OBEYING GOD, THE LOVE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT AND MY PERSONAL LIFE!

Obeying God, the love of the Holy Spirit and my personal life

 

The basic idea of these verses is to obey God so the Apostle John is switching his tone from the subject of sin to obeying the commandments of God as a lifestyle. This means obeying the precepts of the Bible and our call before God as we serve people in one capacity or another.

 

According to this set of verses the more we obey God by faith with courage the greater degree of love we will receive from the Holy Spirit in our hearts. Verse five says if the love of God is in our hearts this is evidence that we are true believers in Jesus Christ. There are only four verses that will be analyzed but I also felt God desired me to really open up about my personal life. This is often hard for me because I am a very private person.

 

I will share with you about the calls I received from God but a behind the scenes look and the background will be given to you. At the end of a movie sometimes the actors will be interviewed and we often times see a more up front look about the biography and the content. Let me just quote 1 John 2:3-6 so you can see the original script in the Bible because these four verses are very detailed but not without comfort.  

 

(3) "And hereby we do know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. (4) He that saith, I know Him, and keepeth not His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. (5) But whoso keepeth His word, in him verly is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in Him. (6) He that saith he abideth in Him ought himself also so to walk, even as He walked." 1John 2:3-6.

 

The Holy spirit revealed something very specific about 1 John at this point. In the first part of the book John talks about not sinning or what to do if we do sin which is a form of obedience. Then the Apostle talks about "Knowing" Jesus Christ which means the Holy Spirit is shedding His divine "Light" and knowledge in our minds. This is supposed to prop us to stronger obedience to God.

 

If the Holy Spirit sheds divine "Light" and knowledge in my mind and my choice is to go in the opposite direction of obedience then I am not being responsible or accountable with the wisdom of God. This passage says if we hear and know from God, to not obey His commandments is to be a liar. I would not have used that word (God knows way more than me) but what good is it if we receive divine light and knowledge from the Holy Spirit through the Bible or prayer and not apply this particular biblical precept in our lives? God desires us to progressively move forward in obedience to Him, not stay stagnant and do our own thing in life which is nothing more than ignoring Jesus Christ. 

 

At the very least our hearts should desire to obey God. If there are no openings in your life to serve Jesus Christ remember this happens all the time with Christians. God is looking at our hearts. Every time I got released from serving God on a project for His work Jesus Himself opened up a new opportunity for me to do my part for the Kingdom of God.

 

I'm not necessary going to open up with my life in chronological order but it is kind of interesting the way God operates in our lives because if I were given the choice my response would be, "No way" but God sees the entire situation, our life and our eternal future. We are not equipped to make these decisions about our call because quite frankly we see virtually nothing. 

 

God will show us what to do but in His timing. I was doing something for the Lord and it was going really well and then God decided to cut it off so I was entirely perplexed. I really wanted to serve and obey God. I wrote for this blog on occasion but it became more apparent that I was to do this on a more regular basis. Prior to that point I told the human the owner of the blog (God owns this blog) that I would be leaving but Jesus Christ intervened in the middle of 2016 and told me that I would be doing this on more of a fulltime basis. I did not want this job.

 

I remember a Bible teacher about 30 years ago said, "Unless God throws you in a closet and locks the door please do not become a teacher of the Bible." I had no idea what he was talking about but when it happened to me then I realized what this man was talking about regarding this subject.

 

Many people will relate to this but I have a full time secular career over here in the United States. Ron Graham had a secular career over here and he was a writer. Unfortunately this very Godly man passed on to be with the Lord but I have to tell you it is difficult to have a job and still produce articles. As of now I am able to release one article per week and it just gives me so much joy that people are getting saved through Jesus Christ and Christians are being encouraged to keep abiding in Jesus Christ.

 

Not once did anybody charge even one penny to get these messages out to you because freely we have received from God so freely we are going to give. Some ministries charge for sermons but I don't feel this is the proper way to present the gospel. Who determines the price God or people? People so what figure is correct? One thing I learned is God will provide for us so we need to just put our faith in Him. 

 

I see so many cult like ministries out there that are controlling, manipulation, money orientated, intimidation and fear. Many of these churches don't even realize they are engaged in these practices and people do get hurt. I even have a hard time dealing with an individual that always has a hook and never really wants to talk to me as a person. I have been in these types of churches that had all of these qualities when I was young but the worst is when they throw false doctrine to a group of believers that usually take it in and allow non biblical precepts to alter their life in the wrong way. It looks great at the outset but that is the hook and then before you know it your body and spirit can be in all five of these bad sins and damage your soul.

 

Churches are good if they are obeying God in love. In 1 John 2:3-6 never once does the Holy Spirit talk about a building or structure. The Apostle just talks about the pure sustenance of obeying God, the love of the Holy Spirit in our hearts and walking in all manner of conversation (how we live) so we need to focus on this as our way of life before God.   

 

In hindsight I can see the wisdom of God but if you are in-between calls the Holy Spirit will make your direction in Jesus Christ clear if your heart is right with God. I have been through this at least five different times in my life and it was not because I was bad or disobedient to Jesus Christ. God sees the entire blueprint, the Holy Spirit will give us direction but our heart must be warm toward God.

 

I would not worry about the cosmetics of what and when because it is God who opens up the door for us to walk through in service for Him. I would be far more concerned with your motive then everything else will fall into place through faith in Jesus Christ. Many Christians equate "Not knowing" with being disobedient to God but as of this very moment I have three to five issues pending and I really don't know what to do but I am fully confident that the Holy Spirit will show me the direction.

 

If we read the Bible for direction the Holy Spirit will prepare our heart for obedience to God. The technical will come but we need to be patient. If it makes you feel any better in the different forks of my calls I never knew what I was doing but God is faithful and He showed me the way.

 

When I was young God called me to be a street evangelist so I went to the big city filled with joy and anticipation but there was just one small problem and that was I did not know how to do what God called me to do. To make matters worse I went up to this seemingly nice women to ask her a question and she got her bag and started beating the ever living daylights out of me. Somehow I managed to get away and was very shaken up by the experience so I just walked the city and then settled on a spot. I realize some of you readers out there in internet land are probably laughing but how would you like to be called to do a task and your very first experience is to get beaten up by a tough street smart lady?

 

After a couple of hours staying still God showed me exactly how to do the job. I just said, "Oh." I did this for approximately ten years and I never got beat up even once after that so what does that tell you? Hang in there and keep going. Call the devil's bluff and keep moving forward because God has a plan for your life.

 

About seven years into the ministry God spoke to me on the streets and said, "Get all you can get out now because there is coming a time when you won't be able to do this anymore." He did cut His ministry off in my earthy possession and gave it to someone else because it was time for a new direction. Once again at the risk in repeating myself in hindsight I see the wisdom of God in what He did to execute a new program for so many souls to be saved through Jesus Christ. The real question is are we going to step out in faith and let God be God (the boss) in His timing so He can get His will out through us as His vessels. 

 

If you do not know Jesus Christ as your very own personal Savior and Lord now may be a good time to repent of all your sins and invite the Son of God in your life. As you can see much work goes into getting the great commission of getting the gospel out around the world. If you saw some bad examples of Christians I do realize this does happen and I have been just as guilty. It is part of being a human being but as this Scripture text says the pure reality of obeying God with the love of the Holy Spirit flowing out of our hearts and walking in all manner of conversation (the way we live) is a privilege and honor before God. I hope you just made that decision for your life and your eternity.

 

God Bless you,

Bob D.