My Daily Prayer

I (individually and corporately) want to be known by God and the world as a person with “this one mark – completely yielded to God’s will.” This is made possible “through His wonderful Holy Spirit, primarily His indwelling presence. . . . .  His holy presence consciously abiding in us, and through Him we continually walk with God and hear His voice.    . . . . even unto death.” Through this and in faith (with “it” being His will)
"I see it
I desire it
I expect it
I accept it
I trust Christ for it"  (quotes from Andrew Murray, A Life of Obedience)
Finally, from Frances Ridley Havergal’s My King devotional
“It is when the King has really come in peace to his own home in the “contrite and humble spirit” . . . . when He has entered in to make His abode there – that the soul is satisfied with Him alone. It all hinges upon Jesus coming into the heart as His own house. For if there are some rooms of which we do not give up the key, some little sitting room which we would like to keep as a little mental retreat, with a view from the window, which we do not quite want to give up – some lodger whom we would rather not send away just yet – some little dark closet which we have not resolution to open and set to rights – of course the King has not yet full possession; it is not all and really His own . . .  Only throw open all the doors, “and the King of Glory shall come in, “ and then there will be no craving for other guests. He will fill this house with glory and there will be no place left for gloom.”

 Lord, I give You every room (and nook and cranny) in me, and when there may be a portion which I have forgotten to submit to You, show me. 

Amen
mike hearne

Obedience - Part 4 (Final)

In closing I must reiterate what I have said before, my writing on obedience is personal. Each one of us needs to review our lives and actions during it to see if we are being obedient to Him and His leading.
I was touched by what Jenny commented on for the last post. She wrote: “Also I'm touched that obedience was worked out in the Godhead first. The Son became obedient to the Father. This obedience is therefore divine - eternal, indestructible and incorruptible, yet we can partake of it.” I say, Amen.
As we come to the last post on obedience I would like to close with a quote from Murray which shows the way to obedience and by it we can become partakers of Jesus’ example.
He wrote, “The secret of true obedience, I believe, is a clear and close personal relationship to God. All our attempts to achieve full obedience will fail until we have access to His abiding fellowship. It is God’s holy presence, consciously abiding with us, that keeps us from disobeying Him. Imperfect obedience is the result of a life that is lacking. To defend our life by arguments and faulty motives will only make us feel the need of a more committed life, one that is entirely under the power of God, iin which place obedience becomes natural. A life of broken and spasmodic fellowship with God must be healed to make way for a full and healthy life of obedience. The secret of true obedience, then is the return to close and continual fellowship with God.” Page 34
And finally he writes, “Our Lord, who learned obedience by waiting every moment to see and hear the Father, has a great lesson to teach us: It is only when, like Him, with Him, in and through Him, we continually walk with God and hear His voice that we can possibly attempt to offer God the obedience He asks." Page 37
Andrew Murray – The Life of Obedience - From the chapter titled The Secret of True Obedience
Amen, my prayer from this sharing on obedience is for each of us to become so ‘in love’ with our Lord, that the only thing we want is to show this love by waiting on Him and obeying His leading.

Obedience - Part 3

The idea of obedience to the will of the Lord or leading of the Holy Spirit (which in my estimation is one in the same, but not always received the same) is not one for using to measure other Christians. However, I believe it is a measurement we should each use individually to understand our own love of the Lord. I believe it is an indicator of how much we are maturing in our faith. If we are becoming obedient in aspects of our lives as Jesus was obedient then we are growing.
As Murray points out, in the book we are discussing, in chapter 2, The Obedience of Christ, the scripture Romans 5:19 is one to study and learn about Christ’s obedience. It says, “For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous.”
He goes on to state in the same chapter, “The object of Christ’s life of obedience was threefold:
- as our example, to show us what true obedience was;
- as our surety, by His obedience to fulfill all righteousness for us;
- as our head, to prepare a new and obedient nature to impart to us.

And so He died to show us that full obedience is a readiness to obey to the uttermost, even to die for God.” Page 25
Later he writes, “To know what obedience is, consider how the obedience of Christ is the secret of our righteousness and our salvation. Obedience is the very essence of that righteousness. Obedience results in our salvation. His obedience, first of all to be accepted, trusted, and rejoiced in, as covering and making an end of my disobedience, is the one unchanging, never-to-be-forsaken ground of my acceptance. . . . Christ’s obedience becomes the life-power of my new nature.” Page 26

Obedience - Part 2

As I go into writing about obedience and what the Lord has shown me in His Word and through the writings of Andrew Murray, I do not want anyone to think I am proclaiming that only through obedience (meaning total obedience) to God the Father and His commandments do we become sons of God. We must come to Him through the Holy Spirit by a loving relationship with Him, His Son and the Holy Spirit, which has been made possible by His Son who has provided us the only way to salvation. It is not of us, but of Him.

So starting my thoughts on obedience: On page 17 of a book (which I quoted in the post of Jan 28th) by Andrew Murray, ‘A Life of Obedience,’ the author shares these words as he is describing John 14:15-16, 21, and 23. He states, “No words could express more simply or more powerfully the inconceivably glorious value Christ puts on obedience, with its twofold possibility: Obedience is only possible to a loving heart, but it also makes possible all that God has to give us through His wonderful Holy Spirit, primarily His indwelling presence. I know of no passage in Scripture (John 14) that gives a higher revelation of the spiritual life or the power of loving obedience as it condition. Let us pray earnestly that the light of God’s Holy Spirit may infuse our daily obedience with His glory.”

John 14:15-16, 21, and 23 – If you love Me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever. . . . He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love hime and manifest Myself to him. If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.”

Amen. I will comment on this in my next post.

Obedience - Part 1

As I was sharing the quote seen below, which has already been used in a previous post, when I asked the question at the end, a young man stated he knew what we lacked. Instantly, I was taken back because I truly thought we did not lack anything as Christians. His answer took me by surprise and I have contemplated it over the years. As I have started reading and studying about obedience his answer came back to me.

The Knowledge of the Holy, The Wisdom of God by A.W. Tozer
“With the goodness of God to desire our highest welfare, the wisdom of God to plan it, and the power of God to achieve it, what do we lack?”

His answer - OBEDIENCE
More tomorrow.