What does real obedience to God actually look like in daily life? Many believers know obedience matters, but struggle to understand how to practice it consistently without falling into legalism or frustration. In this week’s podcast, discover why obedience is the bridge to spiritual authority, how it has framed the entire story of redemption from Eden to eternity, why Jesus Himself learned obedience through suffering, and how walking in the Spirit teaches believers to hear God’s voice, exercise authority, and push back darkness. If you’ve ever wondered how to move from occasional obedience into a practiced life of being led by God, this teaching will help anchor your walk. The Truth About How Practicing Obedience Makes Authority Effective, that’s our focus on this week’s Light On Life.

This Week: This week, slow down long enough to hear the Holy Spirit, obey quickly when He speaks, and remember that every act of obedience positions you to walk in greater authority.

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Accept the Challenge

Each week’s podcast contains a call to action. The Word of God will not produce in your life unless you put into operation.
This weeks call is:

This week: ask the Lord each day: “What are You saying to me today?” Practice immediate obedience.  Obey God. Be led. Take authority.

Your challenge: Train yourself to hear. Train yourself to respond.

Remember: Obey God. Be led. Take authority.

Join the Conversation

Each week’s podcast also contains a question designed to encourage testimony. Testimony is vital to a believers life. We overcome by it (Rev. 12:11).

This week’s question is:

Question: What area of obedience has the Holy Spirit been dealing with in your life lately?

Share: Has He been teaching you something specific about being led?

Remember: Share your thoughts and join the conversation.

About Emery

Emery committed his life to the Lord Jesus Christ over 49 years ago and has served as both a full-time pastor and an itinerant minister. Both he and his wife Sharon of 45 years emphasize personal growth and development through the Word of God. The ministry of the Holy Spirit is both the focus and the hallmark of their mission. Read more about them here.

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Podcast Notes:

• Well again, welcome.
• Let’s pray.

Father God thank for the truths of your words that lead us to a place of high effectiveness in the Kingdom of God. This only comes by your hand and by your plan. What a great God you are. Thank you for the podcast listening audience. We ask you to give them ears to hear and a heart to understand in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Obedience: The Pathway of Kingdom Authority

• Jesus, through His death, burial, resurrection, and exaltation, stripped Satan of his authority and dismantled the legal foundation of his kingdom.
• These are facts in evidence.
• But the victory of JESUS is not merely something to admire—it is something believers are called to enforce.
• And at the center of enforcing that victory is the word obedience.
• James 4:7 makes that clear.

James 4:7 (NASB 2020) — 7 Submit therefore to God. But resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

• Submit means to obey and so you can think of obedience as the bridge you must cross to get to the place of authority.
• And with that thought here is the Illustration of the Day.

The Bridge at Arnhem (World War II)

• In 1944, during Operation Market Garden, Allied forces sought to advance deep into enemy territory by securing a series of bridges in the Netherlands.
• The plan was simple: if the soldiers could take the bridges, the army could move its tanks, artillery, and overwhelming force across into enemy-held ground.
• But there was one problem.
• Until the bridge was secured, all that power sat waiting on the other side.
• The tanks had power.
• The artillery had power.
• The men had both power and willpower.
• But none of it could advance until the bridge was crossed.
• The bridge was the point of access.
• That’s obedience.
• Jesus has already won the victory.
• He has already stripped Satan of authority.
• The power of God is already available.
• The authority of the believer has already been granted.
• But, you have to cross the bridge, the bridge of obedience.
• Obey God. Be led. Take authority.
• Until you cross it, authority remains dormant.
• Why is that?

1 John 1:6 (NASB 2020) — 6 If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth;

• Submission to God’s commandments is what positions you to resist the devil.
• Saying this another way: Obedience is not the power itself—it is the pathway to the power.
• Cross the bridge, and you are in position to advance the Kingdom.
• But now comes the question: what does a life of obedience actually look like in practice?
• How do we move from occasional obedience into a practiced life of obedience?

