GospelSmith / E-Zine

God Gives His Spirit To Those Who Obey

Obedience Is Easier Than We Think

By Stan Smith

As a teenager I first read Peter’s words in Acts 5:32, telling of “the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey Him.”  I imagined my own portion of the Holy Spirit would be distressingly small, reflecting my many failed attempts at obedience.  But God had good surprises planned for me.

It turns out that obedience is an art, and it takes time to develop.  As we begin, even imperfect obedience can empower us to encounter His Spirit.  Then as we grow, God fine-tunes our obedience and leads us into higher levels of His works and His presence.

I might have spared myself a lot of anxiety as a young Christian if I had considered the life of the apostle Peter.  This was the apostle who, in the final hours before Jesus’ crucifixion, cut off Malchus’s ear and then denied Jesus three times.  But a few weeks later, he received the Spirit on the day of Pentecost and became the spokesman for the early church. 

This happened because he walked in a key principle of obedience:  no matter how often he got it wrong, he always came back to Jesus for restoration.

God looks for obedience rooted in grace, not in law.  Our first step is to engage with the simple gospel:  receiving cleansing through the blood of Jesus, and powerful new life through His resurrection.

Hebrews 9:17 says the law never made anyone perfect. It exposes and condemns sin, but it can’t change anyone.  Only Jesus can.

In forty years as a Christian, I have seen great transformations in people who keep coming back to Jesus, no matter how badly they mess up.

The key to obedience is to let Jesus do it through us.  He always does the things that please the Father. Obedience is not our gift to God; it is His gift to us.

Look at Peter.  He blew it as Jesus was being condemned to die, but found forgiveness and new life in Christ.  It took time for him to work out the theology of what Jesus had done.  But its power worked quickly, equipping him to flow with the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost.

For new converts, this is good news.  We can find fresh cleansing in Christ whenever we need it, and a new beginning of His obedience through us.  It’s also good news for those who have known Him for years.  We bog down in a lot of religious work to try to perfect ourselves.  Cut it out!  Stay in touch with the simple gospel, and let Him live through you.

Amazingly, Jesus can do things through us that reflect wisdom beyond our years.  Further, He is ready to release the gifts of the Holy Spirit through us when we are not at our best – tired, behind on our Bible reading and prayer, frazzled with too many loose ends.

It is humbling to see God use us when we feel unworthy.  It’s a reminder that our flesh can’t do the things of God.  But Jesus is faithful to forgive sin, and then to live a godly life through us.  It’s His faithfulness, not ours.

Our first step of obedience therefore is to connect with Jesus.  Our next step is to listen for His words, and to act on them.

In John 14:21-23, Jesus spoke very plainly about this:

He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him … If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.

This isn’t the cautious obedience of the law, in which we fear the consequences of a misstep.  This is the tender obedience of grace.  And Jesus promises a tangible sense of God’s presence to those who cleave to His word.  A few days ago, I was praying and caught a glimpse of what this is all about.

I sensed God saying He was looking for people who would embrace the wind of His Spirit.  I asked Him how – after all, a man can’t reach with his fist and grab the wind.  His reply:  fly like a bird, for their wings are designed to grasp the wind.  I told Him I am not a bird, but a man.  Then He said:  “I’ve designed a way for a man to grasp the wind.  Embrace My breath as I speak to you, and spread your wings by acting on My word.”

Wind – breath – Spirit.  They are all the same word in the original languages of scripture.  Jesus told us how to spread our wings and let the Spirit carry us where flesh and blood doesn’t know how to go.

This is tender obedience, often a response not to a command but to a sigh.

God seldom tells me what to do.  The Bible does, and if I’m acting on the words of scripture, God doesn’t have to speak to me about them.  But my richest experiences in Christ have happened when Jesus has showed me something that looked more like an opportunity than a duty.

I was preaching in a meeting many years ago.  As my message ended, I sensed something – I don’t remember now what it was – and launched into a few minutes of personal ministry.  People were visibly moved as I ministered.  And when the meeting was over, a man came to me and said, “Thank you for obeying God.  Thank you for being obedient.”

But I hadn’t really “obeyed”, because God hadn’t commanded me to do anything.  He had lovingly showed me an opportunity, and I had grasped it.  It was His gift to me and to those I ministered to, not my gift to Him.

God’s commandments set us up for divine appointments, for adventures of faith, and for a release of the Holy Spirit.  The more we act on His word, the more of these experiences we will have.

God told Elijah one day, “Go to the top of the mountain, and I’ll speak to you there.”  Why didn’t God just speak to Moses at the foot of the mountain?  Sometimes God tells us what to do, setting the stage for what He wants to do next.  If we don’t take the first step, we’ll never take the second.

Elijah received more of the Spirit on top of the mountain than he did on the bottom because this is how God chose to work.  He received because he obeyed.

We won’t get more light until we walk in the light we already have.  This is the obedience that gives us more of the Holy Spirit.

Most of us could list a few things God has already given us to do.  How long will it take us to do them?  God isn’t a hard taskmaster.  He isn’t a slave-driver, cracking a whip.  But He is setting up divine appointments for us.  If we truly hunger for more of His Spirit, we’ll act on His words.

It’s opportunity, not duty; freedom, not bondage.  We don’t have to do these little acts of obedience – we get to.  And as we obey, we receive more and more of the Holy Spirit.

(c) 2007, GospelSmith