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“And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and to love Him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul,”
Deuteronomy 10:12
God’s requirements are the things that would make our experience with Him a fruitful and productive one. There is a portion of the Bible that says His requirements are not grievous or burdensome. 1 John 5:3 says “For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome.” In other words, His commandments are not something that we cannot bear or comply with. Jesus said in Matthew 11:30 that “my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” That is to further tell us that the things of God are not burdensome.
So, the things that God is asking us to do so that we can please Him and walk with Him acceptably are not burdensome things. They are what we can bear and follow through with and today, I want to show us 4 Principles to walking with God acceptably in the forth coming year.
1. The Principle of Waiting on God Continually!
So you, by the help of your God, return;
Observe mercy and justice,
And wait on your God continually.Hosea 12:6
To wait on God simply means to wait on His timing. Why? Because God’s time is different from our own time. As a matter of fact, God is not bound by our own time. God does not run with the regular dates and time that we run in this world. He is never bound by our calendar. For us to know this, 2 Peter 3:8 tells us “But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” But there is another twist to this assertion. God can step into our own time to achieve something that He’s set to achieve in our lives. Although He isn’t bound by our time, but He can step in time to rescue us. In Genesis 18:10-14, God said to Abraham:
And He said, “I will certainly return to you according to the time of life, and behold, Sarah your wife shall have a son.” (Sarah was listening in the tent door which was behind him.) 11 Now Abraham and Sarah were old, well advanced in age; and Sarah had passed the age of childbearing. 12 Therefore Sarah laughed within herself, saying, “After I have grown old, shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also?” 13 And the Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh, saying, ‘Shall I surely bear a child, since I am old?’ 14 Is anything too hard for the Lord? At the appointed time I will return to you, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son.”
Abraham and Sarah had been waiting on God twenty five years concerning the promise of a child. When God was ready, He stepped into time, even though He was not bound by it and then fulfilled His promise to them. This is the reason why we must wait on the Lord continually.
To wait on God simply means never to go too fast ahead of Him or too slow behind Him. He said to Abraham, “walk before me and be perfect.” There is a difference between “to walk before” and “to walk ahead of.” When you walk ahead, you are way too far. But when you walk before, it means you are within his eyes. He can always see you when He looks for you. There was never going to be any reason for God to have asked Adam, “where are you” if Adam had remained before Him. Adam went far ahead, and so, God lost track of Him and he also lost track of God.
Listen to Podcast: How To Walk With God Acceptably In The New Year
The Benefits of Waiting On God
A number of things happen when you wait on the Lord. Number one, your salvation and your expectation comes from waiting on God. Psalms 62:1&5 tells us:
Truly my soul silently waits for God;
From Him comes my salvation. My soul, wait silently for God alone,
For my expectation is from Him.
Salvation is certain when we wait on God. Also, your expectations shall never be cut short when you wait on God (Proverbs 23:18). Many things you are trusting God for in the new year would be released to you in the place of waiting on Him. And this is why it is expedient for you to remain in His plans and will for your life.
Number two, waiting on God brings about strength. In Isaiah 40:31, the Scripture says:
But those who wait on the Lord
Shall renew their strength;
They shall mount up with wings like eagles,
They shall run and not be weary,
They shall walk and not faint.
If you want to operate in a kind of strength that is beyond this physical realm, then you must cultivate the habit of waiting on God. No wonder the Psalmist insisted that we must wait on God. David wrote in Psalms 27:14, it says:
Wait on the Lord;
Be of good courage,
And He shall strengthen your heart;
Wait, I say, on the Lord!
Sometimes we wonder how David was able to go through all that he went through without breaking apart, I bet this must have been one of his secrets, waiting on God continually. I want to implore us, that as we journey into the new year, this is one of the habits that we must cultivate. It is in the place of waiting that God reveals to us the secret things. Deuteronomy 29:29 says “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.” The question is: How did Moses receive the Law? Was it not in the place of waiting on God?
The Bible says for 40 days, he was on the mountain and God was revealing those things to him that he must pass across to the children of Israel. If you want to stay leading in your generation, if you want to lead your way through in the new year, if you want to be ahead of your peers and contemporaries, stay ahead of that industry; then you must cultivate waiting on God in this coming year.
