G-d Is Not Making A Suggestion
by PJ
When you get a true revelation of the goodness of G-d, you desire to please Him. When you desire to please G-d you do it out of love and respect for Him and obedience is the result.
We are to continually offer the sacrifice of praise to G-d by giving thanks to His Name. We are to do good and to share for with such sacrifices G-d is well pleased according to Mashiakim Yehudim/Hebrews 13:15-16. We are to walk worthy of the L-rd by being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of G-d.
When I meet people who disobey G-d, I realize they do it because they don't know G-d. I have never met a person who truly knows G-d that doesn't want to please Him. But to please G-d takes faith that His Word is true and to obey that Word.
Yesha'yahu/Isaiah 48:18 AMP says, "Oh, that you had hearkened to My commandments! Then your peace and prosperity would have been like a flowing river, and your righteousness (the holiness and purity of the nation) like the (abundant) waves of the sea." What is peace like a river and righteousness like waves of the sea?
Shalom = nothing missing, nothing broken. Can you imagine a river of nothing being missing or broken in your life? A river just keeps flowing. Can you imagine never having anything missing or broken in your life?
Righteousness gives us the ability to touch G-d. There is really only one way to have perfect righteousness and that's by salvation in Yeshua. Only when we are wrapped in His righteousness can we have the ability to touch the righteousness of G-d. It takes faith to believe that Yeshua made atonement for us, fully paying the penalty of sin that we deserve. When we take that covering upon us, we are wrapping ourselves in His righteousness. Yeshua, the reconciliation between G-d and man. When we are wrapped in His righteousness, we may touch G-d and what is in G-d's hand is transferred to us. And G-d says that it's possible to have this righteousness like waves of the sea?
Have you ever sat on the shoreline and watched the waves of the sea crashing in? The tide rises and falls and the waves never stop. Righteousness that never stops...
Shmu'el Aleph/1 Samuel 15:22-23 AMP says, "So Samuel said; "Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, He also has rejected you from being king." I wonder what kind of fear this instilled in the disobedient King Saul? How did this come about? Through King Saul's disobedience.
I've met people who are happy in their sin and disobedience and have no intention of making any changes. Oh they might feel guilty a little while after a sermon, but they aren't really going to change. They are not necessarily bad people or involved in deep wickedness...just people who refuse to obey G-d. Some are very likable and a lot of fun to be around and I pray for them because I just can't imagine forever without them. But forever without them is precisely what is going to happen if they don't stop their disobedience.
G-D'S COMMANDMENTS ARE NOT SUGGESTIONS.
Sinners hate hearing that their sin is not acceptable. Sinners call G-d and His Servants, intolerant. But you know what? We're not intolerant. We are warning you of where you are heading. We love you and don't want you to be in eternal separation because of your sin.
G-d wrote the laws, the book, and He created you. They aren't my laws, they're G-d's. And He says through the Prophet Isaiah in Yesha'yahu/Isaiah 1:19-20 AMP, If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land; but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured by the sword; for the mouth of the LORD has spoken. Now you can believe that or not.
Yochanan Aleph/1 John 2:3-6 AMP says, "Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He who says, 'I know Him,' and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him. He who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk just as He walked." Liars are the children of ha'satan and have their destination elsewhere.
Disobedience is no small thing. It will thwart G-d's blessings in your life. It will cut your life short. It will cause you to age faster. It will keep you out of G-d's protection. It will stop Yeshua from manifesting Himself to you. It will stop peace and righteousness from flowing. It will bring death and eventually it will bring eternal separation from G-d.
Obeying G-d is really a lighter load in life. I won't say it's always easy, but the end result is always good. It doesn't carry the heaviness of sin nor the death at the end. Sometimes I think people are disobedient just because they're too lazy and they're looking for easy ways through life. You cannot be lazy and really be obedient to G-d. Obedience requires decision and action from people.
Today is a good day to make a decision to obey G-d. As the Psalmist wrote in T'hillim/Psalm 143:10 AMP, Teach me to do Your will, for You are my God; Your Spirit is good. Lead me in the land of uprightness. Be it so L-rd Yeshua, be it so.
“Scripture quotations taken from the Amplified Bible."