Obedience & Sensitivity

God is a father and His desire is for us to have the best and to have it all. However, He is such a responsible parent who will not spoil us with stuff and just let us mess everything up! He has to make sure that He does a “capability check” before He entrusts with certain things.  Before He fills up a container, He wants to ensure that it is in the right condition; ready to carry what He desires for it to contain. 

Galatians 4:1-2 (AMP). Now what I mean is that as long as the inheritor (heir) is a child and under age, he does not differ from a slave, although he is the master of all the estate; 2 But he is under guardians and administrators or trustees until the date fixed by his father.

Key areas in which we need to mature:
1.     Listening to God’s voice and following instructions (Sensitivity and Obedience):
These are two key areas in which every Christian ought to mature if they desire to deal with God at deeper levels and for greater assignments. Through the journey from Genesis to revelation we realize that these 2 aspects are emphasized and in all instances determined how much they succeeded in God. The significance of these principles has not changed even in our day.
So many people have missed out on opportunities or landed in trouble just because they never listened to God or because they deliberately ignored that voice. We need to be sensitive and obedient to God’s leading regarding every aspect in our lives; relationships, investment decisions, jobs, business ideas, and even those things we consider “tiny”.   

• Isaiah 1:19-20 says, “ If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land; 20 But if you refuse and rebel, you will be devoured by the sword. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken it. If you read the scriptures you will discover how true this scripture has been up to this day! 
• In Genesis 3:17 says, “And to Adam He said, Because you have listened and given heed to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, saying, You shall not eat of it, the ground is under a curse because of you; in sorrow and toil shall you eat [of the fruits] of it all the days of your life. All the trouble of mankind began when one man listened and obeyed to a voice that carried a message antagonistic to God’s directive. Paul amplifies this in Romans 5:19 when he says “For just as by one man’s disobedience the many were constituted sinners, so by one Man’s obedience the many will be constituted righteous.” Another point to note here is that Adam obeyed to what God had said as long as there was no other voice. Some people are like that: For instance many know that God told them to tithe and they promptly obey not until another voice comes and says, “are you sure that principle still applies?” and then they start biting on it! What comes next is trouble!  
• In Genesis 12, Abraham began a journey of not only being sensitive to God’s voice but also being radically obedient regarding every instruction including that of sacrificing his son of the promise! And now we know that his legacy still continues because his obedience earned him more than just the good of the land!
• In Genesis 13, we read about the moment when Abraham and Lot had to separate and when Lot was given the opportunity to choose where he would go, he didn’t consider God’s opinion. If he had been sensitive to God’s voice he would have known that what glittered at that moment would eventually become hell-on-earth causing him to lose everything! Still there some folk that live like that; they make decisions about things and people based on what they see today instead of what God says. Eventually they end up in trouble and they ask God, “Why didn’t you help me?”
• When we read the book of Jonah, we realise that much as he had the sensitivity to hear what God was saying, he wasn’t willing to obey and he almost lost his life in the process. There are people like that; they can instantly discern that the sermon was theirs, or that God was speaking to them through that dream or that he was telling them to change something through that TV program…but they still remain adamant.
• Even in ministering the Gospel we need to be sensitive to God’s leading in order to be fully effective; we shouldn’t just minister any way or anywhere. In Acts 16:-10 we have an interesting account: “And they went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. 7 And when they had come up to Mysia, they attempted to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them. 8 So, passing by Mysia, they went down to Troas. 9 And a vision appeared to Paul in the night: a man of Macedonia was standing there, urging him and saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” 10 And when Paul[c] had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go on into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.”  Isn’t it a little bit confusing that God can forbid a minister from reaching out to certain people at a given time?! Yet Paul and his friends obeyed to this voice too!
• I would also like to emphasise that it is hard for someone to have high sensitivity and obedience to God without having an intimate relationship with Him. So if we want to grow in these areas, the time we spend with God and in His Word should be a critical point.

I will end with these questions as food-for-thought for each of us: 
-         Can you tell when God is speaking to you?
-         Have you identified some of the various ways, things and people God uses to speak into your life?
-         How seriously do you take God’s communication when it is conveyed unto you?
-         How consistent are you with your sensitivity and obedience to God? Are you only good in particular seasons or settings?