Obedience Is Better Than Sacrifice

The words, “Obedience is better than sacrifice,” just dropped into me. I never realized how often I think sacrificing things will tide God over more than simply obeying Him. Going on this fast was definitely an act of obedience for me. This is not something that my physical body was longing to do. This wasn’t something that my mind was telling me to do. This was purely from God’s Spirit to mine.

Over the past 7 days, I haven’t had any incredibly prophetic dreams or visions. Which honestly surprised me a bit. I guess I was assuming that if I did “such and such” that God would do “this and that.” Don’t you just love how we try to formulate everything? Lord, forgive me of always speculating or trying to figure out exactly how You’re going to move! Even though I haven’t had anything happen the way I thought they would happen this week, I know the spiritual atmosphere is charged!! Yesterday, after fasting for 6 days, my body was weak. I found myself to be somewhat grouchy with an extremely growly stomach. At first I thought, “I’m just hungry. No big deal.” That was until we arrived at church and began warming up for worship. It seems that each of us were “under the gun” so to speak. We each were really in a battle… and we honestly didn’t even realize it until we finally gathered in a circle to pray. That’s when the scales came off and we realized that we were in a war zone. The worship was under attack. Now I’m not one to look for demons around every corner… but I can say without hesitation, this was straight from the pit of hell! At that moment we realized that God was requiring us to lay down our skills, our talents and listen to Him and completely trust Him to do what only He can do; change hearts and literally do surgery on people as they entered into His presence. We were being called to carry the weight of the Presence of God like the Levites of old and not try to push it along. Out of that time of worship came a flood of people who needed God desperately to move in their lives. I’m talking some deep junk that only God can fix.

Yeah. I’ve made my flesh uncomfortable over the past few days, but it has fine-tuned my spirit so that I can hear the Spirit of God more clearly. My spiritual ears were kind of like a radio that had been tuned in between two stations. I was hearing both stations clashing with one another and lots of static until I was “tuned into” one specific station. Now it’s coming in loud and clear. Now, I can hear what God is saying to me specifically and what God is saying to others who come and need me to minister and pray with them. I can sacrifice my time, energy, money, etc. until I have nothing left to give. But if I’m not obeying God, what good is my sacrifice?