In Touch Ministries

Dr. Charles Stanley: God doesn't always show us everything we ought to do. We have to learn. That's the school of obedience. It's the process of learning to walk. But when you and I take a step of obedience and we see what God has done, we take another step and we see what God has done. We take another step, and what happens?

Then, when somebody says, for example, the Christian life must be a boring life, I want to tell you, my friend, there's nothing boring about this life. This is the most exciting, thrilling life a person can live because remember this: you are tuned in to Almighty God.

Guest (Male): Welcome to In Touch, the teaching ministry of Dr. Charles Stanley. The idea of a routine can have a negative connotation, but there are many habits that are truly beneficial. Today's message reminds us that building a lifestyle of obedience begins by consistently following God's direction in simple matters. Our series, "The Joy of Obedience," continues. Let's listen in to Dr. Stanley's message.

Dr. Charles Stanley: It's not always easy to obey God, but it's always the wisest thing to do and it's always the best. God says, "You obey me, here's what I'm going to do for you. You obey me, and I'm going to bless you." Remember this: it is absolutely impossible to obey God without blessing because God has chosen to bless obedience. As his children, as we learn to walk in his ways and walk in his will, then we are going to be blessed over and over again.

Somebody says, "Well, what is obedience anyway?" Obedience is doing God's will, God's way, in God's timing. It's doing what God says, when he says it, and the way he says to do it. When you think in terms of obedience, that's really simple: doing what God says, when he says it, and how he says to do it.

So when we think in terms of obedience and the fact that's what God requires of us, I'd like for us to take a few moments to talk about some principles here that will help you in obedience. For example, obedience isn't something that you and I just know automatically since we trusted Jesus Christ as our Savior. We know certain things would certainly be obedience to God and certain things would not be.

Therefore, what we want to talk about is how do we learn to obey God—the school of obedience. Well, one of the first principles is simply this: first of all, you must trust him. You will not obey a God you do not trust. You just will not. The real truth is that I would say most disobedience is a lack of trust in God. I know that's what he said, but whenever you put a "but" behind something God has said, you're just about to head out in the wrong direction because God doesn't make any promises that he either cannot or will not fulfill.

One of the first things I must learn to do is to trust him. The next thing I'd have you jot down is simply this: if you and I are going to learn to walk in obedience to him, we must also learn to listen to the quiet promptings of the Holy Spirit. What in the world do you mean about that? God does not shout in an audible voice. Every once in a while, I think I've heard him shout quietly to my own heart, maybe when I was stubborn and was not listening or whatever it might be.

But God doesn't shout at us. Now, remember this: when you got saved, the Holy Spirit came into your life to indwell you and to seal you as a child of God. One of his works is a work of being a helper. So we have the wonderful promise of the Holy Spirit to prompt us, to guide us, to give us a sense of direction, to help us in our reasoning, to help us in our thinking. Remember, he's the helper. He helps us in our faith, our struggle, our questions, and our doubts to make the wise decision to do what the Holy Spirit would have us do.

That is listening to the Spirit of God. That's why waiting, being quiet, being alone, meditating upon the Word of God, and listening to him, we're going to get the right answer because God's committed to showing us exactly what to do. Another lesson in the school of obedience is that sometimes we must walk when the way is not clear. Now wait a minute, that sounds like a contradiction: walk when the way is not clear.

Watch this. God spoke to Abraham in a very pagan society. He just revealed himself and said to him, "I want you to get up, away out of your family, out of your country, out of your land, and go to a land that I will show you." He didn't tell him where he was going and didn't tell him how he was going to get there. Look in verse eight of Hebrews 11: "By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was going."

He didn't know where he was going. He just knew that God spoke to him, told him to get up and leave his family, separate himself from his family and the pagan society in which he lived, and go to a land that I will show you. Now, you say, "Wait a minute, God. You're not going to tell me to go somewhere without telling me where I'm going." Yes, he will. Here's a perfect example. He heard the call, he didn't know where, but he knew to obey God.

There will be times when God will make it very clear what the next decision is. You don't know what the end result is, you don't know what the consequences are, and you don't know where that's going to lead you. I'm not responsible for the consequences. I'm not responsible for the next decision. I'm only responsible for obeying the light that I have at this moment in this decision, no matter what it might be.

God isn't committed to showing me the full picture. I think all of us would agree, years ago in our life when we were saved, if God had shown us 10 years or 20 years or 30 or our whole life at one time, most of us would have said, "God, I can't handle it. Take me home now. I'll be happy to go on to heaven because there's no way I can stand that." Why doesn't God show us? I'll tell you why: because this is the way God operates.

