Obedience by Faith

Genesis 12:1-5 (NIV)
1 The LORD had said to Abram, "Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you.
2 "I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.
3 I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you."
4 So Abram left, as the LORD had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Haran.
5 He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired in Haran, and they set out for the land of Canaan, and they arrived there.

Our obedience to the Lord, to His commands, should not be a struggle.  Many, if not all, of the commands of the Lord go against our flesh, our own desires.  And so many times when God asks us to do something we struggle, we comment, we procrastinate, and we end up either disobeying Him, or obeying Him grudgingly.  When given a chance to disobey we easily take the plunge.

Obedience should be by faith – believing that the Lord’s command, the Lord’s will, is what is best.  God’s plan is not necessarily what may be advantageous for us, or what may seem best for us in our own opinion.  But we need to believe that God, being who He is – righteous, holy, pure – cannot desire anything evil or bad for us.  We put our faith in the hand of a loving, caring, and compassionate God.

Look at Abraham.  Here is one of the examples of a man who obeyed by faith.  God suddenly shows up and tells Abram to leave his country, his people and his father’s household and go to the land that God would show him.  And Abram obeyed!  How could he just blindly follow God?

First, we see in the story God revealing Himself to Abram.  And when God reveals who He is to a person, that person’s heart is changed from a heart of stone towards God to a heart of flesh, desiring to obey His will.  When a person gets to know who God is – holy, omnipotent, sovereign – his heart cannot help but believe and trust.

And because Abram now knew God,  he trusted that God only had better plans for him.

Hebrews 11:8-10 (NIV)
8 By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.
9 By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise.
10 For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.

He was asked to leave his country and people – God promised to make him into a great nation and would bless him.

He was asked to leave his father’s household – God promised to make his name great and he would be a blessing.

Is God asking you to leave something, or someone, who gives you identity and blessing?  Many scholars believe that Abram was living in a place that was economically successful, a prosperous place.  Yet Abram trusted God and left it, and believed that God would make him into a great nation and bless him. 

Is God asking you to leave someone or something that gives you security, love and provision?  Abraham had his father’s household, his family, his family name to rest on.  His future was probably set.  And yet he obeyed God, and left his family to seek security in what God had to offer.  God promised to make his name great, if he obeyed.

Obedience should be by faith.  Make it a daily desire to know God more and more through His Word.  And as God reveals more of Himself to you, then you will realize He is Someone you can trust - Knowing that God’s plan is always the best, and that He has our life and future in mind always.  It is in His will that we will find the best that God has to offer!  We trust in who He is – God.

Knowing our Enemy

     Knowing our enemy, they say, is half of the battle, the key to victory.  It is true even in the Christian life.  Here are some verses of Scripture reminding us of who our enemy is.


First we need to know that we have an enemy.
1 Peter 5:8 (NIV)

8 Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.

Ephesians 6:12 (NIV)
12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

What kind of enemy do we have?
First, he is a schemer:
2 Corinthians 2:10-11 (NIV)
10 If you forgive anyone, I also forgive him. And what I have forgiven--if there was anything to forgive--I have forgiven in the sight of Christ for your sake,
11 in order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes.    
     The Greek word used for "schemes" here is noema, which denotes "that which is thought out".  Satan doesn't just attack us at random, or whenever he wants.  He schemes, he plans to do it.  The context of the verse above is relationships.  Ever wonder why all of a sudden you have a relationship problem?  Satan schemes against us so that we may not forgive.


Ephesians 6:11 (NIV)
11 Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes.
     The Greek word translated "schemes" here is methodeia, which denotes "craft, deceit".  The devil is a crafty fellow, who will come out with deceitful ways just for us to sin.  

He is the tempter.  Satan tempts us to sin against God.
Matthew 4:2-3 (NIV)
2 After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.
3 The tempter came to him and said, "If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread." 


And he is also the accuser.
Revelation 12:10 (NIV)
10 Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: "Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ. For the accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down.

He will tempt us to sin, and then after we sin he will accuse us!


Knowing our enemy must lead to knowing how to fight against him.
1 Peter 5:8 (NIV) 
8 Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.
     Be self-controlled.  When Satan tempts us he targets our "self", our strengths and weaknesses that go opposite that of God and His Word.  To be self-controlled is to be conscious of the working of the Holy Spirit in our life and controlling the ways of our self, allowing the ways of the Lord to be seen in us.
     Be alert.  Never put your guard down!  Be aware of circumstances and situations that attack our spirituality, our walk with God.


