NOTHING OF VALUE IS EVER FREE; EVERYTHING OF VALUE CARRIES A COST.

OUR SUPPOSED FREE SALVATION WAS PAID FOR BY THE DEATH OF ONE WHO NEEDED NOT TO DIE BUT CHOSE TO FREELY OFFER HIMSELF TO REDEEM US BACK TO GOD.

REAL OBEDIENCE IS TRULY COSTLY, BUT THE END RESULT IS PRICELESS.

THE AGONY OF OBEDIENCE IS FAR CHEAPER THAN THE DESTRUCTION OF DISOBEDIENCE.

COMMANDMENTS ARE NOT MEANT TO BE CONVENIENT; THEY ARE MEANT TO BE OBEYED.

YOU MUST BE READY TO BE CALLED NAMES FOR YOUR OBEDIENCE IN ORDER FOR YOU TO BE BLESSED.

OBEDIENCE MUST BE TIMELY TO COMMAND MAXIMUM IMPACT.

• Bishop David Oyedepo on ”UNDERSTANDING THE COST AND THE POWER OF OBEDIENCE’ at June 2022 Spiritual Week of Emphasis, Day 3 || Faith Tabernacle, Canaanland Ota.

Give the Lord a big hand of praise, He is ever faithful, ever sure, ever reliable; always there. Please lift up your two hands to Heaven and magnify Jesus, celebrate Jesus, give Him glory and praise, in Jesus precious name we have given thanks.

There are days and there are certain days, there are also nights and there are certain nights. May tonight be to every one of us here in this service as a certain night!

• A night with definite, specific encounters with light in the name of Jesus!

By the Holy Ghost, I will be taking us on:
‘UNDERSTANDING THE COST AND THE POWER OF OBEDIENCE’
Everything of value carries a cost. Obedience is one of the most valuable virtues in the Kingdom and it carries very definite cost. If you don’t know the cost, you miss the value; you miss the virtue. Church Gist. There is a cost to everything of value; everything of value carries a cost. Nothing of value is ever free. Our supposed free salvation was paid for by the death of One who needed not to die, who knew no sin but chose to freely offer Himself to redeem us back to God. Nothing of value, that should sink into anybody’s spirit, nothing of value is ever free. Everything of value carries a cost.

Father, tonight, speak to everyone’s heart and open us up to the wonders of obedience in these two dimensions, in Jesus precious name. Thank You Father!

The Word of God is valid for all times but applicable to only whosoever believes. This Word is settled in Heaven forever (Psalm 119:89), it is the incorruptible seed of God that lives and abides forever (1 Peter 1:23, Matthew 24:35). God’s Word is valid for all times, but applicable only to whosoever believes (John 1:12). The Word we truly receive and believe, it is what we are empowered to manifest. Our obedience is not theoretical; it is validated by our compliance with the instructions attached to every provision of scriptures (James 1:22-25).

Every Word in scripture leaves a work to be done for it to work (James 1:25). Obedience in the Kingdom is not theoretical, it is practical. But obedience must be timely to command maximum impact. Church Gist. When the Lord says, “Go forward,” if they were there just thinking whether to go or not to go, Pharaoh will recapture them (Exodus 14:15) and get them back to Egypt forever and be slaughtering them day by day for their rebellion, “Today, I am going to slaughter 300, tomorrow, 1000, next tomorrow, 2000.” Go forward means, move, something is behind you, about to capture you – timely obedience. It is the obedience that works.

Isaiah 55:1, 6
So, the Word comes and the Word goes, you don’t engage with it, it goes off. Nobody keeps knocking at any door forever. You knock for a while, “Anybody in?” No response, “Oh, nobody is inside.” That is how revelation knocks on the door of our hearts, “Hey, are you interested, come on now, I am here for you.”
Response: No, I am not.
Okay, thank you!

