Belief is Obedience, Obedience is Love

UV 1673/10000 Belief is Obedience, Obedience is Love.
For, lo, I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel among all nations, like as corn is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not the least grain fall upon the earth.
Amos 9 v 9

The Lord sifts, winnows and separates the corn and grain from the chaff. He begins with the house of Israel, the believers to purify and separate them to Him as a holy and peculiar people- a royal priesthood. Applying knowledge to work is like applying manure and fertilizer along with pesticides to a growing plant. The true and ultimate knowledge and wisdom is contained in the Word. We need to apply the Word to the world to understand it. We need to apply the Word to our work so that we excel in it. We need to apply the Word to our worship so that it is elevated and acceptable to the Lord. When we do these three applications on a consistent basis, we will produce abundant grain. The commands of the Lord are the furrows that is ploughed in our lives while the promises of the Lord are the seed that are sowed therein.

Grace is needed to produce lasting and good grain. When we willingly use the Word as a sieve, the Lord is not compelled to sift us with the sieve of experiences and afflictions. We are conditioned from birth and upbringing to always focus on race. It is ingrained in us to compete with others even as Jacob competed not only with his brother Esau but also with the angel of the Lord. We need to OBEY the promises of God that we need to rely on His grace When we learn the commands of the Lord from His Word and believe His promises for believing is reckoned by Him as perfect obedience. Disbelief is disobedience and it invites the Lord to use harsher methods of sifting and winnowing us. When we disbelieve and disobey it displeases the Lord and He will not allow a grain to fall in the ground, multiply and bear fruit. Believing is obedience, obedience is love, love produces spiritual fruit and grain that is pleasing to the Lord.

Sin or hamartia, shortcoming or failure, moral, spiritual and personal, sticks to us like a leech with multiple suck pads. A leech can be forced to release its clutches on us only by the application of the Word. It is the Word alone that makes us salty, tasty and productive. It is the Word that turns the bitterness of life into the sweetness of finest honey. We stop distrusting the Lord and begin to love Him as we taste of His abundant grace.

Prateep V Philip