2. The Principle of Reverence!
“And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God…”
Deuteronomy 10:12a
The principle of reverence is the principle of the fear of God. Now, the fear of God is not a negative kind of fear. There are two kinds of fear. There is a type of fear that brings about torment. This one is ministered by the devil and not God. This is the type of fear that Paul wrote to Timothy that God has not given us (2 Timothy 1:7). But the type of fear of God that we are talking about does not minister torment, rather, it ministers love. God wants you to fear Him because of the love He has for you.
You know, love has the capacity to breed contempt. You may so love someone to the point where you begin to disrespect him or her, and you may not know it. You see, God loves us so much, but He does not want us to treat Him with contempt. The essence of His love towards us is so that we can revere Him, and worship Him.
Benefits of the Fear of God
You see, the fear of God or the reverence of God takes you away from evil and sinful ways, and not push you towards it. Proverbs 8:13 tells us “The fear of the Lord is to hate evil; Pride and arrogance and the evil way and the perverse mouth I Hate.” The fear of God is to your advantage, and not to His own advantage because when you fear Him, you will be secured in His love. See what Psalms 25:14 says concerning the fear of God.
The secret of the Lord is with those who fear Him,
And He will show them His covenant.
In other words, when you fear the Lord, the Bible says He would show you His secret, and not just that, He would also show you His covenant. In other words, you would have access to everything that makes God, God! In the new year, make reverencing God your priority. Hallow His name more than anything or any of your pursuits, and you would see yourself walking with Him acceptably.
3. The Principle of Separation!
“Therefore
“Come out from among them
And be separate, says the Lord.
Do not touch what is unclean,
And I will receive you.”
“I will be a Father to you,
And you shall be My sons and daughters,
Says the Lord Almighty.”2 Corinthians 6:17-18
To be able to walk with God acceptably, one must learn to be able to separate himself or herself from everything that may hinder his or her acceptance by God. An example of what it means to separate oneself was what Daniel did in the land of Babylon. The Bible says he purposed in his heart that he would not partake of the delicacies of the king (Daniel 1:8). One of the decisions you must make going into the new year should be on how you can live a holy and consecrated life unto God.
I know many people struggle in this area of their lives, but it is something that can be achieved if only you would live a purposeful and separated life. The moment Daniel separated himself, the Bible says in the next verse that he received favor from the prince of the Eunuchs (verse 9). That means when you purposed in your heart as you journey towards the new year to live a separated life, one that is separated unto God; you would not lack favor.
But the principle of separation must begin from you purposing in your heart. It takes a purposeful heart to live a separated life. And because of this decision, the Bible says in verse 20 of Daniel 1. It says “And in all matters of wisdom and understanding about which the king examined them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and astrologers who were in all his realm.” The king found Daniel and his companions better off simply by living a separated life. Think about this as you go into the new year.
4. The Principle of Obedience!
In walking with God, obedience is a very fundamental key and principle that we must never joke with. God does not reckon with partial obedience, God reckons with full obedience. In 2 Corinthians 10:6, the Bible says “and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled.” God delights so much in obedience. God does not reckon much with complaints. When Moses was trying to complain to God, showing Him all the reasons why he won’t be able to go on the assignment He’s committing unto him; God said to him:
“So the Lord said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth? Or who makes the mute, the deaf, the seeing, or the blind? Have not I, the Lord? Now therefore, go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall say.”
Exodus 4:11-12
God said to Saul, go do this and that to the Amalekites. Saul obeyed, but his obedience was not total. It was a partial kind of obedience, and God severely dealt with him for that.
So Samuel said:
“Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices,
As in obeying the voice of the Lord?
Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice,
And to heed than the fat of rams.
23 For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft,
And stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry.
Because you have rejected the word of the Lord,
He also has rejected you from being king.”1 Samuel 15:22-23
And all over the Scriptures, from the Old Testament to the New Testament, there are advantages of fully obeying God. I pray that the Lord will help us in Jesus’ name.
Amen!
Source: [Centre for New Dimension Leadership]
