Abnormal Obedience

“He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant—not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.” -- 2 Corinthians 3:6 NIV

When you and I reach a point where we truly understand how weak and sinful we are and that Jesus is absolutely crucial in our desire for a better and, in fact, eternal life, we are filled with the Holy Spirit and called to be ministers to the world. that doesn't necessarily mean that we all need to go to seminary school and be paid, full-time preachers at a church. We minister to the world by sharing what we know about Jesus, how our lives have been impacted. We minister by doing the things Jesus would do were He walking around in the flesh today. We let the Spirit guide us in leading others to Christ. To live a life ministering to others means we have to be abnormally obedient. Most folks are pretty good at being obedient to their own desires. We need to be obedient to God's desires.

Being obedient to God's desires opens up lots of opportunities to do things that don't make sense to us. He likes to orchestrate events so that we have no choice but to acknowledge it couldn't have been of our own design...like the doctor catching the baby that I wrote about yesterday. In the book of Ezekiel, God calls Ezekiel to be his messenger, saying, "Son of man, I have appointed you as a watchman for Israel. Whenever you receive a message from me, pass it on to the people immediately. If I warn the wicked, saying, 'You are under the penalty of death' but you fail to deliver the warning, they will die in their sins. And I will hold you responsible, demanding your blood for theirs. If you warn them and they keep on sinning and refuse to repent, they will die in their sins. But you will have saved your life because you did what you were told to do. -- Ezekiel 3:17-19 NLT

Our job is to obey God's call. Being obedient, we aren't responsible for the effectiveness of the message. That's between everyone else and God. We just need to do what we're told to do, when we're told to do it (and bonus points if anyone can tell me how to get my kids to do that for me!). Through a series of visions and demonstrations, God has Ezekiel deliver the message of coming judgement to Israel. They don't listen and eventually wind up conquered and exiled which, in turn, causes them to be more ready to listen to what Ezekiel has to say next.

What Ezekiel says next is that God is going to raise them back up again, not because they deserve it at all but because He loves them and wants to protect them and make them clean. He wants the whole world to know that He is Lord. He wants willing and obedient hearts. Here is the message God gave Ezekiel, and I think you'll see that it is very, very similar to the message of Jesus.

"I am bringing you back, but not because you deserve it. I am doing it to protect my holy name, on which you brought shame while you were scattered among the nations. I will show how holy my great name is—the name on which you brought shame among the nations. And when I reveal my holiness through you before their very eyes, says the Sovereign Lord, then the nations will know that I am the Lord. For I will gather you up from all the nations and bring you home again to your land. Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. Your filth will be washed away, and you will no longer worship idols. And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart. And I will put my Spirit in you so that you will follow my decrees and be careful to obey my regulations. -- Ezekiel 36:22-27 NLT

Through Jesus, we're shown the holiness of God. Our filth is washed away. We have a new heart and God's Spirit. We're called to abnormal obedience. We're here to minister at any given moment of any given day so that, through us, God will be glorified in the changing of lives from worldly to heavenly, from damnation to salvation. Be abnormal! Do what you are called to do when you are called to do it no matter how uncomfortable or weird it may seem and know the joy that comes from making a difference that counts in eternity.