When you and I make a decision of obedience, we don't even realize what's happening. We're becoming stronger in our faith. We get blessed. We begin to realize how great God is. We take another step and what happens? We learn to walk in obedience just like a child walks. When a person is saved, they're so like a child. They get up and sometimes not knowing the laws of God, not knowing the will of God, not knowing that God even has a plan for their life, not knowing what God's purpose is for their life, they stumble and fall.

They are faltering all over themselves. Instead of us criticizing them, we ought to be praying for them because they don't know the principles of obedience. They don't know about waiting upon God. They don't know the absolute essentiality of meditating upon the Word of God and searching his Word to know his mind. So what happens? They falter and they fall. What you and I have to do is we have to encourage people like that because we understand exactly what's happening in their life.

We understand God doesn't always show us everything we ought to do. We have to learn. That's the school of obedience; it's the process of learning to walk. But when you and I take a step of obedience and we see what God has done, we take another step and we see what God has done. We take another step, and what happens? Then when somebody says, for example, the Christian life must be a boring life, I want to tell you, my friend, there's nothing boring about this life.

This is the most exciting, thrilling life a person can live because remember this: you are tuned in to Almighty God. You have a relationship with Almighty God. You have a connection to Almighty God, who's promised to protect you, love you, care for you, support you, give you peace and joy and contentment. He allows you to suffer, allows you to hurt, allows tribulation, allows trials, and allows conflict. Yes, but he is with you every single step of the way.

The fact that he has a plan and a purpose for your life, walking in his will, walking obediently before him, trusting him, relying upon him, waiting upon him, and watching him work is the most exciting thing there is about life because you cannot fail. Listen, you may falter and fall, but you cannot fail in your walk because God is there to help you. So when you think about it, you can't wait until God shows you the whole way. He shows you a step at a time.

He's got something in mind. What's he doing when he's showing us a step at a time? He is growing us up. He doesn't call us adults; he calls us children. He is growing us up, teaching us to trust him, teaching us to obey him, teaching us his Word, teaching us to rely upon him, the work of the Spirit in our heart giving us direction, and teaching us to take those big steps out there when we don't know all that's going to happen.

One other principle I'd like for you to remember is this: when you and I begin to walk in his way, we're certainly going to run into something that we're not looking for, and that is we must be willing to experience conflict. You are not going to live obediently before God without having conflict with the world. Remember, we live in a fallen world. He says, "Those who live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution." You can expect to be disliked by somebody.

You can expect to have enemies in life if you live a godly life. You can expect conflict. There's going to be conflict, and you can look in the scriptures and think about all of God's saints down through the years and how they suffered conflict. I want you to turn, if you will, to Luke chapter 14. Here's a passage of scripture that oftentimes people don't understand. If somebody's an unbeliever, they say, "Well, how could that be in the Bible? That's a contradiction of the scripture."

Jesus said something here that certainly is a contradiction to what he said about loving everybody. There is no contradiction in the Word of God. Listen to what he says in Luke chapter 14, beginning in verse 25. "Now great multitudes were going along with him, and he turned and said to them, 'If anyone comes to me,' to follow him, 'and does not hate his father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.'"

Well, you mean to tell me that Jesus is in for hating? It says you've got to hate your father and mother and your wife and your children and your own life also. Isn't that a contradiction of scripture? No. Here's what he's saying. He says, "You're going to follow me, you want to walk in obedience to me, obeying me must take priority over the feelings and the attitude and the desires of everybody, even those who are closest to you."

When you obey the living God, you're going to have conflict. When you obey Almighty God, people who are closest to you will not understand you. He does not mean hate, but he means the priority must be such that it will appear to those who are closest to you: "You don't love me or you wouldn't do that. You wouldn't go into the ministry if you really cared." Yes, I would. Listen, many young men have come to Georgia Tech to be engineers.

Over the years, many of them came to be engineers of all kinds. They'd be here six months or a year or two years, three years, or four years, and God called them to preach sitting right out there. They go home and tell their parents. Well, some of their parents were very excited. Some of their parents were not excited at all. "You mean to tell me that I paid your way for three years to be an engineer and to be able to make money and have a good lifestyle, and now you're going to do what? You're going to preach?"

"Well, you're never going to make any money. That's a poor life. Besides that, I invested my money in you so you could do something worthwhile." I have had them tell me that—worthwhile. Let me ask you a question. If God calls a young man to preach and his parents say, "We don't want you to do that, we want you to be an engineer, we want you to make money, we want you to have the things that we didn't have in life, and we're absolutely opposed to that," should he say, "Okay, I won't do what God called me to do"?

