Understanding Obedience

Obedience has been a much-discussed topic in the body of Christ and one of such importance that I believe it should never leave the corridors of our walk with the Lord, seeing that it is the bedrock of our Faith. Exodus 19:5 says “Now, therefore, if you will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then you shall be a peculiar treasure to me above all people”

We see obedience introduce its importance right at the beginning of the book of Genesis when Adam and Eve were given a commandment for them to obey.

Genesis 2:16 – 17 “And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die”.

Later on, we read how Adam and Eve disobeyed this instruction which led to a downward spiral of humanity. Genesis 3:11 "And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? ... Genesis 3:11, NLT: "'Who told you that you were naked?' the LORD God asked. 'Have you eaten from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat?'"

Note how obedience to the command is the virtue of paradise, the one condition for man residing in the garden of Eden. We can therefore deduce that the Obedience of man to his creator’s voice is the deciding factor of man’s destiny.

We also see a theme of reward for obedience in the book of Revelations 22:14 "Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city."

From the aforementioned scripture, we can clearly see that a complete reversal of the expulsion of man from the presence of the Lord is the result of obedience. Now let’s see what hangs between disobedience in the book of Genesis and the blessing as a result of obedience in the book of revelations.

Uniting the beginning and the end we see the cross of Christ Romans 5:19 says "for just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous."

Jesus became the epitome of obedience for us - the reconciliation of the fall of man to his creator as a result of disobedience. The beauty of Christ's salvation consists in this - he brings us back to the life of obedience and makes us partakers of the blessing of God.

Philippians 2:8 says "And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death-- even death on a cross!"

Hebrews 5:8-9 "though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered. 9 And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him"

There are a few keys to obedience that I would like us to briefly discuss below

In order for one to obey an instruction/command must be given, we see this in the account of Moses in Exodus 'There, on Mount Horeb, God appeared to Moses as a burning bush, revealed to Moses his name YHWH and commanded him to return to Egypt and bring his chosen people (Israel) out of bondage and into the Promised Land (Canaan)'. Exodus 3:1-12

for Moses to obey the instruction, he needed to hear the voice of God.

Key 1: Hearing Gods voice

The prerequisite of obedience to instruction is hearing, moreover hearing the voice of God and when we do not know or recognize the voice of God we miss certain instructions. If this area in our lives is not sharpened, we will suffer the consequences of misalignment with God.

John 10:27 says My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.

Key 2: Blessing in immediate obedience

We see Abraham commended for his obedience, he showed no hesitation in obeying God's orders. He did not try to stall, but instead, he "rose early in the morning" after instructed to take Isaac and sacrifice him unto The Lord. We sometimes hear God's instructions but we tend to procrastinate and put the instruction off for later. This account of Abraham teaches us the blessing found in immediate obedience and how there is a provider waiting to meet with you at the end of your immediate obedience.