The School of Obedience and the Craft of Faith

Although externally and practically, Christ's obedience unto death came at the end of His life, the spirit of obedience was of the same fervor from the beginning. After all, He laid aside His glory and rightful place in Heaven to come here. Christ did not arrive by being born in a palace as a king. HE did not require a royal robe, horses and chariots, wine and fine delicacies, servants and slaves. He came not to be served but to serve. He had nowhere to lay His head. He came unto His own but they received Him not. They even destroyed the cloak He wore and divided it among themselves at His death. He humbled Himself by taking on the form of a man who became our sympathetic High Priest. This means the God of glory. Creator and Sustainer of the universe, just as much God as the Father. He hungered, thirsted, wept, slept, prayed, and was even tempted in all points as we are.

Our Lord truly gets us.

Our life is to be a school of obedience. It is by our faith and our independent will that we choose to discipline ourselves for the purpose of godliness. We must get off of the milk and onto the meat of truth and righteousness. We must move on from the elementary to the deeper things of God. This schooling is a process of growth and development.

Jesus, the Christ, our Lord and Savior, showed humanity that whole-hearted obedience is not the end but the beginning of our school life. The end is total fitness for God's service unto His glory, when our obedience has placed us fully at God's disposal. A heart yielded to God in unreserved obedience is the one condition of progress in Christ's School and of growth in the spiritual knowledge of God's will.

Consecration avails nothing unless it means presenting yourself as a living sacrifice for nothing but the will of God.
 
There is a general will of God for all of His children, which we can simply gleam from in our study of the Bible, but there is a special individual application of these commands concerning us personally. These things we learn by the indwelling Holy Spirit, but He will not teach it except to those who have taken the vow of obedience (I wrote in a past blog about Lordship - you can review it here).

I suggested then, as I do now, that our school of obedience training and honing the craft of our spiritual faith builds one act of obedience (based in faith) upon another, then yet another, throughout the course of life. Mathematics is taught in stages, as is every subject, trade, and skill. If, somehow, an eighteen year old had never been exposed to math in their life, the teacher would still have to start with simple arithmetic - 2+2=4. We don't teach based on age, but where the individual is in the process of learning. I am fifty-four years old, and if I went to work for Terry Sherrill, he would have to train me and speak to me as though I know nothing, like an eighteen year old apprentice.

Every scholar with the art they study, every tradesman, every business man knows - and it is true in ministry and in medicine - doing is the one condition of truly knowing. And so obedience, the doing of God's will as far as we know it, and the will and the vow to do it all as He reveals it, is the spiritual mechanism for true spiritual growth in our walk of faith with our Lord.

God is working on our midst. Our people are excited. Your Pastor is excited. Things are changing and happening. It is good to be at Piney Grove. Please do not let your personal growth, your own individual holiness, your walk of faith and your relationship with God grow static in this season of joyful ministry, but rather let t hose things in each of us be the fuel that sparks the raging fires of revival and dedication.

Corporate religious affections can be faked, manufactured, and manipulated, but personal holiness and individual vows of obedience can not be. Help me make sure all the wonderful things we see and feel at Piney Grove are real. They will only be real if they are real in our hearts.



In Christ,
Pastor Todd