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-- © GodSpeak International 2004 --
-- Do not republish without written permission from <copyright@godspeak.org> --

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS AND CONTRIBUTING RESOURCES
Author: Rodney Hogue RodHogue@aol.com
http://www.restorationdepot.org
Editor: Teresa Seputis
Transcribed by: Nichole Marshall

Vision For Your Life And Ministry

By Rodney Hogue

Lesson 11
Checklist For Obedience
(part 2)

In the last lesson, we began to explore a spiritual principle, learning that God requires us to be faithful in little before He gives us greater things, such as a stronger prophetic gifting or a greater anointing. (Matt 25:21). We began examining the early church and looked at the "little things" that they were faithful in; the things the did that resulted in being given power and anointing to grow and multiply. We saw in Acts 2:42-47 that there were five basic areas. I have posed these to you in the form of questions:

  • Are you committed to the word of God?
  • Are you fellowshiping with other believers?
  • Are you a worshiper?
  • Do you have a life style of prayer?
  • Are you a generous giver?
  • We examined the first two in the last lesson. So let us continue by looking at the remaining ones...

    ARE YOU A WORSHIPER?

    The passage says that "they gathered together daily for worship". The worshiped the Lord daily at the temple. It says in the very last verse that "they were praising God." There is that one activity that is mentioned a couple of times that is known as the Lord's Supper. That is when Jesus was betrayed on that night and before He died, He gave us this thing to remember what He did -- the Lord's Supper. The bread represents the body and the cup represents the blood that was shed and He says: "as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup you are doing it in remembrance of me" and so the act of the Lord's Supper is focusing upon Jesus and what He had done, we call that Worship. When you focus upon the Lord and your attention is upon Him, that is what worship is. And we see these people were very active worshipers. If you search the Bible, you will see just how much worship is in the word of God. In the Old Testament there are around 14 different words that are used for "worship". There are hundreds and hundreds of verses that describe worship in the Old Testament. Coming into the New Testament the word for worship is used about 80 times, 3 different words are used. One of the words for worship is used about 70 times in the New Testament, so it was a priority.

    Worship is very, very important and they gave a lot of time and attention to it. When God made you he made you to give glory to your Creator; it is because God reveals His glory to us and then we worship Him. When you give Him glory, basically, you are getting next to God and you get all that happens when the glory comes upon you. You get Him.

    When you worship, worship is your key to victory. Worship is your entrance into the presence of God. Worship taps into the power of God. Worship releases great sustaining faith that moves mountains. Worship will bring you great joy and will heal your soul. So when you go through reading the word of God, you will find all of these passages about worship.

    Apostle Paul has a lot to say about worship in Colossians 1:12-22. I recommend that you go read this. This passage describes some of the reasons why we worship God. If you are a worshiper and your heart is a heart of a worshiper, as you read this your spirit was crying out, "Yes!" You started thinking about what God did for you by sending His son, you think about the sacrifice on the cross and you think about what He did for you. You start to think about all of that and all of a sudden thankfulness and gratitude begins to rise up in your spirit and praise and you start thinking about how He is above everything. He is the name above every name, he is the image of the invisible God. Praise begins to well up within your spirit and pretty soon you can't hardly contain yourself. You think, "God calls me friend!", I'm His friend! And if you are a worshiper all of this stuff begins to rise up in you.

    Now, if you are not a worshiper you would say, "nice passage". That is a nice verse of scripture. See the difference?

    Worship is an attitude of the heart. It is an attitude that says that I want to come before God. While you are singing songs, what is going on? You try to figure out the words or you are trying to figure out the tune and all of a sudden your spirit is crying out and you are crying out to God and you are worshiping God or do you just look around and say, "I think that seat looks a little more comfortable than the one that I am in", you know what I mean. What is going on with you during that time? Worshiping, that is what is going on with the worshiper. And what happens when you are a worshiper and you are reading the word, then all of a sudden BANG you get stuck. You are reading through I Timothy Chapter 1 and all of a sudden you get to verse 17 and BANG it says, "now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God be honor and glory for ever and ever. AMEN"

    All of a sudden you get to the end and all of a sudden you just stop and say, "Thank you Lord" and all of a sudden this thing arises up within you-that is a worshiper. You can't help it because you are so in love with God and you want to give Him the glory, it is a part of your being and, I tell you what, God is wanting you to become a worshiper. Let me ask you something, "Who is the one who has the plan for you?" It is God. Who is the one who enables you to fulfill that plan? Who is going to give you the power to do it? Who is the one who is going to be protecting you? You is going to be the one who is equipping you? My goodness, do you think that He deserves a little praise and worship! I tell you, worship will keep you plugged into God. If you want to know what God has for you, you are going to have to rub up next to Him a little bit and worship is the way to do it.

    Are you a worshiper? You know, worshiping may mean just singing a few songs, but I tell you it is an attitude of the heart, rises up out of the spirit, looks and gazes upon God.

    DO YOU HAVE A LIFE STYLE OF PRAYER?

    Well that is an obvious one, isn't it? There is only 100 times where "prayer" is used in the New Testament. "Prayer" is used quite a bit. Jesus talked about prayer, always there was this teaching on prayer. The disciples had an emphasis upon prayer. In fact when things got tight and they couldn't hardly pray (these apostles) they organized themselves in such a way that they could pray and spend some time in the word. It was a very important priority for them in their lives and you have to understand, prayer, is the place where you come to God, it is going to be a battlefield, you are going to take territory, you are going to gain things back, you are going to conquer a lot in prayer. A lot of things that will not be conquered any other way, will be conquered in prayer. So you have to have a lifestyle of prayer and Jesus had to teach the disciples over and over again.

