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THE LAWS OF BIBLICAL PROSPERITY
Part Twenty-One - The Requirement of Obedience
Volume X Number 4 March 9, 2007

In this issue

Links to FREE Articles

The Meaning of Obedience

The Commandments of Christ

Abiding in Christ

Some Final Thoughts

Sinners’ Prayer

Prayer Requests

Donations

Questions and Suggestions


 

Links to FREE Articles


Links to Special Financial Services















"Owe no man anything..."
-Romans 13:8














"...the borrower becomes the lender's slave."
-Proverbs 22:7















"...the righteous man shall live by faith."
-Romans 1:17















"...without faith it is impossible to please Him."
-Hebrews 11:6















"No one can serve two masters..."
-Matthew 6:24















"The Lord will make you abound in prosperity..."
-Deuteronomy 25:11















"...God loves a cheerful giver."
-2 Corinthians 9:7















"...the Lord... is giving you power to make wealth..."
-Deuteronomy 8:18

















Greetings in the name of Christ Jesus!

Many Christians can tell you that the Old Testament was based on obedience and the New Testament on faith through love. Under the old covenant, if you obeyed God’s commandments you received His blessings including deliverance and salvation; and if you disobeyed you were subject to the curses. Deuteronomy 28 lists the possible blessings and curses and under the blessings you will find all the elements that produce biblical prosperity (nothing missing, nothing broken) while under the curses the fullness of failure, defeat and bondage.

Now we are under the New Testament that Jesus started for us at the Cross of Calvary. We receive deliverance and salvation by faith instead of by obedience, and the Bible tells us that we have better promises under this new covenant than under the old one (Hebrews 8:6). But friend, it was never God’s intention for you to stop obeying His commandments or to ignore living by the principles of conduct in His Word just because you have been justified by faith. On the contrary, Jesus told us to focus on obeying in particular two love commandments so in that process we could wind up keeping the whole Law of God (Matthew 22:36-40).

Many churches today avoid teaching too strongly about the consequences of disobedience because they don’t want to offend their people. By nature most sinners prefer not to be confronted with their sin. But loving confrontation is the job of the Holy Spirit and He uses the Word to provide that confrontation and bring about conviction. Therefore, Pastors and teachers should be faithful to teach us the entire Word of God and let it do its job because the parts we stop hearing about we tend to start disregarding. The truth is many Christians today are disregarding the requirement to OBEY the commandments of Christ which causes them to fall short of realizing the abundance in life that was won for them at Calvary.


  • The Meaning of Obedience
  • The dictionary says that obeying is the act of carrying out the instructions and commands of one who is in authority. Thus, in a biblical sense obedience is the yielding or submitting of one’s conduct to the sovereignty of Creator God. As soon as we become aware of His instructions and commands, obedience requires that we make every effort to comply completely and without hesitation or delay. Incomplete compliance is the same as disobedience. Delayed compliance is also disobedience.

    Now, there are two ways God gives us instructions and commands: out of His written Word and by speaking directly to us in the present, Spirit to spirit, which He does continuously. Once we know what His will is for a particular matter, we are faced with a decision: to obey or disobey. There are only two choices. God will not force us to obey. He will not override our free will right to disobey if we insist on having our own way. In other words, He will permit us to choose to live out of our own strength by our emotions and intellect if that’s what we prefer instead of by every Word that proceeds out of His mouth (Matthew 4:4).

    Obedience then requires that we choose His way over the ways of self and the flesh, that we put Him at the head of our priorities and over our own self-seeking and self-satisfying agendas. Mature Christians full of wisdom have decided to obey Him out of love, out of reverence and respect, and with a concern that disobedience will always produce an undesirable outcome that is less than God’s best. Scripture that seems to illustrate this quite well can be found in Matthew 7:21- 25:

    "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name? And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!' Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock.”

    Obedience requires that we take the time and make the effort to become knowledgeable about the written Word and to put ourselves in a position to hear the Lord’s present voice. If we don’t stop our busy striving long enough to hear from Him, to hear His instructions and commands, how can we demonstrate obedience? The truth is most Christians are too busily involved in their own priorities so they fail to consult with the Lord as they go through their daily lives. Therefore, if we don’t know what God is saying to us, we fall into disobedience by default and experience the same negative consequences as if we had heard His will and decided not to comply.

  • The Commandments of Christ
  • If you are having trouble today establishing contact with God’s will for your life, you can start correcting that by learning about the commandments of Christ and then applying them by faith to your daily conduct. Once you do this, a lifestyle of obedience will start to open up for you. In previous articles of this series (see Parts 5 and 6) we discussed the commandments Jesus gave us in Matthew 22:37-40 when He was asked by a lawyer to specify which of the commandments of God is the most important. His answer bears repeating:

    “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.”