1 Peter 5:9 (NIV)
9 Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings. 
     We are to resist the devil.  We should not play around with his schemes.  We need to fight back.  But not with our own strength, but standing firm in the faith, in our trust in God's strength.


Ephesians 6:10-13 (NIV)
10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.
11 Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes.
12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.

     We are to be in the defensive always.  We are to be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power.  We cannot fight Satan with our own strength.  He is not human, and so will always overcome us.  We need to fight him with a greater and more powerful strength - the mighty power of God!
     And it is the armor of God that grants us this power.  With this armor we are to take our stand, stand our ground, and remain standing even after the battle!
Our greatest defense is standing with God, using His armor and strength.
Our greatest offense is also with God - using His Word, His promises, and trusting completely in Him.


James 4:7 (NIV)
7 Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
     It is in our submission to God, in our hearts, in our walk/lives, where we find God's strength and have the power to resist Satan.  Remember, the schemes and methods he uses are all geared towards our flesh and its desires.  Our defense and weapon must all come from He who is Greatest and the Most Powerful of all!  It is in Him that we have the victory!

Handling Our Desires

Psalms 37:4 (NIV)
4 Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart.

We all have desires.  And we all want the Lord to give us the desires of our heart, just like the verse above says.  This is what makes Psalm 37:4 such an popular verse of Scripture, quoted by many, hoping that the Lord would grant them the desire that they have in their hearts.  But is it that easy?  Does this, and other verses of Scripture that promise to meet our desires mean that any desire we can bring to God and He will answer them?

Sometimes we have to be careful about how we interpret God’s Word.  Many Christians take certain verses that are beneficial for them and bend them to make them suitable for their lives.  But this is not how a Christian is to “use” God’s Word.  Verses of Scripture are not bits and pieces of spiritual “anting-antings” (amulets or lucky charms) that we can use to get what we want.  It is the whole counsel of God’s Word that a Christian must study, and use, for him to live as God wants him to live.

So, how are we to handle our desires?

1.  First, realize that most, if not all, our desires stem from our sinful nature.  And our sinful nature only thinks of one thing – our self.

Romans 8:5 (NIV)
5 Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.

It is not natural for us to think of what God desires, or what God believes to be right for us.  Our natural tendency is to follow what our flesh desires.  And for a Christian this is a danger zone!

Jeremiah 17:9 (NIV)
9 The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?

Here is what every Christian should have “tattooed” in their heart – the heart is deceitful.  It makes us think that we need certain things, that there are things in this life that are essential for us, that are good for us.  But the heart deceives us in this area.  We need to be careful that we are not driven by what our hearts tell us what is right or needed, but we are to be lead by what God tells us is right or needed.  This is why the next point is important:

2.  The new birth experience is essential in having good desires.

James 1:17 (NIV)
17 Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.

And for us to discern what is good and perfect for us we need to keep in touch, in fellowship, with the Lord.  When God changes our hearts, He not only softens our hearts to make us hear and understand Him, but He also gives us the Holy Spirit who indwells us.  He is the One who knows who leads us to what His will is.  And when a heart of a person is changed, what happens?

2 Corinthians 5:15 (NIV)
15 And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.

The very main desire of our heart is changed.  Were not talking about desires for things, but the very core desire of our heart is transformed from one that loves self to one that loves God.  We no longer live for ourselves but for Him who died for us.  This, now, is what guides the desires of our hearts – our love for God.  Not our love for things, or for companionship, or for success, or for a better life – but a love for God and His kingdom, His direction, His will.

The next time we have a desire in our hearts, ask yourself these questions:

a.  Am I being lead by my sinful nature, or by the Holy Spirit?  Am I desiring what God wants me to desire, or what the world wants me to desire?  Romans 8:5

b.  Am I being lead by fear, or by faith, trust in my Lord.  Many desires stem from fear – fear for the future, fear of people looking down at us, a fear of not having things.  But we are a people of faith, who should live by faith.  Galatians 2:20

c.  Does my joy and peace in this life depend on my desires, or just on the Lord?

Psalms 73:25-26 (NIV)
25 Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you.
26 My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

Our desires will either make or break our Christianity.  Handle with care!