The Work of Obedience

The other day while worshiping and praying, I heard it loud and clear, “It’s time to start writing again!” I don’t know what that will look like. I have no plan, but I know God said do it. Here I am , Lord!

Let’s talk about obedience and the work of obedience. If you go back to my blogs from October 2015 when I talk about obedience and risking it all to obey. Since 2015 my husband and I have continued the work of full obedience saying, “God, whatever you want us to do we will do!” Side note: Our work of

obedience will never be done until we are with our heavenly father. We are continually keeping our focus on God and following Him wherever He leads us.

Before I talk about my work of obedience story, I want to give you 3 points on “the Work” :

1. Obedience will stretch your faith and build your character.

   • When walking in obedience to God, our character should be growing to look more and more like Christ as laid out in the word of God, Matthew 7:15-20.1 Samuel 16:7 reminds us that God is looking for what’s inside of a man (the heart) and who he/she are becoming over the outward appearance.

Questions to ask yourself:

1. Am I walking in the fruit of the spirit (Galatians 5:22-23, Ephesians 4:1-3)?

2. What areas can I grow in (Ezekiel 36:26)?

3. Are you led by emotions, the flesh or the Spirit of God (Acts 10:38, Romans 8:14)?

Through life’s challenges, God is working things out of us and working through causing our character to grow according to Romans 5:3-5. He is chipping away at our human nature that has been born into sin to mold us into disciples that are loving, self controlled, compassionate, bold, and self sacrificing just like Jesus. Paul lays out how we should be, live and walk as Christ followers in most of the new testament from Romans to Titus.

2. Obedience will never be easy. It is probably going to cause some pain (TO YOUR FLESH). Your flesh has to die.

• When we choose to obey God, we will still have to face pain and trials! That doesn’t go away with accepting Christ. As I wrote about in God working out the old molding into who He originally purposed us to be, He is able to use the trials and pains of this world to grow us. “We count it all joy, “ as we walk through various trial knowing it’s producing character and hope (referring back to Romans 5). At the end of the day, I remind myself it is not about me! God cares for me and all the details of my heart AND ultimately ALL His other children as well. This means my obedience to His calling in my life has more to do with bringing Him glory and multiplying the kingdom of God (by seeing people accept Jesus at their Lord and savior) than about how good I feel. That's a hard pill to swallow, but it’s TRUTH. Our emotions are real and a part of how God created us “in His image”, however we can not be led by our emotions that are changing. Life is hard, there will be grief, there will be loss, etc. God is with us through it all and will carry us when we feel we can’t go on.

3. Whatever God is calling you to be obedient in will point more to God getting the glory than you getting glory.

• If anyone says they are being obedient to God and their obedience is self serving, then they are lying! That’s a bold statement, I know. Jesus did not get on the cross for himself or so that His name could be made great. Because of His obedience in the sacrifice, His name was made great and is the name above every name. His obedience was to bring us back into right relationship with God. He was perfect with out sin, but loved us enough to take our punishment. It was Satan’s desire for God’s glory that had him kicked out of Heaven (please read Philippians 2:3-13).

Our Continuous Work:

Our family has been in very difficult situations to the point of not knowing how our bills would get paid as we were trusting God. However, last year 2021 was probably the worst 6 months our life (at least I felt like) and we were fully obeying God when it hit.

In April of 2021, God spoke to me in prayer time, “There are decisions being made BEHIND CLOSED doors in rooms you’ll NEVER BE INVITED to that can change the trajectory of the church (our current church) depending on the choice that is made. Don’t worry! Your family will be protected.” Later on in the year as we were looking for a home to purchase the Lord gave me numbers for an address. I searched and searched for the home I could not find. The address happened to be the address to another school that we are currently the campus pastors at. There are many intricacies within that. When the Lord speaks to me either through dreams or vocally, most the times I have little knowledge of what they mean until later.

Later in May, my husband and I were out of town, and some things happened back home. Immediately, I felt a nudge in my spirit that there was a plan being formed that we needed to prepare for. Although I said all things, I did not believe I would see them actually happen. I thought, “Hey, this is a warning, but you can pray through this and change it.” I mean we were just being obedient and doing what God told us to, so He “owed” it to us, right? No! God was working on things I could not see.

I was frustrated! I was upset and did not understand, because it did not look like what the Lord said. I was hurt for various reasons. Lord knows there was a temptation to just be #overit. It is in this season that I found myself being more understanding of Elijah, calling down fire from Heaven in one moment and asking to die in the next. I even prayed for a release, but God had other plans. It would have been easier to run, and I ran a time before. This time obedience looked like staying when it did not feel good.

Here we are a year later pastoring the campus we were once snatched from at the school building that Lord spoke to me about last year. Going back to those numbers God gave me. I was pretty mad when He gave those numbers to me, because I was looking for my home, not for the church. I was mad because my husband and I were praying that the campus would find a permanent building not move to another school. Then I found myself angry for God telling me the numbers, then saying, "Build my house and I will build yours!" Within weeks the Lord allowed us to not be a part of the team to launch that campus. I was so confused. Now here we are re"building" this very campus He spoke to me are. When I wanted to run and be done, the Lord said, "Go back to the place that broke you." The words God spoke did not change no matter what decisions man made. When things don't look like we think they should, we have to trust that God truly is faithful and His word does not return void!

My husband and I care more about the Big C, church and bride of Christ. Wherever God wants us, we will be. We want to see people know the love of God, know who they are in God, know His word, and walk in the power and authority we know God has given us. We are just a family of "unqualified" servants leaning into Him, walking this work out as God is doing His work in us. We know what God has called us to and we, like the disciples dropped everything to follow Him. I encourage you all to get in His presence and truly lean in to find out what the Lord has for you and how He wants to use you. He is always speaking waiting for the willing and obedient hearts to respond.

- D. Michelle