Obey Anyway

“You must love the Lord your God and always obey His requirements, decrees, regulations, and commands. 2 Keep in mind that I am not talking now to your children, who have never experienced the discipline of the Lord your God or seen His greatness and His strong hand and powerful arm." Deuteronomy 11:1

There are many Scriptures in the Bible that talk about obeying God. They tell us, like this one does above, to keep His commandments and such. Which is very true.

But what about if you feel lead to do something? Hopefully, that leading will be from the Holy Spirit, so how do you know? And do you obey if it's something off the wall?

In Day 21 of Draw The Circle, Mark Batterson is talking about setting a perimeter. He physically walked the town and prayed over the places he thought God wanted his church to be in.

This is my second time reading this book, if you will remember, and what jumped out at me this time was different.

One thing is learning how to have raw dependence on God. Doing whatever God says, living God's ways, and trusting Him fully is living in raw dependence on Him.

The other is about how God answered his prayer from that prayer walk. He walked 4.7 miles and all of the properties his church owns, debt free mind you, are within that area.

He said, "When the Israelites circled Jericho, they had no idea how God would give them the city. But they didn't let what they didn't know keep them from obeying the command they had been given."

What has God told you to do? Did you obey anyway? Are you doing it anyway?

I mean, seriously, how crazy does it sound to walk around huge walls for 6 days, then on the 7th day shout and blow your trumpets? That is not battle at all.

God knocked those walls down though. God did it, because they obeyed.

If they would have done anything different, even one little thing different, God wouldn't have been able to fulfill what He had planned for them.

Obedience is the key that God uses to bless us.

Years ago, when I worked at a different church, I saw a church member one Friday out shopping. Once I'd left the store, I thought, "Man, I should have asked her if she wanted to go to lunch, then I wouldn't have had to eat alone."

For the next two days, I heard in my heart, "Call and invite her to lunch." over and over again.

I was somewhat disobedient. I emailed and invited her to lunch. But I did it.

During lunch, she asked me if something from her past was ok. I told her it was ok. And that was that.

We did not become best friends or anything. For some reason God needed me to be the one to tell her that it was ok. I have no idea why, but I followed through because He kept telling me to call and invite her to lunch.

You never know what God might need to use you for. If He prompts you, then I say go for it.

Tread lightly though. Compare what you feel/ hear to Scripture, and make sure it's not the enemy about to trap you or make you fall.

God has given us the 10 Commandments, then Jesus came to fulfill and what I call "One Up" them all. Living for God doesn't make you have a perfect life, but it sure does make my life better.

I pray that you will obey when He calls you to something. It will be worth it, I promise.

God bless you today and always!