Whenever God calls a person, He always provides the assurance the person needs. Moreover, He provides all that is necessary for the person to accomplish the work He has for them. You see this in the lives of Noah, Abraham, Moses, Joshua, David, Daniel, etc. The assignment of the person being called is simply to obey God and to walk in the will of the Father. Unfortunately, it has not always been easy for men to remain in the will of God, to be steadfast in His promises although they are always true. I believe, the main reason for this unwavering on the part of men is their focus which is no longer on God but instead on circumstances and what governs their day-to-day. This post will be looking and contrasting the life of some patriarchs with that of Jesus in order to show us the way to be yielded to the Father.
Let’s start with Moses. This is the only prophet, man of God, who had the privilege of talking with God face to face, as a man speaks with his friend (Numbers 12:8). Moses had a huge responsibility, he was given the enormous task of leading the people of Israel out of slavery and into the Promised Land. He was also meek. Something else to mention about Moses is that he was an intercessor and a very effective one at that. Despite being all that, Moses failed to uphold God’s holiness (Numbers 20:12). He disobeyed God in the desert of Zin. In this place, the people of Israel were thirsty and they grumbled against God, asking Moses why he brought them out of the land of Egypt to have them die in the desert. Moses, out of frustration and anger did not follow God’s instruction for the first time. Why? I believe because Moses let the people of Israel get into his skin (it was hard not to), he focused too much on the situation, on fixing the problem, on his own emotions. In that moment, Moses took God’s place and decided to act for God rather than simply obeying. Unfortunately, this disobedience cost him to have an aborted mission. He would never enter the land he was leading the people of Israel to. God cares about His holiness deeply, He cares about being honoured and exalted, He cares about receiving the glory that is due His name. He cares about His reputation; His Name.
In the same way, David, who was a man after God’s heart was the greatest king Israel ever had. God accomplished wonders through him, allowed him to win many battles and gave him the desire to build a temple for His dwelling place. In all this walk with the Lord, David learnt who God is and how to please Him. He is the author of the many psalms we have today and use in our prayers and singing, yet he was not exempt from falling short. Unfortunately, David sinned against the Lord by using his authority to sleep with one of his servant’s wife. To make matters worse, he ordered the commander of his army to ensure the said servant was killed in a battle (2 Samuel 11-12). So David went from being a man after God’s own heart to being a man far away from God’s heart at that moment. What happened and what led to this downfall? I believe it was exalting the desires of his flesh above obedience to God. You see, David was being idle at a time when he was supposed to be in battle. There is a time for everything like Ecclesiastes tells us and for David, it wasn’t the time to rest. It is interesting how idleness can bring in many more fleshly desires like lust and covetousness. This is precisely what the Lord had against David, he says “I gave you your master’s house and your master’s wives into your keeping, and gave you the house of Israel and Judah. And if that had been too little, I also would have given you much more”. David despised God’s commandments for his own fleshly desires and that did not please the Father.
Fortunately, Jesus is different. From the moment he started his ministry, Jesus only had one mission: do his Father’s will. For Jesus, that will meant he had to die on the cross. So everything that Jesus did was in relation to accomplishing the will of his Father. From calling disciples to healing the sick, his mission was to ensure His Father’s will was done. There was a time when people told Jesus “your mother and brothers are looking for you”, and Jesus responded “my mother and my brothers are those who do the will of my Father” (Matthew 12:50). Doing the will of his Father was all that Jesus was concerned about. Obedience was key in Jesus’s life and ministry. Nothing he did was outside of the will of his Father. He came to this earth to die and he made sure nothing distracted him from that mission. The bible tells us that Jesus set his face to go to Jerusalem (his place of death), he was so focused on getting there despite the fact that it was going to be the end of him. That is real determination and dying to self. Nothing deterred Jesus from his mission. Even when he was in the garden of Gethsemane, he prayed “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will” (Matthew 26:39). At his lowest point, Jesus did not focus on his feelings, his worries, his pain, what was awaiting him but he focused on the will of God. Obedience is truly better than sacrifices. Jesus did what no men could do, he was perfect in all his ways, yet he was a man. He did not live for himself, never did something out of time or season, he was never distracted by people even though many people surrounded him. Moreover, he was never angry at people to the point of letting their disobedience to God affect him. Jesus was never a slave to any situation, in every situation, Jesus was always in control even when he was being questioned by authorities. In fact Jesus boldly declared “No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father” (John 10:18). In this verse, Jesus is talking about giving up his life voluntarily, dying willingly instead of being forced into anything. This simply shows how in control Jesus was of every situation he was in. Truly he was a winner, he was victorious, and he was a conqueror. No wonder Jesus is our model! Everything that we thought impossible, Jesus made it possible while on earth. Now we have the privilege of following in his footsteps. I think that is why Paul exhorts us constantly to live a victorious life because in Christ we are more than conquerors (Romans 8:37). We are no longer slaves to the desires of our flesh, we are no longer slaves to our sinful nature but we can now say No! We can now choose to satisfy and gratify the desires of the spirit. I pray the Holy Spirit strengthens us in this journey of being more and more like Christ.
A Word Aptly Spoken 