A Great Revival of Obedience

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In your faithful love, O Lord, hear my cry;  let me be revived by following your regulations.

(Ps. 119:149 NLT)

Sweeter also than honey are His living words—sweet words dripping from the honeycomb! For they warn us, Your servants, and keep us from following the wicked way, giving a lifetime guarantee: great success to every obedient soul! (Psalm 19:10-11 TPT)

We’ve missed something when we pull away from Joshua 1:8 and Psalm 1:1-3-level prescriptions for the victorious life in the Lord. 

Joshua 1:8 directs: “This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall read [and meditate on] it day and night, so that you may be careful to do [everything] in accordance with all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will be successful.” (AMP)

And Psalm 1:1-3 augments this same call to be in the Word night and day: “Blessed [fortunate, prosperous, and favored by God] is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked [following their advice and example], nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit [down to rest] in the seat of scoffers (ridiculers). But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on His law [His precepts and teachings] he [habitually] meditates day and night. And he will be like a tree firmly planted [and fed] by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season;
Its leaf does not wither; And in whatever he does, he prospers [and comes to maturity].” (AMP)

We haven’t perceived rightly the whole aim of God in bestowing His gift of salvation when we stall out at His requirement that we respond with wholehearted submission to Him and “tremble at His Word.” The Lord states upfront: “I have made everything; that’s how it all came to be. I, the Lord, have spoken. The people I treasure most are the humble— they depend only on me and tremble when I speak.” (Isaiah 66:2 CEV) The Father’s entire buying back of us from the slavery to sin and bondage entails His giving us the choice to be fully yielded bondslaves to God so He can bring us to glory. This glory is what we long for and are designed for but often seek by way of selfish ambition, self-exhaltation and/or the independent exertion of ego or self apart from the Holy Spirit. But self at the center doesn’t taste of the risen Lord’s delicious glory and freedom.

Let’s first face the cost to have the pure walk and not just mere talk. Then let’s examine the deep and rich fulfillment of gaining Christ. And finally, let’s look into the eternal rewards of complete obedience to the Almighty and the losses we will incur if we say “no” and hold back on our Maker. When we do obey the Father, we come to find that He very much does know what He is doing with every one of us. [See Romans 8:28-29 TPT.]

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The Yielded Will: 

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How Walking before the Father as Surrendered as Jesus 

Results in God’s Design of Glory for Man

David speaking: “I hear the Lord saying, ‘I will stay close to you, instructing you and guiding you along the pathway for your life. I will advise you along the way and lead you forth with My eyes as your guide. So don’t make it difficult; don’t be stubborn when I take you where you’ve not been before. Don’t make Me tug you and pull you along. Just come with Me!’” 

(Psalms 32:8-9 TPT)

…God raised up David to be king, for God said of him, ‘I have found in David, son of Jesse, a man who always pursues my heart and will accomplish all that I have destined him to do.’ 

(Acts 13:22 TPT)

As we recognize that God desires to direct every aspect of the course of our lives, let’s first consider to what end this is that we may wholeheartedly follow Him. We note that Paul, James, and the others positioned themselves as bondslaves of the Lord. Did they perceive something about Jesus Christ that we need to recover as they willingly gave the Lord the full ownership of their lives that He requested? Paul firmly stated to the early followers of Christ: “You should [L Don’t you…?] know that your body is a temple for the Holy Spirit who is in you and was given to you by God. So you do not belong to yourselves, because you were ·bought by God [bought] for a price.” (1 Cor. 6:19-20 EXB) What these bondslaves of Jesus knew was that Jesus had made the way to know delicious freedom from sin and its fruit, death. These followers also came into the ultimate fulfillment of being welcomed into the embrace of the Father, the Creator, who had revealed His nature as perfect love. No longer were they prodigals. They were reinstated sons of God. [Luke 15:17-22 TPT recounts the story of the prodigal who really didn’t know the Father until Abba “raced out to meet him, swept him up in his arms, hugged him dearly, and kissed him over and over with tender love.” The son admitted his waywardness—his sins against the Father. Further, the wayward son started to declare his unworthiness. Right then, the Father stopped the son from speaking of himself as unworthy by putting the best robe on his newfound son’s shoulders, a ring as a seal of sonship, and the very best shoes. Finally, the Father inaugurated a great celebration of the son’s redemption.]  The early church knew Jesus had inaugurated “the restoration and fulfillment of all things” by His work on the cross. (Eph. 4:10 TPT) Nothing the world had to offer could compare to the new life—indeed, a new creation that the Savior had delivered to humankind, and it still doesn’t. Once born again and indwelt by the Holy Spirit, these men and women of the early church were flowing in rivers of the supernatural zoe life of God. They were literally experiencing resurrection life from inside their bodies.

