OBEY MY VOICE
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.
God is not a cruel task master whose servants are heavily-laden with unreasonable demands and commandments (Mat 11:28).
God is a good Lord who cares for His people. He doesn’t make unnecessary demands on them. He doesn’t burden His people with callous laws and inconsiderate commandments. He does not desire to break His people’s neck with heavy yoke of insensitive decrees.
He, however, desires that we obey Him implicitly when He speaks.
You and I must realize that God has a right as our Lord to tell us what He wants us to do and what He wants us not to do. And we, as His servants, have a duty to obey Him absolutely.
If you have being in the Lord for about six months, you must have heard about the ‘Ten Commandments.’ So, when you hear me talking about obeying the Lord, your mind probably automatically goes to Exodus 20 where the Ten Commandments are listed.
That is o.k. But I don’t want you to think that the Ten Commandments are all you have to obey. The whole Bible is full of instructions and orders from the Lord to his people – instructions and orders we are duty-bound to obey.
But that is not all. Many times in the course of our lives, the Holy Spirit speaks to our heart or reveals to us in some ways certain things the Lord wants us to do.
These revealed instructions may make no sense to us. We may even consider the instructions from the Holy Spirit downright stupid because of what we think the people around us may say or think if we go ahead and obey God’s voice. But we will do well to obey the words from the Spirit of God, just as we will obey the words of the Spirit of God in the Bible.
I am not saying you should obey every voice you hear or every vision you see. I have seen too many people get into serious trouble by following every kind of voice and vision and dream and prophecy, to ask you to do so. Not only is it stupid, but it is dangerous, to obey every voice we think we hear, or every prophecy or revelation we receive, without making sure that they are from the Lord. The Bible warns:
1 John 4:1
Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.
But when you are rightly certain it is the Lord speaking, go ahead and obey the Lord.
It may be a little nudge from the Holy Spirit to do something that will bring glory to the Lord. It may be a silent voice of the Holy Spirit in your heart that is urging you to take a certain action. It may be a deep impression, from the Holy Spirit, to turn around and move in another direction. The leading may come in several other ways. As soon as you are convinced it is from the Lord, go ahead, and obey the Lord.
Let me give you two examples from my recent experience:
About three weeks ago, I went to a town to worship on Sunday with my fellows in one of UCEM Churches.
At the right time, I was called to the pulpit to preach. I got behind the pulpit, saluted the people, reminded them about this and encouraged them about that.
Anybody who observed me closely would realize I was tired. The day before and the day before it (Friday and Saturday), I had conducted a 2-day monthly programme, Victory Revival. I do most of the preaching and ministering in this monthly programme. This sometimes leave me tired on Sunday, as it now did.
As I stood behind the pulpit on that Sunday, I felt exhausted. And the heat in the place wasn’t helping the situation.
I announced to the congregation I would only preach a little, then close the meeting. Knowing some might feel disappointed that I would not be ministering to them – especially, praying for the sick - I said in a placating voice, “Next time, I will come and hold special meetings for you where I will preach the Word of God and minister to you.”
Heads nodded in agreement, understandingly.
I preached my little sermon and was about to pack it in when the Holy Spirit urged me to pray for the people en masse. “Well,” I said to myself, “I’ll just make it brief and quick.”
As I prayed, I sensed the presence of the Lord.
“Through this prayer,” the Lord said, “I have touched many people here. There is a person here especially who has been suffering from severe pain for some time. I have healed the person.”
“Thank you Lord,” I said, eager to close the meeting. Then I knew the Lord really wanted me to announce this. I was reluctant to do this because I knew one thing would lead to another and I might have to spend the next thirty minutes ministering in the spirit.
But I also knew the folly of disobeying the Lord’s expressed will.
I told the congregation what the Spirit asked me to announce. No sooner had I ended the announcement than a man put up his hands.
Oh no,” I thought. “The fellow wants to ask a question or ‘make a speech.’”
I was ready for neither of these. So, I ignored him.
But he wouldn’t be stopped. He jumped to his feet, came out and testified to how the Lord had healed him of a severe pain especially in the neck as I prayed.
“When I heard the message about the healing of a serious pain,” the man said. “I knew the Lord wanted me to tell publicly what He has done for me.”
Then another woman jumped up and testified to how the Lord had healed her when I was praying.
I began to thank God for enabling me to obey His voice to pray and declare the words of knowledge He gave me.
Last week, (it is now about two months at the time of preparing this special edition of the Victorious Giant), I was ministering on Saturday evening at the Rural Mission Outreach of UCEM Students Fellowship. At the end of my message, I began to pray for different groups of people.
