About Project Diktuon » Obedience

Obedience – draft I

A little word of encouragement (in a simple form such as interest) pays off: I finally managed to kick myself to finish this text. Evidently I was writing it as a reminder to myself…

As always, these are just some thoughts I have tried to put down and in some kind of order. I reserve myself the usual irrecoverable right to be wrong Feel free to comment on anything.

Next, I will give a pile of these text to my wife to be proofread and commented on. After that, I hope to be able to publish something more readable and dare to make more buzz about this site. Btw, we’ve talked about a Finnish translation too.

Anyway, here goes something:

It is the will of God that we do as He says. This is rather something He wants to cause us to do than what He asks us to do. He wants to exercise Himself His love and justice in this world through us. We cannot and deliver them by ourselves. Being obedient is surrendering to Him and allowing Him to work in us and through us.

Obedience is obedience to Christ and to God, who has given authority to Christ. Each of us needs to commit to be obedient for their own part, and trust others to do the same. Obedience is listening to God and doing His will, instead thinking ourselves what He might want and asking Him to bless that.

Christ is obedient to Father. As He gains room in our lives, we too become obedient to Father. To refuse to be obedient to Father and His will, is to deny Christ as a King. We need to submit ourselves to Christ both individually and as communities.

Our obedience grows in pace with our spiritual maturity. The more mature we are, the more room Christ has in our lives and the more mature we are. On the other hand, the more we surrender to Christ, or the more we choose to obey Him, the more room He gets in our lives and the more mature we become.

Spiritual growth is work of Holy Spirit. We cannot make ourselves grow. Trying to follow the commandments, to love God and one another, will not make us grow. What we can do is to surrender our hearts and minds to Christ. To love God with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength is to surrender all these to God and ask Him to do whatever it is He wants to do with them. Letting Holy Spirit speak to us in the Scriptures and mould our hearts will lead us to the desire to love one another. When we learn who we are in Christ, we will know how to live and what to do.

Obedience is priorities. When Christ gains room in our lives, His priorities become our priorities. Refusing to let our priorities change is rebellion. It is the will and work of God that He is our top priority. This is followed by our family and separating one day out of each week for resting. Then come the Kingdom and finally other things. As we surrender to God, He will transform our relationships to Him, each other and the creation into right order and develop them all in us. While the mentioned first priorities remain the same, the their application and following priorities are likely to vary from individual to individual and community to community.

Obedience is following the Law God has given. Not to gain something or as a response to something God has done for us, but because Holy Spirit has made it our heart’s desire. Holy Spirit will inscribe the commandments in our hearts. Submitting our hearts to God and His word, renders obedience into being true to our own heart. When our lives are changed, even the Jews will see that God is with us and believe. Therefore we need to encourage sound teaching, especially one exhorting us to freedom, purity and authenticity.

Obedience is courage. It is to obediently do the tasks God has given us. Therefore we need to seek people, who God has called to His service, and help and equip them to get and stand in those positions He has called them to. Obedience is bravely letting the community to take shape based on the people belonging to it, instead trying to give it form ourselves, seeking people to do tasks we think are important.

Obedience is serving. Anyone, who is in Christ, can serve the Kingdom. To thrive the Kingdom needs our personal and active efforts. We need to identify where God has called each of us, and support one another in our respective tasks. We need to strive to integrate everyone to the Body of Christ in such a way, that they get to serve God in that position and role God has called them.

Jesus has given us various gifts and callings to equip His entire Body to service. Most of these gifts are natural, but some are spiritual. Likewise, most of the callings are natural, but some are spiritual. Examples of the callings are serving, leadership and hospitality.

In addition He has called some to an office of an apostle, a prophet, an evangelist, a teacher or a pastor. These are not just callings or spiritual gifts, but offices, whose holders are responsible for building and equipping the Body of Christ. People in these offices must work together to render the entire body of Christ to live pure and to disciplined life before God.

All of these offices are still in function. However, the present apostolic office must be confused with that of the 12 disciples or their authority. Likewise, the present prophetic office must not be confused with the great Old Testament prophets. The present holders of these offices are called to serve the Kingdom in our time and in their respective environments.

No-one can apply for such position. God calls and appoints the servants to the Kingdom. The local communities of believers need to recognize the call, and when they see it appropriate, position the person to that task. We need to identify those, whom God has called and prepared to build His Kingdom. God wants that the people He has called to serve are also called to the task by a their community and are recognized by the community where they serve.

Kingdom of God is an anarchistic monarchy. It has structures based on God’s authority and ordinance. Two examples of these are the apostolic authority and the local community. When being subject to Christ is the same as being loyal to these structures, it is God’s will that we are loyal to them. But this loyalty cannot be demanded by anyone, only given. If those structures or people cease to serve the Kingdom, it is the right and responsibility of the subjects of the Kingdom to retract their loyalty from those who are rebellious to the King.

Obedience is being authentic. It is to be who we are, to seek our place in the Kingdom and in the world. It is to exercise that courage, open-mindedness, leniency and tenacity He has given and keeps giving us, to be faithful and fair in everything we do. It is to practise moderation is our lifestyles so that we can support one another.

Obedience to King is acting in unity with other subjects. Each of us needs to seek and serve the vision God has given to His entire Kingdom. We need to think that our goal as a Kingdom is more important than my own goal as an individual or as a representative of some church or ministry.

The goals of the Kingdom are both practical and spiritual. We need to carry our responsibility of each other, our neighbours, environments and the society in general, in practical means as well as spiritually and economically. This responsibility personal and holistic, and it cannot be delegated.

God wants to use us to exercise His justice and kindness in our communities and in the surrounding world. It is the will of God that we help, support and defend the weak and everyone else who needs help. We need the promote the well-being of people everywhere. We should act locally, primarily in our own environments, yet promoting justice and fairness in larger, even global scale.

Obedience is carrying out the Great Commission. As we are obedient, God will guide us to give others a possibility to know Christ and grow in that knowledge. Yet we can only encounter people as our authentic selves and share what we have received from Him. Only Holy Spirit can give birth to faith and call to spiritual growth. Obedience is allowing Him to use as as His instruments in this, presenting the call to walk along.

Obedience is preparing to meet our God. On the last day Jesus will return and pay everyone by their deeds. Ultimately the question is, if we have been obedient to Him as our king and ruler, or have been rebellious.

And finally, obedience is about here and now. It does not matter, what we have done or not done in the past or what will happen in the future. What matters is what we do now. Obedience is turning to Him in the present.