Tuesday, February 16, 2016

Blessing Follows Obedience .. Obediance Follows Faith

My Utmost For His Highest
 
Arise from the dead… —Ephesians 5:14
 
“We all have many dreams and aspirations when we are young, but sooner or later we realize we have no power to accomplish them. We cannot do the things we long to do, so our tendency is to think of our dreams and aspirations as dead. But God comes and says to us, “Arise from the dead….” When God sends His inspiration, it comes to us with such miraculous power that we are able to “arise from the dead” and do the impossible. The remarkable thing about spiritual initiative is that the life and power comes after we “get up and get going.” God does not give us overcoming life— He gives us life as we overcome. When the inspiration of God comes, and He says, “Arise from the dead…,” we have to get ourselves up; God will not lift us up. Our Lord said to the man with the withered hand, “Stretch out your hand” (Matthew 12:13). As soon as the man did so, his hand was healed. But he had to take the initiative. If we will take the initiative to overcome, we will find that we have the inspiration of God, because He immediately gives us the power of life.”  CHAMBERS
 
Blessing follows obedience, not the other way around.  There is something called “foxhole religion”.  It originated with soldiers in a foxhole, facing death, promising God that if He would only save them from death, that they would follow Him. The trouble is, God sees the heart of man, and does not merely listen to words spoken.  We cannot live any way that we want and then pray, “God get me out of this jam!”  with no true intent to change the way we live.  God blesses us as we obey Him.  Jesus said to the man “Stretch out your hand.”  Anyone could have said that .. “Let me see your hand” … but Jesus spoke with supernatural authority.  The man had to have faith and more than that, he had to act on that faith.  And when he did, (Matthew 12:14) “So he stretched it out and it was completely restored, just as sound as the other.”  The focus on or context of these passages is Jesus being tested and healing on the Sabbath.  It is easy to overlook the man who was healed.  Obedience begins in the heart . .with a right attitude toward God … followed by obedience … choosing God and rejecting the world … trusting God and not yourself … serving others and not yourself … (John 7:38) “Whoever believes in me (Jesus), as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.”  James said “Faith without works is dead.”  Works are a result of faith and obedience.  That is the way it works Christian, so stretch out your hand and let the river flow.  ELGIN
 
“River of Life”
 
“I’ve got a river a life flowin’ out of me.  Makes the lame to walk and the blind to see.  Opens prison doors, sets the captives free.  I’ve got a river of live flowin’ out of me.
 
Spring up oh well and cleanse my soul.  Spring up oh well and make me whole.  Spring up oh well and give to me, that life abundantly”
 
Charley Elgin

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