I asked a group - which I thought would be the last group I would pray for - to stand up and place their hands on their heads as I prayed.
They complied.
“In the Name of Jesus,” I began to pray. Then the Holy Spirit cut me short. He wanted me to pray over a more urgent matter.
For a moment, I remained silent. Here were these people laying their hands on their heads, expecting me to go on praying for them. And here was I being directed to ignore them for some time and begin to pray for some other thing.
It was an open-air revival meeting. I knew that apart from those on the revival ground, there were many other people lurking in dark places in front or at the backyard of their houses, who were following what we were doing with their ears. What would they think?
I decided to obey the Holy Spirit. I said over the loudspeaker, “Sorry, you people who have your hands laid upon your heads. Please, hold on, the Lord asks me to pray concerning an untimely death that is about to happen around this place. Someone will die suddenly and the whole community will be shaken because of the tragedy, unless the Lord intervenes. Now, let’s pray that the Lord will intervene and the tragic thing will not happen.”
I prayed. The people were shouting “amen” after each sentence of prayer. Then we carried on with the meeting.
The second day, I left the village, after Sunday Service in our church there.
Three days later, I received a text message thanking me for the prayer. A person had just escaped death narrowly around the place where we held the revival meeting. It happened in a way that made the people there, even the unbelievers, agreed that it was the case I mentioned and prayed about.
A Muslim Alhaji came to our people in the community to express his surprise at what the Lord did through us. The Alhaji said, “I was sitting in front of my house when that Man of God was praying for the people. I heard when he stopped the prayer and mentioned the case of someone who was going to die tragically at that place. And when he prayed that the Lord would prevent the thing from happening, I joined others to say ‘amen.’ Now, seeing what followed, I know without doubt that God is with you people. And you are doing His work.”
I thank God for helping me to obey His voice that evening, not caring about the negative reaction that might come from anybody because of the unusual way I acted. A person’s life was spared and at least a Muslim leader was convinced that Christ was alive and was with His people.
See some of the promises of God to those who obey Him:
Ex 23:22
But 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.
Isa 1:19
If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land:
Luke 11:28
But he said, Yea rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it.
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.
God is not a cruel task master whose servants are heavily-laden with unreasonable demands and commandments (Mat 11:28).
God is a good Lord who cares for His people. He doesn’t make unnecessary demands on them. He doesn’t burden His people with callous laws and inconsiderate commandments. He does not desire to break His people’s neck with heavy yoke of insensitive decrees.
He, however, desires that we obey Him implicitly when He speaks.
You and I must realize that God has a right as our Lord to tell us what He wants us to do and what He wants us not to do. And we, as His servants, have a duty to obey Him absolutely.
If you have being in the Lord for about six months, you must have heard about the ‘Ten Commandments.’ So, when you hear me talking about obeying the Lord, your mind probably automatically goes to Exodus 20 where the Ten Commandments are listed.
That is o.k. But I don’t want you to think that the Ten Commandments are all you have to obey. The whole Bible is full of instructions and orders from the Lord to his people – instructions and orders we are duty-bound to obey.
But that is not all. Many times in the course of our lives, the Holy Spirit speaks to our heart or reveals to us in some ways certain things the Lord wants us to do.
These revealed instructions may make no sense to us. We may even consider the instructions from the Holy Spirit downright stupid because of what we think the people around us may say or think if we go ahead and obey God’s voice. But we will do well to obey the words from the Spirit of God, just as we will obey the words of the Spirit of God in the Bible.
I am not saying you should obey every voice you hear or every vision you see. I have seen too many people get into serious trouble by following every kind of voice and vision and dream and prophecy, to ask you to do so. Not only is it stupid, but it is dangerous, to obey every voice we think we hear, or every prophecy or revelation we receive, without making sure that they are from the Lord. The Bible warns:
1 John 4:1
Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.
But when you are rightly certain it is the Lord speaking, go ahead and obey the Lord.
It may be a little nudge from the Holy Spirit to do something that will bring glory to the Lord. It may be a silent voice of the Holy Spirit in your heart that is urging you to take a certain action. It may be a deep impression, from the Holy Spirit, to turn around and move in another direction. The leading may come in several other ways. As soon as you are convinced it is from the Lord, go ahead, and obey the Lord.
Let me give you two examples from my recent experience:
About three weeks ago, I went to a town to worship on Sunday with my fellows in one of UCEM Churches.
