1 - Introduction - Living like a real Christian Gifts of the Spirit, The final say | Page 9

elders of our church, are convinced that the local church, when it is
functioning as it should, is indeed the hope of the world.
Prayer Thought: We all need to take responsibility for certain things.
There is one universal requirement for all of us and that is that we be
people of compassion. Could it be that you might need to pray that God
would break your heart, as He did with Nehemiah’s, because if He does I
know for sure that this will motivate you to use your gifts to the full.

Friday
Matthew 21 v 28 – 32
The next motivation to move us into action and use our spiritual gifts in the
context of the local church is through SIMPLE OBEDIENCE.
As I read the Bible I cannot help but notice that there is no substitute for
simple obedience. Anyone who was ever anyone in the Bible learnt this
lesson that to obey is better than sacrifice (1 Samuel 15 v 22). We read in
the Scriptures so many radical obedience stories. We read the story of
Noah who obeyed God and built the Ark. We read of Abraham who obeyed
God and left his home. We read of Moses who obeyed God when he raised
his stick to part the Red Sea. Obedience is always the key to the
supernatural unleashing of God’s power and is also the prerequisite to find
God’s blessing. Sometimes the things that God asks us to do don’t always
make sense, but that’s ok, we need to obey anyway.
In Luke 5 we have a great example of this. We find Peter with a few of his
friends, fishing. They had been fishing all night and had caught nothing.
Jesus arrived on the sea shore and asked them how they were doing. They
replied that they had been fishing all night and still had nothing to show for
it. Jesus then commands them to throw their nets onto the other side into
deeper water. Peter’s response was unique; his reply to Jesus was simply
“Because you say so, we will do it.” I am sure the other disciples were
ready to rationalise with Jesus with comments like, “We’ve been fishing all
night, what will one more cast do? There are no fish here and we have
fished this whole area!” or “We’re exhausted, we just want to go home.”
But through the act of Peter’s simple obedience the supernatural hand ???)??????????????????????????????????((0