By: Hanny Lynn Stearns
Fish N
Loaves Ministries, Inc.
“Multiplying
God’s Word Around The Globe”
August 16, 2016
Willing and Obedient
Part 2 of 2
Isaiah
1:19
If you are willing
and obedient,
you will eat the good things of the land;
you will eat the good things of the land;
Now for
the second part of this verse. Will you join me today as we look at obedience? Why
is obedience so important to the Lord? Because disobedience ties His hands so
that He cannot bless us. You see, disobedience is a form of rebellion and
pride. Those are what the devil does. And we do not want to act like the devil,
do we? Most folks disobey out of fear. They may not admit it, and some may not
even realize it, but it is fear. Why won’t they do what God said to do? What is
stopping them? What are they afraid of?
Fear is
a spirit and it is real. The spirit of fear comer against everyone. We have all
experienced it and we have all caved in to it at some point or another. But to
fear is to say to the Lord – “I do not trust You enough to help me.” That doesn’t
sound too good, does it? But in order to walk by faith which is the only way we
can please Him, we have to resist the fear by submitting our will to the Lord
and trusting Him. If He tells us to do something, it means that He is fully
equipped and ready to empower us to carry out His request. It will not be our
own strength.
When we
fear, we may be thinking about how we can do it in our own strength and
intellect. That would certainly cause anyone to “flip out.” If Jesus asked a
person to walk on the water, and they thought about it for half a minute in the
natural realm, they would just think, “Impossible, just impossible!” But if
Jesus said to do it, then we can know He will cause His power to be perfect in
that situation. When He asked Peter to come to Him on the water, He was ready
by the power of Holy Spirit to help him get there. For a moment, Peter was
excited and believed the Master enough to get out of the boat and proceed
toward the Lord.
In
that, He obeyed the command. But it didn’t take him long to start thinking
about what he was doing in the natural. And as he did, he began to sink. Fear
came like a flood against him and the thoughts came, “You can’t do this! No man
can walk on the water. What do you think you are doing, you fool!” That is just
how the enemy comes against God’s people. When they start to step out in faith
to obey the Lord’s command to them, the thief will come immediately to try to
steal our faith and try to get us into the realm of reasoning. He knows if he
can do that, we are into his realm and he can steal our victory. But if we
resist him by staying in the faith realm, and refuse to look at what we see or
feel, then we can whip his butt every single time. Praise God!
Too
many Christians have allowed the devil
to break into their house (God’s temple) and steal their faith in God. They
have allowed him to bring in some very unfreindly and unwanted guests – the spirits
of fear, doubt and worry. As a result, the Christians’ house has been filled up
with these unwanted guests, making it impossible for them to walk in the
victory that the Lord had for them all along.
In John
2:5 at the wedding feast at Cana, (yes, even Jesus enjoyed a good party!) Jesus
mother told the disciples, “Whatever He says to you, do it.” After Jesus heard
from the Father, He obeyed by telling the disciples what to do. Then, even
though it didn’t make a bit of sense, they obeyed and filled the jugs with
plain old water. What happened because of Jesus obedience, and the disciples
obedience? A creative miracle - that’s what!
Their obedience opened the door for the Lord to bring the miracle to pass. The
best wine they had ever tasted was poured out in abundance right before their
very eyes – glory to God!
We see
many examples in the Bible where Jesus heard or saw the Father do something in
the spirit realm, and then He instructed the people to do things that made no
sense in the natural. That’s why faith is so important. Every time they obeyed,
they got a miracle. The same thing is happening today. How do I know this on a
personal level? How can I tell you about this friends? Because I am currently
and have experienced in the past His miracles in my life when I have done what
He said. Hallelujah!
When He
told me how to eat and I obeyed, I reached a weight goal I had not seen on the
scale since I was in my early twenties. When I heard Him tell me to stop eating
sugar, the addiction went away. I lost the craving for sugar. Now I can
literally cut up and serve cake and ice cream to others without even licking
the icing off my finger! That is a miracle! Before this, I couldn’t do it
without eating out of control. And now days I am doing even better with my
eating because I want to do it the way He leads me and tells me to. My body is
stronger today at 60 years old than it has ever been in my life – give Him a
shout of praise.
I
always say it out loud, “I am 60 going on 20 because He renews my youth like
the eagle!” I never say I am old or getting old. I refuse to get old. Yes, I am
growing in number of years. And I am really glad about it because I know that
He will satisfy me with long life. Along with that I expect to continue to grow
in wisdom and discernment and holy understanding of God’s will for my life each
day. But I never have to accept defeat or deterioration in any area of my life.
Nor will I speak out such things over myself which will cause them to come to
pass.
Friends,
the main thing we have to realize is that we have to resist all fear that tries
to come against us. Remember this. If God asks you to do something, then
immediately you need to get out of the reasoning realm and dive into the faith
realm. Remember that if He asked you to do it, He will empower you to come
through it 100% successfully if you will trust Him 100%. He will never let any
of us down when we trust in Him – never.
Obedience
brings miracles and tremendous blessings. Disobedience is the nature of the
devil. Which one will you choose today and every day of your life? The Lord
wants you to eat the good of the land. He wants you to eat the best food, drive
the best cars, live in the best houses, wear the best clothes, and have the
best ministry work to be a major blessing to others. He wants to make us rich
in every good work so that we can be used by Him to expand His kingdom on the
earth as it is in heaven while there is still time. Will you be willing and
obedient so you can eat the good of the land? The choice is yours my friend.
Choose life! Make God’s word work for you in your life. Speak it, believe it
and receive it by faith!
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