Practicing Obedience for the Coming Reign

1 John 2:4–6 (NASB 2020) — 4 The one who says, “I have come to know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him; 5 but whoever follows His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him: 6 the one who says that he remains in Him ought, himself also, walk just as He walked.

1 John 2:4–6 (Williams) —4 Whoever says, “I know Him,” but does not practice obedience to His commands is a liar, and there is no truth in his heart; 5 but whoever practices obedience to His message really has a perfect love of God in his heart. By this we can be sure that we are in union with Him: 6 Whoever claims, “I am always in union with Him,” ought to live as He lived.

• The Greek word ‘keep’ means to guard, to watch over, to hold as valuable.
• It paints the picture of something protected and treasured.
• Wuest says that the word means to habitually and meticulously guard God’s Word so that it is not disobeyed. ¹
• The Williams Translation adds the thought of ‘practicing obedience.’
• To guard, to watch over, to hold as valuable doesn’t mean treat the Bible as a museum piece.
• It means to be careful to put into operation in your life.
• So practicing obedience is a working translation.
• Obedience did not begin at Sinai.
• It did not begin with the Law.
• It began in Eden the Garden of God.
• There God created man and gave him a multi-faceted directive that required Adam and Eve’s obedience.

Genesis 1:27–28 (NASB 2020) — 27 So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. 28 God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

• One multi-layered commandment.
• You have to be fruitful to multiply—you must multiply to fill the earth—you must fill the earth to subdue it and rule or exercise dominion.
• This was a physical commandment given in a physical world.
• In the New Testament era, the commandment hasn’t changed.
• Except the commandment is no longer physical, it’s spiritual.
• It’s spiritual because men have been transformed by the new birth.
• So the physical nature of the Genesis commandment has morphed into a spiritual commandment today.
• Be fruitful in prayer, multiply and fill the earth with disciples of Jesus, rule and exercise dominion from your seated position in Christ.
• Here’s the question—are we going to obey the commandment?
• Are we going to be fruitful for God, multiply Jesus followers and rule and reign with Jesus?
• Mark this down and don’t forget it.
• The saints of God have one goal and one goal only: we mean to take over the world.
• Men inspired by Satan have tried for thousands of years to do exactly that.
• Every one of them failed.
• Genghis Khan failed.
• Alexander The Great failed.
• Caesar failed.
• Napoleon failed.
• Hitler failed.
• The next major guy (the Anti-Christ) that will try to conquer the world will fail.
• Why?
• Because there is only one Kingdom that will ultimately fill the whole earth.
• There is only one government that will stretch to the ends of the earth.
• There is only one King who will rule from the east to the west.
• And His Name is JESUS.
• We are workers together with God to that end.
• So stop whimpering and being wish-washy and all up in your feelings.
• It’s time to suck it up soldier—it’s time to exercise your God-given authority.

1 Corinthians 15:23–28 (NASB 2020 — 23 But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, after that those who are Christ’s at His coming, 24 then comes the end, when He hands over the kingdom to our God and Father, when He has abolished all rule and all authority and power. 25 For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet. 26 The last enemy that will be abolished is death. 27 For HE HAS PUT ALL THINGS IN SUBJECTION UNDER HIS FEET. But when He says, “All things are put in subjection,” it is clear that this excludes the Father who put all things in subjection to Him. 28 When all things are subjected to Him, then the Son Himself will also be subjected to the One who subjected all things to Him, so that God may be all in all.

• In the end, there will only be one ruler over the entire planet and His Name is YAHWEH the Most High God.
• Everything in the plan of God points to this end.
• This Kingdom takeover unfolds in stages.
• Today, Jesus is the mediator between God and man.
• Tomorrow, Jesus will rule and reign Planet Earth for 1000 years.
• The Day after, God the Father will be Lord of all.
• Now one thing you should know about rulers.
• They all have an agenda and out of that agenda comes directives.
• If you recall we raised the question, “What makes heaven, heaven?”
• Heaven is a place where God’s directives are always obeyed.
• Total obedience to the the God of all Creation is part of what makes heaven, heaven.
• Practice obedience because that’s what soldiers do.
• They practice, they train, they obey.