You know what this verse says? Your mother and father may think you hate them. Your wife and children may think you despise them because there are times when obeying God is extremely, in fact, more painful for others than it is the person who has to obey. That's what that verse is all about. It has nothing to do with hating with animosity and anger and hostility and vengeance toward anybody. It's speaking of the priority of obedience. We obey God even if it costs us our own life. There will be conflict when you and I learn obedience, but that's part of the school of obedience.

So when you think about meditating upon his Word, learning to listen to him, waiting upon him, trusting in him, and conflict that's going to come in our life, then I want you to notice something else. That is, if I'm going to learn obedience, I must be willing to trust him and leave all the consequences to him. Now, as long as I wait—and I've said this two or three times already, I'll say it again—as long as I wait until I can evaluate the consequences, then here's what I'm saying: I'm willing to consider God's will, but I'm not committed to it.

If I have to wait until I get the consequential picture, then what I'm saying is I'm considering it, but I'm not committed to it. God wants us so committed to doing his will and walking in his way that it really doesn't make any difference what the consequences are. Listen, he has planned the best for us, he desires the best for us, and he's waiting to give us his best. What is he waiting for? He is waiting for us to get in the pathway of obedience and walk in it so that we are able to handle the blessing.

If you can't beat it and you can't equal it, and you suffer the results of disobeying it, wisdom says obey the will of God no matter what, and you come out winning every single time. Leave the consequences to him. Then the last thing I'd simply mention is this: if I'm going to really and truly walk in obedience, I must be willing to accept God's discipline for my disobedience because there will be times when you and I disobey him.

If I'm going to learn to walk in obedience, I must be willing to accept his discipline, his chastisement, when I disobey him. Now, I want to add something to that, and I'm waiting until the end to add it: and accept it with thanksgiving. Oh, now wait a minute, hold it. You're telling me when God whips me I'm to thank him? Yes. Well, you can't really do that. That's just some preacher talk. That's not real. No, it's very real. Let me tell you why it's real.

Turn, if you will, to Hebrews chapter 12 for a moment and listen to what he says. Hebrews chapter 12, beginning in verse five. He says now, "Have you forgotten this?" Listen to this: "My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor faint," don't lose heart, "when you're reproved by him; for those whom the Lord loves he disciplines, he chastens. He scourges every son whom he receives."

Now think about this, and this is so very important. We are all in moments of weakness, and we're going to disobey him at times. You know what he's going to do? Listen, if we instantly recognize it, thank him for his forgiveness, and repent of it right then, we'll miss most of it. We'll miss most chastisement if it's instantaneous. But if we don't, and we get into something or whatever it might be, God's going to chasten us.

Now, why is he going to do it? Because he loves us, because he has this fantastic plan for us, and because he has a will for our life. He wants us in his path, he doesn't want us out of his path. So what's he going to do? He's going to send enough pain to get me back in the path. Therefore, when I see what his motive is—it's always love—I'm going to thank him for not letting me stay off the path.

I'm going to praise him for reaching down and not ignoring me when the truth is I ignored him and not just walking away from me and letting me just move on and on. He puts enough pressure and enough pain and enough heartache until I finally say, "Yes, Lord, forgive me. I just want to thank you for that. I repent of that." Get back on the path. Chastisement is a blessing from God.

If I'm going to learn to walk in obedience, here's what I'm going to learn: I'm going to learn that when his chastising hand stings me, when I feel the pain, I'm going to learn to, instead of grumbling and complaining and moaning and groaning, first of all, I'm feeling the pain because of something I did or did not do. Therefore, what's he doing? He is expressing love to me. It's love from his heart, pain to me. Love from his heart, suffering for me.

But what is he doing? He is getting us back on path, getting us back in his will so he can do what? So you and I can experience the maximum of God's blessing. If you could just rivet that into your children's hearts, if you could just somehow rivet that into their minds, that God's best waits in store for those who are willing to walk in obedience to him. You cannot beat that lifestyle. There is no way for you to have what God has in mind until you walk in obedience to him.

The school of obedience is a process. I've taken many of those lessons, and I've failed them all probably at one time or the other. But watch this, this is the key: if you'll observe what happens in the life of those who are obedient, and you observe what happens in the life of those who are disobedient, it won't take you long to figure out that anybody who is thinking at all is going to say, "Not worth it. Disobedience is not worth it. The pleasure of the moment is not worth the consequences of the future."

