Obedience

God has lead me, well, more like pushed me to write down my thoughts about what the Holy Spirit has been teaching me. I have actually felt this need since High school; to minister to others in a more is less kind of way. I can be very verbal, but I don’t like to talk to big groups and some of you I may never get the chance to talk to again. Even more than that, and something I feel you can relate to, is that thoughts and feelings are sometimes easier to communicate on writing; you can re-read, edit, filter, etc. through writing and I always come from a conversation analyzing my words and regretting forgetting something I wish I would have said, but just didn’t remember in the midst of listening and speaking.

My hope is that we learn from each other and I would encourage you to communicate with me on whatever God has opened your heart to. I have no plan, but I trust that God is asking me to do this for whatever reason. There is no need to respond, but like I said earlier, ALL of you can teach me something. I must continue to grow as God’s bride and become the woman of God he wants me to be- please help me do that.

I don’t know how many times I will write, but I do know that when God calls me to share I will not ignore him anymore!

This week has been crazy, God has moved me and I have had to completely humble myself before his throne. There is too much to discuss in this post so I am going to keep this first one simple. One of the topics God has been continually revealing to me is obedience! If I love God and know God, then not only will I be obedient to his word, but I would WANT to be obedient to him. Isn’t it hard in our interactions with each others to obey or respect a person when we don’t know them? God already knows and loves you, but do you KNOW him? I think the way to answer that is, do I obey him? If I would be answering I would say that I try. I honestly do, I try to do things out of love and I try to listen to his will, but that darn sinful nature gets in the way and I find myself every night asking forgiveness for a sharp tongue, lack of patience, coveting, laziness, etc. But I do think that my heart is always trying to obey, listen and love and there is a difference. I have heard some Christians use others mistakes as an excuse for their own, but we must understand that God will not compare us; we will only be judged by what we did, did we know him, did we seek, did we spread the gospel, did we do everything in our power to serve him?

I could go on forever really, but I will stop.

I am just finishing Romans and wanted to share a couple verses from there along with a couple more.

Really all of Romans 6 is great, but Romans 6:11-18 “¹¹ In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. ¹² Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. ¹³ Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. ¹⁴ For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.

¹⁵ What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? By no means! ¹⁶ Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? ¹⁷ But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance. ¹⁸ You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.

Jeremiah 7:21-23 ²¹ “‘This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Go ahead, add your burnt offerings to your other sacrifices and eat the meat yourselves! ²² For when I brought your ancestors out of Egypt and spoke to them, I did not just give them commands about burnt offerings and sacrifices, ²³ but I gave them this command: Obey me, and I will be your God and you will be my people. Walk in obedience to all I command you, that it may go well with you.

My last request is that sometime this week you take the time to listen to this podcast by Francis Chan. If you haven’t heard him speak, you are in for a big treat. I would encourage you to really try to turn the TV off and listen; in the morning while you get ready, getting ready for bed, cooking, driving, etc. Open the link on your phone and listen while you work out. I promise that it will bless you.

Title of the sermon is: How Does the Holy Spirit Fill You?