    Thus, there are two commandments: to love God and to love your neighbor. And by the way, these are commandments, not suggestions so we must assume we have been given the ability to obey them by faith. If we don’t at least try to keep these commandments, if we are disobedient, then the principles of life from the Word (referred to here as “the Law and the Prophets”) will not work for our benefit and we will routinely receive less than God’s best.

    Why will love work? The underlying concept is that those who are truly walking in the love of God with all their heart, soul and mind will be motivated to pursue obeying the things that are important to the One who is the object of that love. You will want to learn from the Word about the things that please your Father. You will long to hear His voice for your life and make the effort necessary to do so because you don’t want to disappoint Him by deviating from His plans. Love always works and produces obedience which in turn activates the Blessings of God.

  • Abiding in Christ
  • The Bible says clearly that if your sincere intention is to love Jesus, you must keep (obey) His commandments (John 14:15). It goes on to say that if you are keeping His commandments, He will love you in return and manifest or disclose (reveal) Himself to you (John 14:21). Why is this important? Because the form the disclosure takes is that you come to abide together (John 14:23), you in Him and He in you, which will serve to glorify the Father (John 15:8) and create a manner of life in which whatever you ask is done for you (John 15:7).

    The relationship of abiding together with Christ is central to New Testament life. If the abiding relationship doesn’t exist, you will be unable to accomplish anything (John 15:5) but if it does exist you can have whatever you ask for. The key ingredient that produces the abiding life is the obedience of the two love commandments. We cannot disobey the words of Christ and expect biblical prosperity. We can’t ignore the will of God and expect victory and success. If you want to know why so many Believers are failing to live the life of abundance that God intends for us to have, you need look no further than our disobedience and related failure to walk in love.

  • Some Final Thoughts
  • The Bible says that God has set before us a blessing and a curse (Deuteronomy 11:26). The blessing always comes from obedience and the curse from disobedience. God requires us to exercise our free will and make the choice between these alternatives. Everyone including Adam and Eve has been/is required to choose: blessing or curse, life or death. The events in our lives then are a result of what we choose, of the choices we make throughout our lives.

    Certainly it’s true that Jesus has delivered us from the curse of the Law (Galatians 3:13) but we can choose to subject ourselves again to the consequences of the curse through our disobedience. The curse is not present when we are involved in an abiding relationship with Christ and an abiding relationship is possible only if we are keeping His commandments. In sum, the biblical Law that is operating here can be stated as follows: We must walk in obedience in order for the fullness of biblical prosperity to be manifested in our lives.

    Thanks for reading Prosperous Life Newsletter today. We hope our teachings bless and edify you and then inspire you to study His Word. We’ll be looking for you again in three weeks.

  • Sinners’ Prayer
  • If you have never invited Jesus to become the Lord of your life, you can do so today by saying the following simple prayer: Jesus I believe in you and I receive you as my Lord and Savior. Please forgive me for my sins and come into my life today.

    If you were sincere as you prayed this prayer, God has already come into your life and you are a new creation. Congratulations! Now ask the Lord to lead you to a good bible teaching church where you can be developed to fulfill your potential in the Kingdom of God. And please send us an e-mail advising your decision so we can rejoice for you in our prayers. If you’re unable to find a church, give us a call and we’ll help you find a good one.

  • Prayer Requests
  • If you have prayer requests, please e-mail them to us and we’ll be honored to bring them before the Lord each Tuesday morning at 10:00 AM, Eastern Time. Then, let us know about your answered prayers so we can rejoice with your family. Praise the Lord!

  • Donations
  • If you have been blessed and edified by Prosperous Life Newsletter, please pray about making a Spirit-led love offering to support the work of the Ministry (Galatians 6:6-7). PLN is a non profit [501(c)(3)] gift to the Body of Christ so your financial gifts are tax deductible (please consult your tax advisor). You may mail your check or money order payable to Cornerstone Consulting Ministries to 10621 N. Kendall Drive, Suite 113, Miami, Florida 33176 or click on the donation tab for other payment options. May God bless you with His abundant harvest from sowing your precious seed into this Ministry.

  • Questions and Suggestions
  • It would bless us to have an opportunity to answer your questions concerning any of the financial areas covered by this ministry. We would also be happy to consider your comments and suggestions. Please feel free to e-mail them to us or give us a call anytime during normal business hours at our toll free number 1-800-357-4223.

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