Trust And Obey Or Feed Your Flesh
GOD IS SO AWESOME! I will NEVER cease to be AMAZED by how faithful God is to ALWAYS confirm what He wants to show us. Making a commitment to post something encouraging or edifying every day means keeping my ears and spirit open to hear what the Lord wants me to write, so I listen to a lot of radio and TV programs for something that speaks to my spirit in a special way. Last night I heard just a little bit of something someone said on TV (I don’t even know who it was) and knew my message this morning would be about “trust and obey”. The message was from these verses in Luke 5:
4 When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch.”
5 Simon answered, “Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets.”
6 When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break.
7 So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink.
8 When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ knees and said, “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!”
9 For he and all his companions were astonished at the catch of fish they had taken,
10 and so were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, Simon’s partners.
Then Jesus said to Simon, “Don’t be afraid; from now on you will catch men.”
Why is it so hard to understand that all we have to do is obey the Lord by doing what He tells us to do, simply for the sake of obedience if for no other reason (just like Peter did), and then wait to receive all of the riches and glories of Heaven He will pour out on us? I pondered that quite a bit last night; trying to figure out why some people understand that message, and why others never seem to get it. I know I learned it myself by experiencing the difference in my own life between the consequences of disobedience and then the blessings of obedience. It’s only natural that once we’ve had a bad experience, we want to help others avoid making the same mistakes, which is what led me to start this ministry in the first place.
In addition to trying to get a better understanding of those issues, I had talked with a woman earlier in the evening who was having a difficult time yesterday because her husband had told her their marriage was over, and instead of believing the promises of God, she was receiving every word he said and wondering why she was standing for the restoration of her marriage in the first place. I was feeling convicted that I had indulged her in what I call too much “stinkin’ thinkin’”, even though I had told her several times that I was not going to go there with her, because it was not God glorifying and that she had to learn how to take every thought captive and make it obedient to the word of God..
By the time I got up this morning, I hadn’t really resolved all of that to any great deal of satisfaction in my own mind, but I turned on Joyce Meyer’s TV broadcast and couldn’t believe my ears! Her message was on the exact same verses of scripture and she was talking about being obedient just for the sake of obedience…and how “feeding our flesh” keeps us from doing that and from receiving all of the blessings the Lord wants to pour out on us!
Joyce also used Romans 8 in her message, so here it is in the Amplified Bible fromwww.BibleGateway.com. And this is a very important chapter of scripture for everyone standing for marriage restoration, because it teaches us so much about the constant battle between our flesh and our spirit; BUT the good news is that our spirit WILL conquer our flesh if we’d just stop feeding it!
As a final note of interest, read the last verse in the above passage from Luke again, and note that as a result of Peter’s obedience, which defied EVERYTHING he knew and understood to be true, Jesus told him not to be afraid and that he would now catch men! Isn’t that exactly what we want to do? But it’s not just about “catching” our spouses; it’s really ALL about how our obedience gives us the power to glorify God and defeat the works of the devil by the word of our testimony just as we’re told in Revelation 12:11.