Warrior Church Home Fellowship Study
Dr. Kevin Zadai 01-30-2022
Obedience isn’t just Agreeing with God; it’s an Action
"The real thing with obedience is when it gets down in your heart, and you put action to it."
~Kevin Zadai
f you love me, you will obey my Commandments. —John 14:15 (NLT)
DISCUSSION:
Mental assent is when you hear something, and you think to yourself, “I agree with that.” You can agree mentally, but the real faith and the real thing with obedience is when it gets down in your heart, and you put action to it. The Book of James is really in your face. It almost didn’t make it into the Canon.
They had certain criteria. James and Jude and a couple of other books did not make it the first time. Eventually, they did because James was legitimately a Book. James was a pastor, and he said, “You talk about your faith, but I'll show you my faith by what I do.”
When I was a teenager and not a Christian yet, that hit me hard because I’d hear people talk the talk, but I found out when they’d go to do something, they didn't know what they were talking about. I knew because it wasn’t backed by action. When I was in Heaven, I saw that it's all about obedience. Everything up there is about being in submission to our Heavenly Father and the angels. They don't even question. They enjoy obeying God. They just love it, and that's their thing. The Lord may tell you certain things, and you can’t just mentally say, okay. He may require you to do something about it.
Anytime God speaks, He's speaking because He has a reason. God doesn't just say something just to say it. There's a follow-through. If He is saying certain things to you, then you better mark it down. He's telling you for a reason, and you need to ask Him how He would like you to implement that. Many people are in the soulish realm, and they like conversation. It makes them feel good to talk to people and interact. We all would love to sit and talk about ourselves for 2 hours to someone, and they just sit there and listen to you. That would be fulfilling to you, but to the other person, you're just talking about yourself, and there's no interaction there.
Many things we do are selfish. If your whole goal is to make someone else have a good day or prosper or help somebody with their health, or their relationship, then you feel good. If you're giving out, then it's benefiting in building up people.
You feel good because you're helping someone. That's the way it is in Heaven.
God wants us to show action and do something about what we believe.
James says if someone comes to you and says, I need food, I need water, and you say, “Well, Lord bless you, go your way and be well fed and well dressed,” that is an abomination because that isn’t faith. Faith is, “I want to take care of that for you, and what can I do to help you?” I've gone through tests where I had to give the money I had, and I went without food. I gave the money I needed to pay my bills because the Lord told me to give it to someone. When people see somebody prospering, they don't know what that person who is prospering had to go through to get to where they are. The Lord will test you, and you must pass your money test.
Where do you think you stand with the Word of God? With obedience? Do you mentally agree with it, or have you by faith, allowed it to take roots deep inside of you?
A TWO-ITEM MENU
God told Moses, “The people have two choices; they can either serve me or not serve me. They can either obey me or disobey me. Choose you this day, who you're going to serve. If you are going to serve me, you're going to do these things.
If you serve me, these things will happen as a result of you serving me, but if you do not, these are the curses that are going to happen.” It was simple; a two-item menu.
God makes it so that obedience is rewarded. He equates obedience to loving Him. He is so passionate about us. He made us in His image and knows the fabric from which we’re made. His love is shed abroad in our hearts. He gives us choices to obey Him and knows the love in us, to obey Him. The love that’s in us is Him. When we act on that love and obey Him, He knows what it will do to us when we walk in love. When He sees that we do His Commandments, He feels safer with us. He knows our potential is to have complete fellowship with Him all the time. He also knows that it's developed our ability to be in His presence and for Him to feel safe with us.
By God asking us to keep His Commandments, He's saying that you're able to do it. He wouldn't ask us to do something we couldn’t do. We have a fellowship with Him that is like a circle with His love in us. He calls it out of us, then we walk in it and feel closer to Him. You get hooked on it to where you just want to obey Him more, and you don’t want to be out of His presence.
