Obedience & Faith

Welcome everybody to today's episode uh teaching of the Reflective Spaces Ministry Podcast I'm Tammy Toney-Butler your Evangelist and Host but we all know who's the host or in charge of every show that we do and that's the Holy Spirit the Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit come and have Your way in this time that we have together may they hear you and not me may they have spiritual ears to hear and eyes to see what it is that you have for them oh Holy Spirit come and lead this broadcast lead this message teach them through me, your vessel. Help me to only speak Your Truth. Help me to only speak Your Words. Help me to speak them with the right cadence. Help me to speak them in the right manner so that they can digest this food that You are putting out and onto their spiritual plates. Oh, I thank you, Holy Spirit. I thank you, Abba Father, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our precious Lord Jesus. Lord Jesus, You died on the cross so we could have life. You gave us life. You gave me life. And help me now to spread Your Words of Truth that give life to others. In the mighty name of Jesus, we pray and declare all things. Amen. Wow, I already feel my helper coming. And that's a good thing because this is a message that he really wants. And it's on obedience and faith. Obedience and faith. Obedience and faith. Obedience and faith. Wow, obedience and faith. Are you being obedient to God's will? Are you surrendered, submitted? Are you in rebellion, sin? What does faith have to do with obedience? How do we get the right tools needed to submit fully and follow the Holy Spirit's leading? How do we do that? We're going to tackle that and a little bit more in this episode. So I want to just let others have a chance to come into the broadcast. And again, obedience and faith, obedience and faith. All right. We are going to start. Thank you, Holy Spirit. I'm going to start with talking about Moses. Talking about Moses. When we look at Moses, we can see an obedient soldier of God. We can also see a man who got frustrated, who got frustrated and acted in his own will and not the will of God. Let that be a reminder to all of us that we can't get over in our feelings. when we're following God, especially as a prophet of God. We can't get offended. We have to be led by the Spirit of God. We cannot let emotions guard, I'm sorry, guide our actions. We have to be led by the Spirit of the Almighty God, by the voice of God. Let's look at Moses and how he, in one moment, got it wrong. We're fallible. We're humans. We're not perfect. But there comes a point in all of our lives to where we have to truly submit and surrender to being led by the voice of God. A knowing that comes from walking with him, trusting him completely to supply you the words when you need them the most. That's the God I serve the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our precious Lord Jesus, the God who is speaking through me now by way of the Holy Spirit leading me, giving me the words to speak to each of you so that you'll have clarity where there was confusion. You'll surrender where you've been rebellious. You'll obey where you've been disobedient. The more we mature in faith, and maturing in faith comes through trials, tribulation, persecution even, the more we experience God personally in our own lives, the more we grow in our faith, moving through dimensions of power, gaining authority that only comes through relationship with Abba Father, fully surrendered, fully submitted to His will and not our own. Dying to flesh, dying to emotions, dying to feelings, and realizing that the only thing that can guide us is the voice of our shepherd. My sheep know my voice and they follow me. We have to cultivate the ability to hear the voice of our shepherd like never before. We have to be spirit-led believers, walking into rooms, speaking his truth, changing atmospheres with the power and authority that we have as believers. And Yeshua, who died on the cross to overcome the gates of hell. We have the victory. It's already been given to us. Do we know it? Do we receive it? Do we walk from a position of victory and not defeat? Do we speak to our battle? Or does it speak to us? That was a good one. Do we speak to our battle? Or does it speak to us? Do our circumstances define us? Or does what God's words say define us? Are we led by the spirit? Or are we led by flesh? Let's look in scripture and glean from it We see in Numbers, Numbers , Moses strikes the rock. Then Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock and he said to them, here now you rebels, shall we bring water for you out of this rock? And Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock with his staff twice and water came out abundantly and the congregation drank and their livestock. Now, wait a minute. He struck it. Now we see in Exodus seventeen that he struck the rock and did as he was commanded. But. what did God tell him to do now? Did Moses lean on his own understanding? Did he get comfortable with following God all these years, all those years, and acted out of something in the past and didn't recognize God was doing a new thing? And it was about obeying God to a T, no matter how many years you've served God, no matter how high you get on the platform, no matter how many sermons you've preached behind the pulpit, are you still sensitive to the leading of God by way of his spirit? And you see here in Numbers, let's start up at, oh, well, let's just start up at two. I'm sorry, I'm in Numbers twenty. I've been telling you wrong. Numbers twenty. It starts with the death of Miriam, but we're going to start with two. The waters of Meribah. Now there was no water for the congregation. And they assembled themselves together against Moses and against Aaron. And the people quarreled with Moses and said, would that we had perished when our brothers perished before the Lord. Why have you brought the assembly of the Lord into this wilderness that we should die here, both we and our cattle? So basically Moses