God's Standard

What do you think happens when Michael, the Archangel, is asked by God to perform a certain task? How do you think God’s angel responds to God Most High? Immediate obedience, bowed knee, submissive posture with respect and proper attitude. Could you picture anything less? So... what do YOU expect when you ask a child, whether ages 1, 5, or 15 to do a certain task? Do you expect and carry through to have "on earth as it is done in heaven” in your specific home? (Matt. 6:10). Is that YOUR standard?? Do you tolerate or excuse whining, complaining, procrastination, emotions””REBELLION””from your child? If God doesn’t, neither should we. HOWEVER, it has become obvious in our midst that we have allowed a lower standard to creep in with a toehold. The ONLY gauge is: on earth as in heaven. GOD’S STANDARD must be kept consistently high across the board. Every area, every home, every attitude, every action of every child and every adult. Period. No less. This is God’s work for your life. Reverence and Obedience to God’s Word, thoroughly. Love Him and Follow through, Okay?? On Earth as it is done in Heaven!!!

(wondering if i can honestly say that His will is my constant standard for my life every day. Something i want to be praying about.)

i did not write the first part. i was sharing what i read someone else wrote. i was however convicted by it and am putting it to more prayer.

of course when we come to God He gives all we need so we can walk in obedience and submission to Him and His standard.

my thoughts on this are how does my life an attitude reflect living to His standard? in those areas where it doesn't I want to be in prayer and seeking Him until they do.

I smell legalism in that post sister ,to start with the bible says that babes in Christ don't yet know good from evil As a fully matured Saint ,babes develop a concence but a matured Saint has a developed and is expected to be a expression of the higher standard ,the bible talks about Paul saying he was labor eons with the imager till Christ be fully formed,and that he could not speak to some asspiritual even those they should have matured in the time the time they had ,Paul showed love and paience de and continued to labour

the more i consider these things the more deeply i feel the Lord showing me just how vital it is for me to live unto Him in all things. to live in obedience and submission to Him with out compromising. God does give us His standard. i was reading in 1 Peter 1:15-17
15 but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16 because it is written, "Be holy, for I am holy.”

this is so encouraging because we don't have to guess or imagine what His desire is for us, He tells us clearly in His Word.

You know most people think holy means righteousness or sin less but the meaning comes down to the idea or set apart or sacred for the service of God ,alluding more to the idea taken on of the normal and the profain world to be cut of and move a side to be seperate not comforing one self to the natural and world , it defiantly should be very noticeable to the world and to the saints ,but to imply that holy means sinless or even to say that in means a matured Saint in a state of perfection which would be goal for us all and some who would be considered as that ,is to redefine the word and ignore many scriptures , Paul said to the immature believers and Corinth that you are the temple of God is holy which temple you are ....

17If any man defiles the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple you are.1 cor

Miss LMH,

The whole first paragraph is someone else's. The last sentence in parentheses is hers.

Yes Lysa got it:) it was written by another and i find it to be really encouraging the more i read it.

i understand for some they see it differently and that is ok but for me i found it very convicting at first. after spending time in prayer i have felt great encouragement in the Lord to walk with Him. its not about having to be perfect its about looking to Him and not compromising His standard. for me in this world of lukewarmness in many of the churches i find it very encouraging that some are willing to stand up and speak to living in obedience and submission to the Lord.

its not forced or legalized for me because God has given me such a desire to really follow Him and live my life with Him as the head. I want to pray daily and weed out those things that are not of Him, I want to pray daily and live with a soft heart hearing His voice say "on earth as it is in Heaven" its about seeing that God does have a standard and He gives me everything I need to live a life that is set apart and holy.

The first thought that popped into my head when I read the OP was "but Michael wasn't created in God's image."

Not sure if that is significant or has any bearing.

for me its a simple picture of obeying God. Of having the desire to do so without question. Jesus obeyed and did only what the Father had Him do. we are told to pray, "thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven" when i think about that i realize there is no room for self in that prayer, no room for complaining, or rebellion, or disobeying. Its all about knowing God is Lord over my life and i can trust Him so completely that I can with all confidence respond to Him with out question. When He tells me to obey, to love, to serve, to take up my cross, i can do these things and want to do these things because of who He is. what is so encouraging to me is that God gives me all strength and ability to obey and respond to Him.

Agreed.

I think perhaps that because of how we were created it is more difficult for us to obey (than it might be for an angel) so perhaps our obedience is more precious to God.

Someone mentioned that this article seemed to be legalistic and performance driven. Whether or not the original writer of this piece is legalistic I don't know; but there is an important principle that remains.

I suppose that submission and obedience to authority is indeed often a performance driven issue for many, but not for the believer who enters into the fuller understanding of all that we possess in Christ. Hearing and obeying are two clearly evident drivers in God's Word and once we recognize that our continual hearing and obeying are very significant to spiritual growth, we will understand why this should be our day-by-day concern.

The key to understanding this matter is to see that God has devised this kind of plan(our hearing and doing) as His way of inviting us to participate with Him in fulfilling His eternal purpose.

