Picture this: you are in a lifeboat with many other people, too many people in fact and one must be thrown overboard – into the shark infested water – in order for all the others to survive. As you look at the sharks circling the boat, you hear a voice softly say, ‘You.’ ‘Me?’ Your mind shouts, ‘Don’t You see all those sharks?’ And then you hear it again: ‘You!’ Unreserved, unquestionable allegiance, loyalty and obedience to our great God is on the line.
Is there a point where your unreserved, unquestionable allegiance, loyalty and obedience becomes questionable? When faced with such a confrontation with ourselves, we need to ask ourselves, ‘whose’ will am I serving in this situation, mine or my Lord’s and… whose will is the most important to me?
Now granted, that is an extreme analogy and we’re not talking about stupid, impetuous, irrational and irresponsible decisions. However, no matter how extreme a situation may be – or not - if we know that we know that we know that we have heard the voice of our God speaking to us and we are certain it is NOT something we have manufactured ourselves, just how quickly do we obey? A close scrutiny of our past actions and perhaps even situations we are currently facing should be very revealing.
Delayed obedience is still disobedience. 1 Samuel 15:22c tells us, “Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice,…” Just as God spoke to Elijah in 1 Kings 19:12 with ‘the sound of a low whisper’ (ESV), ‘a still small voice (KJV), when the Holy Spirit speaks to us, let us not delay in responding with a ‘Yes, Lord, YES!’
