SWIFT OBEDIENCE

Let us pray;

Thank you Father for this evening. 

Thank you for all you’ve been teaching us so far.

We are learning, we are growing and we are so grateful to you.

As we study Your word tonight, open our ears, open our hearts.

We will not just hear and move on from it;

These words change us,

They find expression in us,

We live out what You teach,

In Jesus name,

Amen.

 

Tonight we will be teaching on SWIFT OBEDIENCE

A while ago the Lord began to lay some things in my heart crucial for this season, with specific instructions, part of which is this teaching.

And He arranged all of these teachings in the order they should come actually. 

In fact, I think I shared with a couple of people last year that this is one of the things we will be speaking on first this year. I mentioned it at the Spiritual Pool pool too.

I believe this is not the first time we’ve heard of this subject, ‘Obedience’ in the body of Christ. 

In fact, I am sure many of us can teach on it without prior study, so it is a subject we are all familiar with.

But for the sake of this teaching, I would like us to define obedience.

We will take answers from 3 different people.

What is Obedience to you?

Olamide: Complying without resistance

Bukky: Doing as told or instructed. Listening to and following instructions

Sumi: Obedience is doing what you have been asked or told to do.

Samson: Doing as you are told to do, as at when due.

Omotooke: Yielding to an instruction given to you

From all we’ve shared, we can deduce that Obedience is in action. 

It is not in thoughts or contemplation or even rejoicing, it is in doing exactly as told.

If I tell you to fill a bucket with water and you rejoice at the thought, you are so happy about filling the bucket that you write a book on it, you pick up a microphone and write about how I’ve asked you to fill a bucket up, you write a book on the importance of filling a bucket with water and how everyone should do so,

But…

But you do not fill the bucket with water

You’ve not moved in action 

For whatever reason, you have not moved in obedience even though you did so many things.

The instruction was simple, ‘fill the bucket with water’

And this is where some of us are, doing so much yet not living in obedience.

Then the Lord takes it further:

What I have required of you is not just obedience but Swift Obedience

The type where we move immediately

Where we move with promptness 

No dilly dallying 

Just immediate movement at the command of the Lord.

Obedience is complete/total submission to God 

There is no submission to God without obedience.

Obedience is also a sign of trust in God, a sign of our understanding of God’s love for us and how much we love Him.

What is Dear to you?

So many times, a lot of us confess that God is dear to us. We sing it:

“You mean so much to me Jesus.”

But you see, what really reveals what is dear to us is our obedience and how promptly we obey.

If I call you that something is happening to your spouse and you need to quickly head down, do you know what happens?

You will leave everything you are doing. 

Not because the things you are doing are not important, but because it is something/someone dear on the end of that obedience.

You leave all behind immediately.

I saw a tweet this week where someone resigned with immediate effect because the company did not approve her leave to go take care of her sick mother (her mother is not part of her immediate family according to their laws)

She didn’t think it twice

Was her work important?

Yes 

But her mother is dear

That is the difference

So for every time we have to move with the written and spoken word of God, we must never forget this part.

If God is not dear to you, you will choose what is important.

You will choose the things that matter (and they will be valid in the sight of man)

But at the expense of your destiny and walk with God.

 

As soon as they heard of me they submitted to me. Even the rebel foreigners obey my every word.

Psalms 18:44 TPT

 

As soon as they heard, they submitted!

They obey!

As soon as

Not a moment later, immediately they did.

No hesitation or delaying

Then God said, “Take your son to the land of Moriah and kill your son there as a sacrifice for me. This must be Isaac, your only son, the one you love. Use him as a burnt offering on one of the mountains there. I will tell you which mountain.” In the morning Abraham got up and saddled his donkey. He took Isaac and two servants with him. He cut the wood for the sacrifice. Then they went to the place where God told them to go.

Genesis 22:2-3 ERV

 

Abraham had waited on God for years for a child and God gives him one. Last minute answer to prayers o.

Then God reaches out to him one day and says:

“Take your son, the one that you love and sacrifice him to me”

He even put emphasis on Abraham’s love for Isaac.

A right-thinking me will first go into fasting and prayer for 30 days because how can that be the voice of God?

But Abraham knew that it was God he heard 

He also did not spend time praying about (more like against) the instruction

He did not spend time asking God why

He did not say okay God, I will do this but give me till next year so I can wrap up some things. 

Scripture says Abraham got up very early the next morning, the very next day he got the instruction.

”By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going.“

Hebrews 11:8 NKJV

Abraham left his father’s land and moved 

God asked him to keep going

No destination, just keep going and I will show you a place.

And Abraham moved

He also moved with his family 

Again, common sense would direct that he maybe goes alone first then come back to pack his family after he gets the settlement but you see this man moved with Faith instead of common sense, and he moved immediately.

Now I want to ask us a question

Was Abraham jobless or without work as at when God called him?

Abraham actually had something doing

God did not call him out of nothing 

Yet, he left everything and obeyed

And what his obedience meant was faith and complete trust in God.