This is the way most people live, just as far as they want to look. The only thing they're interested in is what can I have today, what satisfies me today, what gratifies me today without looking at the consequence. What are the consequences of sin? Pain, hurt, suffering, loss, and ultimately the wrath of God. What's the consequence of obedience to God? Blessing upon blessing upon blessing.

It may be through a valley of pain, may be hurt, may be trials, may be tribulations, may be conflict, or it may not be any of those or some of them. But the ultimate result is God's very best for his children. The issue is just real simple: do I want to develop a lifestyle of obedience? Do I want the spirit of obedience to absolutely control my thinking and my feeling? You see, it's one thing to obey God because of fear of what's going to happen. It's something else to get so free that you obey God just because you want to.

Now listen carefully. You know what Jesus said? Listen to this. He can say so much, it just wipes me out sometimes. Listen to how simple and short: "If you love me, you will obey me. If you love me, you will obey me." You know how I can tell whether I love him or not? Not how many sermons I preach, not how hard I may study, not how all the things that I do for the glory of God. It has nothing to do with it. You can do all those things with the wrong motive. You know how you can tell how much you love him? Look at your record of obedience versus disobedience, and you'll tell yourself how much you love him.

Guest (Male): Thank you for joining us on In Touch, the teaching ministry of Dr. Charles Stanley. What does obedience require of you right now? Whatever the next step is, follow through and enjoy the blessings of walking with God on the path that he's planned for you. You can listen again when you click "Today on Radio" at intouch.org. There you can look around our website and learn more about following Jesus.

If you'd like a copy of Dr. Stanley's complete message today, "The School of Obedience," or his teaching set, "The Joy of Obedience," just stop by the store page and place your order. Again, log on to intouch.org or you can call or text us at 1-800-INTOUCH. To write to us, the address is In Touch, Post Office Box 7900, Atlanta, Georgia 30357.

Believers are obviously not perfect, but we have no excuse for not choosing God's way. Today's "Moment with Charles Stanley" is just ahead.

Dr. Charles Stanley: Let your time and your schedule and everything about you revolve around this: that you and I are to develop and continue to develop this ongoing, intimate, wonderful, exciting, satisfying, indescribable, wonderful, incomparable relationship with a personal God.

Guest (Male): Dr. Stanley devoted his entire life to helping us get closer to Jesus, as we all want to do. You can learn how at charlesstanleyinstitute.org.

Dr. Charles Stanley: The peace of God is tranquility and quietness of the soul. It is the assurance that no matter what's going on around us, everything is secure. Peace is not determined by circumstances. Neither is it a matter of chance; it is a matter of choice.

Guest (Male): In a world filled with noise and uncertainty, you can discover peace that cannot be shaken. Get your new free booklet, "Peaceful and Still: A Guide to Experiencing God's Rest in an Anxious Age." Visit intouch.org/peaceful.

You're listening to In Touch. Ancient Israel's King David was known as a man after God's own heart, and we each need to ask ourselves if the same can be said of us. Here's a moment with Charles Stanley.

Dr. Charles Stanley: How do I, as a believer in Christ Jesus, how do I tap these inexhaustible resources provided by the grace of a loving God? It has my name on it, bestowed in my behalf, deposited to my account. How do I get that down here in my life? It's real simple. First of all, you've got to get into Christ Jesus by faith. And secondly, what you do is you just ask for it.

Then, as you ask for it, if you are willing to be a good steward of the grace of God, the manifold grace of God, and walk in his Spirit... I don't mean you've got to be perfect, but I tell you this: your heart's got to be bent toward God. You see, the sign of a real saint is not that they walk in perfection, but their heart's bent toward God. They are going to fall and falter and make all kind of mistakes, and all kinds of adversity coming in their life, and sometimes they'll doubt God maybe once in a while.

That's all right; their heart's bent toward God. When your heart is bent toward God, my friend, God knows the deepest motivation of your life. He knows what you would be if you knew. He knows what you are capable of doing. He knows how much you and I would do if we understood the full grace of God and the real truth about our relationship and our identity in Christ Jesus. Paul wrapped it all up in one phrase: "In Christ." In Christ is the reality of who I am. In Christ is the reality of what I have, and that is all I'll ever need is wrapped up in that.

Guest (Male): Stop by intouch.org for resources that can encourage believers like you to remember who they are in Christ. Tomorrow on In Touch, our series continues to explore how believers can truly experience the joy of obedience. I hope you'll join us next time on In Touch, the teaching ministry of Dr. Charles Stanley. This program is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia, and remains on this station through the grace of God and your faithful prayers and gifts.