The Source of Power: Obedience

 

Where does authority come from?

Where does power come from?

What gives you the power to default on your debts, withdraw your consent to be governed?

What gives you the authority to convict judges, legislators, lawyers, and sheriff of criminal activity?

Many look to man-made institutions like Congresses, Parliaments, Courtrooms, offices, and titles, but the authority to speak the truth to institutions of power does not come from these places. It comes from one’s obedience to Natural Law and Nature’s God. 

Those, even those of no earthly consequence, the poor, weak, the meek, and the humble who submit to God, are endowed with His authority. When they speak truth, God speaks through them. 

Those, even those with great earthly esteem and renowned, who rebel against God are nothing. When they speak it is less than wind and only of consequence to other fools, the silent and the immoral. 

If we hope to have authority and power, we must be obedient to God alone. Jesus is our example here. 

Obedience was His Purpose: He said in John 6:38 “For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me.”

Obedience was His Power: He said in John 5:30 “I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me.” 

Obedience was His Passion: He said in John 14:31 “But I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father.”

Obedience is What Got Jesus Into Trouble: The apostle Paul wrote in Philippians 2:8 “he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”

Obedience is What Got Jesus Into Heaven: Hebrews 12:2 says “For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

Obedience is What Made Jesus King of kings: Revelation 19:16 says “And on His robe and on His thigh He has a name written, “KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.” 

Obedience is What Unites Us To Jesus: He says in John 14:23 “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.”

Obedience is What Brings Us To The Father: He said in John 14:6 “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

Therefore do not be like those lawless men who prattle with no authority, disobedient and proud. They will be like those Jesus warned about in Matthew 7:21-23:

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

Jeremiah 16:9-13

For this is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Before your eyes and in your days I will bring an end to the soundsof joy and gladness and to the voices of bride and bridegroom in this place.

“When you tell these people all this and they ask you, ‘Why has the Lord decreed such a great disaster against us? What wrong have we done? What sin have we committed against the Lord our God?’then say to them, ‘It is because your ancestors forsook me,’ declares the Lord, ‘and followed other gods and served and worshiped them. They forsook me and *did not keep my law.* But you have behaved more wickedly than your ancestors. See how all of you are following the stubbornness of your evil hearts *instead of obeying me.* So I will throw you out of this land into a land neither you nor your ancestors have known, and there you will serve other gods day and night, for I will show you no favor.’

Mediate on those two phases 

“Did not keep my law”

“Instead of obeying me”

This is about being a lawman. 

Few understand this.

Instead humble yourself. Say this prayer: 

Father in Heaven, Righteous and Good Judge of All, have mercy on me, a sinner. I have disobeyed your law. I have lied, I have evaded, I have used your good gifts without gratitude, and I have loved them more than I have loved you. I have been a spoiled child and have harbored in my heart and mind evil thoughts and acted in evil ways. In fear, I have hidden from you. In pain, I have resisted your light. In malice, I have attacked your light bearers. I have not been a good steward of my mind, of my body, or of my responsibilities to this world, including my fellow human beings. I have loved my status with the world more than my duty to you. I have not trusted you in your providence, even though you are God and I am dust. I have used empty promises to defraud my neighbors and have been defrauded in return. I have traded in empty currencies, appealing to the needs of my stomach, my life, and the needs of others as reasons to accept these monetary lies. I have thought my judgements superior to yours, without reason and in irreconcilable pride. I have done what I shouldn’t have done and have not done what I should have done. When you have disciplined me in my failure to obey, I have damned you, I blamed others, I condemned your world, and belittled myself. I have crucified everything but my sin. Forgive me lord. I have nothing to offer you but my repentance and my obedience. Lord God most pure and gracious, so that all may know your unerring justice and your amazing grace, remove my sins from me and separate them as far as the east is from the west. By your own grace and love, count you Son Christ’s righteousness as my own and his death as the payment for my guilt. For the sake of your great name and so that all may know the riches of your Grace, clothe me in your righteousness and bring me into the radiant light of your Son, Jesus Christ. Amen.

After you’ve confessed your sins, consider becoming a Lawman today. Take the lawman’s oath on the International Freedom Forum and let’s model ourselves and others by the purpose, power, and passion of The Lawman Jesus Christ and hope in the inheritance that awaits us. 

https://t.me/InternationalFreedomForum

Lawman’s Oath: