“To Obey or Disobey?“

Jesus speaking to Peter and Andrew—“‘Come, follow Me...and I will make you fishers of men. At once (‘immediately’ NKJV) they left their nets and followed Him.” (Matthew 4:19-20) Obedience in the faith life of a Christian is simply obeying God—it is promptly heeding His Word and His Holy Spirit in daily fashion. Note closely in today’s text that Peter and Andrew did not negotiate with Jesus’ call to service regarding when they would leave their jobs, nor did they seem to receive a detailed plan of where Jesus would take them and what challenges would beset them. They simply, by faith and trust in the Lord, left their nets in haste to become “fishers of men.” Dr. Charles Stanley once shared that “true obedience to God means doing what God says, when He says, how He says, as long as He says, until what He says is accomplished.” True obedience is always costly to you and those around you. Sadly, many believers today seem unwilling (not unable) to pay the cost/price to follow God’s will fully and completely! Unless we are willing to surrender our all to Him, we will never experience the fullness of His Will in our lives. Dr. Stanley shares that “being fully and completely obedient to God promises to help us become the person He wants us to be, to do the work He desires (calls) you to do, to bear the fruit He enables you to bear and to receive all the blessings He has prepared for you to receive.” Often that divine portrait of our lives is sometimes “radically” different than the portrait we may have in our own mind. God really knows best the plans He has for us…“plans to prosper (us) and not to harm (us), plans to give (you and I) HOPE and a future.” (Jeremiah 29:11) As we continue life’s journey into 2010, I encourage you to take inventory of the blessings which God has placed in your life - to appreciate afresh the opportunities of Kingdom service which abound all around each of us and to hunger and thirst for His righteousness (Matthew 5:6) in a world today championing unrighteousness in nearly every facet of society. As Dr. Henry Blackaby shares in Experiencing God, “You cannot stay where you are and go with God in obedience to His will.” Peter and Andrew, without reservation or hesitation, chose NOT to stay where they were and decided to obediently follow Jesus’ call ... and 2,000+ years later we are still sharing their testimony! What will folks be sharing about YOUR testimony 2,000 months from now should the Lord tarry in His return? …Selah!
Today's Spirit-led CCM video is by Jeremy Camp and can be viewed by clicking on the song title, "Give Me Jesus" - G3 for sharing His power-filled words thru CCM & Praise!