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Glorious Integrity

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“For the Lord God is brighter than the brilliance of a sunrise! Wrapping Himself around me like a shield, He is so generous with His gifts of grace and glory. Those who walk along His paths with integrity will never lack one thing they need, for He provides it all!” 

(Psalm 84:11 TPT)

Part One: The Way Up from Adam

Integrity is moral soundness. And it can take some walking through life for us to reach the same conclusions that the Creator already provided in His Word about our human nature. Human beings need help in their hearts and minds. We are fallen. The sin nature came into our race through satan when he tripped up Adam, and Adam turned from His Father God. We do miss the mark in the way we behave towards God, ourselves, and the others with whom we share the abode of planet earth. 

Yahweh had His prophet Jeremiah declare, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and it is exceedingly perverse and corrupt and severely, mortally sick! Who can know it [perceive, understand, be acquainted with his own heart and mind]? I the Lord search the mind, I try the heart, even to give to every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings.” (Jeremiah 17:9-10 AMPC). 

In fast forwarding to the New Testament, we receive the revelation of God’s answer to our condition. Paul, too, writes on human nature. Yet, Paul goes on to explain the way in which God is now creating a brand new human race indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God as the solution. Indeed, through the new birth, we are indwelt by the three-in-one Godhead through the Spirit put in us at the moment we repent and accept Christ’s atoning work on the cross. At that point, we are regenerated by a Sovereign work of God. We are placed into union with the Lord and all that He accomplished on the cross. His death becomes our death, and this death is the means of the power to die to the flesh nature in us. His resurrection life then begins to flow through us and out from us. Jesus invites us into this new creation life through His words in Luke 9:23, “If any person wills to come after Me, let him deny himself [disown himself, forget, lose sight of himself and his own interests, refuse and give up himself] and take up his cross daily and follow Me [cleave steadfastly to Me, conform wholly to My example in living and, if need be, in dying also].” [To further understand the way of dying to live, see Jessie Penn’ Lewis classic book, Dying to Live.]

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Let’s Say “Yes” to True Freedom this Fourth of July Season

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“So, if the Son sets you free from sin, 

then become a true son [of the Father, the Creator,] 

and be unquestionably free!” (John 8:36 TPT)

In our nation now, the understanding of freedom that’s out there in the culture is deceiving many. Voices that are influencing the dear hearts and minds of our fellow citizens are saying freedom is doing and having anything and everything one wants. In other words, freedom is license. The headlines and the dysfunctional relational life of the population at large attest to the destruction that results from such pursuits. 

Let’s consider another understanding of freedom and the purpose of life for which we are designed. And let’s consider that freedom is recovering that design. 

First, let’s admit that deep down inside we know there is a God, a Creator. Can we know Him and what He is like? Is there an ultimate fulfillment? The Bible has answers that we can experience in a way that we know that we know that what it declares comes from the heart and mind of God. The Bible reveals that Jesus is the Promised Messiah or the way back to Eden. When one meets this Son of God as Savior or Rescuer, one encounters the One who is the Way, the Truth, and the [Source of abundant] Life. (John 14:6; John 10:10) Another Kingdom opens. 

