You know the voice, the one who gently comes on to the path of thought and ever so quietly speaks into the abyss of decisions and suggests something.
Something radical.
Something ordinary.
Obedience is required either way. And so you are left with the thought pausing at the fork on the road. Your decision leads it forward. Yes or No. Which way will this go. My or the Higher way.
Here we meet again… the little whisper and I. The perpetual promptings, some I hear loud and clear… others fall to the curb. Go say hi to the stranger. Out of my comfort zone. Give her the gift of love beyond reason even though she broke your heart. Hurt and hurting. Go buy coffee for the homeless man. But what if? Get up. But I am too exhausted. Listen to his heart not his words. My brokenness is bigger. Go, sweet one, I am calling you. But. I’m petrified. Thousands of mini deciding moments like this have led me here.
The place of Obedience.
I’m reminded how far I have come. But really just when I think I have it made… my heart is checked. I’m no where near where I desire to be, or where He is calling me to be. What state is my obedience in? Do I hear from you God? Is the Holy Spirit really asking me to do this or is it my genius thought?
My journey with obedience, like yours I’m sure, has its moments. Crowning awesome see-the-fruit-straight-away moments or the ones when fear got the better of me and I’m filled with remorse, grief or what if I had’s. My tendency to step on obedience’s path is still often, flawed. In His graciousness He calls and waits for our response. We get to choose. Even the word obedience conjures up old forgotten ways when we feel we know what is best. Or we decide we’ll lead ourselves for a moment. Or we are indecisive and let opportunity slip by.
Obedience means to be compliant with an order, request, or law or submission to another’s authority. Oh boy. I don’t know about you, but I feel like sometimes I want to be in charge. This concept is so old school. Yet, sweet one, so relevant and so necessary as Worship Leaders to be in tune with the Holy Spirit in our day to day ordinary off the platform living, and overflow into when we are leading His people.
If you’re familiar with Hebrews 11 faithfulness is seen in all the greats and let’s be honest, the not so greats. They all had moments where they were in tune, inseparable to His voice, despite weakness or doubt. They all had moments where God’s promises were fulfilled because of their loyalty, and they all had moments they made a poor choice. Faith and obedience go hand in hand. When we place our confidence in Him we exercise our faith. When we actively step out in faith to what He has asked of us, we step into obedience. Obedience, like faith, is strengthened the more we interact with it. Our desire to see God fulfill His promises time and time again begin this roundabout of request, trust, obedience, praise.
When we learn to listen, we get to know His voice. We learn the repetitions of His tone. The simple request to develop our faith, and our agreement to then step into greater things.
There have been moments I’ve listened, stepped out in faith and the fruit has been in abundance. Then there are those moments I’m less inclined to revel in what I’ve heard, I’ve let fear win and made the active choice to not pursue the whisper. I believe Gods graciousness steps in, because nothing is wasted. We learn we can trust His voice, or we grieve when we miss out on His blessing. Either way we learn. We learn again and again to trust Him. It’s in those seemingly insignificant incremental decisions He gently teaches us to trust Him. It’s not always easy. In fact, I’ve found when it is of God those decisions have been heartbreaking in making the initial choice, but then the on-flow has been filled with an incredible ease and peace. Obedience is like that.
I am grateful I know His voice clear enough now. I’ve seen Him come through time and time again in my personal journey, as well as ministry. We’ve seen God actively in the detail, naturally He would have the big picture sorted too. As I’ve reflected on this past year alone, I heard Him say very clearly “step out”. This was discomforting to me at the time, I even tucked it away as a silly thought (until two confirmations over the coming weeks revealed it was really Him, which I guess we all know I already knew). We didn’t know the next step to take, let alone the road we were walking. We took great comfort in Abraham in Hebrews 11:8 “when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.“
So we were at the fork: stay where we are comfortable, safe, secure, happy or step out into the big unknown. The road led us to a cliff of obedience. We chose to jump. We chose to see what might come next.
While it’s been terrifyingly stretching, it’s been more that I could ever foresee rewarding. This place of obedience is filled with greater-than-we-can-imagine kind of things (See Deuteronomy 28). It takes the pressure off when we dare to take that leap. We are in His capable hands. So sweet one, what is He calling you toward today?
Something radical.
Something ordinary.
Obedience is required either way. Which way will you go?