faith + obedience

I’ve shared a few instances of how I’ve seen God move in powerful ways this year.  These experiences have caused me to expect that any time I go to church or pray I will have an encounter with Him.  I think this is a good position of faith to be in, after all, if you enter into the presence of the most Holy of holies, why shouldn’t you have an experience?  However, I realize that people do go through seasons of time when they have difficulty hearing the voice of God or feeling his presence.  I don’t know why this is, but I do know that we should be able to operate from a position of faith to carry us through these times; not wither up and die spiritually.

One of the times in the prayer room I was getting frustrated that I didn’t feel like I was hearing from God.  I had been praying for quite a while but just didn’t feel like I was getting anything out of it.  Then God spoke to me and said something to the effect of “life with me can’t be about supernatural miracles or revelations all the time, you also need to spend time in the Word and on your knees interceding for others.”

What can I say?  I was put in my place.  He’s absolutely right, God has already revealed himself in the Word, and has given us commands on what we are to do be doing in this world.  We need to be doing those things all the time, not just on special occasions or times in the prayer room.  I received it as someone who was just told no, but knew there was truth in the statement and that it was for my benefit.

But what’s even more cool was that same week this same message was given to our youth minister and to a young man in our church, who is 18 years old but has the faith of a 40 year old, if that make sense.  Both of them shared testimonies about their revelations with the church.  The young man added a closely related thought that I thought was very profound and wanted to commit to memory, thus I’m writing it here:

“You can have faith, but if you don’t have obedience, nothing is going to happen!”

We need to be obedient to do the things we have been taught and called to do, whether we feel like we are being spiritually rewarded at that time or not.  This is important Kingdom work and a time for our own development.

And conversely, you can have faith to move mountains, but if you don’t have obedience to act or speak boldly when God calls you to do something, nothing will happen.

Faith and obedience are both critical if you want to see God move in your life.  Don’t discount God just because something isn’t happening in your time line.