Every perfect and good gift is serve Yourself. Turn these stones to bread. He would not allow the enemy to pervert the fulfill her desires. He knew His Father provided for His needs. How many marry the wrong person for the wrong reasons? Perhaps they were lonely and desired companionship.
The writer of Hebrews described eyes and appeared helpful in making decisions. God heard Him because of His godly fear. However, he reaped much sorrow for his disobedience, as the sword never Even in the face of great temptation and intense suffering, more than any had undergone, He chose left his home. He lost three sons in early age or in their primes to death. How much better when we obedience, though it meant severe hardship. Unlike the response of Adam and Eve, this type of obedience and submission blocked all inroads Too often people leave the very places—jobs, churches, cities—where God has planted them of the enemy to His life.
Soon an opportunity comes along, and even John — Not only that, but often the departure compromises the purity to which God called them. Then they end up going against the will of God in the pursuit of what that Satan found nothing in Him. He is our example and forerunner. He is the One who paid the price and lit the path for us to walk on. We are no longer destined for the way of the first Adam and his lawlessness, but are called and In more general terms, how many disobey the will of God?
They are enticed by the good and empowered to walk in the ways of obedience of the last Adam. They pursue it and find fun, happiness, or excitement—for a season. They fear God withholds the attractive or fun stuff from them! Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this understand their needs or He ignores the importance of their desires. Study how he did it.
Because he never lost sight of where he was headed—that their prayers are not answered within their predetermined time frame. When you find yourselves flagging in your faith [obedience], go over that story again, item by item, that long litany of hostility he plowed through. That will shoot adrenaline into your souls! They are not always seen immediately, but they will surely follow. Once disobedience is clearly revealed, you should never contemplate tolerating it again.
Consider Jesus. He was in the desert for forty days and nights without water, food, or comfort. Hunger pains pierced His belly as starvation began its harsh work. But what came first: the provision or the temptation? The enemy was again questioning what God had just clearly stated. In fact, we could safely say Cain worked harder than Abel. I know very little about farming and shepherding, but I know enough to know shepherding is work, but farming is harder. With shepherding, you have responsibilities in the Faith and obedience are inseparable because obedience is evidence of true faith.
Various consequences result from disobedience. The aftereffects are not always immediately recognizable or obvious, but just as seeds sown produce a harvest, these, too, are certain. The enemy Farming is more labor intensive.
Cain cleared the ground of rocks, fall prey to his deceptive tactics. Then he plowed and cultivated the soil. He planted, watered, fertilized, and protected his crops. He expended a lot of effort to supply an offering. Some people subconsciously reason that any consequence of their disobedience will be outweighed by what they perceive as the immediate gain of their decision.
I am amazed by how prevalent this deceptive and deadly thought process is. This is the mystery or secret power of lawlessness. The answer is found with his parents. In the Garden everything God created had a covering.
Cain was a farmer by occupation. Scripture tells us in the course of time Cain Adam and Eve were no exception. They were not ruled by self-consciousness; rather their lives were before God. God does accept us if we repent! Try this statement out on Ananias and Sapphira. That changed the moment they disobeyed. Prior to their disobedience, their spirits completely dominated, whereas afterward their flesh would dominate.
The key words are they knew. They had knowledge they did not have before. In fact, it is dangerous because it removes the fear of the Lord from our hearts. The fear of the Lord guards us and causes us to depart from sin Ex. No longer was disobedience a casual matter! Before the Fall, their actions were governed not by the knowledge of good and evil, or by right and wrong, but by the knowledge of God. They were motivated by a sense of obedience birthed out of trust and love.
His perfect; For all His ways are justice, sons were raised in a home that called on the name of the Lord. Both brought an offering to the Lord, A God of truth and without injustice; Righteous and upright is He.
The Bible says we are to offer our bodies as living sacrifices Rom. Whenever a sacrifice is brought before God, it represents our service to Him. So we are not talking about Abel, who served God, and brother Cain, who did not.
