HOW QUICK DO YOU OBEY? (The Guage of Spiritual Maturity)

Of late, we have been teaching my daughter about prompt and immediate obedience. So we say things like, “Once Mum or Dad calls you, no matter what you are doing, you respond promptly and immediately”.

There are times she will say “I am coming” but still takes a while before showing up. There are times we have to say “prompt and immediate obedience” before it occurs to her.

One of the ways you can discern how mature a believer is by examining how yielding that believer is. How long does it take you to respond to the prompts of God? Are you quick to forgive? Are you quick to give when the Lord instructs you?

The walk of Abraham with God gives us amazing insight. Abraham learnt how to obey God promptly even when it is hard.

When the Lord instructed him to circumcise both himself and all the other males in the family, he did it without hesitation. When the Lord asked him to send out Ishmael and Hagar, he obeyed the Lord. When the Lord asked for Isaac, he was quick to commence the process the next day.

There is nothing like maturity in the faith that lacks maturity in obedience. Your obedience must be prompt, immediate and complete.

You do not need a voice to tell you to forgive your spouse but here you are as a believer fighting your spouse for the past three months. You have handed over the driving seat of your marriage to the flesh and its inconsistencies. It is now your hurt and not the Word of God that dictates the pace of your home. You need to repent.

The Lord told the young prophet not to eat or drink. He was deceived by an old prophet to return for a meal. While at the table, the old prophet prophecied accurately that the young prophet will die because he had disobeyed God, what happened next is shocking:

After the man of God had finished eating and drinking, the old prophet saddled his own donkey for him,
1 Kings 13:23 NLT

Can you imagine that the young prophet finished eating and drinking? The eating and drinking should have stopped immediately after the word came and he should have thrown himself into repentance. Why did he even still leave that house? Well! He died.

Have you gotten familiar with God?
Has your heart become hardened?
Is disobedience now normal for you?
Do you obey His word promptly and completely?
Are you led by hurt or by His Word?

There is no mature believer who is not mature in obedience.