THE LIMITS OF OBEDIENCE AND SUBMISSION

THE LIMITS OF OBEDIENCE AND SUBMISSION

The mere mentioning of the nouns obedience and submission naturally presupposes the existence of some instructions, rules and regulations of which compliance is needed. However, obedience is more related to the specific demands of a particular instruction or law (rules and regulations). Obedience is thus related to the doing of or the refraining from a particular act or conduct. Submission on the other hand has more to do with yielding to a particular sanction (suffering) meted out for disobeying a particular instruction or law. Thus while obedience demands conformity; submission demands surrendering. Submission then concerns disobedience conduct and the surrendering to its consequences. There is therefore some truth in a legal presumption that states that every person intends the natural consequences of that person’s action. Simply put, every person must bear in mind the consequences of any actions that person desires to execute, and must be ready to face those consequences if those actions are initiated or executed.

It is a great virtue to be an obedient or submissive person or both. Children are required to particularly obey their parents and all persons are also required to submit to authorities. However, these requirements have their exceptions. The exceptions have more to do with the nature of the person or authority in question, and the nature of instruction or law emanating from that person or authority. For instance, while both our obedience and submission to God must be absolute in all matters; only our submission to human authorities must be absolute. This means that obedience to human authorities is a qualified one (relative). In other words, certain instructions or laws from human authorities can and should be disobeyed but the disobedient person must submit to any sanction that follows that person’s disobedience conduct.

Therefore, the need to obey every instruction from authorities or laws in a country has its limits. John Macathur wrote in his book Found God’s Will as follows: ‘You may ask, “Am I supposed to obey every law in the land?” Yes, every law. If you do not agree with them, that doesn’t change the matter. Obey them…But what if they tell you to do something that violates God’s clear revelation and command? Then do not obey them! That is the only exception”. This means that any persons can and indeed should disobey any instruction or law that either forbids them to do what they have been told by direct command from God or commands them to do what God forbids. God’s Word is therefore superior to any instruction or law. Therefore, any human instructions or laws that are inconsistent with the Word of God must be disobeyed.

However, we must yield to any sanction that is connected to disobeying any human instructions or laws. The Three Hebrew boys disobeyed King Nebuchadnezzar when he decreed that all persons in his kingdom should fall down and worship a gold image he had set up. The gold image that was set up denotes anything that exalts itself against the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus (God’s Word). Nevertheless, the Three Hebrew boys yielded to the king’s command to cast them into a burning furnace, but God delivered them. God delivered them because they honoured authority despite their rightful disobedience. We can thus conclude that obedience to human authorities is relative but submission to them is absolute! This is so because we must always honour authority, be it divine or human. Submission always breeds blessings.

Richard Obeng Mensah, author of Persecutions are Promotions. Email: richardobengmensah@gmail.com. Blog: www.richard-obeng-mensah.blogspot.com

HOW TO BE FULL OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

HOW TO BE FULL OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth – John 1:14 (NIV).

                                                                   

Nana Kwame had a strong desire to become a lawyer when he was at the elementary school. His mother detested this idea because of her perceptions about lawyers but the father secretly admired it. Kwame took interest in reading wide and always when he got to the senior high school. Besides, he genuinely developed interest in listening to news daily and reading the dailies and many titles on current affairs. He purposely studied General Art courses at the high school and obtained excellent grades in Economics, Government, Geography, Social Studies and English Language. He subsequently, obtained a degree in Law and undertook his Professional Law course which qualified him to be called to the Bar. Thus Kwame realized his childhood dream of becoming a lawyer because he acquired legal knowledge and skill.  However, for Kwame to excel in the legal field, he has to constantly feed on relevant legal knowledge and sharpen his skills by using his knowledge to solve legal problems. There lies his significance!

The content of a thing determines its nature and purpose. Lawyers and Medical Doctors are, respectively, known as persons who can better appreciate legal and medical issues by virtue of their legal and medical contents. Similarly, the Clergy are perceived as people who can better relate to spiritual issues because of their biblical contents. We can therefore conclude that the knowledge of a person usually determines that person’s functions in life. The more knowledgeable a person in a particular field; the more influence that person is likely to wax in that field. Accordingly, knowledgeable persons are influential but the ignoramus is detested.

Knowledge makes a person. It is the most important asset of any persons who possess it.  Knowledge is the accumulation of words related to a particular discipline or subject. Robert T. Kiyosaki in his Retire Young Retire Rich opined, “…In my opinion, words are the most powerful tools available to human beings”. Sharing some lessons he had drawn from his rich father, Robert explains that words are tools for the brain and that any person who uses poor words has poor ideas and a poor life. Jesus authored this great truth when he told his disciples that “…The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life” – John 6:63b (NKJV). The words of Jesus were his knowledge about God and His kingdom. His entire life was pivoted on God’s Word.

The words of Jesus are spirit and life. This means that there is a spirit behind the words of Jesus and that spirit gives life. The Holy Spirit is the spirit behind God’s Word. He is the executor or the implementing agent of the Word of God. The Holy Spirit thus gives life (effect) to God’s Word. He is the active force and power behind God’s Word. To be full of the Holy Spirit demands that you are filled with God’s Word completely. Therefore,  “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord” – Colossians 3:16(NKJV).

Richard Obeng Mensah, author of right your writing. Email: richardobengmensah@gmail.com. Blog: www.richard-obeng-mensah.blogspot.com

HOW TO PLEASE GOD

HOW TO PLEASE GOD

When a man’s way please the LORD, He makes even his enemies to be at peace with him – Proverbs 16:7 (NKJV).

