One of the most frustrating things a child hears from a parent is the dreaded phrase “because I said so”.  This is often a “go-to” response from parents when a child asks “why”, “why not”, or “how come”. Many times this response is because the child hasn’t lived long enough to fully comprehend the larger implication. Most times we simply aren’t looking for a debate and just need the child to obey what we have told them to do or not to do.

God works this way as well. He knows better than us. He knows what His plan is and does not invite debate. He only asks that we obey. However, there is another reason God asks us to obey Him: Trust. 

We know from Scripture that God’s plan for us is to prosper us not to harm us. The more we obey God, the more we experience with God, the more we experience with God, and we learn to trust God. And the more we trust God, the less we question and just obey.

So, when God tells us to do something or not do something, yes is the correct answer. The word obedience appears 12 times in the KJV version of the  New Testament. The word ‘obey’ appears 69 times. In John 14:15 Jesus said, “If you love me, obey my commands. 

Furthermore, in John 15:5-8, Jesus said, “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.”

Obedience and trust are foundational principles in discipleship. Simply put, if you don’t obey, you don’t grow. 

In Matthew 7:24 Jesus states: “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.” Notice two very important phrases – “hears these words” and “puts them into practice”.

In our training activities with the men who we serve we teach that the Bible teaches to not only hear God’s word but to obey it. Knowing Scripture is important but obedience requires words and deeds. Obedience means taking action. In our discipleship training, we are constantly teaching obedience through RICO and through HOST.

RICO stands for Radical, Immediate, Costly, Obedience. Teaching people to be obedient to Christ and then teach others to teach others how to be obedient to Christ. We know that anything of value comes with a cost and that includes obedience to God.

Think of Abraham. 

Abraham was called a friend of God. Abraham was going to sacrifice his beloved son Isaac because God told Him to and He was going to do it without question (even though it would break Abraham’s heart to lose his son). 

Abraham didn’t question God, didn’t debate God. Abraham trusted God and was prepared to sacrifice his son on the altar right up to the moment God told Abraham to stop. 

Abraham’s love, obedience, and trust were rewarded by God with a great nation coming from his line with “more descendants than stars in the sky”. 

When it comes to discipleship, Jesus gave us many commands but one Commission – go forth and make disciples. But not just making any type of disciple but an obedience-based disciple. An obedience-based disciple is one who knows that when God tells us to do or not to do something he or she knows the correct answer is “yes”.

One of the obedience-based discipleship tools we use in our training with the men is the 3Thirds Discipleship Study. This tool teaches believers how to Hear God’s Word, Obey God’s Word, Share God’s Word, and Train others to do the same. We use the acronym H.O.S.T. to help others easily remember this powerful disciple-making tool that will equip them to be a disciple who makes disciples who make disciples.

Recently God provided an opportunity to show the men we’re mentoring what RICO and HOST looks and acts like in real life.

A couple of Sundays ago Tony and I had 18 men from a low-security prison facility with us attending a church service at SECC. When attendees entered the church, every individual was handed an envelope. It was explained to all that the envelopes contained cash – $20, $50, $100 – and was not meant to be kept for ourselves but instead meant to be given to someone in need who would be blessed by it.

While eating lunch after church, we discussed with our volunteers and the men how we could use the money in the envelopes to be a blessing to others. Two men had received $100 in their envelopes, two men received $50 each, and the rest of them had $20 in their envelopes. The total in the envelopes was $580.Tony and I felt the Lord leading us to multiply that amount and we rounded it up to $900, giving each man $50 to use to bless others.

But here’s the challenging part – the great majority of these men who were handed envelopes don’t receive spending money from anyone – many of them are indigent – so these men don’t have money to buy necessities such as toothpaste, soap, deodorant, etc., and most of the men have only the clothes on their backs. And they had been instructed to give it away to bless someone when each man knew they could really use the cash themselves! 

We all prayed and asked God how He wanted to use the money in the envelopes. We felt the Lord leading us to put all the envelopes in a pile and share what was in them equally among the 18 men. Our discussions continued as the men had ideas of how we could help others (more on who and how we helped in a future post).

This is Mark 12:41-44 in action. “Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, ‘Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything – all she had to live on’.”

And this is the heart of obedience-based discipleship – your windfall is not necessarily for you; it is meant to be someone else’s blessing. Obey and trust in God He will give you to do in His name. This is critical for our spiritual growth and maturity as we walk with God. You don’t experience life in the spirit if you don’t do what the spirit says. The more you hear, the more you obey. The more of God you experience, the more you’ll experience God. 

Every Christian who gets to the point of obedience-based discipleship say they feel like they should be doing something more. The Holy Spirit is not along for the ride; He wants you to be along for the ride. 

And that means when God tells you to do something, “yes” is the correct answer. Because He said so. And that should be good enough for us.