Obey Your Way Into Clarity

There is a battle for clarity among the people of God today because there is a war being waged to keep our ears from His voice. The Lord is speaking, boldly declaring His truth, His direction, and His promises into our lives. However, if the enemy can keep us sidetracked in some way so that the voice of the Lord is drowned out, we will become bound by our inability to navigate the will and plan of God for our lives.

Why Clarity is Needed

Clarity is what we need most. It is easy to go in the right direction in life when you can clearly see the signposts along the road. Anyone can find their way when the signs point in the right direction, but it is in those moments of fear, when we don’t clearly know what to do, that we either make mistakes or become immobile and refuse to move.

Do not be surprised by what is happening around you right now. There is a fight against His sheep hearing His voice. When we hear the voice of the Lord both individually and corporately as the church, we will have the assurance to move into new territory and greater realms of God’s grace and glory.

The Lord Wants You to Move

Can I just tell you that the Lord doesn’t want you to be stuck anymore? He wants you to move. Jesus wants you to move forward in the plan and purpose of God for your life and experience the victory of walking in His divine favor and blessings. So how do we begin to gain clarity when everything seems to oppose it? How are we supposed to unlock the secrets of the Lord when we do not know what to do next?

The Bible tells us a powerful principle in the Book of Deuteronomy.

Deuteronomy 29:29 NKJV

[29] "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."

Make no mistake, God never tells us the entire plan. There are some secrets that the Lord keeps tucked away in His heart because if He revealed everything, we would surely make a mess of things. We would resist leaning in and depending on the Holy Spirit as our guide. Our choices would be based on what we think is best instead of following the Lord into the promise at His pace and in His way.

However, there are secrets of the Lord that reach their moment of revelation. God unveils pieces of His plan to our hearts, and once this happens, the revelation of the heart of God becomes a signpost leading toward His promise and the outcomes He intends for us and those we will impact as we follow Jesus. Notice that the scripture says, “…that we may do all the words of this law.” When the Lord reveals something to our hearts, it is for the purpose of leading us to action. For the Old Testament saint, it was so they could follow the law. For the New Testament believer in Jesus, the revelation of God’s heart is so we can follow the Shepherd who perfectly obeyed all the words of the law.

So the battle for clarity is the struggle to keep us from hearing the revelation of God’s heart for ourselves, because when we are deadlocked in uncertainty, we don’t move with the Lord.

The Word from the Lord: Obey Your Way Into Clarity

With this being said, the Lord dropped a word into my heart not many days ago. See, I have needed some clarity myself, and He had a reminder for me. This may not seem intuitive at first, but when you think about it for a moment, it begins to make perfect sense.

Here’s the word: Obey your way into clarity.

Another way to say it is: obedience brings clarity.

To what am I supposed to be obedient? We are to obey what we already know to be true from the Lord. The truth is this: so many believers want the Lord to speak into their situations, yet they are lost in a fog that muffles His voice because they refuse to obey the very last clear commands they heard.

You need to know that if you lay aside what you already know you are supposed to do, while hoping for the Lord to speak into other areas of your life, generally He won’t do it. There may be several unrelated areas that we really need the Lord to address, and He will not speak into any of them until we become obedient in the area or areas where we already know what to do.

Obedience Demonstrates Humility

Obedience in the revealed purpose, direction, or plan of God for our lives demonstrates humility. This theme of humility is an ongoing lesson in my life, as He seeks to teach me something that will move my own life forward. But we all need greater humility.

That being said, there is a rich, long history in scripture of God’s people obeying their way into clarity. Why? Because obedience requires humble submission if it is to be genuine heart obedience. When the Lord can trust us to willingly obey His commands and His personal words to us, clarity comes quickly.

Types of Words from the Lord that He uses to instruct us or lead us:

There are a variety of words from the Lord that He uses to instruct us and lead us.

Instructional words do exactly what the name implies. They provide us with clear instructions about what to do in a given context. Noah received very clear instructional words about what to do.

Encouraging words uplift us when we are in the heat of battle or trial. They can come at just the right time to keep us from quitting. Sometimes encouraging words help us take heart when it might be easier to lose hope. Joshua received a word like this.

Joshua 1:9 NKJV

[9] Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go."

Empowering words fill you with strength to move forward and do the work the Lord has set before you. I believe Nehemiah received a word in his spirit that he then spoke back to his naysayers.

Nehemiah 6:3 NKJV

[3] So I sent messengers to them, saying, "I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down. Why should the work cease while I leave it and go down to you?"

Warning words from the Lord keep us safe from outcomes that could cause personal or corporate destruction or tragedy in our lives. Warnings from God can seem like judgments, but they are intended to lead us into His mercy and grace. David received a word like this from Nathan the prophet.

