167 OBEDIENCE PATIENCE = FAITHFULNESS
167 OBEDIENCE PATIENCE = FAITHFULNESS
1Ki 13:17 For it was said to me by the word of the LORD, Thou shalt eat no bread nor drink water there, nor turn again to go by the way that thou camest.
1Ki 13:18 He said unto him, I am a prophet also as thou art; and an angel spake unto me by the word of the LORD, saying, Bring him back with thee into thine house, that he may eat bread and drink water. But he lied unto him.
We all know someone who is continually taking on new projects before finishing what they started before and their past is strewn with unfinished things.
They start their projects in the heat of the new experience but, as the work progresses, they quickly loose interest and are quick to take on the newest project to renew that excitement of something new. The old project gets to a point where it can be put on the shelf and never gets completed.
Rev 2:26 And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations:
To succeed in God’s eyes is to COMPLETE the task that He has given you and then He will give you another. If the first task is not complete, how can we expect God to bless a new project? We have not proven to Him that we are faithful but are just in it for the thrill of starting not the hard work of finishing.
Many things are coming into our lives almost ever minute and demanding that we take them on and make them important projects for our energies; especially after God gives us something to do.
We have the task of picking the projects that we are going to do and for how long. To obey God for a short time [before the project is completed] is not obedience to God but is obedience to our own feelings; because we started and did a little we have appeased ourselves and think that we can go on and do something that we really want to do.
When God gives us something to do in His kingdom, it is a blessing to us from God; a great honour that God takes very seriously and for us to pass it off as nothing insults God and causes Him shame.
The starting verse tells the story of a prophet that God sent to give a message to the king and then he was supposed to leave without eating or drinking anything. [God TOLD him to do this.] Another prophet of God lied and told him to come home with him and eat. The first prophet chose to believe what the lying prophet said and not what God told him.
His task was not completed until he had left the country. His punishment for his disobedience is described in the following verses.
God wants us to be faithful to HIM and to question everyone else; especially when we are in the middle of one of His projects.
Our faithfulness will be judged on the completion of our task not on the starting of it.
As we prove our faithfulness to God, He will give us more and greater things to do.
We, as humans, are faithful to what is important to us and people will listen to us only if they can SEE that what we are talking about is important to us. [Because, if it is important to us, we will take the time to know what we are talking about.]
Finished projects shows God that He is the most important thing in our life and shows the world that we care enough about God to be faithful to Him and that we Know Him well enough to be able help them.
One of the end time signs is a great falling away from God which means that many of the things that He wants done are not being completed.
