About Project Diktuon
Pulling the Fish Together
Obedience – Walk with God

It is the will of God that we do as He says. This is something He wants to cause us to do rather than what He asks us to do. Obedience is listening to God and doing His will, instead of thinking ourselves what He might want and asking Him to bless that. He wants to exercise Himself His love and justice in this world through us. We cannot 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. 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 become. 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 the 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 the 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 comes the Kingdom and finally other things. As we surrender to God, He will transform our relationships with Him, each other and the creation into right order and develop all of them in us. While the mentioned first priorities remain the same, their application and the following priorities are likely to vary from individual to individual and community to community.

Obedience is courage. It is to obediently follow the Law God has given. Not to gain something or as a response to something God has done for us, but because the Holy Spirit has made it our heart’s desire. The 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 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 the 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, communities and the society in general, in practical means as well as spiritually and economically. This responsibility is 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 being 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.

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