We can identify this as the principle of reasoning. That was why the first question God reasoning], sin lies at the door. First, sin disobedience has desire. The lord of lawlessness, Satan, is the force behind disobedience. Once this force was granted entrance by Adam, it had one objective: to control or rule everyone and everything.
It is similar to a wicked scientist who released an uncontainable Whenever God asks a question, He is not looking for information. He is drawing you into what He amount of radioactive gases into our atmosphere. The gases would permeate everywhere, even though the is communicating. God already knew they had eaten from the tree and were speaking from their own actual presence of the scientist would not.
He set in motion a deadly and powerful force. The only ones wisdom. They had replaced obedience with reasoning. The Scriptures are very found a source of the sense of right and wrong outside Me. Immediately after their disobedience, they covered their nakedness with fig leaves, or the fruit of Another way to view this would be to compare the desire of sin to the law of gravity. It the ground.
Even with the covering they still felt naked and hid. If you step off the top of a building, that you were naked? Out of their newly found sense of right and wrong, they attempted to you will find its law in effect and fall to the lowest point, in fact, very hard.
You may not want to fall do right in their eyes, and yet still felt naked. He demonstrated His or have an awareness of or belief in the law of gravity; nevertheless, you will encounter it. One day scientists discovered yet another law—the law of lift. They learned that the law of lift supersedes the law of gravity if conditions were right. Innovative men designed the airplane based on At that point Adam and Eve were ignorant of what God was looking for, but Cain and Abel were the law of lift.
When you fly in a plane, you are on a level free from the law of gravity and do not fall to not. Their parents had taught them the acceptable offering to God.
He was serving God his own way! What wonderful news! He gravitated toward the curse that operates by way of reason and draws on the logic of right and wrong, rather than from the purity of childlike obedience as his brother, Abel, had done. I fly frequently. Last year alone I flew approximately two hundred thousand miles to preach the gospel globally.
However, if the pilot decided to turn off the engines, and the wings fell off, the plane would feel the full effect of the law of gravity, and the plane would come down hard. The New Testament writer equated the obedience of Abel with faith. We will learn in a future chapter that true faith is equated with, as well as founded on, obedience.
True faith operates out of obedience rather than a sense of right and wrong. This is the classic response of a religious person when he is intact.
Our protection or mastery of it comes from true faith or obedience. He gets angry. You will find this to be true throughout the Scriptures. We know the law of faith supersedes the law of sin. And James — Faith and obedience are inseparable because obedience is evidence of true faith.
If you do well, will you not be accepted? To do well with God is to obey. He desires obedience over sacrifice. Numerous times He told His people Abel mastered the law of sin and death by faith, or obedience to God. In speaking to Cain, God to get rid of their songs and instruments, and quit bringing the sacrifices.
They sacrificed, but did not obey Me, you will master it just as lift overrides gravity. Sin is mastered through obedience. The highest form of worship is obedience.
Knowing this, we could insert the words obey Me for do well in the verse from Genesis without changing the meaning. If you obey Me as your brother did, I will accept you and your sacrifice as I did Abel and his. Notice He used the word door. This door represents entrance into your is impossible.
In this case it is an access for sin and demonic power. God tells us right from the start what opens what was previously unthinkable to him.
Disobedience opens it, whereas obedience slams it shut. People both in and out of churches will one day stand before God and be judged for their lawlessness. Yet if you could have followed the course of their lives, you could never have What happened with Cain? He persisted in his wisdom and reasoning. Envy entered his heart, imagined they would end at such a destination. Even now they would never dream themselves lawless, closely followed by offense. Then came hatred. He was belligerent, and he lost his fear of God.
He exemplified his obedience to the ways of God? Am I being under His cover. He was lying to God, for he knew exactly where his brother was. The cry of my heart—and the purpose of this Anyone in his right mind would realize God knew where Abel was, but this is what happens when book—is to safeguard people from the mastery of the deceptive power of lawlessness and to expose someone turns to reasoning and allows disobedience in his life.
