Simple Obedience
I had a dream last night that I hired a young man to pull a water hose down to the edge of a lake and stand there putting water in the lake. In my dream I paid him $9.00 an hour to just stand there with that hose and the water on. It was my water he was putting in the lake and he was being paid for the time he was giving.
I later found him, after all was said and done, feeling insecure about it with his friends. I explained to his friends that all I asked him to do was stand there with the hose and he would be paid $9.00 an hour for it. Then they looked at him and said, “dude it can’t get any easier than that, what’s your problem?”
Now remember, this was a dream I had.
There’s a friend of mine whom I had advised it was okay to say no to some things, especially when the Holy Spirit is saying no.
In Hebrews in the Bible it speaks of a rest in Chapter 4. A rest supplied by God in which we cease from our own works and rely on what He has done through His Son.
It is a continual Sabbath, not just one day but a way of life for us.
But there is also a New Covenant principle I believe is largely missed as I know I have missed it before. It is called life by the Spirit.
You see it is not only obedience to the Holy Spirit when I do the amazing thing He wants to do through me. It is obedience to the Holy Spirit even when He wants me to stop and take a break.
Paul was obedient to the Holy Spirit when he did not go on into Asia even though Paul wanted very badly to do so. Instead Paul ended up going into Macedonia. Paul was not disobedient by not going where he wanted to go. He would have been disobedient if he had gone ahead and gone where the Holy Spirit was not leading him to go. Even if Paul had done wonderful things he would still have been guilty of disregarding, and disobeying the Holy Spirit.
You see New Covenant living is no longer a, “by the rules kind of life.” It s a, “by the Spirit way of life.”
We are to live as Jesus did, “by the life and power of the Spirit going where He says go and doing whatever He says is ours to do.”
Sometimes that is nothing more than relax and enjoy a moment in time with someone He has given us in relationship in this life, or in a place of solitude. It can be so easy to complicate things when we aren’t listening and understanding that even the simple things fit into the scope of His will for us at times.
I encourage you today to grow in what it means to simply live surrendered to the Holy Spirit with the understanding that sometimes that means stop and rest.
