{"id":5897,"date":"2020-08-27T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-08-27T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/?p=5897"},"modified":"2024-10-08T14:29:03","modified_gmt":"2024-10-08T14:29:03","slug":"day-4-the-secret-of-radical-obedience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/2020\/08\/27\/day-4-the-secret-of-radical-obedience\/","title":{"rendered":"Day 4: The Secret Of Radical Obedience"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>\u201cBut be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves\u201d <strong>James 1:22<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cHearing God in the secret place is one of the greatest keys to the overcoming Christian life. However, it must be linked with its corollary: radical obedience. We hear, and then we do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cBy \u2018radical obedience,\u2019 I mean immediate obedience that fulfills the commandment to its fullest measure. Radical obedience does not seek to comply to the minimal standards but pursues extravagant, lavish fulfillment. If Jesus says, \u2018Sell all,\u2019 then we sell all! Immediately.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cImplicit obedience starts, for every one of us, not in doing good works but in sitting at His feet and hearing His word. Devotion to the secret place is the saint\u2019s first great act of obedience\u2026Until you attend to this responsibility first, you will be constantly frustrated in your inability to uncover the joys of radical obedience. Works of service gain their spiritual energy from the furnace of a fiery love relationship at Jesus\u2019 feet. The true fulfillment of serving Jesus is discovered when we get first things first: First we sit and listen, and then we go and do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cSome people put their best energies into creative thinking\u2026Instead of focusing on being creative, focus on being obedient. Give your best energies to waiting on God in His presence, listening for His voice, and then moving out in action only when He has spoken. There\u2019s no sense in coming up with your own ideas when it\u2019s only God\u2019s counsel that will stand! I\u2019m saying it several different ways: The key is in hearing and obeying\u2026The life that resides in Him flows into you when you obey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cStorms are most certainly headed your way. The only question is, will you survive? Will your foundations be strong enough to sustain the winds and floods? Those who walk in radical obedience have made themselves ready for the storm, and they will overcome. <em>\u2018Oh, that you had heeded My commandments! Then your peace would have been like a river, and your righteousness like the waves of the sea\u2019<\/em> (Isaiah 48:18).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>\u201cTrue servants are found sitting at Jesus\u2019 feet (\u2018Where I am, there My servant will be also,\u2019<\/strong> John 12:26). Then, when He speaks, they just do it. Servants don\u2019t try to give the Master a better idea; servants don\u2019t complain that they think the task is stupid; servants don\u2019t try to decide if they\u2019re in the mood to do it right now; servants don\u2019t decide if the task is within their dignity to perform it. They just do it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe closer you get to God, the more obedient you must be.\u201d\u2014<strong>Bob Sorge<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>My Prayer<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cLord, all my knowledge and all my secret place experience is vanity and emptiness if I don\u2019t obey You. I am Your servant, and all I want to do is to please You. Everything else is secondary. If sitting at Your feet is what You want, I will do it. Whenever You expect me to act, I will act\u2014by Your grace. Whatever it will cost, help me Lord to do. Enough of talking spirituality that does not translate into actual action. May my spirituality be known in the ways I unashamedly and unquestioningly obey You\u2014even when I don\u2019t understand why You ask me to do what I must do. All of my life belongs to You, Lord. May I practically and daily release everything to You\u2014in every way. In Your name I pray. Amen.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The Challenge<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Are there specific ways you disobeyed God recently? If yes, can you list them out and repent over them? In penitent prayer, can you commit not to disobey God in those specific things again?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Are there ways you disobeyed God in the past, but you can now redress and redeem the situation? We know that restitution may not be practically possible in all situations, but if there is a way you can still obey God in the thing you had disobeyed Him, then do so.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Make a prayer of fresh commitment to the Lord today: a commitment to always obey Him\u2014totally and immediately\u2014irrespective of discomfort or personal sacrifice.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cBut be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves\u201d James 1:22 \u201cHearing God in the secret place is one of the greatest keys to the overcoming Christian life. However, it must be linked with its corollary: radical obedience. We hear, and then we do. \u201cBy \u2018radical obedience,\u2019 I mean immediate obedience that [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7375,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5897","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-50-days-pilgrim-challenge","category-blog"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/50-days-pilgrim-challenge.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5897","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5897"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5897\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5898,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5897\/revisions\/5898"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}