The Gift of Obedience
Today, we are going to be taking a posture of peace by taking a look at the gift of obedience. Let's go ahead and begin with scripture, shall we?
Deuteronomy 5:33 says,
"Walk in obedience to all that the Lord your God has commanded you so that you may live and prosper and prolong your day in the land that you possess."
I love this scripture because it reminds me that God is always for me and not against me.
It's not a punishment to have to obey his commands. It's not a punishment to have to sacrifice and let go of certain things. They are actually the pathway, the opening to opportunities that we by ourselves could never achieve. We could never accomplish. We could never even fathom or hope for because they only come through the process of obedience.
What does obedience mean?
I looked up the word obedience in Hebrew, and it means submission to what is heard as a response to someone speaking.
Let me tell you my experience around hearing someone speaking.
It was December of 2019, and I was looking for my word of the year. I couldn't decide, but I was actually here in my bedroom and I heard the word speak.
I didn't know what that meant at the moment, but after some prayer, I heard Monica, you are going to go live and do a daily devotional podcast every single day of 2020, bringing together faith and business.
Because I have eight children and two sets of twins, I am a very busy person along with the businesses that I run so I said, "Lord, are you sure? Are you sure that's what you want me to do?" "You know, the amount of time that I have."
I didn't get a response (lol), it was basically, are you going to do it or not?
So I said, yes, I will give it a try.
I will try
That was my response. I will try. I didn't say yes, I'm going to do it because I knew how many different things could go wrong in a year for me to miss at least one of those episodes.
Well, long story short, you would never believe it. I couldn't believe it, but He gave me the grace through my obedience to go live 365 days and we are now on 393.
It is amazing the lessons that I learned, the gifts that I received by going through the process of obedience, and I want to share those with you today.
First Gift
The first gift that I received through this experience was understanding that I didn't need to have it all figured out before pressing the go button, before moving forward and proceeding.
See what I learned was that my assignment already had victory written all over it. My only job was to step into those shoes, being willing to go into the field and work. So if you have something that God has been telling you to do, maybe you're confused about what your next step is.
I would encourage you before moving actually forward with the next step, go back and be obedient with the last thing that He told you to do because that is going to give you the opportunity to not jump ahead of yourself, to let God work in His perfect timing, to mold you, to teach you what He wanted to teach you the last time He called you to do something.
He always wants to grow us. He always wants to empower us to be Him in the world, and the only way that we can do that is by modeling him by understanding the beautiful ways that He works within us when we are willing to let Him work through us.
The second gift I received was coming to understand my value and identity in Him and not being willing to please others over pleasing him.
Second Gift
There were many occasions where in fact, in order to get this done, I would just roll out of bed, no makeup, my hair all over the place, in my PJ's, and I would still go live and show up and speak.
Understanding and being willing to do that showed me that being willing to be authentic, to not wear the labels and the mask that I had used before in order to gain approval of people instead of God, the people who were now listening were actually so touched because they said, "I get it. I wake up like that. I'm like that."
I don't have to be perfect to be used. I don't have to be perfect to be understood. And in fact, it created a touchpoint with my audience, with the people that God called me to serve in such a beautiful way, where honesty and leading with integrity, by being willing to be obedient became more important than what it looked like, what I thought it should look like or what other people thought it should look like.
Third Gift
The final gift that I want to share with you around being obedient is that God will give you the strength to get through whatever He has assigned you to do.
To me, it was so fascinating to watch 365 days where many days I would wake up even sick or just with a headache or tired, and the moment that I stepped up and did what He called me to do, all of the sudden I would receive this amazing boost of energy, this determination and commitment to fulfill my assignment.
It was just a revelation to me to know that even when my emotions said, Monica, you don't want to do this. Even when my body said you are depleted, you are in a moment of lack, God would always show up with overflow. He gave me the opportunity to work in overflow. So I want to tell you once again if He has called you to be obedient in any area of your life, in your work, in your business, in your home, with yourself, He will give you the strength to pursue that.
He will give you the strength to complete that. And he will give you the ability to acknowledge, praise him, and worship him every step of the way because you know, it is a testimony to you and to the people who see you being obedient, that you could not do this by your own strength.
It comes straight from Him. And that is one of the biggest gifts. One of the biggest revelations that we don't have to do it on our own. We have a father who loves us enough to call us into the gift of obedience.
Your assignment is waiting,