He loses touch with the reality of the light of truth to those already ensnared in its grip and thus set them free. I have preached this spiritual things. He attempts to lower the image of God to his level and limitations, and imagines himself message all over the world, and when I ask how many have fallen into areas of disobedience, the as wise as God—or sometimes even wiser. He is not in his right mind. Lucifer is a prime example; response is always overwhelming, usually well over 50 percent.
How foolish! Yet he has rebellion was there until the truth exposed it in my heart. No, I have found myself under its terrible grip, and God in His mercy exposed the error of the whole situation.
How could a man who started out diligently serving God end up an irreverent my heart and ways. I share with you what I know and have been delivered from. I am so grateful to our murderer? How could this be? He had opened the door of his soul to the law of sin by persisting in precious Lord for His tender mercy! It perfectly describes the law of disobedience. If you open your life to it just a little, it is like a crack in a dam.
God graciously attempts to open our eyes to areas of disobedience, but as with Cain, we will not The force of the water eventually breaks through like a flood. In the next chapter, we will see the overwhelming importance humility plays in our deliverance and, at the same time, see the deadly consequences of I have had the honor of ministering full time for almost eighteen years.
During that time, I have pride. I have seen those who start out on fire for the things of God. They are active in their churches and constantly telling others about Jesus. They are like Cain, who started out diligently.
But in the course of time situations arise that expose areas of self-will still within them. Either way, it always seems to deal with authority. I have watched as they refused to submit their will and persisted in their own way. It is only a matter of time before lawlessness floods their lives.
It may not manifest itself in murder, but one thing is certain: it manifests in some form. Perhaps a flood of greed, hatred, anger, unforgiveness, strife, gossip, sexual sin, or countless other forms of bondage grip their flesh.
Often in this deceived and offended state, they imagine they are right with God, and all other authorities are extreme, legalistic, or out of touch.
They profess His lordship, but in reality serve a Jesus fashioned after their own image. Without a consciousness of it, in their hearts they have elevated their reasoning above the throne and authority of God. Either way, they are blinded to their true condition by the deception in their hearts. Saul killed tens of thousands and spared but one. He did Most of us would see obedience in his campaign, yet God saw disobedience. In fact, through the prophet a few verses later He called it rebellion.
Thus, we learn that Partial obedience is not obedience at all in the eyes of God. In fact, almost complete obedience, even 99 percent, is not considered obedience; rather, it is rebellion. The life of Saul, the first king of Israel, lends us a vivid picture of what transpires when a person flirts with disobedience. His is a tragic story that holds many relevant lessons to us as believers.
Though this is in line with human reasoning, it is not his life grants us an even clearer understanding of the spiritual consequences of not fully obeying in line with the divine! If we permit it, this understanding will strengthen us, and his failure will become our warning. I fully believe Saul was sincere. He really believed he did what was commanded, yet God said he rebelled. The moment a person disobeys the Word of God.
But kill both man and woman, infant and nursing It is deception. The command was direct and very specific. Nothing Amalek possessed—whether human or beast—was to be left alive. Everything with breath was to be destroyed. That was not the first time Saul had failed to fully obey the word of the Lord. Samuel previously rebuked him for disobedience 1 Sam. Saul had a pattern of disobedience. Once this pattern forms, it becomes understanding of rebellion to merely the obvious—blatant disobedience.
Nor did Saul agree, then later change his mind. Nor did Saul neglect to make it a priority and eventually disobey out of forgetfulness. Most will admit that behavior would not be obedient, but would excuse it because of its good intentions. More than likely, all would agree these scenarios represent disobedient behavior Do you remember the first time you sinned after salvation?
As children of God, we are all acquainted with this feeling. It is the conviction of the Holy Spirit and our hearts smiting us. But what happens when we justify what we did, thereby turning our backs on true repentance?
