86. OBEDIENCE
--page 696--
If ye love Me, keep My commandments (Jn.14:15).
[HomeARC note (9/98): The Charter articulates the Family's current policies, and the rights and responsibilities of members.]
1. We know that God does not fail and will never let us down if we are trusting and obeying Him and operating according to His Will and what He knows best.
2. If you don't take a hint from the Lord, sometimes He has to give you a shove.
3. God loves all His children, although of course He is bound to appreciate more those who please Him.
4. There's no little disobedience to God, any disobedience is a big one.
5. Yours not to make reply,
Yours not to reason why,
Yours but to do or die.
6. I believe in obeying God if it means facing all Hell & high water & turning the World upside-down! If I hadn't obeyed, you wouldn't be here! I'm willing to go to any extreme [within God's will] to get the job done, & I'm not about to begin to let anybody stand in the way!
7. Your own spirit becomes evil when you disobey & are out of fellowship with God and out of His Spirit. Then it becomes an evil spirit because you're in disobedience, defiance, compromise, failure, lack of faith, doubting & grumbling!
8. If you obey God's standard, His laws & rules of conduct, whether they be physical, spiritual, psychological or even financial, you will reap some good results, even if you're not really saved or a believer.
9. Since when are you supposed to wait until all the conditions are just right before you have enough faith to obey!
10. Yesterday's obedience isn't good enough for today!
11. One little disobedience leads to another, one bit of selfishness leads to more.
12. If God never tells you another thing, if you just go according to what you have already, you'll get along great!
13. Nothing short of right is right.
14. Even the unsaved can be blessed by the Lord if they obey the Lord and do their duty & what they're supposed to do.
15. God won't exactly make you do what He wants, but He can sure make you awfully sorry you didn't!
16. For God's sake, follow God!--Not yourself, not your own ideas, not your own plans and programs, but God!
17. Do what you can, and God will do what you can't.
18. Your obedience in doing what God tells you to do shows your faith that God is going to do the rest, what you can't do.
19. Without obedience it's impossible to have faith.
20. There is no such a thing as halfway obedience!
21. If you refuse the easy way of obedience, "the way of the transgressor is hard."
22. As far as the Will of God is concerned, there's only one best, and that's His first choice. And if you take second choice, it is your best, not His!
23. If I can just get you to follow God, I know you'll do the right thing!
24. You can't serve God unless you obey God!
25. Don't tell me you can't, because if you couldn't, God wouldn't have asked it of you!
26. Spiritual maturity is not a matter of years or time, it's just a matter of your connection with the Lord and His Word, and your obedience and your humility.
27. Right or wrong, if he's the boss, it's your duty to obey.
28. In any Man's army, you've got to have faith, trust and confidence in leadership, and strict loyalty and obedience thereto--or you've got trouble.
29. You do not have to leave the ship to be in mutiny against the captain! All you have to do is interfere with his control!
30. You'll get away with defying God's natural laws no easier than you'll get away with defying His spiritual laws.
31. The right thing is to obey.
32. God expects of His army total absolute unquestioning obedience and faithfulness, even if sometimes His officers might be wrong! [See #38.]
33. You don't have to worry about anything, all you have to do is obey!
34. If you disobey God about one thing, you'll disobey Him about almost anything!
35. Try to follow suggestions before they have to become tough orders!
36. If you don't obey, you can't expect to trust, because that's what it takes, trust & obedience! For if you trust, you can obey, & if you obey, you can certainly trust God to take care of you. It takes both!--Trust & obedience!
37. How can God bless disobedience? He cannot protect, prosper, or bless you when you are out of His will & running around outside of the secret place & from under His shadow--His wings--& His fortress of perfect fellowship with Him.
38. Although I believe in unity & loyal, faithful obedience to leadership in the Lord, I still do not believe that these are total absolutes which must be put above reason, right, Scripture & personal conviction of God's truth.
39. If you're not fully obeying the Lord, then you can't have faith for God to bless you when you know you're not obeying Him.
40. God's a tough Commanding Officer when to comes to obedience in His Army, where nothing is more important than His War against death to save lives!
41. If your people's obedience doesn't come from the heart, because of love & loyalty & devotion to both the cause & its leadership, you're going to have discontent, disillusionment, dissatisfaction, murmuring, disobedience & even open rebellion!--And a lot of backsliders.
