Obedience can be a difficult concept for us.We can resent the command for obedience. The very word sometimes seems to stir up a rebellious attitude in us. In spiritual truth, however, obedience is very powerful.
When the Apostle Paul is teaching about spiritual warfare in 2 Corinthians, obedience is the key and bottom line in spiritual weaponry:
"For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled." 2 Cor. 10:3-6
Our spiritual warfare is against things, including thoughts and arguments, that are in disobedience to God. Disobedience continually tries to exalt itself over God. Our victory in spiritual warfare comes in and through our own obedience. We are battling rebellion and disobedience by the example of our obedience. Our obedience becomes a weapon against the most evil in man and devil.
I would like to look at a couple of examples of this principle in scripture.
We are familiar with Malachi 3 as being an exhortation by the LORD in teaching of the tithe. We have heard v. 8-10 as a powerful lesson in the truth of tithing. However, when we look at the verses in context, we see that the obedience in tithing that the LORD is teaching is really a weapon against powerful strongholds.
First of all, Malachi is prophesying to the priests of the LORD. Chapter 3 begins with the announcement that the LORD is coming to His Temple. He is sending a special Messenger to prepare His people. This is about the impending judgment of the LORD. The LORD is talking about purifying and refining His priests as this time approaches. He says about this special Messenger: "But who can endure the day of His coming, and who can stand when He appears?" The result of the visitation of this Messenger is to teach the people to offer a righteous offering to the LORD. Malachi is telling the priesthood that the nation has robbed God. This robbery, or disobedience in the tithes and offerings, has allowed a stronghold to be established over the nation. Not only have the people withheld their offerings, but even those who are giving, do not give with the correct attitude or understanding. Even the priests who receive the offerings must be purged and purified of their rebellion, doubt, unbelief and lack of understanding of the power of the obedience of giving unto God (Mal. 3:3). On the other hand, their obedience in tithes and offerings (not only in fact, but in attitude), will destroy the stronghold, and cause the fruits of obedience to bless the whole nation:
"Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house, and try Me now in this, says the LORD of hosts, If I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such a blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it. And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, so that he will not destroy the fruit of your ground, nor shall the vine fail to bear fruit for you in the field, says the LORD of hosts; And all nations will call you blessed, for you will be a delightful land, says the LORD of hosts." Mal. 3:10-12
The result of the pure and righteous offerings of God's people will pull down the strongholds of sorcery, adultery, perjurers economic exploiters, the uncharitable (Mal. 3:5), and cause a blessing not only to themselves, but to the whole nation. This blessing is so large and encompassing that all nations will recognize that the LORD has released this blessing.
Strongholds have exalted themselves against the knowledge of God in our own nation, in this present time, perhaps, because the people of God, the priests of God, have not been obedient in tithes and offerings, and other truths of the Word of God. If we truly want our nation to be once again, a nation called blessed of God, a good first step will be the obedience of God's people in understanding the truth of the power in obedience in tithes and offerings.
Another example of obedience, or lack of it, in establishing spiritual strongholds is in 1 Sam. 15.
The prophet Samuel brings the word of the LORD to King Saul. Saul is to utterly destroy the nation of Amalek. Their destruction is coming to them because they ambushed the Israelites as they came up from Egypt generations before. The LORD has prophesied His judgment of Amalek, and even their king Agag, since the Books of Exodus, Deuteronomy, and Numbers. Saul is instructed by the prophet to leave nothing alive, neither animal nor human. This sounds very harsh indeed, but there is a necessity here that man could not know at the time.
Saul destroyed everything that he considered to be without value, but he kept the king of Amalek, Agag, alive, as well as sparing the best of the sheep, oxen, and lambs.
The LORD tells Samuel that Saul has not been obedient to the word of the LORD, and Samuel goes to investigate. Saul justifies his disobedience by saying that the people wanted the plunder to sacrifice to the LORD at Gilgal. It is interesting that Saul refers to the LORD as the LORD your God to Samuel, rather than the LORD my God. In any case, Samuel indicts the king for his disobedience with the great verse:
"Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft (divination), and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, He also has rejected you from being king."
1 Sam. 15:22-23
Samuel had to kill Agag himself, that day, because of Saul's disobedience. Saul lost his kingdom, and the history of Israel was changed from that day forward because of Saul's rebellion.
Why was it so important that all life be destroyed that day in Amalek? We may not ever know the whole story, but we do know this: that later in time, that great enemy of the Jewish people, Haman, from the Book of Esther, was an Agagite, a descendant of the king that Saul had spared. So those who escaped that day because of Saul, ended up causing great sorrow to Israel later in history.
However, the LORD gave a great teaching that day. While we learned earlier in 2 Cor. 10, and Mal. 3, that the obedience of God's people destroys strongholds, by the same token, the disobedience of God's people, in this case by Saul, establishes and exalts the strongholds of witchcraft, iniquity, and idolatry.
In our nation, and especially in the region in which I live, there are many satanist and witchcraft groups. Iniquity. above, means not just sin, but perversion, depravity, and was used to describe the condition of Sodom. Today, we can see clearly that our nation is struggling under the stronghold of iniquity. The obedience of God's called people is a powerful weapon against these strongholds.
Our obedience is a fruit of our faith. As it says in Heb. 11:8, "By faith, Abraham obeyed...". If we say we have faith, then our obedience should flow from the love, faith and trust we have in our Father. We don't desire to obey Him because we are paid servants. Our desire to obey Him lies in the fact that we are sons, and sons have a desire to please their father.
Even the Son of God learned obedience:
"...though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered, and having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him."
Heb. 5:8-9
The result of Jesus' obedience to His Father is told to us in Phil. 2:8-11:
"And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore, God has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."
All principalities and powers, both human, and angelic, must bow because of the obedience of Christ.
The scriptures in Phil. 2 also tell us that we should have the same mind which was also in Christ Jesus. We also should obey, and work out our salvation in these terms. We are God's vessels, Who works in us His will and good pleasure (v. 5, 12-13). Our obedience, like Jesus', must be birthed in a character of humility. Spiritual pride will always struggle against obedience.
In 1 Peter 1:1-2 we are told that we have been elected by God, and sanctified in the Holy Spirit for obedience, and the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. Our obedience is part of our purpose in having been created by God.
Since we are like Christ in the earth, and Christ is as His Father, we can conclude that our Father, the Most High God, is also obedient! What could He be obedient to? He is obedient to His Word:
"I will praise You with my whole heart;
Before the gods I will sing praises to You.
I will worship toward Your holy temple,
And praise Your name
for Your lovingkindness and Your truth;
For You have magnified Your word above all Your name."
Psalm 138:1-2
The great God has made Himself obedient, has put Himself under, His word. And King David uses this knowledge to testify before the gods (angels, false gods). Again, even the obedience of the Father is a spiritual weapon against principalities and strongholds, as His word says in 2 Cor. 10:3-6, where we started this entry.
Our Father is obedient.
"I Will Obey" (Prophetic Song)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMkIzCJyZxw
"I Bow My Knee"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvWkuq9F0jM
