Keys to the Kingdom: Hearing and
Obeying
I believe one of the major keys of the blessing that has been on our
journey in Canada over the last 11 years lies in a simple but powerful
covenant made by the founding leadership team of Watchmen: to never
initiate for God but to wait upon Him until He speaks. And when He
speaks to be obedient no matter what the cost.
Hearing God Speak
Hearing God is far deeper than just knowing His will through His word.
It’s about the rhema, the word of God spoken now, that carries within it
a power to activate the spiritual and natural realms.
By the word of the LORD were the heavens made, their starry host
by the breath of his mouth... For he spoke, and it came to be; He
commanded, and it stood firm. Psalm 33:6;9
God establishes His will on earth by speaking it; that’s why it is
impossible for us to truly establish His kingdom on this earth without
first hearing His voice.
Logos and Rhema
Logos and rhema are Greek words for the “word of God”. Logos is God’s
written word, preserved in the scriptures. Rhema is the word spoken to
you by God in the here and now. It may be a scripture, a prophetic word
or that still small voice in your spirit, but when you hear it your
faith is activated to lay hold of God’s purposes. (Romans 10:17)
It was a rhema word “come” in Matthew 14 that caused Peter to get out
of the boat and walk on the water as if it was a solid ground. It was a
rhema word to Joshua to march around Jericho and shout that brought the
walls down. And rhema was what Jesus was talking about when he said: “Man cannot live by bread along but by every word (rhema) that proceeds
out of the mouth of God.” (Matthew 4:4)
One major area of misunderstanding in the church today is when we try
to take rhema words God has given someone else and act on them as logos
instruction for us today. We know that all scripture is God-breathed and
useful for teaching, correcting, rebuking and training in righteousness (2 Timothy 3:16). But that doesn’t mean that I can take the rhema
word God gave Peter and start walking out on the Pacific Ocean!
Yet this is what often happens in the church. We turn what was rhema
for someone into programs or formulas. We hear someone got a
breakthrough when God told them to do something, and we try to repeat it
to see if it will work for us. We see a church is successful through
cell groups, so every church starts cell groups. And then we wonder why
we lack power and we don’t see results. It’s because we have robbed
ourselves and God by not activating the supernatural law of waiting on
God for Him to speak and obeying what He says.
Absolute Obedience
To obey is better than sacrifice (I Samuel 15:22)
God is sovereign and so He has the power to do whatever He wants. Yet
He has chosen to partner with us, His church, to see His will
established on earth. He could have sent a company of angels, but
instead He chose to rely on imperfect human beings who struggle, who
question Him, who disobey Him. Why?
His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold
wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the
heavenly realms, according to his eternal purpose which he
accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Ephesians 3:10-12)
God’s eternal purpose is redemption: Jesus’ sacrifice is the ultimate
demonstration of the power of God’s love. And we display the power of
that redemption every time that we, as human beings with free will,
choose to submit ourselves to hear God and obey Him, whether we
understand or not.
The ability to reason, to understand, is what separates us from the
rest of creation; what makes us uniquely human. So when we choose not to
limit our obedience to God to our own understanding, we exalt and
enthrone God by demonstrating to the spiritual realm that we hold His
word is the highest authority: “As the heavens are higher than the
earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your
thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:9)
And this is how we walk in the fullness of our inheritance as the
true children of God. “As many as are led by the spirit of God, they
are the sons of God” (Romans 8:14). You can be a son without walking
in the privileges or authority of sonship. That authority comes when we
walk as Jesus did: speaking only what He heard the Father speaking and
doing only what He saw the Father doing.
Why We Are Tested So hearing God is crucial to our Christian walk
because every decision we make has spiritual consequence. There is a
constant battle waging in the heavenlies between the Kingdom of God and
the Kingdom of darkness. And that’s in part why the Lord allows us to go
through tests. God is omniscient (all knowing) and He knows what we will
choose. But there is a power of obedience that opens the door for the
Kingdom of Heaven to be established on earth. This is why God tested
Abraham; because He knew that Abraham’s obedience would allow Him to
take the right, before all the principalities and powers, to bless not
only Abraham but all nations of the earth through Him.
In the story of Job, the enemy accused God that Job’s obedience was
based only on God’s great blessing on his life. So God allowed the enemy
to test Job, to strip Him of everything. And when, in the midst of the
confusion, the pain, the suffering, the bad advice of his wife to curse
God and die, Job chose instead to declare “though He slay me, yet
will I serve Him”, it was an amazing display to the spiritual
darkness of the power of God’s love.
We as human beings are given the choice which kingdom we will
establish. So when the Lord removes His grace from your life for a
season and allows you to go through the hard tests, it is an opportunity
to display the power of redemption! It’s a chance for you to give God
the pleasure of saying to the principalities and powers: “Look at My
power to redeem, look at how in their weakness I am strong”. And that’s
why when we don’t hear or don’t obey, we rob the Lord of this pleasure
and in fact, bring a mockery to His name, exalting our own thoughts
above His.
Our Journey
We have seen the power of hearing God and obeying Him in the miraculous
journey we have walked the last 11 years in Canada. And that is why for
the Consumed gathering this summer we
are asking every person coming to ask God if they are to attend. Because
we know it’s our collective obedience, whether we attend or not, that is
crucial to releasing the power of God in another dimension in the church
of our nation.
If the cry in our hearts truly echoes the cry of Jesus “Thy kingdom
come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven” we need to become a
desperate people who walk knowing we cannot live without hearing His
voice. We need to be committed to radically obey whatever He says, even
when we it’s hard and we don’t understand. When we do this, as a church,
then we will begin to truly see Him as He is: the Glorious and Awesome
God who is well able to turn back His enemies with one breath of His
mouth.