42. Delayed obedience can become total disobedience if prolonged too long.
43. The boss may not always be right, but he still has to be the boss.
44. You don't always have to know why you're fighting or what you're fighting for! All you have to know is that Jesus gave the order & you obey it, no matter what the outcome!
45. You can't get along without God, you can't do His work without His will, you can't follow without listening, & you can't accomplish anything without obeying His Words.
46. Those who love Him most, follow Him closest.
47. Have you lost the road to happiness?
Oh, I can lead you back!
Take the road marked "obedience,"
To the right, up God's Own track!
48. God's only time is NOW--or forget it!
49. Insubordination and rebellion against leadership cannot be countenanced in any man's army.
50. Love, honour, respect & obey your leadership, not only for their words, their works, and their good fruits, but because God has chosen them and placed them in that position of responsibility.
51. If you don't go, He can't show!
If you don't obey, He can't make a way!
52. Move with God! Don't run ahead of Him--but don't lag behind Him!
53. Only what's right is right! If it's not completely right, then it's wrong!
54. Truth resisted loses its power over the mind.
55. God is the One that has to understand--we just obey.
56. The most important thing any crew has to do is to learn to obey the shipmaster. Even the captain has to obey the shipmaster, or the owner of the ship, the one who is really in charge.
57. You can find the World's shortest sermon on a thousand traffic signs: "Keep Right."
58. The further from God people go
The greater their troubles grow!
59. When God speaks, He expects you to
Listen, receive, remember & DO!
60. The Lord really blesses the farmers because they're doing what God wants them to do--till the land & raise food for the people!
61. I fear God!--I'm afraid not to obey the Lord.
62. I just don't understand people who are not afraid of God and not afraid to disobey.
63. When God says, "Now! Right now!" let me tell you, you had better do it now or you are going to miss the boat & suffer for it!
64. Everybody's on probation--for the rest of their life!
65. If you have even one talent and God calls on you to do something with it, don't be afraid of what people will think or whether you'll succeed: Just obey!
66. There's only one kind of law that you don't really have to obey, & that's the kind that says you can't preach the Gospel!
67. God has a scrap pile for people He can no longer use, because they have blown their engines & lost their usefulness because of the improper relationship between the parts and the Power.
68. Your happiness, your health and your blessings depend on your obedience to God.
69. Some people think that stubbornness isn't all that bad. Most people seem to think that's part of your virtue of independence. But when it comes to being that way with God, God says it's as bad as witchcraft & idolatry! Stubbornness is really rebellion. "Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, & to hearken than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, & stubbornness is as iniquity & idolatry." (1Sam.15:23)
70. Do today what God tells you to do today! Do it now! Don't wait for tomorrow!
71. Don't just sit there & do nothing! Stand up & be counted & let God be the judge.
72. It's God that wins the battle, it's obedience that wins the battle. It's humble faith that wins the battle. It's meekness & quietness, believing in God & the quietness of faithful obedience to the Lord which wins the battle, regardless of how few you have & how weak you seem to be & how little you've got, it's God that honours your faith & your meekness & your quietness & your obedience to win the battle.
73. Obedience comes before the blessing. Obedience comes before the reward. Obedience comes before the anointing. You don't get the anointing to obey, you get the anointing because you obey. You get the faith to obey if you'll believe His Word. He will give you the faith to make that step of obedience & the moment you, because of faith, obey, then you get the blessing & the anointing to carry on.
74. One little disobedience leads to another, one little tiny thing leads to another, if you don't follow the pattern & the plan, then you're just going to have problems.
75. If you obey what you know God wants you to do, then He'll show you more Truth.
76. If you are only willing to believe & obey the Lord as long as everything goes all right, you won't be believing or obeying very much, because a lot of things go wrong when you're serving the Lord. "Many are the afflictions of the righteous." (Psa.34:19.)
77. There is no such thing as halfway obedience.
78. If you haven't got the faith for God to supply your needs, you're displeasing Him, & the reason you haven't got the faith is that you are not obeying. If you're obeying, God will be blessing you in some way & will take care of your needs.
