Overcoming Disobedience

Deuteronomy 8:2–3 ESV

And you shall remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not. And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.

Pray for God to remove the veil from our eyes, that we would know in which ways we are not living in the full obedience of His Word.

Your Journey has not been in vain, every step of the way is important for the way ahead

Your time in the wilderness served a function (these three things

Humble you

Test you

Revealed what was in your heart

Remember and do not forget the time in the wilderness and what the Lord taught you along the way

He fed you… so that;

You would know your liberation (bread) is not all you should live on

You are to live on every spoken word of God.

you need to be able to hear Him if you are going to remain obedient.

Your greatest weapon in our warfare against the enemy is whether you will obey the Lord or not… Look at Ephraim in this;

Psalm 78:1–11 ESV

Give ear, O my people, to my teaching; incline your ears to the words of my mouth! I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter dark sayings from of old, things that we have heard and known, that our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from their children, but tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds of the Lord, and his might, and the wonders that he has done. He established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers to teach to their children, that the next generation might know them, the children yet unborn, and arise and tell them to their children, so that they should set their hope in God and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments; and that they should not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation whose heart was not steadfast, whose spirit was not faithful to God. The Ephraimites, armed with the bow, turned back on the day of battle. They did not keep God’s covenant, but refused to walk according to his law. They forgot his works and the wonders that he had shown them.

The greatest charge here is the infidelity of Ephraim as they are charged because in their heart they are

Stubborn rebellious generation

Generation whose heart was not steadfast

Generation whose Spirit was not faithful to God

There was a duty to tell the future generations of our God so they would not become rebellious

not to be afraid of God but to know there is a hope in our God

In the day of battle Ephraim while in the heat of battle forgot about the essence of the King in them and turned back while they were still shooting; they

Became complacent in what they knew about the Lord (Satisfaction in the Self; unconcerned for hidden dangers)

Became disobedient to the God-said (refused to walk in His Law)

Forgot His wonders and works

All of this led them to in the middle of the test to disobey the command or God-said in their life.

The only way to overcome disobedience is to remember the essence of the King and to live on every spoken word of the Lord.

Disobedience Defined

Its most plain definition Disobedience is ;

to deliberately not do what someone in authority has told you to do.

implies you heard someone tell you to do something and;

you went out of your way to not do it.

Scripture takes it a step further;

Disobedience and Rejection

1 Samuel 15:23 ESV

For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has also rejected you from being king.”

Disobedience = Rebellion = Divination

trying to uncover revelation or God-said via other means

Presumption = iniquity and idolatry

Proud arrogant behavior insisting on your own way and compelling others to follow

iniquity = morally corrupt behavior that damages the relationship with God

Idolatry = worship of created things as God

Resulting from REJECTING THE SPOKEN WORD OF GOD

cost of rejecting the God-said in our lives is that it costs OUR ASSIGNMENT

THIS IS TRUE DISOBEDIENCE.

When you Reject the God-said God rejects you

You have heard;

“Complacency Kills”

Perhaps in a secular setting; while developed from battlefield lessons learned… scripture had it right;

Zephaniah 1:12 ESV

At that time I will search Jerusalem with lamps, and I will punish the men who are complacent, those who say in their hearts, ‘The Lord will not do good, nor will he do ill.’

Complacency will be dealt with as disobedience

so comfortable in the current condition you are unaware of the dangers and will ultimately succumb to them

Ephraim Fierce warriors trust in the self they are overtaken

what about “at least I am saved…” have we become so dense we are unaware of the Spiritual Warfare at hand?

DID YOU KNOW;

Partial obedience is still disobedience…?

This is what complacency looks like… At least I am saved… at least I went to church… at least I do not sin… sure but are you obeying the spoken word of God all the way or have you rejected it?

Joshua 16:10 ESV

However, they did not drive out the Canaanites who lived in Gezer, so the Canaanites have lived in the midst of Ephraim to this day but have been made to do forced labor.

Ephraim fail to obey fully and will be led to

Give into the nature of his mother; woman dedicated to a foreign god

Give into the societal pressures

Forget the nature of the King in them

BUT HEY AT LEAST THEY TOOK THE LAND RIGHT?

over the next several hundred years Ephraim would not live in the promise or enjoy it… Instead they feel deeper and deeper into their disobedience

Essence of the Flesh leads to Forfeit

Ephraim had a massive issue

Rejection of the Spoken word of God

Complacency

Partial Obedience

At one point, the Lord rejects Ephraim and they forfeit their assignment not before they fall into the following;

Idolatry (Hos 13)

Disobedience to God’s law (Josh 16:10)

Pride and Arrogance (Is 9:9)

Lack of trust in God (Is 28) (Hos 5:13)

Lack of Repentance (Hos 4:17) (Hos 6)

Corruption and Injustice (Hos 7:1)

Violence and bloodshed (Hos 6:8-9)

Fruitlessness and Barrenness (Hos 9:10-14)

All of these led Ephraim into a condition that the Church today seems to be suffering from…

What can we do? Is it really as simple as just stop it?

Overcoming Disobedience

Filled with the Spirit of God (All 7 Spirits noted in Is 11. )

Walk in the Spirit (Gal 5)

Be a DO’er

The Implication then is that you can Hear the Lord Speak…

James 1:22–25 ESV

But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.

Your blessing is not in hearing alone but doing all that has been spoken over you.

We can stop lying to ourselves now… we have heard so we action the word of God.

Keep the Commands

1 John 2:3–6 ESV

And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.

You hear the Command; You read it; Its now time to walk it out

Walk as He walked

Speak what the Fathers Speak

Go where the Father Sends you

BE ABOUT THE FATHERS BUSINESS

Receive the Charge

1 Timothy 6:13–14 ESV

I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, to keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ,

Keep (Command/order) authoritatively given to you

Unstained ( w/o moral or ethical failure)

Free fromReproach (not able to be criticized)

Live into the General Demand on our Lives

Micah 6:8 ESV

He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

Do Justice

Love Chesed

Walk humbly

Repent from any area that we know we have willingly become disobedient… do not reject The GOD SAID

Its not all doom and gloom we will see both the curse but the restoration of Ephraim