was listening to the complaints of the people. And why have you made us come up out of Egypt to bring us to this evil place? Is it no place for grain or figs or vines or pomegranates? And there is no water to drink. Then Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly to the entrance of the tent of meeting and fell on their knees. So they fell on their knees, started praying, kind of got alone with God. But were they truly listening? Did they let go of everything they were carrying at the feet? of Jesus. Did they call out to God and leave it all there and say, cleanse me, God, cleanse me of me, cleanse me of me wanting to do my own will. Cleanse me, God. Get anything out of me, God, that's going to hinder me, that's not of you, God. I recognize, God, in this situation that I'm angry or that I'm frustrated or that I'm upset, and I rebuke those negative spirits. God, help me. God, help me. And the glory of the Lord appeared to them, and the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Take the staff and assemble the congregation. you and Aaron, your brother, and tell the rock before their eyes to yield its water. So the Lord told Moses in this case to speak to the rock. He didn't tell him to strike the rock. He told him to speak to the rock. So you shall bring water out of the rock for them and give drink to the congregation and their cattle. And Moses took the staff from before the Lord as he commanded him. So then we go down and we see, Then Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock. And he said to them, Here now, you rebels, shall we bring water for you out of this rock? And Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock with his staff twice. And water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank. and their livestock. And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, because you did not believe in me, you didn't believe in me, you didn't have faith in me, to uphold me as holy in the eyes of the people of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land that I have given them. These are the waters of Meribah, where the people of Israel quarreled with the Lord, and through them he showed himself holy." Wow. So because of this, Moses could not go on in. He couldn't go in. Wow. See that right there? The land that I've given them into that promised land. Wow. He couldn't go. Wow. Are you saying no to something that God's telling you to say yes to? Are you obeying God exactly as he's commanding? Are you listening truly? Are you fully surrendered and submitted? Are you rebelling against what he's called you to do? Has he told you to speak to a rock and you're striking it? Has he? God spoke the world into existence. His words have power. Our words have power. Are we speaking to a problem and showing it the size of our God? and letting our God fight our battles? Or are we in our own strength trying to fight a battle that wasn't ours to fight? Are we using our faith? You either have a spirit of faith or you have a spirit of fear. And we don't have fear as believers. We have power, love, and a sound mind. Come out of an agreement that you may have made spiritually that's causing you to continue a path of rebellion and sin and be disobedient. Get along with Father. and ask him. Truly sit with him with no distractions and see if you're saying yes to what he wants you to say yes to and no to what he wants you to say no to. We have to have an ear for God's voice, the Holy Spirit, that still small voice leading us. so that we can truly follow him this season, even in the smallest detail. Did Moses get tired? Did he act out of frustration? Did he get in a routine? You know, did he lose his fear of God? We have to have a holy fear of God. God anoints us. God appoints us. And God can move us out of a situation, out of an assignment that he's given us. If we become prideful, disobedient, acting from a sinful nature instead of being fully submitted and surrender to God. This is a season of surrendered obedience to the call God's placed on your life. Wow. Wow. It just, I mean, you kind of look at it and go, kind of what was the big deal? I mean, he had struck the rock in the past, right? Holy Spirit, help me, Holy Spirit. He struck the rock in the past back in Exodus, and it was okay there. He did what God told him to do there. But he didn't tell him to do it now. He told him to speak to it. Speak to it. Speak to it. Prophetic words have power. They're alive and ongoing and we aren't to lean on our own understanding. We must speak and do exactly as God is commanding us to do in this season. The deception is so great. The distractions are so great. We can't act out of frustration or anger. We have to act from a place of surrendered obedience. Truly, truly being a soldier submitted to the authority of our commander in chief. Jesus came to do the will of father. He made that very clear. And when you saw him, you saw the father. We have to be about the father's business. We have to be about the father's business. His time is running out. And Jesus is coming for his bride. And so we have to be about his business, recognizing that there's a lot of souls that still need to come into the kingdom of God. There's a lot of work that still needs to be done to establish the kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven. Are we striking something when God's telling us to speak to something? Again, are we acting in our own strength or in the strength of God? We go to Joshua six and we look at the fall of Jericho. And that's one reason for the graphic obedience and faith. They're marching around the walls of Jericho. So let's look at this in scripture. And by the way, I'm reading out of the English Standard Version. Joshua six. Now Jericho was shut up inside and outside because of the people of Israel. None went out and none came in. And the Lord said to Joshua, see, I have given Jericho into your hand with its king and mighty men of valor. You shall march around the city, all the men of war going around the city once. Then shall you do for six days. Thus