Obedience is Absolutely Necessary to Walking with God
Anyone, anyone at all who wants to know God only needs to obey Him to form that relationship. Although you may not know God at all, but hope or think it is possible and you feel an inclination to hunt for God, obey that call and follow it. You WILL find God!
Should you be a person who claims to be a child of God but you don't feel a sense of God's presence with and in you, obey God and find Him to be all your desire. He will be there when you look!
Abram in the Old Testament was called by God to leave Ur of the Chaldees and go to a land where God would take him. He had no idea where that would be or the route, but Abram gathered his family and possessions and started moving in the direction God showed him. The story of Abram and how God changed his name to Abraham is a wonderful unveiling of the way God leads those who are willing to obey Him.
What do you obey, you ask? Where do you start? There actually are two aspects to obedience:
- Know and follow the spoken, written word of God recorded as the Bible for us.
- Listen for and to the voice of the Holy Spirit Himself.
God took great measures to be certain what He said was preserved and readable for generation upon generation, so no one needs to doubt or wonder about what God wants us to do and be. However, there is a caveat: In order to follow the written word, you must read and know what is written there. You can't act wisely about what you do not know. You cannot plead ignorance.
Jesus told His disciples before He went to Gethsemane, "When He, the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come" (John 16:13).
The apostle Paul wrote in another place, "For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God" (Romans 8:14).
To walk in what God calls normal Christianity means that as born-again believers, we listen to and obey God's voice. He speaks through His word by teaching us as we read and meditate on it. Sometimes He grabs a verse or an episode and directs it right at our heart and mind. That is called a "rhema word" and we can never doubt much less forget when God thrusts His words at us in that manner.
He also speaks to us with the word by bringing verses or incidents in the Bible to our remembrance when we need them or He wants to instruct us.
And, He also speaks to us by the still, small voice within that guides our behavior and decisions. It is that voice we must obey when He speaks: we cannot ignore or put off obeying Him, because even 98% obedience is disobedience--and disobedience is sin! We must not sin, for when we do we open a door for the devil to enter and create turmoil and trouble in our life. Instead, we must slam that door shut by confessing our disobedience and repenting of it.
In Jeremiah 7:22-23 God told Judah, "For I did not speak to your fathers or command them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices. But this is what I commanded them, saying, 'Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and you will be My people; and you will walk in all the way which I command you, that it may be well with you.'"
Everything hinged on obedience then; everything hinges on obedience now