Obedience - The Demonstration of Faith

The speaker starts by expressing their desire to pray in the morning and seek God's guidance. They introduce themselves as Ohenewa Kusii Kingsford and proceed to lead a morning devotion session. They emphasize the importance of obedience and use the example of Abraham's faith and obedience to God's instructions. They explain that obedience is necessary to please God and achieve success in the believer's life. They highlight the significance of following divine instructions and warn against neglecting or despising them. They conclude with a prayer for obedience and mention a scheduled prayer watch and fasting. My voice shall die here in the morning, O Lord. In the morning will I direct my prayer unto you, and I will look up. Psalm 5, verse 3. God bless you so much, beloved, for connecting here with us and for joining in our prayer time, which I believe has been a blessing unto you. My name is Ohenewa Kusii Kingsford, and I will be facilitating this morning's episode of our Morning Glory Devotion series. Before we go into the word for the day, let's kindly say a prayer. Father we thank you for this opportunity to hear your word once again. We pray for open hearts. We pray for understanding. We pray that you'll be able to receive your word in all meekness and bear fruits. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Very kindly take a confession from Joshua chapter 1, verse 8. This book of the law shall not depart out of my mouth, but I shall meditate in it day and night, that I may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then I will make my way prosperous, and then I will have good success. Beloved, this is a two-part series on the topic of obedience. In part one today, we will consider obedience as the demonstration of faith, and we will look at the book of Genesis chapter 12, verse 1. Genesis chapter 12, verse 1. I'm reading from the New Living Translation. The Lord hath said to Abraham, Leave your native country, the relatives, and your father's family, and go to the land I will show you, and go to the land that I will show you. This is the demonstration of faith. Obedience can be described as the willingness to comply with the instructions of a higher authority. It is an unnegotiable virtue, if not the most important in the pursuits of God. It was a premise on which Abraham walked with God, Leave thy father's house to a land I will show you. That was the instruction God gave Abraham, as we read in the opening verse. He took Abraham's obedience to take the first step of faith with an unseen God. Traveling without a map, Abraham's success consequently depended much on his persistent obedience to the God who was leading him to a place that only he could show him. By that, every instruction counted, and every act of obedience was a right step towards reaching the destination. This pattern of life was pioneered by God through Abraham, as a means by which all men will get to please the Lord as he purposed from the beginning. Once a man gets born again, by vacating the throne of his life, parting ways with the world, and surrendering totally to follow the Lord, he has signed up to live a life that should please God. However, beloved, without faith, which is demonstrated through obedience, it is impossible to please God. The success of the believer's life, which is to please God, can therefore not be realized without daily obedience in all things, much like the life of Abraham discussed. Believers must embrace the fact that the daily instructions that the Lord gives us in our pilgrim through the earth to our eternal home should not be toyed with. A life of obedience, however, is also not automatic. It is learned as was said about Jesus. In Hebrews chapter 5 verse 8, God has instructed us through the Bible, and instantaneously by the voice of the Holy Spirit who dwells in us, and also through appointed pastors and shepherds over us. To learn to obey God through the seemingly little instructions that come through these avenues, every act of obedience gets you close to your destination, while the contrary degenerates your efforts. Beloved, God values a single act of obedience over a million acts of service done to cover up disobedience. Let us not belittle or despise divine instructions, for without obeying them we cannot please God and we may lose track of our journey to our eternal home. In Jesus' name, Amen. To take a memory verse from 1 Samuel chapter 15 verse 22b, 1 Samuel chapter 15 verse 22b, So Samuel said, Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the thought of rams. So Samuel said, Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the thought of rams. Let us kindly end on a note of prayer. Father we thank you in the name of Jesus for your word that has come to us this morning encouraging us about obedience. We pray that you will help us be obedient to every instruction you give us, that you will teach us how to learn obedience so that we may please you and make it in this journey of faith. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen. God bless you so much, beloved, for staying with us from the morning prayer time to the end of our morning glory devotion. We know and believe that you have been blessed and empowered for the day. Let us also not forget that today is Friday and by reason of that we will be taking our 1060 hourly prayer watch. Starting from 8 o'clock we will pray 10 minutes on top of every hour. Do make an appointment to join us at every hour if possible and also at 12 noon for our lunch hour prayer time. Don't forget that you are taking a half day fast as a ministry. Sign up and I believe that you will be blessed. In Jesus' name, stay blessed. Amen.