"Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto Me above all people" Exodus 19:5.
"The Lord shall greatly bless thee, if thou only carefully hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God" Deuteronomy 15:4,5.
"By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed" Hebrews 11:8.
"Learned he obedience by the things which He suffered: and being made perfect, He became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey Him" Hebrews 5:8,9.
Obedience is one of the most important words in the Bible and in the life of the Christian. It was in the way of disobedience that man lost the favour and the life of God. It is only in the way of obedience that that favour and that life can again be enjoyed.1 God cannot possibly take pleasure in, or bestow His blessing on, those who are not obedient. "If ye will obey My voice indeed, ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto Me"; "The Lord shall greatly bless thee, if thou only carefully hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God." These alone are the eternal principles according to which man can enjoy God's favour and blessing.
We see this in the Lord Jesus. He says, "If ye keep My commandments, ye shall abide in My love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in His love" (John 15:10). He was in the love of the Father, but could not remain there except by obedience. And He says that this is equally for us the one way to continue in His love. We must keep His commandments. He came to open for us the way back to God. This way was the way of obedience. Only he who, through faith in Jesus, walks in this way will come to God.2
How gloriously this connection between the obedience of Jesus and our own is expressed in Hebrews 5, verses 8 and 9, "He learned obedience, and became unto all them that obey Him the author of eternal salvation." This is the bond of unity between Jesus and His people, the point of conformity and inward agreement. He was obedient to the Father--they, on the other hand, are obedient to Him. He and they are both obedient. His obedience not only atones for, but drives out their disobedience. He and they bear one mark--obedience to God.3
This obedience is a characteristic of the life of faith. It is called the obedience of faith.4 There is nothing in earthly things that so spurs men to work as faith. The belief that there is advantage or joy to be found is the secret of all work. "By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed." My works will be according to what I believe. The faith that Jesus made me free from the power of sin for obedience, and sets me in a suitable condition for it, has a mighty power to make me obedient. Obedience is strengthened by faith: Faith in the overflowing blessing which the Father gives to obedience, in the promises of the love and indwelling of God, and in the promise of the fullness of the Spirit which comes by this channel.5
The power of this faith, again, as of obedience, lies especially in fellowship with the living God Himself. There is but one Hebrew word for "obeying voice" and "hearing voice." To hear correctly prepares one to obey. It is when I learn the will of God--not in the words of a man or a book--but from God Himself, and when I hear the voice of God, that I will surely believe what is promised and do what is commanded. The Holy Spirit is the voice of God. When we hear the living voice speak, obedience becomes easy.6 Let us wait in silence on God, and set our soul open before Him, so that He may speak by His Spirit. When, in our Bible reading and praying, we learn to wait more upon God so that we can say, "My God has spoken this to me, has given me this promise, has commanded this," then we will also obey. "To listen to the voice" earnestly, diligently, is the sure way to obedience.
With a servant, a warrior, a child, a subject, obedience is indispensable--the first sign of integrity. And will God, the living, glorious God, find no obedience with us? 7 No, let cheerful, punctual, precise obedience from the beginning be the mark of the genuineness of our fellowship with the Son whose obedience is our life.
Father, You make us Your children in Christ, make us in Him obedient children, as He was obedient. Let the Holy Spirit make the obedience of Jesus so glorious and powerful in us, that obedience will be the highest joy of our life. Teach us in everything only to seek to know what You desire and then to do it. Amen.
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Andrew Murray (1828 - 1917)
Brother Andrew Murray was a well-known writer/preacher in South Africa who ministered amongst the Dutch Reformed churches. His writings now are widely accepted by modern evangelicals and he is published more than ever in his life-time.Some of his better known books titles are: "Abide In Christ", "Absolute Surrender," and "Humility." His burden for the body of Christ were teachings on the abiding Spirit of Christ in the believer, the life of faith with God daily, and the life of intercession and prayer in the Church.
Andrew Murray was possibly the strongest spokesman of the Philadelphian age to expound the Body's necessity to abide in Christ, like the Apostle John before him.
Murray was born into a family of four children in the then remote Graaff-Reinet region (near the Cape) of South Africa. Educated in Scotland, which was followed by theological studies in Holland, Andrew returned to his native land to work as a missionary and minister. Given the daunting task of ministering to Bloemfontein, a remote region of 50,000 square miles and 12,000 people beyond the Orange River, Murray already began to sense the need to for the "deeper Christian life".
Though successful in preaching and bringing many to Christ, Murray found many of his greatest lessons in the School of Suffering, as will all who follow in the path of obedience.
Andrew Murray was one of four children born to Pastor Andrew, Sr., and Maria Murray. He was raised in what was considered to be the most remote corner of the world - Graaff-Reinet, South Africa. Educated in Scotland and Holland, in 1848 Andrew, Jr., returned to South Africa as a missionary and minister with the Dutch Reformed Church. His first appointment was to Bloemfontein, a territory of nearly 50,000 square miles and 12,000 people.
Andrew and his brother John had been in close contact with a revival movement in Scotland, an evangelical extension of the ongoing Second Great Awakening in America. He prayed for the same sort of awakening for the church in South Africa and wrote, "My prayer is for revival, but I am held back by the increasing sense of my own unfitness for the work. I lament the awful pride and self complacency that have till now ruled my heart. O that I may be more and more a minister of the Spirit." (J. du Plessis, The Life of Andrew Murray)
In 1860, revival did come to the churches of Cape Town, South Africa, and subsequently spread to surrounding towns and villages. Even remote farms and plantations felt the impact as lives were changed. Where once the churches had not been able to find one man ready to be a leader for God, the revival raised up 50 in Murray's Cape Town parish alone. There were more conversions in one month in that parish than in the whole course of its previous history. (Leona Choy, Andrew Murray: Apostle of Abiding Love)
Greatly concerned for the spiritual guidance of new converts and renewed Christians, Andrew Murray wrote over 240 books. His writings reflect his own longing for a deeper life in Christ and his prayer that others would long for and experience that life as well.