    In Luke 18:1 it says that one day Jesus told his disciples a story to illustrate their need for constant prayer and to show them that they must never give up. He had to resort to telling them stories about it. He had to communicate to them to constantly prayer, never give up, don't stop, always pray. Paul the Apostle said in I Thessalonians 5:17 "never stop praying". You just can't quit.

    Reflect back on your last week. How many days were you committed to prayer? O.K. that is enough guilt. (smile) This is one area that the devil is really going to work at to keep you from doing it. He just wants to zap your power supply and therefore he is going to keep you from praying as much as possible. I find that even though I am a person who prays, this is an area that I really have to struggle with. I struggle with it all of the time. It is a discipline that you have to put into your life.

    ARE YOU A GENEROUS GIVER?

    Are you a generous giver? We see that these guys were great, great givers. It says that "they were sharing things that they had, they were even selling some possessions and meeting needs of people who were in need." It says that "they shared meals and" it says "with great joy and generosity." These guys were generous people. Are you a giver?

    Did you know that Jesus talked about giving more than He talked about prayer? He talked about giving more than He talked about being in the word. He talked about giving more than fellowship and He talked about it more than He talked about worship. He spent more time talking about this area, and the reason is because this is an area that people struggle with a lot.

    Not only did Jesus talk about it but so did everybody else in the New Testament, not even getting to the Old Testament stuff. The Apostle Paul said this in I Corinthians 16:2, "that on the first day of every week, set aside some of what you earn and give it as an offering." The amount depends on how much the Lord has helped you earn. In the Old Testament it says this, "honor the Lord with your wealth and the first fruits from your crops. Then your barrels will be full and your wine barrels will overflow with new wine." It says to give God the first fruits and not the last fruits, not the leftovers. Don't say, "If I got anything leftover, God, you can have that." That is not what the bible says. It says, give God the first fruits.

    When someone tells me, "I don't understand why my barns aren't full. I don't know why my barrels aren't flowing over," The first thing I ask them is: Is He getting the first fruits?

    These guys understood real treasures. Matthew 6:19-21 says, "don't store up treasurers here on earth, for the could be eaten by moths, get rusty, were thieves can break in and steal. Store your treasurers in heaven, where they will never become moth eaten or rusty and were they will safe from thieves, for wherever your treasure is, there your heart and thoughts will also be." You can't take it with you but you can send it ahead. That is what this passage is saying. Where is your treasure? Where is your heart?

    The question is, "have you been faithful in your finances?" Have you been robbing God? Have you been hanging on what belongs to God? Have you kept back, for yourself, what God has required from you in obedience? And, I really believe that this area is a very important area.

    Luke 16:10-11 is one of those passages where Jesus is talking about finances, and He says this, "unless you are faithful in small matters, you won't be faithful in large ones. If you cheat, even a little, you won't be honest with greater responsibilities; and if you are untrustworthy about worldly worth who will trust you with the true riches of heaven?" Here is the bottom line: if you are not faithful with your finances you are limiting how God will use you. You are putting a lid on it. If you are stealing from God, if you are robbing Him, if you are not giving Him the tithe, then you limit how God is going to use you. This is because He can't trust you. God says, "if I can't trust you with the things you can see, how can I trust you with those things you can't see?" And, if you can't be faithful with these things that you can look at and observe how can you be faithful with these other things that you can't? If you think God is going to trust you with the true riches of the kingdom of God when you can't be faithful with your finances, then you are wrong." That is the bottom line.

    Some of you say that you cannot afford to tithe. Well you can't afford not to! Who is in charge of your finances? Is God in charge of your finances or is the devourer in charge of your finances? It is one or the other. What happens is that if you rob God, then God will turn you over to the devourer. He simply says, "I would like to protect you but you are not letting me do it. I would like to cover you, but you are not letting me do this. I would like to keep the devour away, but you are not giving me a chance to do this because you are not trusting Me."

    Everything we have on this earth will burn up. Your car will break down. Your plumbing will fail. It will all happen. There is nothing on this earth that will not burn up. And yet we are so consumed about making sure that we have this and we have that. Then we hear that God expects us to be faithful in our finances, and we wonder why God would ask that? He asks it because it is an act of trust. Do you trust God? If you do trust God, you will see how God protects, how God stretches, how God meets and you will see God come through. He will do it. And not only that, but you also need to be faithful in this area so God can trust you with the true riches of His kingdom. If you don't obey God in this area of the physical things then you will put a lid on Him. Sure God can use you, and sure God will use you, but you are simply limited. Your disobedience in finances puts a limitation on Him. And that verse explains the truth about why God does it. It is not that He doesn't want to trust you. He really wants too.

    When you are obedient in the small things, God will put you in charge of the bigger things. And if you aren't, then He can't. Are you faithful with what God has already given you? Are you faithful with His word? Are you reading it? Are you in it? Are you doing it? Are you faithful in fellowship? Do you have relationship? Are you committed? Are you involved? Are there people speaking into your life? Are you involved with worship? Are you a worshiper? Do you exalt the Lord? Are you a person involved in prayer? Are you faithful in coming to God and just talking to Him? Are you faithful in your finances?

    Do you put yourself in a position where God can trust you with greater things? Are you faithful with what you already know? I'm telling you, these are the five simple ones. They are the basics and they are the simple ones. God has a lot more for us, but we have to be faithful with what we already know what to do and God will give you more.


    -- © GodSpeak International 2004 --
    -- Do not republish without written permission from <copyright@godspeak.org> --

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