Obedience Frames the Whole Story of Redemption

• So we’ve seen that obedience was established at the very beginning of human history.
• But did you know that it frames the entire human story?
• Look at the Tree of Life in the Garden and compare it to the Tree of Life in the New Jerusalem.

Revelation 22:14 (NASB 2020) — 14 Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they will have the right to the tree of life, and may enter the city by the gates.

• Did you hear that? — Washing your robes?
• What’s that about?
• Well, to wash your robes is to respond to God’s commandment to be clean.
• And that response begins by obeying the gospel.

1 Peter 4:17 (NASB 2020) — 17 For it is time for judgment to begin with the household of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God?

• Having a right to the Tree of Life is reserved only for those who obey the gospel of the grace of God.
• So, there is never a point where a Jesus follower can choose disobedience and everything be alright.

Hebrews 5:8–9 (NASB 2020) — 8 Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered. 9 And having been perfected, He became the source of eternal salvation for all those who obey Him,

• Jesus learned obedience by the things that He suffered.
• You are going to learn obedience the same way; when you’re under pressure.
• Will you continue to walk in love when people mistreat you?
• People mistreating you is pressure on your emotions.
• Will you continue to pursue God when you are lacking answers at the immediate moment?
• Lacking answers is pressure on your intellect.
• Will you continue to pray for those in authority when the polls try to discourage you?
• That’s pressure on your eye-gate.
• Are you going to stick with the Word or cave into pressure?

Mark 4:14–17 (NASB 2020) — 14 The sower sows the word. 15 These are the ones who are beside the road where the word is sown; and when they hear, immediately Satan comes and takes away the word which has been sown in them. 16 And in a similar way these are the ones sown with seed on the rocky places, who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy; 17 and yet they have no firm root in themselves, but are only temporary; then, when affliction or persecution occurs because of the word, immediately they fall away.

• Affliction and persecution comes because of the Word.
• It is pressure to abandon the Word.
• It is pressure to abandon your post.
• You see, obedience costs you something.

Obedience Begins in the Heart

• If you want a place to begin studying the subject of obedience in the New Testament, Dake’s Bible catalogs over one thousand New Testament commandments.
• Other sources put the number at nine hundred direct commandments and three hundred indirect.
• You understand that commandments are orders from God about which there is no choice—no choice if you want to walk in the light of God’s will.
• There’s over a thousand non-negotiable New Testament commandments.
• And with that thought, here is the Question of the Day.
• Here’s the question.

How does anybody keep over one thousand commandments without going nuts?

• To answer the question, you need to rephrase it.
• The question should be is your heart fully towards God?
• The question should be do you desire to walk with God above all else?
• Do you recall what the Lord Jesus said the night He was being betrayed?

1 Corinthians 11:23–24 (NASB 2020) — 23 For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the night when He was betrayed, took bread; 24 and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me.”

• Jesus said, ‘my body for you—my body is for you.’
• We are called to walk as He walked.
• If so, ask yourself is your body for others?

Mark 12:28–31 (NASB 2020) — 28 One of the scribes came up and heard them arguing, and recognizing that He had answered them well, asked Him, “What commandment is the foremost of all?” 29 Jesus answered, “The foremost is, ‘HEAR, ISRAEL! THE LORD IS OUR GOD, THE LORD IS ONE; 30 AND YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH.’ 31 The second is this: ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

• People minimize what Jesus said here.
• Love God with all your heart.
• Love your neighbor as yourself.
• People drive right past these two verses because they assume that they love both God and neighbor just because of the alternative.
• Are you going to hear a Jesus’ follower say, ’No, I don’t like God and I can’t stand my neighbor?’
• No, you won’t ever hear those exact words.
• But what you will hear is ‘God only answer my prayers sometimes.’
• What you will hear is ‘I just can’t forgive that person.’
• That’s why we have these commandments to obey.
• They help flesh out for us what it means to love God and what it means to love people.

What Obedience Meets Daily Life

• Now, out of the over one thousand commandments, here is one critical commandment to help get you walk across the bridge of obedience to authority.