We must also recognize that the Word is a spiritual seed, which must be sown into our good and honest heart to geminate, grow and bring forth fruit (Luke 8:11, 15). The mustard seed is said to be the tiniest of all seeds, but when it is sown, it grows up and throws out big, huge branches and the birds of the earth come to make their nest in it when it is sown, not until sown (Mark 4:31-32). Church Gist. So, the Word of the Lord must be sown in our hearts for it to grow up, throw out great branches, bear fruits, have the birds of the earth make their nest in it; providing a covering for others (Mark 4:26-28). The moment the seed is in your heart and you engage with it, nurturing and watering it, obeying what the Word commands; you don’t have to know how it is growing, it grows on its own. We must recognize that to make the most of our encounters with the Word.

Just like every natural seed has to be nurtured and watered for it to grow, so is the Word. We nurture the Word by obedience, we water it by praise. Paul plants, Apollos waters and then, God brings the increase (1 Corinthians 3:6). So, we have to do the two; obedience nurtures the seed and then, praise causes it to produce fruit. We do that before God comes in to bring the increase. God will confirm it after we have planted and watered, not before we plant and water. So, without obedience, no Word will produce in anyone’s life. We must understand that and keep it in our hearts.

We must continue to water our seeds with praise, which is the fruit of our lips (Proverbs 12:14, Hebrews 13:15). That is how to get returns out of our obedience and stewardship. That is how powerful obedience can be, “Fill the waterpots with water.” No fasting, no prayer, no shaking, no jacking and then, all the waterpots were filled – sweet wine (John 2:9). Church Gist. “Go to the pool called Siloam (John 9:7), not branch in one synagogue and pray first, go straight.” He went and came back seeing (John 9:1-8). “Cast your net on the right side” and they did and they caught great multitude of fishes (John 21:5-6). That is how powerful obedience can be.

We have the example of Moses, simple obedience to every commandment of the Lord and that was it. Unreserved obedience, he never left his wife and two sons behind with Jethro, “Let me go and taste the ground.” No, they tasted the ground together (Exodus 4:20-21). He never mentioned that, “Oh, they were looking for me to kill me.” That was past. Obedience may be costly, but the end result is priceless. Obedience is truly costly – real obedience, but the end result is priceless.

I will be speaking briefly on the agony of obedience but let’s quickly understand this that, the agony of obedience is far cheaper than the destruction of disobedience (Matthew 26:37-39). The agony of doing the will of God (Matthew 26:42, Luke 2:44). There is nothing hideous about this (Matthew 11:28-29). Church Gist. So, there is a yoke in there, there is a burden in there but it is lighter than the other side; far, far lighter but it is there (Romans 8:18). So, there is something to go through here to get across there. This is what many believers hate; the way to pass through the agony of obedience, which is the highway to our enthronement.

What makes it more agonizing is that, He had power to get out of it, but He chose to stay with it. “No one took my life from me; I have power to lay it down and to take it again” (John 18:6, John 19:10-11). Somebody that had the power to set Himself free, decided to go through the agony of obedience that will result in His eternal enthronement. I don’t know whatever was in Peter’s mind, but God helped him. Jesus said, “Get thee behind me satan” (Matthew 16:18, Mark 10:28). Church Gist. The devil wants him to react and miss His place in destiny. The agony of obedience, Peter went forward. No wonder He said, woe unto them that are at ease in Zion. Commandments are not meant to be convenient; they are meant to be obeyed. They are not designed to be convenient; they are packaged to be obeyed.

John 10:17-18, 1 Peter 2:19-23 – that is the picture of the agony of obedience. So, it carries a cost. You must be ready to be called names for your obedience: negative names, brutal names to get across. Let’s look at some victims of the destructive power of disobedience:
1). Eli – “He is God, let Him do whatever He wants.” Is that how to respond the God? Your sons are wayward, they are on their way to hell. “He is God, let Him do what He chooses.” His two sons and himself died the same day (Proverbs 9:12).

We have the story of Saul the king, “Go destroy all the Amalekites and he came back and said, “the people took some spoil to sacrifice to the Lord your God”. He said, stop that nonsense. Did God call you for sacrifice? (1 Samuel 15:22-23). To obey is better than sacrifice and so, he lost his throne after 40 years. Disobedience can be very destructive.

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