At the right time, I was called to the pulpit to preach. I got behind the pulpit, saluted the people, reminded them about this and encouraged them about that.
Anybody who observed me closely would realize I was tired. The day before and the day before it (Friday and Saturday), I had conducted a 2-day monthly programme, Victory Revival. I do most of the preaching and ministering in this monthly programme. This sometimes leave me tired on Sunday, as it now did.
As I stood behind the pulpit on that Sunday, I felt exhausted. And the heat in the place wasn’t helping the situation.
I announced to the congregation I would only preach a little, then close the meeting. Knowing some might feel disappointed that I would not be ministering to them – especially, praying for the sick - I said in a placating voice, “Next time, I will come and hold special meetings for you where I will preach the Word of God and minister to you.”
Heads nodded in agreement, understandingly.
I preached my little sermon and was about to pack it in when the Holy Spirit urged me to pray for the people en masse. “Well,” I said to myself, “I’ll just make it brief and quick.”
As I prayed, I sensed the presence of the Lord.
“Through this prayer,” the Lord said, “I have touched many people here. There is a person here especially who has been suffering from severe pain for some time. I have healed the person.”
“Thank you Lord,” I said, eager to close the meeting. Then I knew the Lord really wanted me to announce this. I was reluctant to do this because I knew one thing would lead to another and I might have to spend the next thirty minutes ministering in the spirit.
But I also knew the folly of disobeying the Lord’s expressed will.
I told the congregation what the Spirit asked me to announce. No sooner had I ended the announcement than a man put up his hands.
Oh no,” I thought. “The fellow wants to ask a question or ‘make a speech.’”
I was ready for neither of these. So, I ignored him.
But he wouldn’t be stopped. He jumped to his feet, came out and testified to how the Lord had healed him of a severe pain especially in the neck as I prayed.
“When I heard the message about the healing of a serious pain,” the man said. “I knew the Lord wanted me to tell publicly what He has done for me.”
Then another woman jumped up and testified to how the Lord had healed her when I was praying.
I began to thank God for enabling me to obey His voice to pray and declare the words of knowledge He gave me.
Last week, (it is now about two months at the time of preparing this special edition of the Victorious Giant), I was ministering on Saturday evening at the Rural Mission Outreach of UCEM Students Fellowship. At the end of my message, I began to pray for different groups of people.
I asked a group - which I thought would be the last group I would pray for - to stand up and place their hands on their heads as I prayed.
They complied.
“In the Name of Jesus,” I began to pray. Then the Holy Spirit cut me short. He wanted me to pray over a more urgent matter.
For a moment, I remained silent. Here were these people laying their hands on their heads, expecting me to go on praying for them. And here was I being directed to ignore them for some time and begin to pray for some other thing.
It was an open-air revival meeting. I knew that apart from those on the revival ground, there were many other people lurking in dark places in front or at the backyard of their houses, who were following what we were doing with their ears. What would they think?
I decided to obey the Holy Spirit. I said over the loudspeaker, “Sorry, you people who have your hands laid upon your heads. Please, hold on, the Lord asks me to pray concerning an untimely death that is about to happen around this place. Someone will die suddenly and the whole community will be shaken because of the tragedy, unless the Lord intervenes. Now, let’s pray that the Lord will intervene and the tragic thing will not happen.”
I prayed. The people were shouting “amen” after each sentence of prayer. Then we carried on with the meeting.
The second day, I left the village, after Sunday Service in our church there.
Three days later, I received a text message thanking me for the prayer. A person had just escaped death narrowly around the place where we held the revival meeting. It happened in a way that made the people there, even the unbelievers, agreed that it was the case I mentioned and prayed about.
A Muslim Alhaji came to our people in the community to express his surprise at what the Lord did through us. The Alhaji said, “I was sitting in front of my house when that Man of God was praying for the people. I heard when he stopped the prayer and mentioned the case of someone who was going to die tragically at that place. And when he prayed that the Lord would prevent the thing from happening, I joined others to say ‘amen.’ Now, seeing what followed, I know without doubt that God is with you people. And you are doing His work.”
I thank God for helping me to obey His voice that evening, not caring about the negative reaction that might come from anybody because of the unusual way I acted. A person’s life was spared and at least a Muslim leader was convinced that Christ was alive and was with His people.
See some of the promises of God to those who obey Him:
Ex 23:22
But 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.
Isa 1:19
If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land:
Luke 11:28
But he said, Yea rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it.
*Read more up-lifting, soul-building and life-changing messages at http://www.ucevam.com/
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