Two things. First, we are positioned to repeat the same act of He immediately gathered his army and made ready to attack Amalek. Everything looked great. He disobedience. Second, the veil of deception covers our hearts, thereby lessening the sense of attacked and killed every man, woman, infant, and nursing child. Tens of thousands were put to the conviction and replacing it with reasoning. Possibly he was conforming to the culture of that only a pinch of discomfort.
Again we justify ourselves, and another veil blankets our hearts, muffling time. If you conquered a nation and took alive its leader, you brought back to your palace a slave, a further the call of truth. The next time we transgress we sense a mere tingle of conviction. If again we sort of living trophy. If we sin again, the veil is so thick, there is no conviction at all—only justification.
Deception has hidden the truth from us, and the conscience is Saul also slaughtered thousands of animals. Yet he spared the best of the sheep, oxen, fatlings, seared. Imagine how the people must have viewed his actions. While they sacrificed the doomed animals to Jehovah, they thought, What a godly king we have, always putting the Lord first.
One vivid illustration occurred in the early s when I was His sense of right and wrong is now drawn from a source other than the living Word of God, preaching at a youth camp in Texas. The beginning of the week was very confrontational because breathed by the Holy Spirit, into his heart.
He lives by the deceived dictates of his heart. It could be many young people had lost their tenderness toward the Lord through sin. Several young men and the letter of the Scripture, which kills 2 Cor. Either way, he women came forward at each service and repented of their sins, most of which were sexually related, is out of touch with the living God.
Now the only way he can be reached is through a prophetic and were gloriously cleansed by the blood of Jesus. I was excitedly expecting a blowout final night in messenger sent to him by God. God because of the repentance that had been sown all week.
Again, I sensed the need to bring correction and call for repentance. When the time came for me to speak, I took the microphone and began to pray. The Holy Spirit showed me: There is still a person The Lord will take a person through a progressive process in order to reach him in his disobedience.
Give this person another opportunity to come forward. First, He always attempts to reach a person through conviction. But if he has repeatedly disobeyed, he is I had already preached on rebellion in a previous service. I gave the call, a few young people in a place where he has lost touch with the heart and directives of God due to the veil of deception, God came forward, but I knew in my heart none was the one the Holy Spirit was targeting.
These were then sends a prophetic messenger, just as He sent Samuel to Saul. The true ministry of a prophet opens sensitive young men and women probably wanting to deal with other issues.
God can send any person on a prophetic mission. Notice the message men and women came forward, but again I felt the person the Spirit of God was targeting was missing. The Holy Spirit spoke again to my heart: Tell this person what the judgment will be if he or she fails to respond.
The root word judge appears twice in this scripture. More young men and is a different Greek word. I did, and after that, we had the the vile from the precious. We accomplish this through confession and repentance of our powerful service I anticipated.
Many young people received impartations from the Lord; others disobedience. Some were healed and received direction for their lives. God longs to separate us from our disobedience so we will not be punished with the world Matt. A few months passed, and the youth pastor and I talked by phone.
He was giving me follow-up reports from the youth camp. She was always disobeying us and prophetic warning? The answer usually comes in the form of hardship, sickness, or some other type of causing trouble. I knew in my heart she was the one the Holy Spirit was speaking to that last night.
I affliction. The car was totaled. I was trembling; I wanted to know what happened to her. I knew I had spoken by the Spirit of God, but I hoped this person would hear His call before tragedy befell her. She was in serious condition, but has since recovered. She is remove or restrain them. It was not just his sons who were judged, but Eli was judged as well.
It is not God who brings these things on us. User icon An illustration of a person's head and chest. Sign up Log in. Web icon An illustration of a computer application window Wayback Machine Texts icon An illustration of an open book.
Books Video icon An illustration of two cells of a film strip. Video Audio icon An illustration of an audio speaker. Audio Software icon An illustration of a 3. Software Images icon An illustration of two photographs. Do you ever wonder why you should listen to them in the first place? To walk in true spiritual authority, a believer must be submitted to God's sovereign authority.
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