The topic of obedience continues to remain at the front of my mind.  No matter what passage I open to in Scripture I see obedience or lack there of.  Everything returns to the question of our obedience to the will of God.  Jesus came and lived the example of obedience to the will of God.  Have you ever counted how many times in just the gospel of John Jesus stated that He is only here to do the Father’s will?  In a really fast look through the red print I counted ten times.  This is not to mention the reality of every one of His teachings revolved around that same topic of Him just doing the Father’s will.

There was a question from the followers of Jesus in the gospel of John that caught my attention.  These followers asked, “What shall we do, that we may work the works of God” (John 6:28, NASB)? As obedience is a word of action, I see this question as meaning, how are we to do the will of God?  The answer Jesus gave in verse 29 can be summarized to say, “believe in me.”

These followers continued to ask Jesus, what is your work?  Jesus’s rather lengthy response can also be summarized to say, “to do the will of Him who sent me, which happens to be for you to feed on me.”  This is where the teaching got hard.  This is where many followers fell away.  This is also where we find ourselves slipping away.  Believing in Jesus leads to loving Him, which in action is obedience to everything that came from His mouth (5 passages between John 14 to 16).  Jesus is the Word (John 1:1) and we must eat of Him (John 6:53).  We must be students of the Word!  Therefore, we must believe in Him, which results in our obedience to Him, of doing the Father’s will.

The truth is, in order to be obedient to the will of God, His word must be in you!  You must be able to hear His voice, which will always be found to be in alignment to the written Word.  In essence, it is the uniting of the Word and the Spirit.  Therefore, I will close this blog by recommending you to read a book called, “Bridging the Great Divide” by Dr. Rob McCorkle.  When you say you believe in Jesus, I ask, what do you then believe?  Let this book guide you in continuing to live a Faith-Full life of obedience to His will.

I have a great burden for the state of our churches in the age we are living.  It is easy to have that distant look at many different churches and denominations to form the perception of great things happening.  While you can see the number in attendance climbing, I have to ask about the overall health of the body.  And the same is true about that small and steady church, what is the health of the body?

As I was preparing to speak an end of the year message at my local church, I was led to the simple topic of obedience.  We are called to live a life of obedience.  This is for both the individual as well as the entire body as a whole.  On this occasion, I was led to look at the difference between obedience to the way of God and the will of God.

The passage of the rich young ruler came to mind as I was just beginning to write this blog.  In Matthew 19:16-26 we see this young man approach Jesus asking a question that many of us are still asking today, “what must I do to enter heaven?” To summarize Jesus’s words into my own, he states, “be obedient to the ways of God.”  Knowing there was more, the young man had a burning deep within, much like what we feel.  Therefore Jesus continued speaking to the young man by stating something like this, “you are to be obedient to the will of God.”

Like the rich young ruler, we are called to be obedient to the will of God.  The “ways of God” are those things that are elementary.  They are the expected things.  Purity is expected.  Then we are called to be obedient to His will.  This meaning that we are called to listen to the voice of God.  Life is in His voice!  How can we know the will of God for our own life or for our church if we are not taking the time to listen?  Read the rest of the passage in Matthew.  More is expected from the church than just being a good church.  The church must function out of the voice of God!  And, it is possible!

My desire is to only function from that place of listening; to be living a faith-full life by being obedient to the will of God.