And you would say, “Oh, God, what is the secret to walking in your great power?”  It is simple obedience to the known will of God.  If my son was ordered down to meet the woman at the well and instead went to Capernum, do you think that the power of God would fall?  There must be obedience from your heart to the known will of God for the power of God to manifest.

     I will not indorse a program that’s not mine.  I will not anoint a vessel that thinks they can go in any direction they choose and then expect the power of God to show up.  It doesn’t’ work like that.  But if you’ll be obedient to me and you’ll go where I send you when I send you and say what I tell you to say, the power of God will show up.

     Keep your life clean.  Avoid sins and when you do sin, simply kneel and confess.  Don’t go into huge contrition but kneel and confess your sins.  Acknowledge that you’re learning and growing in God and simply head back to where I tell you to go.  Do the things I show you to do and when you pray, believe that your Heavenly Father hears you because he does.

     Be obedient, even if those around you are not obedient.  Jesus was in a kingdom where most of the leadership over him was disobedient.  They were not following the will of God.  They were oppressing people.  They were taking from people.  They were not giving.  They were cruel.  They were wicked.  He was so grieved by the hardness of their hearts but he openly rebuked them before the people and warned them of the hellfire that was waiting for them.

      So, it doesn’t matter who around you is obeying God as you perceive it.  What matters is will you obey God?  Will you go down to the well when I tell you to?  Will you lift the burden of your brother when someone else says leave them alone; they’re being punished by God.  Yet I tell you, “Go help them.”

     Many a Pharisee has pointed down their nose at someone and said, “They are being punished of God.  Their wickedness has come upon them,” and they would flee from them and would not lift their hand.   Yet Jesus himself would go and help the leper and help the prostitute and help those who were sick and needed a doctor.  They needed a doctor.  They needed someone to come into their situation with the power of God, with the help of God, with the healing of God, with the forgiveness of sins.

     Jesus unilaterally remitted people’s sins.  He said, “Go and sin no more” and the person did not even ask for forgiveness.  But in the power of God, he would walk in and break the power of the enemy and lift the sick and the crippled and heal them and restore them and then turn and rebuke those who would have a word to say about what he did.  He said, “Don’t the sick need a doctor?  You who are healthy, you don’t need me.”

      I will send you to places and to people that other people will condemn for going to, but you must go if you would be in my good will.   You must go and help the oppressed.  You must go and help those who are rejected and outcast, and the power of God will show up for you, but it is simple obedience to the known will of God in your heart that will bring the great power that you’re looking for.

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INDIVIDUAL REWARDS
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     Walk in obedience with the Lord.  Put your blinders on and walk your walk because it does not matter really what everyone else does.  What matters is what you do within the structure of the Church and of the Body.

      So yes, even though you’re tied to the corporate body of Christ, you are an individual and you will be individually rewarded for your efforts as Joshua and Caleb were and as down through the Scriptures from Gideon on, men are rewarded for what they do.

      Even if the whole nation is worshipping idols and going astray, if you will plant your feet in the right direction and say, “I will not be moved,” and walk on, God will look down and say, “There’s one; there’s one who won’t turn aside,” and the blessings of God will fall.  Even while correction is falling all around you, blessing will fall on you.

      So, say not in your heart ever, “This is foolishness to be obedient; this is foolishness to be so good.  Others are getting away with this and this and this…” Well, for a season they might, but believe me, the judgment of God comes.  The correction of God comes.  Even though it tarries for a season, it comes.

      Don’t be fooled into thinking that an act of disobedience will not be brought into correction.  It will be sooner or later.  So, don’t allow your feet to go into disobedience.  Don’t allow your mouth, your mind, your brain, your heart, your life to go into disobedience to the known will of your Father.

      But keep walking.  Keep talking even as Christ did.  Even alone at times, even against his disciples he had to press on and persevere to his Cross.  So, walk in what I’ve set before you, knowing that your reward is coming and that you will reap with you sow.

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