion with Him. You need to learn the ways of Jesus through worshipping Him, reading His Word, praying, fasting, and just sitting in His presence in an air of quietness and expectancy to hear your Daddy’s voice. Invest your time in Jesus’ presence, in solo communion with Him. I can promise you that the returns are always amazing.
3. You Must be Fully Surrendered to Christ
The next prerequisite for complete obedience to Jesus is complete surrender. Your will, plans, agendas, goals, feelings, etc. must be completely surrendered to Him. If you want to live out God’s express will for your life, then you cannot continue doing your own thing. Unless you completely surrender to Jesus, you will never be able to walk in His perfect will. You need to get to the point where you will be able to model the Apostle Paul and say:
“I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”
Galatians 2:20, NKJV.
4. Your Attributes Don’t Matter
Saul had all the trappings of kingship and he failed terribly. It’s not about your qualities and abilities, it’s all about your surrender.4 Once you have received your instructions from Jesus, begin to work on them right away. Jesus doesn’t call the qualified, but He qualifies the called. He will even make divine provision for your divine mission in Him. Don’t worry about it, Jesus has got you covered!
5. Your Divine Purpose Will Attract Opposition
We know and expect opposition from external forces against our divine purpose in Christ Jesus. We are constantly on the lookout for enemy forces approaching our perimeter, and we are ready to do battle. However one aspect of this war that we often overlook is the enemy within. What do I mean by that? We need to war against the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life.5 We need to guard against our carnal nature, because it is in direct opposition to the will of God working in us and through us. 6 We must walk fully in the Spirit of God to accomplish divine purpose.
6. “Delayed Obedience” is Still Disobedience
We can remember how we ignored our parents’ instructions to us and only doing what they told us to do at a later time. The issue is that we do the same thing to our Heavenly Father. There is no such thing as “delayed obedience” – it’s just plain disobedience! Lord Jesus, we repent of disobedience to You. Please wash us clean and restore us unto You once more. Help us to be immediately obedient to You in all things. Help us Lord to abide in Your perfect will for our lives. Amen.7
7. You Must be Blindly Obedient
We may not be perfect in our obedience to Jesus right now, but we must strive towards perfection. I like to say that we are called to practise blind obedience to Christ. We may not see exactly how our obedience will pan out right now, but we need to just practise blind obedience, blind faith. We don’t have to know the why, who and when. Just simply walk in complete obedience, right now.
8. Your Walk with Jesus is Not an Earthly Destination, it’s a Process
This is not a matter of simply being obedient to Jesus for “big” things. We have to live lives of total surrender and complete obedience to Jesus Christ. We like to think in terms of destinations, about where we want to “arrive at” in Christ. However I believe that we need to see our entire life’s trajectory on earth as a process of becoming more Christ-like, as we draw ever closer to Him. Our process of perfection will end in heaven, when we meet Jesus face-to-face and then we will dwell with Him in eternal peace and love.8
I pray that your hearts are blessed by this message from our Heavenly Father. I pray that you will practise immediate, blind and complete obedience to Jesus Christ. Father, help us to draw ever closer to You, so that we can become more like You in every way. Amen.
Blessings, peace and wisdom upon you,
Sophia.
- Please see 1 Samuel 10 and 11.
- Please refer to 1 Samuel 15:3.
- Please read Acts chapters 1 and 2 for more context.
- Please read 1 Corinthians 1:27-29; Psalm 138:8; Romans 8:28; Ephesians 6:10-18.
- These three main categories of sin are outlined in 1 John 2:15-17.
- Please meditate on Romans 8:1-14 and Galatians 5:16-25.
- Please carefully read Deuteronomy 28:1-14; John 14:23; John 15:1-13.
- Please be encouraged by 1 Corinthians 13:12; 1 Corinthians 15:51-58; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18.
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