shall you do for six days. seven priests shall bear seven trumpets of ram's horns before the ark on the seventh day you shall march around the city seven times and the priest shall blow the trumpets and when they make a long blast with the ram's horn when you hear the sound of the trumpet then all the people shall shout with a great shout see that then all the people shall shout with a great shout and the wall of the city will fall down flat and the people shall go up everywhere everyone straight before him. So you see that? And when they made a long blast, when you hear the sound of the trumpet, then all the people shall shout with a great shout. They marched around, but God told them, don't speak until he told them to. And then when he told them to shout, So they used the voice to bring down a giant. He wanted Moses to use a voice to produce a flow of water from the rocks. Are you speaking to your giant, showing them the size of your God? showing that problem the size of your God so you could have the living water flow over that problem. And you have a river of peace, a river of joy. Can you see God working in the midst of your trial? Are you submitted and surrendered fully to where when he tells you to speak to something, you speak to it? When he tells you to go somewhere, you go? The walls of Jericho came down because the people followed to a T, to a T, God's commands. And they got the victory. Are we following God as He wants us to do? Excuse me as I'm reaching for my third Bible. He gives me these. I never, I just flow with the Spirit. Holy Spirit, help me. Are you recognizing the importance Of obeying God even in the smallest detail. Moses couldn't go in the promised land. Because he hit and struck a rock. And didn't speak to it. We need to understand that heaven's ways. Are higher than our ways. Trumpet. Can be a prophetic voice that's sounding. And what is the prophet's voice? It's speaking for God. It's speaking on behalf of God. We're speaking God's words to bring down a giant. And God's word is alive. It's living. It has eternal ramifications. Are we speaking to giants with the word of God that's living so that it is eternally present? Never ever dying. Are we trying to build things and do things in our own strength out of carnality that are not eternal? that are doing nothing to advance the kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven. Are we maturing in Christ, moving from milk to meat, understanding supernatural ramifications for things that we are doing? Even if we don't understand it because heaven's ways are higher than our ways. but we have to trust God. And if He tells us to speak, we need to speak. If He tells us to hit it, we need to hit it. We don't need to question. We don't need to complain. We just need to say, yes, Father. Do you think in the military, if your general told you to do something and you as a lieutenant a private, a lower ranking individual told that general or did something that the general told you not to do? You think he'd be pleased with you? We are under authority from our supreme leader, God. Our God that sent his only son to die so we could have life. No one fully could comprehend what Jesus came to do until it was done. He rose again and the Holy Spirit showed up in that mighty rushing wind. You may not understand what he's telling you to do, why he tells you to go to a place, why he tells you to speak a word, even if you don't believe anybody's listening. The outcome is not up to us. We don't need to rely on our own strength. We have to be led by God, by the Spirit of God, down to the last detail in this season. And Father took me to, he took me to Psalm and he wanted to remind me that our strength comes from his presence, from him, from obeying him. And the theme of this is God's living presence is our greatest joy. His radiant presence helps us grow in strength, grace, and glory. We have to rely on God, on his spirit. Let the spirit guide us, recognizing in his strength, we overcomes. in His strength, in His power. It's Him. We are nothing without Him. We have to obey God and lead by way of submission to being led by His Spirit, coming under the Lordship of Jesus. How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord Almighty. My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the Lord. My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God. Even the sparrow has found a home and to swallow a nest for herself, where she may have her young, a place near your altar. O Lord Almighty, my King and my God. He's our King and our God. Blessed are those who dwell in your house. They are ever praising you. Blessed are those whose strength is in you, not in our own self, but our strength is in him. Who have set their hearts on pilgrimage as they pass through the Valley of Baca. They make it a place of springs. The autumn rains also cover it with pools. They go from strength to strength. till each appears before God in Zion. Hear my prayer, O Lord God Almighty. Listen to me, O God of Jacob, Selah. Look upon our shield, O God. Look with favor on your anointed one. Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked. For the Lord God is a sun and shield. The Lord bestows favor and honor. No good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless. O Lord Almighty, blessed is the man who trusts in you. And another word for trust is faith. Blessed is the man who puts their faith in God. When we look at the commentary, It says here, the writer long to get away from the bustling world to meet God. inside his dwelling place, his holy temple. We can meet God anywhere at any time, but we know that going into a church building can help us step aside from the busy mainstream of life so we can quietly meditate and pray. We find joy not only in the beautiful building, but also in the prayers, music, lessons, sermons, and fellowship. Are we in fellowship with other brethren? Are we getting alone with the Lord? Are we seeking quiet time? Are we getting alone with God? and seeking his will. Is he speaking to us? Are we listening? The