When you come to knowing God, the initiative lies on His side. If He does not show Himself, nothing you can do will enable you to find Him. And, in fact, He shows much more of Himself to some people than to others—not because He has favorites, but because it is impossible for Him to show Himself to a man whose whole mind and character are in the wrong condition. Just as sunlight, though it has no favorites, cannot be reflected in a dusty mirror as clearly as in a clean one.
You can put this another way by saying that while in other sciences the instruments you use are things external to yourself (things like microscopes and telescopes), the instrument through which you see God is your whole self. And if a man’s self is not kept clean and bright, his glimpse of God will be blurred—like the Moon seen through a dirty telescope. That is why horrible nations have horrible religions: they have been looking at God through a dirty lens.
From Mere Christianity
Compiled in A Year with C.S. Lewis
If you do not know the Lord, know that He is seeking you, he is standing at the door waiting for you to open it. That is your first choice and first step in Obedience. He cares not for your appearance, past or sins. OPEN the door. Say to yourself YES Lord, I need you, I want better for my life, I want to go a different way than I have been going. My way is not working for me for so many reasons. Trust and believe that he will walk through the door.
Faith, Repentance and Submission is the beginning of Obedience. Faith is believing He is God and His Son died for us, Repentance is the heartly sorrow for our sins. God hates sin, so we should also. Surrender is our willingness to let Him help us to follow his ways, which will lead us to life. Once this choice is made you begin your journey of change.
Ultimately Christians who have come to believe in the Lord have begun a journey of change and choices.
We now have two natures warring within us. We have a nature that continues to cry out for us to make bad decisions that lead us to things that cause us pain and misery. But we now also have the Holy Spirit that wars with that nature inside us, that fights for us to be led to a life of change and growth in Jesus.
We are meant to grow more and more to be rid of our stinking thinking and worldly traps that entangle us. We now have the power that we did not have before to CHOOSE which way we will go.
We may have to go through things to grow and change. Things that help us get rid of the hurts from our past, or to clean up our current situations. We begin the process of the renewing of our minds and the cleansing of our hearts. We did not have the power to fight these things before, but now we are VICTORS with Christ and have a helper to assist us change.
This is where Obedience comes in. Our Father Lord wants nothing but good for us. He is our Father, and we must obey his ways. Water and Oil cannot live in the same body. He does not expect you to be perfect. You never will be in this life. But just as you had to obey good parents, supervisors at work, the law of the land. You must obey GOD! He gives us the knowledge through his Bible what he expects of us. Don’t be fooled by some teachings you may have heard, read the bible for yourself, to know the truth of it. He gave it to us for our individual walk with him. It is all there for you to learn, and it is there to teach us and guide us.
Ultimately our journey will cause us to grow in Christ and become more and more like him in Love and Mercy. We learn through Obedience what is good for us to do to please the Lord. We reap the abundance of his Love, his provision, and his GRACE. He wants a relationship with each of us. He is not looking for you to follow rules and regulations, that is not what Obedience is.
Obedience comes from Faith, believing that God is who he says he is and that his son, our Lord came to bring the GRACE of God to all the world. Especially you.
2 John 1:6 says And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love.
Obedience is Listening to God, Talking and Praying to God, worshipping him for who he is.
You must CHOOSE to walk in Obedience daily.
- You must choose to listen to the prompting of the Holy Spirit
- You must choose to read the bible and line up with fellow believers to help you understand more about God and who you are with him
- You must choose to examine your life and the decisions you make
- You must choose that you want to renew your mind
- You must choose to believe the TRUTH of the Word
- You must choose to love the lord with all your heart and all your might
Change comes from choosing! Your first choice is to obey God. From there you begin a great journey of healing, spiritual joy, power and love from our Lord that you will always be thankful for.
But remember the choice is yours to do the work or not do the work. You reap what you sow, and you get out of something what you put into something.