2 Samuel 12:7,13 NKJV

[7] Then Nathan said to David, "You are the man! Thus says the LORD God of Israel: 'I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul. [13] So David said to Nathan, "I have sinned against the LORD." And Nathan said to David, "The LORD also has put away your sin; you shall not die.

God also gives loving and relational words. We see Jesus in the Gospels speaking to His disciples about the love of God and the fatherly nature of God. In this, we understand that the Lord is love and longs for a relationship with us.

Then, there are some words from the Lord that come as a command with promises attached to them. These sorts of words require something from us: obedience.

The Enemy Fights Your Clarity

This last kind of word is what I want to focus on because, if we are in a place where we lack clarity, chances are it will be due to negligence regarding a command word that has a promise attached to it. Why? Because we often focus so much on the promise that we forget it is contingent on our obedience to the command. Additionally, the devil is skilled at keeping our eyes on what God hasn’t done yet, instead of praising the Lord for what He has already accomplished. We need to praise the Lord for what he has done, instead of focusing on what He hasn’t done yet.

The enemy of your soul will fight against clarity in any revelatory word from God that brings breakthrough and allows you to move forward. That lack of clarity we often feel about what to do arises when we feel stuck.

You might be able to hear the Lord speaking to you very clearly in one area, yet seem completely unable to hear His voice in another area.

I have experienced this so many times as a pastor because, on one hand, I must hear His voice about what to say to the church, as this is my calling. God gives me clear words to preach; yet personally, as an individual believer, there are times I struggle, like you do, to hear a word about my own condition.

We see even in King David the ability to hear the Lord regarding battle and victory; yet personally, he seemed totally deaf to the voice of God speaking about his sin with Bathsheba until God sent a prophet. Let me also remind you that David was very astute and knowledgeable about the nature and character of the Lord. This tells us that knowledge alone does not save us, but encounters with the voice and presence of the Lord.

Examples of Obeying Into Clarity

That being said, there are three great examples of leaders who obeyed their way into clarity. First of all is Abraham. He is the father of faith. Abraham’s most powerful redeeming quality is that he believed the word of God. Hebrews gives us a glimpse of Abraham’s faith.

Hebrews 11:8 NKJV

[8] By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going.

This verse is vital to understand when we are seeking clarity from God in our lives. Abraham obeyed. God gave him a word, and he simply went out and did it. He didn’t ask about the outcome or the process. He didn’t question the validity of God’s voice. He did not try to rationalize or reach a logical conclusion. Can I say to you that God’s commands very often are not logical or rational? He is looking for people who will take Him at His revealed word and just obey it. That’s what Abraham did. The inheritance was the promise, but to attain it, Abraham had to obey and go out even though he didn’t know where he was going.

This obedience was humbling and made Abraham dependent on the daily leading of the Lord in his life. He obeyed his way into clarity and made it into the faith hall of fame!

Next we find Noah. He received not only a word of warning but also a command and an instructional message. God told Noah to build an ark even though it had never rained a drop in history. Yet Noah didn’t view God’s command or instruction from a logical perspective. Instead, the Bible says Noah moved with fear and built an ark to save his family. He faced 120 years of ridicule and mockery with little encouragement along the way other than his original word from God. Not to mention, to any outsider from the faith, and maybe even to Noah, this word from God probably seemed both humbling and intimidating, as well as crazy from a rational standpoint.

Lastly, there is Moses. Moses was called to lead a nation into freedom based on the fact that he witnessed a miracle on the backside of the desert and received a word from God that required obedience. What I love about him is that Moses didn’t stay silent. He questioned God intensely and even expressed his reasons for why the Lord should not have chosen him, yet the Lord was big enough to handle all of Moses’s logic. In the end, Moses simply obeyed. His obedience earned him the title of deliverer. It wasn’t that Moses was the greatest speaker or had all the answers. His clarity and victory came as he obeyed the Lord step by step.

What about you?

So where is your life at right now? Are you bogged down by a lack of clarity that feels like a fog over your life? Are there areas where you can hear the Lord’s voice, but others where He seems silent?

Let me encourage you to step back and consider what the Lord has already spoken to you. Ask the Lord to remind you of any word you’ve not been obedient to or a place where you have neglected full obedience.

Any time we neglect full obedience to the revealed word of the Lord in our lives, it opens the door to fear, which clouds our ability to hear God clearly. Obedience sets us back on the right path and closes the door to fear so that the power, love, and sound mind of God come through loud and clear.

Here’s my prayer for you, will you agree with me?

”Father, in the name of Jesus I ask you to bring clarity into my life and open up my heart to receive all the direction that will help me to bring glory to your name. I declare by faith that the Hoy Spirit will help me be in the right place at the right time.”

Blessings,

Larry & Amanda Shankle