pilgrimage to the temple passed through the barren valley of Baca. No specific valley has been identified with Baca because Baca can mean weeping. It may have been symbolic reference to the times of struggles and tears through which people must pass on their way to meet God. Growing strong in God's presence is often preceded by a journey through barren places in our lives. The person who loves to spend time with God will see his or her adversity as an opportunity to re-experience God's faithfulness. If you're walking through your own valley of back of today, be sure your pilgrimage leads towards God, not away from him. God does not promise to give us everything we think is good, but he will not withhold what is permanently good. He will give us the means to walk along his paths, but we must do the walking. When we obey him, he will not hold anything back that will help us serve him. But we must obey him with everything that we have and not lean on our own understanding. Now in closing, I want to point you to my latest book that Father the Holy Spirit downloaded and had me write. You can scan the barcode on the thumbnail too and go directly to it. It's The Rest of God. Obedience is the key to spiritual rest. This is a very quick read. It's ridiculously large print. It does not take you very long at all to read it, but In it, obviously, is a message that the Lord wanted you to receive as you surrender and submit to being led by Him, growing closer to Him, and maturing from milk to meat so that He can use you in a greater capacity for the kingdom of God this season and going forward. And I'm looking here And I turn to page, I believe this is the page he wants me to read. Yeah, this is page twenty nine. God is inviting you to have the same kind of surrendered faith today. Ask the Holy Spirit to give you spiritual ears to hear and eyes to see and the strength of Isaiah forty thirty one to carry out the purpose he has for your life. You are a purpose. You have a purpose and you will fulfill your kingdom purpose. I believe in you and the gifts he has placed inside of you. Yes, the unique version of yourself you see. Be that person and walk in your authentic self today. No longer bound, but free. It goes on to talk about obedience is relationship. In the last chapter, we gleaned from examples in scripture of radical obedience on the part of mere humans like yourself, not superheroes or the religious elite, just normal people who got hold of a word from God, trusted, believed and acted on the word, acted on the word, the word of God and acted on a word. God told Moses to speak to the rock. He told the people to shout, basically speaking for the walls of Jericho to fall down after they had marched according to his instructions. The word of God has power. It's our sword. Are we using it to destroy the enemy and the works of the enemy? God spoke the world into existence. When he wants us to speak to a problem, there is a reason. It's his word. It's his truth. The scriptures are alive. The word of God is alive. Jesus was the living word. Is he telling you to speak to a problem? Maybe speak scripture over it, his word and recognize something supernatural is going on and you need a supernatural tool to defeat it. Remembering Ephesians, we don't wrestle against flesh. Are you, is he telling you to speak to something and you're trying to take care of it in your own strength with your own actions? instead of just submitting and surrendering to him and resting and letting him take care of it? Let me read that again. In the last chapter, we glean from examples in scripture of radical obedience on the part of mere humans like yourself. not superheroes or the religious elite, just normal people who got a hold of a word from God, trusted, believed, and acted on the word. Are you acting? Are you doing as he's called you to do? He wants you to sit, ponder those questions, repent where you need to of disobedience, follow him, follow his prompting, submit and surrender, and be willing to be led by the Spirit of God, wherever it takes you, wherever it leads you. God bless you. God keep you. May his light shine upon you. And that's today's teaching, this message that he has for someone, or I wouldn't be doing it. Because remember, It's about obedience and faith. Obedience and faith. God bless you. God keep you. May his light shine upon you. Holy Spirit, come. Have your way. Help me to pray for them, Father. Strengthen them, Father, where they need strengthening. help them to let go thank you holy spirit help them to let go of something that they need to let go of in order to surrender and submit to you is there someone you're trying to prune out of their life is there someone that they need to rebuke Put first the kingdom of God and all else shall be given unto you. Give them the wisdom, the understanding and the knowledge, you know, when to resist, when to rebuke, when to stand firm, when to speak, when to strike. In the mighty name of Jesus, we pray and declare all things. And I just pray a blessing over them and your peace, Father God, over them. Fresh oil, Father. Fresh oil for them. Give them strength. Give them clarity. Declare yourself to them in new ways this day and every day. We love you, Jesus. I love you, Father. Thank you. Thank you, Holy Spirit. God bless you. God keep you. That's today's episode of the Reflective Spaces Ministry Podcast. I'm Evangelist Tammy Toney-Butler. Just sitting in his presence a couple more seconds before we close out. I just feel his presence. So strong. One moment in his presence changes everything. Thank you, Father. Thank you, Father. Thank you, Father. Thank you, Holy Spirit. Thank you. There's healing in that presence. Just sit in it right now. There's no separation in the spirit. It doesn't matter where you are. You can receive that healing. You can receive his truth. You can speak his word to that giant you're facing and bring down the walls of Jericho. Glory be to Jesus. Glory be to Jesus. Glory be to Jesus. God bless you. God keep you. That's all he has for you today.