79. You can't be obedient unless you have faith.
80. The mother of happiness is just plain old-fashioned obedience.
81. Perfect obedience will be perfect happiness if we have perfect confidence in the One we are obeying.
82. We've got to do the obeying! We've got to do the "wenting." "As they went they were healed!" We've got to do what we know God has told us to do!
83. When you miss God's timetable, you have to wait for the next train, & it's a long hard wait sometimes. When you miss God's schedule, you've got to wait for the next boat, & let me tell you, things can get tough & rough!
84. Blind obedience can sometimes be too blind!
85. I don't care if it's social pressure that makes you do the right thing, even if it's not the right motive, even if you do it just because you think you have to, it's better than not at all.
86. Faith & obedience come first, then God answers prayer!
87. He never fails if we obey!
88. If we'll obey, He'll give us faith.
89. Blessings don't precede obedience.
90. Trust & obey, for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus but to trust & obey!
91. Help us to follow those leadings & checks & warnings of Thy Spirit in every step we make, Lord, every word we say, every look, every action, how we drive, even the way we dress, Lord, everything.
92. King Saul had the anointing as long as he obeyed, but when he started disobeying the Prophet & rebelling against doing the Lord's Will, he lost the anointing.
93. You don't have to understand, all you have to do is obey!
94. If you're saved, you can't "lose the Holy Spirit"!--But you can sure lose the power & anointing for service by disobedience!
(See also No.A, 4, 117, 117A, 126, 313, 354, 575, 635, 678, 679, 716, 721, 829, 849, 952-1, 953-3, 956, 1250, 1268, 1377, 1392, 1467.)
95. EXO.23:22 If thou shalt indeed obey His voice, and do all that I speak; then I will be an enemy unto thine enemies, and an adversary unto thine adversaries.
96. LEV.25:18 Wherefore ye shall do My statutes, and keep My judgments, and do them; and ye shall dwell in the land in safety.
97. DEU.28:2 And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God.
98. 1SAM.15:22,23 And Samuel said, Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the Word of the Lord. He hath also rejected thee from being king.
99. JOB.36:11,12 If they obey and serve Him, they shall spend their days in prosperity, and their years in pleasures. But if they obey not, they shall perish by the sword, and they shall die without knowledge.
100. ECC.12:13 Fear God, and keep His commandments: for this is the whole duty of Man.
101. ISA.1:19,20 If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land: But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.
102. JER.7:23 But this thing commanded I them, saying, Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be My people: and walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well unto you.
103. MAT.7:24,25 Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of Mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his upon a Rock: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a Rock.
104. LUK.6:46 And why call ye Me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?
105. LUK.11:42 But woe unto you, Pharisees! for ye tithe mint and rue and all manner of herbs, and pass over judgement and the love of God: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.
106. JOH.2:5 His mother saith unto the servants, Whatsoever He saith unto you, do it.
107. JOH.13:17 If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them.
108. JOH.14:15 If ye love Me, keep My commandments.
109. ACT.4:13-21 Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus. And beholding the man which was healed standing with them, they could say nothing against it. But when they had commanded them to go aside out of the council, they conferred among themselves, saying, What shall we do to these men? for that indeed a notable miracle hath been done by them is manifest to all them that dwell in Jerusalem; and we cannot deny it. But that it spread no further among the people, let us straitly threaten them, that they speak henceforth to no man in this Name. And they called them, and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the Name of Jesus. But Peter and John answered and said unto them, Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye. For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard. So when they had further threatened them, they let them go, finding nothing how they might punish them, because of the people: for all men glorified God for that which was done.
110. ROM.5:19 For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.
111. 2COR.2:9b Be obedient in all things.
112. GAL.3:1a O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth?
113. COL.3:22 Servants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh; not with eyeservice, as menpleasers: but in singleness of heart, fearing God.
114. PHM.21 Having confidence in thy obedience I wrote unto thee, knowing that thou wilt also do more than I say.
115. HEB.13:17 Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you.
116. JAM.1:23,24 For if any be a hearer of the Word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: For he beholdeth himself, & goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.
117. 1JO.2:3,4 And hereby we do know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He that saith, I know Him, and keepeth not His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
118. 1JO.2:28 And now, little children, abide in Him; that, when He shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before Him at His coming.
119. 1JO.3:24a And he that keepeth His commandments dwelleth in Him, and He in Him.
(See also 1KI.20:42; ROM.13:1-7.)
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family