Obedience and Disobedience

  In the following Scriptures we see a great illustration of just what disobedience can bring us, or rather what it won’t bring us.  That is the rain, the rain of God’s Holy Presence, because God has no fellowship with sin, neither should we.  1 Kings 17:1(NKJV), “And Elijah the Tishbite, of the inhabitants of Gilead, said to Ahab, “As the Lord God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years except at my word.”  We have a curse pronounced on wicked King Ahab by the prophet Elijah.  This would be defined as a curse from disobedience.  We have laid for us all through Deuteronomy 28, blessings on obedience, and curses on disobedience.  Here is one of the blessings in Deuteronomy 28:12, “The LORD will open his rich treasury, the heavens, to release rain upon your land in season and bless everything you undertake so that you’ll lend to many nations but won’t borrow.”  Even though these Scriptures are from the Old Covenant they still apply to us through the grace given to us by Jesus Christ.  We need to see the spiritual truths within this testimony here, and to do that look in James 5:17-18(ISV), “Elijah was a person just like us, and he prayed earnestly for it not to rain, and rain never came to the land for three years and six months.  Then he prayed again, and the skies poured out rain, and the ground produced its crops.”  Here Elijah in a spiritual sense has been literally given the ability to bind and to loose, as found in Matthew 18:18(ESV), “Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”  But here we are speaking of church discipline and forgiveness of sins.  We all as believers and followers of the Lord Jesus Christ have been given authority to do this.  But as we look into this perfect law of liberty we need to be found free of sin ourselves otherwise we too would be out of fellowship with the Lord.  Now, right before those Scriptures in James 5 we find in the same chapter of James verse 16 (NKJV), “Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed.  The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.”  There we have it all tied in one nice little package.  We speak of the blessings of Christ even coming to us by obedience.  Obedience by our faith, if we truly believe we will obey.  John 14:21(NKJV), “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.”  We shall call that manifestation God’s Presence abiding within, and with that the manifestations of God working in and through your life.  Now, to those having been found  disobedient there is hope for restoration in the brethren.  Sin and disobedience will take the power of God out of a life and stop up the heavens from pouring forth fresh rain upon it.  This is where confession is made unto the brethren, and by which prayer is also made for the healing.  Healing in this context is healing of the spiritual depravity that sin and disobedience caused, bringing restoration of the blessings of salvation in Christ Jesus.  This does include physical healing in many cases.  God so desires that the body be healthy as He abides in it.  But sin is a big deal and should be dealt with immediately.  Repent and Confess brethren that the Lord may hear and restore.  After all we want to be fruitful, those who bear some 30, some 60, and some 100 fold.  May the Lord bless you and keep you in Jesus name. Amen.