Obedience To God’s Perfect Will Is Being So Rich That You Can’t Spend All The Wealth, Being So Happy That You Giggle All Day Long, And Having Every Dream That You Have Ever Wished For Being Surpassed By Impossible Fulfillments

This is the longest title I’ve ever put on any of my blogs, but there was just no shorter way to say it. When I was a young man and God called me into full-time ministry for Jesus, I believed I was entering into to a life of complete obedience to Him. But the concept that I had in my mind was a life of total self-denial, sadness, sacrificial living for others, and pretty much doing without everything that I dreamed about from my earliest years. Boy was I discombobulated! I’ve since found out that obedience to God is like finding a gold mine that has every thing I’ve ever desired in every way. Let me explain this great discovery.

Complete obedience to God meant that I, as the leader of my household, would have to become a servant to every person in my family. I must confess that the television show “Downton Abbey” (which is currently the most popular show on PBS) helped me understand the concept of servitude. Every Sunday night I watched as the head butler of the house would promptly do anything that a member of the household asked, no matter how difficult and time-consuming it might be. So when my wife would ask someone to do a routine task around the house, I would immediately slip out of my chair and begin doing it before anyone else in the house could get to it. Soon my family members realized my game and started racing with me to get it done first. This has really changed the dynamics of chores in our household. Even though it appeared to me that the ministry-related tasks God had assigned to me in my leadership role appeared to be more pressing, I felt I needed to drop what I was doing at the request of any family member to help and serve them in their own tasks. I must explain that I am still new at this, so some of the things I am talking about I am definitely inexperienced at. I am still going through the training exercise of servant leadership.

To give you an accurate picture of how things are going concerning the “obedience picture”, let me describe yesterday. At the crack of dawn, during our family’s daily prayer time, I asked about the seven “monumental” tasks the Lord currently has me working on, and He told me not to touch any of them. Then, after breakfast, Sandy mentioned that the Lord had showed her in prayer a Victorian doll and some cloth that she needed to shop for. Instantly I knew I was to become the butler from Downton Abbey. Little did I know that the day was to become a treasure trove of joy and pleasure for me.

My heart raced with youthful excitement as I followed Sandy from store to store and experienced her joy she sifted through the dolls looking for the one with just the right expression on its face. And then it was onto the fabric shops, looking here and there for the right Victorian fabric that would perfectly fit her fashionable intent. At the end of the day we both plopped into the car, exhausted but excited, like two teenagers who had just spent the most exciting time of their lives at their high school prom with their best friend and sweetheart, charged with excitement about what the future holds for them. It is 4 a.m. as I write this blog, just after having experienced this wonderful day. Maybe now you can understand why I chose the title for this blog.

To understand the full scope of what I am learning about God is to see that obedience to Him is not similar in any way like obedience to man. God’s ways are so unique and different from man’s ways that in no way can they be compared to each other. When God asks me to do a task, He is not wasting my time, sending me down a dead-end street, or trying me just for the sake of testing. He just doesn’t do that. Everything that God has me to do is for a divine intent, and has deep meaning. There is a fulfilling reason in every one of His projects.

When I am asked to do something that I do not understand, by someone I feel I should properly serve, I will blindly walk into it with an open heart. And, if I am patient, the revelation of God’s divine intent will come to me and any initial annoyance will become an amazing revelation and joy of God’s wonderland. Yes, for some of you the title of this blog may seem to be unobtainable, but it’s simply as close as obeying God’s word every day.