Without Obedience there is no Victory

From: January 22-28, 2008

Pastor: Edith Cruz

Study: # 527

TOPIC: “Without Obedience there is no Victory” I Samuel 15:11-19 It is up to us whether to obey or disobey God. God constantly sends us to fulfill a mission and then another and later many more. God chose us as a nation to send us, to be men and women that are constantly in a mission for the Kingdom of God. God is the one who calls us to live in a mission constantly. This is not only to leave the island to do missionary work but rather during our entire life we will live in a constant mission. God sends us every day to the mission that He has designated and we have the advantage of being able to restitute when nothing has been done. There is nothing better in life than to complete the mission where God has sent us. Our greatest struggle is not with what opposes us or with the demons but with ourselves. The devil cannot oppose the mission to which God has sent us because everything was written before the foundation of the earth. The matter is that we struggle with ourselves. Disobedience is more violent than demons, because demons can attack us, but they cannot possess us. Disobedience opposes every day to what God wants us to do and our actions disturb God; this is what should make us tremble and fill us with fear. What are men on this earth? Because we all are the same, but God is not the same; He is in the third Heaven with millions and millions of angels worshiping and glorifying Him. God is the only one with power to give and take away. He chose us to give us missions. It is a great privilege to be chosen for a mission. Then, why not do it? It is good to bring joy to the hearts of others with our love because we represent God in this world. There is a God that we cannot touch, but we can let others feel God with our love. God created us, not only to nurture ourselves with the Word, but to comply with a mission. We can possess many things, and not comply with God’s mission. What can we obtain from this world that can lead us to rest when what should give us rest is to do God’s mission? When there is so much of ourselves inside of us, this is what we give to others, but there is no obedience in this. To obey is to do what God sends us to do. When we are so full of ourselves it is very difficult to obey, because we sometimes think that things should be done as we please, in our own way. God wrote in Heaven a mission for us and we should be concerned to do it perfectly. Those who obey do the right thing. It is not proper for human beings to obey, but the righteous have to obey. There will be no victory without obedience. If we don’t fulfill our mission things will go slowly because we stop doing. Saul's disobedience accelerated his fall. When we are not obedient we will not reach and we will end up living our lives fighting, but we should fight with our disobedience. When we do obey, we know that God will do it, but when we don’t it is as if we are saying that God does not know how to do things. We do things at our own convenience and we set God aside. God revealed himself to Samuel and told him that he regretted having Saul as King. Samuel woke up with the voice of God. He revealed the lack of obedience in Saul and the works of his greed. When we begin to walk in the mission sent by God we should remain humble because greediness may

overcome. We have to die to ourselves each day wearing ourselves out before the cross of Christ's. Jehovah revealed that He was not pleased with Saul because he went against God. Saul was building a monument while Samuel was in prayer until dawn. God had many reasons to say that Saul had left him. Victories do not come from us because it is God who gives us victories; we are His instruments. God cannot be deceived. Saul's greed made him turn his back on God. There was so much greed in him that this led him to act incorrectly and we act according to what is inside of us. We should act according to what there is of God in us. It is not just losing what we have, but the worse thing is to lose God as Saul did. We have a mission to fulfill because this is what Jehovah has wanted; this is why we should live in complete obedience. The Word that Jehovah gave Saul was clear, He told him to exterminate the whole nation, but Saul was building himself a monument, as if he had done what Jehovah ordered him to do. The best thing is to be obedient. What we should do must come from our heart. God has always wanted us to glorify Him when a war is ended. God is the one who opens doors and performs miracles with His power. When Saul thought that the victory was his Jehovah had already discarded him. Saul boasted of an obedience of which he lacked, his conscience tried to make a good defense before Samuel who came to reprehend him. The noise of the cows and the sheep were witnesses against Saul. The voice of God is clear, but the more we know God the more we will understand Him. The noise of Saul's disobedience was known to the prophet. The noise of disobedience is what spoke. Saul was discarded because of what was inside of him. We have to be so careful of what is inside of us! Samuel reminded Saul of where he came from, from the tribe of Benjamin, the smallest in Israel. Samuel confronted him and reminded him of the simplicity of his beginning to see if he would repent. Sometimes we think that just because God uses us occasionally that this makes us great, but it is a mission to which God has called us. Saul blamed those who were with him and he tried to deceive the prophet who God had already revealed himself to. It is not good for us to try to deceive with many words. Saul persisted in what he wanted and for this reason there was no regret in him. Because of his greediness he wasn’t the kind of person that could be directed by God. He was disqualified to be a king. Greed is what has destroyed great ministries, because they want what does not correspond to them. All who know that they have a mission to fulfill understand that they need to be guided by God. We seek guidance through prayer. When God is going to do it is because He knows and what we need is to be meek for God. To be able to complete the mission we have to learn how to obey the Word of God. In Saul there was rebellion, he was an obstinate person and that is very dangerous for those who are to be sent to a mission. God had given that word 400 years ago to Moses and Saul destroyed it, he didn't know how to complete the mission that God had commended him. We will lose if we begin to lift our own monuments because God will do His will over our head. It is better for us to obey. Amen.