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Double Payback: The Father’s Heart to Restore

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As did Adam and Eve in the garden, Job lost it all. But in the end the Father restored double. God loves through His actions which means He has a heart to bless us with everything that He deems wise. And He acts in perfect wisdom. The meek, the Father’s born again sons and daughters, are going to get the earth back. (See Matt. 5:5.) A new heavens and a new earth are coming, populated by people who have become Jesus’ look-alikes.

Let’s consider Job’s case. God got him to the point where He moved in selfless love, and we see what happened:

After Job had interceded for his friends, God restored his fortune—and then doubled it! All his brothers and sisters and friends came to his house and celebrated. They told him how sorry they were and consoled him for all the trouble God had brought him. Each of them brought generous housewarming gifts. (Job 42:10-11 MSG)

You know how we call those blessed (happy) who were steadfast [who endured]. You have heard of the endurance of Job, and you have seen the Lord’s [purpose and how He richly blessed him in the] end, inasmuch as the Lord is full of pity and compassion and tenderness and mercy.

(James 5:11 AMPC)

The Father has given a promise to give the same payback to His new creation race, those born of the Spirit into sonship.

Instead of your [former] shame you shall have a twofold recompense; instead of dishonor and reproach [your people] shall rejoice in their portion. Therefore, in their land they shall possess double [what they had forfeited]; everlasting joy shall be theirs. (Isaiah 61:7 AMPC)

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Union of Wills

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Overcoming Hidden Pockets of Pride and Rebellion so as to Gain Christ;

Experience a Passionate Love Relationship with God;

Know Fruitfulness and Prayer that Prevails;

And Find Favor, Protection, and Soul Prosperity

Part One

The Father reveals the great dream in His heart for our inner life on earth in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. He desires us to walk in an Edenic reality on the inside even as we exist in “the midst of a brutal and perverse culture.” (Phil. 2:15 TPT) Paul writes of this Eden within in his heavenly Epistle using these words: “that you may be filled [through all your being] unto all the fullness of God [may have the richest measure of the divine Presence, and become a body wholly filled and flooded with God Himself]!” (Eph. 3:19 AMPC) We look back to the Psalms to capture how pleasureful this fullness is. King David, who gave himself to hours and hours in the Old Testament version of a house of prayer, talked of drinking from “a river of thy delights,” “a wonderful river,” and “a refreshing stream.” (Psalm 36:8 KJV, ERV, HCSB). One more translation says of knowing God and imbibing His zoe life: “You give them water from your river, that makes them happy when they drink it.” (Psalm 36:8 EASY) 

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Keys to Destiny

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INTIMACY WITH JESUS, THE FATHER, THE SPIRIT

Men and women of lasting significance know their Maker, seek His wisdom, and bow to His government. King David penned the glorious truth of ultimate fulfillment in Psalm 16:5: “Yahweh, You alone are my prize, my pleasure, and my portion. You hold my destiny and its timing in your hands.” Indeed, the Father said of David, the one called to be the shepherd of Israel and the very picture of the Great Shepherd of Israel and the grafted in Gentiles—the King of kings to come, “I have found …a man who always pursues My heart and will accomplish all that I have destined him to do.” (Acts 13:22 TPT)

King David’s heart for God is to be ours in terms of what comprises our chief pursuit. He wrote,

“The one thing I seek above all else: I want to live with Him every moment in His house, (c) beholding the marvelous beauty (d) of Yahweh, filled with awe, delighting in His glory and grace. I want to contemplate (e) in His temple….I heard Your voice in my heart say, ‘Come, seek My face;’ my inner being responded, ‘Yahweh, I’m seeking Your face with all my heart.” (Psalm 27:4, 8 TPT)

(c) A temple had not yet been built when David wrote this psalm. He was saying that he longs to be surrounded with God’s presence, enclosed and encircled with holiness.

(d) The meaning of the Hebrew word for “beauty” (no’am) is not easily conveyed by one English word. It can also be translated “sweetness,” “pleasantness,” “friendliness,” “graciousness,” “goodness,” “loveliness,” “splendor,” or “delightfulness.” Take each of these terms and read the verse again, inserting the possible alternatives. We must be captured by the awesomeness of God each time we come before Him and rejoice in His friendship. 