 

Procrastination; A Thief of Destiny

For so many of us, our issue is delayed obedience.

A few years back, the Lord began to break this down to me;

That delayed obedience is in fact disobedience.

The man who waits to obey when he believes it will be easy to or when all things have fallen in shape for it is in fact walking in disobedience.

If you are waiting for a “perfect time” to obey, you are in fact walking in disobedience, because the perfect time is only in the timing of the Lord.

It’s right there in that time that God has asked you to do something.

There is something I say a lot: 

God never asks us to do anything aimlessly, He never gives instruction because He wants to prove a point.

At the other end of that instruction is something God is bringing us into or saving us from.

There is something for us at the end of obedience, and God always Graces us for every instruction He gives to us.

If you are sure God has asked you to do something, look well, there is a grace to do it attached.

No matter how difficult that thing is, you will just see that it won’t break you. You will come out of it as the Lord wants.

And for so many of us, our problem is procrastination.

We leave for tomorrow what God asks us to do today. 

We are always waiting for the best time to get it done, the perfect condition to move with that instruction. 

And here’s what has been laid on my heart to share with us:

For every delay and procrastination, what you are really messing with is not the instruction you are to obey but destiny.

Because instructions are tied to our destiny

John Bevere said something that stuck with me:

“If the same instructions you’ve been getting last year is what God is still repeating over and over to you (not out of continuation but repetition because you are yet to get it), there is an issue and it is a play with destiny.”

“God has been dealing with me on Time management. He’s been telling me for the past 3 years but I’m just yet to get it right”

What is really happening is that certain things in my destiny have rolled out in these 3 years and I have missed them because I have simply not obeyed one instruction.

If God has to keep repeating the same instructions to you, look inwards.

This might be a sign of disobedience.

And don’t say you are struggling with anything. This one is what the enemy uses to keep us in a spot and attack our destinies.

“Oh I’m struggling with time management “

When God has been speaking with me to manage my time more wisely but I have joined the devil in brandishing my disobedience, giving it a nice name, not knowing I’m killing me.

So I need us to pause and ask ourselves: What are those instructions that have come to you but you are yet to act on? What are those instructions that have kept coming, over and over but you still haven’t moved on?

I need everyone to write them out 

If they are not very personal, you can share here in response for accountability. We will keep tabs on one another and follow up.

Sumi: There's an instruction God had been laying in my heart for almost two years. I finally did it two days ago and sincerely speaking I've seen the positive impact of it in just these two days.

Samson: Got an instruction to connect with two people at a previous spiritual pool. Let me just say I have been dragging my feet since then.

You know your right answer to this? Reach out to both of them right away.

I will share a secret as shared with me with you guys 

How to kill procrastination is to do now, what you can do tomorrow

No, you didn’t get it

If you do that thing tomorrow, you will still be right o, but how to deal with that spirit of procrastination (because it is a spirit) it is to do immediately. 

You have an assignment to submit on Friday, today is Sunday so Friday is still far away. 

Do it now

 Apply it to every area of your life

Continued delay of instructions is continuous sin.

Yes, even delay is a sin to God

It is an indication of our lack of trust in Him 

It is an indication that He is not dear to us 

Obedience respects the timing of an instruction as much as it respects the instruction itself.

It is either obedience is swift or it is not obedience. 

In fact, delay in obedience is rebellion before God.

 

”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.”“

I Samuel 15:23 NKJV

Look at Saul

Expelled from the throne God graced him with

Why?

Disobedience

 

”If you obey my decrees and my regulations, you will find life through them. I am the Lord.“

Leviticus 18:5 NLT

Life flows as a result of obedience 

Some of us are stuck and struggling with certain areas in our lives simply because we refuse to obey.

Just do it!

Just do it!

So what happens if God gave us instructions before now (time bound) but we are yet to do them and we want to repent?

First, go back to God

Ask for His forgiveness

Tell Him how dear He is to you

Then ask Him if that instruction is still valid 

God is a God of second chances, He will grace you to go again. 

Look at Jonah for example 

Also, listen well to be sure the instructions are still the same or if certain things have changed in them.

And this time around?

Move immediately

 

Two things God shared with me concerning this year:

Obedience and Consecration

It is how the sons of God will navigate 

There is nothing that will happen outside of it 

And not just any type of obedience 

The type where God says jump and your head is touching the ceiling immediately 

A lot of things are fast-paced this year and your swift obedience will keep you in safety. They will bring you into promises.

Just do exactly as the Lord says and see just how much you will reap.

Let us pray;

Thank You Lord for Your word 

Sweet Holy Spirit we pray You point out to us ways we have been disobedient or delaying in our obedience.

Help us to repent of this

Help us to do better

We ask for Grace for instructions we’ve missed out of procrastination 

We ask for help to obey You even in the coming days 

We pray Lord that we will reap the rewards of Obedience.

In Jesus name,

Amen.