Jesus is our model. He never failed to know and do His Father's will. Everything the Father proposed to do through His life, the Lord Jesus did. Thus, Jesus could claim at the end of His life that He had completed everything His Father had given Him to do (see John 17:4).
What was the key to Jesus' perfect obedience? He was always rightly related to the Father. If you walk in a consistent relationship with God, then you should never come to a time that you do not know His will. There should never be a situation in which you are not enabled by the Holy Spirit to carry out God's will.
In Jesus, we have the picture of a perfect love relationship with the Father. Jesus consistently lived out that relationship. You and I quickly conclude that we are a long way from that, but Christ is fully present in us to help us know and do God's will (see Gal. 2:20). We need to adjust our lives to God and faithfully live out that relationship with absolute dependence on Him. He will never fail to draw us into the middle of His purpose and enable us to do it - as He did for people throughout Scripture.
Moses. Only through obedience did Moses begin to experience the full nature of God. We see a pattern of God speaking, Moses obeying, and God accomplishing what He purposed to do:
- God invited Moses to join Him in what He was doing to deliver Israel.
- God told Moses what to do.
- Moses obeyed.
- God delivered the Israelites from captivity in Egypt as He had promised.
- Moses and those around him came to know God more intimately.
When the people stood between the Red Sea and the oncoming Egyptian army, God told Moses to hold his staff over the sea and Moses obeyed. God parted the sea and the people crossed on dry ground (Exod. 14:1-25). Then Miriam led the people in a hymn of praise describing their new understanding of God.
When the people were thirsty and had no water to drink, they complained to Moses. God told Moses to strike a rock with the staff. Moses obeyed and God caused water to flow from the rock (Exod. 17:1-7). Whenever Moses obeyed what God told him to do, he and the people of Israel experienced the awesome power of God at work.
People of Faith. When Noah obeyed, God preserved his family and repopulated the earth. When Abraham obeyed, God have him a son and built a nation. When David obeyed, God made him a king and greatly increased the power and prosperity of Israel. When Elijah obeyed, God displayed His astounding power by sending down fire from heaven. These people of faith came to know God by experience when they obeyed Him, and He accomplished His work through them.
The Disciples. Luke records a beautiful experience of Jesus' disciples. The Lord invited seventy of His followers to join Him in the Father's work. Jesus gave these people specific directions, telling them how to travel, what to preach, how to respond to receptive listeners, and how to handle rejection. They obeyed Him and experienced God working through them to heal people and cast out demons. Jesus praised the Father for revealing Himself to these followers (see Luke 10:21-22). Then Jesus turned to His disciples and said, "The eyes that see the things you see are blessed! For I tell you that many prophets and kings wanted to see the things you see yet didn't see them; to hear the things you hear yet didn't hear them" (Luke 10:23-24).
These disciples were blessed. They had been chosen by God to be involved in His work. What they saw, heard, and came to know about God was something even prophets and kings longed to experience but didn't.
You, too, will be blessed when God does a special, God-sized work through you. You will come to know Him in a way that brings joy to your life. When others see you experience God that way, they will want to know how they, too, can experience God as you do. So be prepared to point them to God.
If you are obedient, God will accomplish remarkable things through your life. You'll want to declare the wonderful deeds of the Lord, but you'll need to be careful that any testimony about what God has done gives glory to Him. Pride may cause you to want to tell your experience because it makes you feel important. However, you must avoid any sense of pride. "The one who boasts must boast in the Lord" (1 Cor. 1:31)."
Henry Blackaby, Richard Blackaby, Claude King; "Experiencing God: Knowing and Doing the Will of God"; copyright 2008
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