One of the amazing things on earth is the way of a man with a young unmarried woman (virgin). It is wonderful because this man will always do his best to please this woman in all his ways. If the man is a genuine person, he will seek to know more and more about the woman. Besides, he will do his best to please the woman in his communication with her, appearance and attitude towards issues of life. However, for them to have a fruitful relationship and marriage life, both the man and the woman must have one sense of purpose and seek the best interest of each other.

Every real husband knows how to please his wife to win her favour, especially when night approaches. Likewise, there are certain things that please God and win His favour. To win God’s favour constantly, Jesus sought to “do always those things that please Him” – John 8:29. Jesus thus eschewed sin and resolved to always live a holy life. Besides, he absolutely depended on God in all situations by seeking His opinion. He neither bothered about people’s testimony about him nor committed himself to them because he knew human beings. Jesus also set his heart to accomplish his divine mandate, no matter the costs. No wonder he is the greatest man in history.

“But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him” – Hebrews 11:6. God’s greatest problem with mankind is unbelief! True. It deeply hurts God when a person does not accept His personality, character and Word (authority and power). God is most pleased when we meaningfully believe that He is the way, the truth and the life, and that without Him we can do nothing! The reason why so many people are struggling in life is because they are trying to attain certain results without depending on God. They thus use worldly ways to achieve a particular satisfaction. But real satisfaction can only be found in things that are based on God’s Word.

Pleasing God requires the need to seek Him diligently. “Diligence”, it is said, is “(a person’s) precious possession”. Diligence is more than hard-work. It has rightly been defined as the persistent and hard-working effort in doing something. God rewards diligence seeking, not hard-work. It is therefore no surprising that many hard-working people have nothing to show. Such people usually doubt God’s faithfulness to His Word because they think they have done their best. But consistency (faithfulness) is more important to God than doing your best. Our faithfulness is usually tested in periods of uncertainty; bareness, destituteness or unfruitfulness; undue delay; inadequacy or insufficiency, fruitfulness or sufficiency; intense contentions, afflictions, persecutions, opposition or reproaches; trials of mocking and scourging; being in chains or imprisonment; and torments and wickedness. Are you passing your faithfulness test(s)?

Richard Obeng Mensah, author of If You Think of Your Opposition You Lose Your Position. Email: richardobengmensah@gmail.com. Blog: www.richard-obeng-mensah.blogspot.com

PREFER PERFECTION TO GOOD AND ACCEPTABLE

PREFER PERFECTION TO GOOD AND ACCEPTABLE

“…Noah was a just man, perfect in his generations. Noah walked with God”- Gen. 6:9(NKJV)

The adjectives acceptable (average), good and perfect have one thing in common – degree of a standard. They thus denote levels of quality or excellence that are normally accepted or by which actual attainments are judged. Generally in the academia, Grades A, B, C, D, E and F respectively represent Excellent, Very Good, Good, Credit, Pass and Fail. However, the grading system of some professional schools categorized Grades A, B+ and B as Pass Grades and Grades C, D, E and F as Failure Grades. Thus while Grades C and D are Pass Grades at most secondary and tertiary institutions, they are Failure Grades in some professional institutions. Similarly, what we mostly consider as acceptable and good are below God’s firm standard; ask Cornelius.

Excuse is the chief of ungodly compromises. One of such excuses is the so-called adage ‘no person is perfect’. This deceptive adage is usually premised on the fact that we live in an imperfect world which is full of imperfect creatures. So doing good or what is acceptable are usually the general standards majority of the populace aim to attain. No wonder many people have exchanged or sacrificed integrity for mediocrity. But why should you settle for good or better although you can attain the best! Prefer perfection to good and acceptable in all instances.

Perfection is a choice! Noah and Job were perfect and blameless in their perverted generations because they chose to be so. They decisively chose to fear God, walked with Him, and shunned evil. As a result, God delivered only Noah and his household from the Great Flood that destroyed all living things which were on the face of the earth. Besides, Job was the greatest of all the people in the East. And he enjoyed twice of this blessing after staying faithful to God in the midst of an intense adversity.  God always prefers perfect to the acceptable and good although he may choose to work with the latter. The fact that God may choose to work with imperfect creatures is never a rule but a temporary exception. God’s aim in such exceptional cases is to empower the imperfect creatures to be perfect creatures if they choose to walk in the light of His Word. Despite God’s covenant with the 75-year old Abraham, He still required him to “walk before (Him) and be blameless (perfect)” when the latter was 99 years old. Abraham’s subsequent absolute obedience moved God to release His abundant blessings upon the latter.

Heaven belongs to only perfect people. And all such perfect persons are being or were prepared from this imperfect world. Jesus’s perfect character and personality were proved while he was in this world. He chose to walk in the light of God’s Word and unique plan for his life even in the midst of all contradictions and fiercest trials. Therefore, attaining perfection on earth is achievable. To achieve perfection on earth, we must a) genuinely choose to fear God and daily walk with Him like Jesus did; b) intentionally purpose not to conform to the standards of this world; and c) understand that diverse trials and tests are vital tools that make us “perfect and complete”.  Patience and perseverance are thus needed to endure such trials and tests. Perfection is God’s idea, character and personality. Rejecting it on earth is rejecting God forever!

            Richard Obeng Mensah, author of If You Think of Your Opposition You Lose Your Position. Email: richardobengmensah@gmail.com Blog: www.richard-obeng-mensah.blogspot.com