(e) The Hebrew verb baqar can also mean “inquire,” “meditate,” “take pleasure in,” and in a general sense, “worship,” “pray,” or “seek [guidance].” However, baqar comes from a root word that means “to arise at dawn.” Perhaps David was saying that he would arise every dawn to take pleasure in God.

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God’s Boundary Lines and Bliss

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From the beginning in the garden of Eden (and the word Eden means a paradise of unbroken fellowship and rich pleasure as this garden was God’s heart for man and woman), the subtle and crafty enemy of humankind challenged the truth of God’s communication to His offspring, Adam and Eve. Satan suggested, “Hath God said?” with the intent of challenging the goodness or blessedness of His Lordship in forbidding partaking of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil with its deception of a life of independence from the Creator. As we know, Adam and Eve bought the lie about God and cut themselves off from the tree of life. 

Fast forward to our day, and we have the Holy Bible, God’s Covenant Book, again telling us of the way God has given to return to Him as our source of His satisfying eternal life. Jesus Christ once received as Savior and Lord is pure fulfillment to the human heart. John 14:6 records the Redeemer’s words, “I am ·the way, and the truth, and the life [orthe one true way to have life]. ·The only way to the Father is through me [No one comes to the Father except through me].” (EXB) And John 10:10 sets before us the reality about life in God vs. the death the enemy prowls around to bring. Jesus’ wake up call here is, “The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance (to the full, till it overflows).” (AMPC)

The essential thing is to let the Person of Jesus be our very life—our feed. And, the way we feed on Jesus is through taking in His Word and spending time before Him drawing ever closer to His heart. We talk with Him and sit at His feet and listen. [We go within where He resides in our spirits by way of the new birth John 3; we are one with Him there, 1 Corinthians 6:17 reveals. His kingdom is inside us, John 17:21 states.] And we then partner with Him in becoming His yielded instruments of righteousness to realize His heavenly will done in us and through us on earth. 

Yet, as the antagonist of truth still comes with, “Hath God said?” when we are tempted to yield to that in us that is of Adam, it’s profitable to put before us what God declares about His commandments. The Bible is spiritually discerned i.e. deeper and deeper levels of experiencing it and understanding it open up as we obey it. 

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“A Body Wholly Filled and Flooded”—All This by way of Receiving

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For months now, Pastor Bryan Wright at Boomerang Church in the humble, little city of Albemarle, NC has labored to impart the absolute necessity of receiving God’s love first and foremost before ever stepping out in any effort to obey God. This emphasis is because it is only as the God who is love becomes our source that we are at all able to love Him back by keeping His commandments. And all of His injunctions are summed up in John 13:34-35, “ I give you a new commandment: that you should love one another. Just as I have loved you, so you too should love one another. By this shall all [men] know that you are My disciples, if you love one another [if you keep on showing love among yourselves]. The Lord, the Vine, must be our source as obeying God is all by grace, God’s power and ability, and impossible by self-effort. We are lifeless corpses, fleshy souls, apart from Him. John 15:5 puts our state bluntly:  “I am the Vine; you are the branches. Whoever lives in Me and I in him bears much (abundant) fruit. However, apart from Me [cut off from vital union with Me] you can do nothing.“

But oh, what we, the very Body of Christ, can know, for the price of positioning ourselves to receive and letting Him pour His love into us. We are meant to experience the fire within of His unconditional love. We are meant to receive and receive and receive and only after that respond to Him. “We love Him, because He first loved us,” 1 John 4:19 explicitly says. And how we show we love Him is by obedience. John 14:15 is the acid test: “If you [really] love Me, you will keep (obey) My commands.” John 15:10 adds the word that to obey Him is to remain in His love: “If you keep My commandments [if you continue to obey My instructions], you will abide in My love and live on in it, just as I have obeyed My Father’s commandments and live on in His love.”

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