THE NEVERTHELESS OF OBEDIENCE
By Mark Rutland

We often labor under the burdensome illusion that all obedience must be
joyful. "Be crucified upside down? Oh, thank You, Lord. Gladly, Lord. Ha,
ha, what could be better?"

Don't be absurd. There are places to which He leads or calls us, burdens
He may ask us to heft and obligations so strenuous that they make no more
sense to us than fishing in the daylight did to Peter.

It is, despite what they say, permissible to explain things to God.
Apparently Jesus did not understand the situation, and Peter took pains to
clarify it for Him. You can, too. God will let you talk.

"Lord, I know You said to invite my neighbor to church, but he is an
atheist--a very disagreeable atheist."

"Lord, I know You said to forgive my mother-in-law, but You have not met
my mother-in-law."

"Stand up and walk? Can't You see, Lord, that my legs are twisted and
useless?"

God is big. He is neither destroyed nor dissuaded by our objections,
complaints and explanations. Tell Him all about it.

When you are completely finished, however, and He just sits there in the
other end of the boat staring at you, a decision must be made. God will
listen, but He will never argue. He just sits there trailing His finger in
the water while He studies your face. He has told you what to do. You have
told Him why it makes no sense. Now, what do you say?

The bridge between our discouragement and God's will is "nevertheless,"
and on the other side are the bulging nets of His bounty. The "nevertheless"
of naked obedience unlocks more miracles than we can imagine.

When Peter pulled up the nets, they were miraculously filled. This is not
to say that we should try to hold God to a bargain. "All right, I'll obey,
but these nets better be full!"

Nonsense! He speaks; we obey-period. Having said that, however, it must be
added that obedience unlocks miracles. Frequently, the more unlikely the
command, the greater the miracle.

Do not look at the sun on the lake or at the improbability of the catch.
Look beneath the surface. See with the eyes of faith, and throw out the net.
First comes "nevertheless." Then comes the miracle.

There will come a point, sometimes an excruciatingly painful point, where
we, in one end of the boat, will stare into the steady eyes of Christ as He
sits calmly in the other end and summons us to acts of obedience, ministry
or sacrifices that fly in the face of all natural reason. These will never
be the mad impulses of the emotionally unbalanced. Some misguided soul with
a religious spirit will occasionally wade out to his death and leave a note
on the shore claiming God told him to walk on water. That's the nevertheless
not of faith, but of presumption.

When mature, seasoned saints have wrestled through and gotten a word from
God, when they have said it all, argued with God, offered up all their
objections and God is still steadfast, then only one word will serve to move
from reluctance to action. Remember, you do not have to understand it or
relish it, or even like it. You just have to cast the net anyway.

Been hearing from God for a tough and seemingly unrealistic task? Be of
good comfort. You are in good company.

Moses was a speech-impaired octogenarian when God called him back to Egypt
where there was a price on his head. Abraham was a married man with
obligations when God called him to leave it all without even knowing the
destination. David Wilkerson was the pastor of a rural church with no
inner-city experience when God called him to work with gangs in New York
City. And no one, not even a nun named Teresa, wanted to care for the
filthy, terminally ill of India.

"Lord, Peter was different from us."

"No, he wasn't."

"What about Joshua? He was different, right?"

"Wrong."

"Paul?"

"Nope."

"Elijah?"

"Just like you."

"Well, why did they get all those miracles?"

"Because when I commanded, they answered."

"What did they say, Lord?"

"NEVERTHELESS."

When you are too tired, too old, too young, too impoverished, or too bound
up by obligations to obey a calling of God, let Him hear all about it. Tell
Him about your long, dark night of fruitless fishing. Tell Him that your
back hurts and your arms are sore, and that, anyway, fish don't bite in the
daytime on your particular lake and that you are surprised He doesn't know
that. Tell Him all that.

Then look into His wonderful, calm, unruffled eyes and say:

"Nevertheless, at Thy word..."


Adapted from "Nevertheless: The Most Powerful Word You Can Use to Defeat
the Enemy" by Mark Rutland, copyright 2001. Published by Charisma House.
With this one unassuming word, Jesus freed us and revealed the love of God.
He captured the power of it in the Garden of Gethsemane when He faced the
cross with reluctance yet chose the Father's will over His own. That one
word--"nevertheless"--saved a race that did not deserve saving. Learn how
you can use it to confuse the enemy and step into your destiny by clicking
here:  http://www.strang.com/tk.cgi?slw8472