In Christ,

Yep amen ,the only point I was making is that we can't expect the Babe in Christ to have the same victory as the matured .most Christian groups would say sanctification is a process and that we grow in grace and holiness ,and others say it happens as seconded blessing through baptism of the spirit wich also happens at a later stage of ones walk when one has lerned through trial and error to obey God in what goes has revealed ,,,, either way most Christians would say that God convicts of sin at different levels for different Christian ,,for instance some Christians are convicted that worldly music and entertainment are sin full and others seems to take longer befor they get a revalation of a higher sangtafication and strictness in there dayly walk ,we need to have paients with other and not demand or expect them to have the same stronger convictions as or others that are highly sangtafied ,Leonard ravenhill said once ,that your not worth a dime for the Kingdom unless you prayed for three hours a day ,,that's fine for ppasters and elders but not many babes in Christ will be called to 3 to 5 hours a day prayer,I'm not saying we should not exhort people to a higher ever increasing level of holiness and fillings of the spirit ,but just have patients and remember hat God works in U.S. According to his good pleasure I could sight more examples like people to fast two days a week is what God is calling them to do and others less and other maby more , we can be come legalistic so to speak if we think every Christian needs to do what we do ,or if we teach people we should all be like lenared ravenhill does And pray three hours a day or like Michael the arc angel who probably prays in obedience at the very thrown of God for maby ten hours a day , well time is ov the essence for Michael ,,,.....

Thatsall I'm trying to say that the op seems to not teach any of what I mentioned and some Christians will go away feeling condemned because of Michael the angel being the example ,.how many of us have went and prayed all night on a mountain top
And fasted40 days and nights like Jesus ,,,Iv herd some do that,but don't dare demand that typy of obedience from a babe in Christ or even demand that from your self ,pray that God gives you fresh revalation of what he wants you to do in the coming months and obey that and have a clear concence ...... Blessings

gary

take what ever the Lord has for you from the original post, pray about it, and leave what He does not have for you. That advice was given to me along time ago and I always try to live by it.

as far as expecting anything from anyone, the standard of "On earth as it is in Heaven" is not mine or even the persons who wrote the devotional. its God's standard, and while i agree with you that we can not force another to live to obedience to God we should most definitely be encouraging one another (babe in Christ or mature older saint) in a loving Christ like manner to seek to live in submission and obedience to the Lord always. its not about laying down do's or don't's for anyone its about sharing and encouraging that when the Father speaks we drop everything and listen.

I hope I don't seem to be saying that with malic ,I'm not trying to be negative,I'm not really disagreeing with your conclusions sister.I was just talking about the op lacking a little balance

gary

no i didn't think there was any malice to your post. i just wanted to share with you that if God does not have anything for you in the post then that's ok. there is no pressure just a desire to encourage.

you have brought up interesting points about immature Christians and i have been thinking on that as well. one thing i keep coming too is those who are immature will never grow if older mature Christians don't come up along side, challenge them, admonish them, and encourage them, in love to grow. i do know my walk has greatly benefited by the love and kindness of others to speak into my life and help me grow :)

thanks for the discussion have a great day

A most interesting article.
I honestly believe the reason ideas of total obedience and reverence for the Lord rankles most of us [myself, included] is because rebellion is so deeply ingrained in our nature.

If we compare a new babe in Christ to a toddler. Like it or no, said toddler if well trained by godly parents, should understand, 'No' and behave accordingly. Why do we have so many ill-natured children, even in church families, today? Their parents fail to teach them what old-time SDA folks call, 'cheerful and immediate obedience' since they were toddlers!

The same way, even a babe in Christ, should understand when the Holy Spirit within him says, 'No'. Ambiguities vanish with a clear conscience before the Lord. Simply put, total obedience to the Lord is hard for us because we are such radically rebellious souls.

And because the Lord is a gentle Shepherd, He grants us as much light about ourselves as we can manage at any point in time. But make no mistake about it, He fully expects us to live by the amount of light He has given us.

The reason many 'babes in Christ' never become useful to the Lord or His Body, is precisely because they have never been trained/taught the principle in the OP. They are perpetually whiny about every little discomfort [just like ill-mannered children], are selfish and need to be constantly fawned upon. Their lives are no different from the people of the world [apetites, desires, manner of speech, conduct of life etc] because they have never learned to 'take up their cross and follow Jesus'.

Prior to the last 3 or so years, I liked my will and way, thank you very much. But as the Lord has graciously granted me a little more light about myself, I am realizing His way is much better than mine. The more I realize how FAR from His thoughts, mine are, the more He has graciously consented to reveal His thoughts to me. Now I wish I could tell you I always obey that still small voice within but I would be lying [and you know the fate of liars].
I'm not giving up though.....

I'm pressing on the upward way
New heights I'm gaining everyday
Still praying as, I'm upward bound
Lord, plant my feet on higher ground

Chorus: Lord, lift me up and let me stand
By faith on heaven's table land
A higher place, than I have found
Lord, plant my feet on higher ground

May the Lord be glorified in our lives, Amen.