Walk in the Spirit

Galatians 5:16 (NASB 2020) — 16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.

• This commandment is one of the most important because when it comes alongside the two great commandments, it helps you navigate all the rest.
• You see, it’s the Word and the Spirit combined that brings results.
• The Word says—‘You shall love the Lord your God’ but it’s the Spirit that shows you practically how.
• Once during the early part of my ministry I was thinking of moving our book table out into a more visible location in the sanctuary.
• I wanted to get the Word out to the people. “That’s loving God,” I thought.
• Of course, increasing books sales helps the church’s budget as well.
• The Spirit of God immediately checked me.
• You see the power of God was falling like rain in that church.
• It was such a sacred thing.
• For six consecutive weeks, the Spirit of God moved so strong that I couldn’t preach the Sunday message.
• By checking me, the Lord was letting me know that He wanted separation not mixture.
• I was risking mixing book sales with the anointing of God.
• The check from God’s Spirit was strong and immediate.
• But how did I even know this was a lesson I needed to learn in the first place?
• I learned it by doing life.

Ezekiel 22:26 (NASB 2020) — 26 Her priests have done violence to My Law and have profaned My holy things; they have made no distinction between the holy and the common, and they have not taught the difference between the unclean and the clean; and they have closed their eyes from My Sabbaths, and I am defiled among them.

• You see, you can tell people all day long what the Word of God says.
• But it’s the Spirit that will teach you in practice what separating holy from common looks like in your world.
• Before you learn what to do, learn how to be led.
• Obey God. Be led. Take authority.
• The Spirit of God will always lead you in line with the Word.
• In this context, the Spirit of God will lead you in line with over one thousand New Testament commandments.
• Now, you will learn these commandments by reading.
• You will know them by studying them.
• But you will realize the truth of them by the practice of being led.
• Before you learn what to do, learn how to be led.

Learning the ‘How-To of Being Led’

• That’s the first words that I heard the Lord say.
• It was six months into my walk with God.
• I was trying so hard to listen with my ears and I heard nothing but silence on the other end of the phone.
• Finally in extreme exasperation, “I hollered out—it’s not fair—you are talking to all these other people but you are not talking to me.”

“It’s because you don’t know how to listen” replied the Holy Spirit in my spirit.

• These words seemed so loud to me that it scared me stiff.
• I thought, “Oh my goodness. I said the wrong thing. God is going to kill me.”
• The words shook me.
• But in those words was life—I learned there was a ‘how-to’ for hearing God.
• I also learned that how-to comes by practice.

Hebrews 5:12–14 (NASB 2020) — 12 For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the actual words of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food. 13 For everyone who partakes only of milk is unacquainted with the word of righteousness, for he is an infant. 14 But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to distinguish between good and evil.

• Did you hear those words—because of practice?
• Wuest uses the phrase ‘long usage.’
• In other words, by repeated use of the Word, you gain spiritual experience.
• Practice—long usage—constant use through repeated practice.
• This constant engagement with the Word facilitates discernment.
• The resulting habit of learning to hear God’s voice helps you on the path of obedience.
• It helps you to exercise authority.
• Why does being versed at hearing God help you exercise authority?
• Didn’t Jesus die to give it to you?
• Yes, but you cannot just fire your weapon in any direction.
• You’ll just be hitting nothing shooting up into the air.
• You must know when and where to use it.
• Those ‘coordinates’ come from heaven.
• The authority of Jesus only yields specific results when it is specifically applied.
• How do you know what devil is whispering into whose ear?
• You don’t—the enemy walks in darkness.
• He conceals his intent—he masks his motives.
• He is like a terrorist—always hiding and moving from one compound to another so he won’t be detected.
• But no one can hide from God.

Jeremiah 23:23–24 (NASB 2020) — 23 “Am I a God who is near,” declares the LORD, “And not a God far off? 24 “Can a person hide himself in hiding places So that I do not see him?” declares the LORD. “Do I not fill the heavens and the earth?” declares the LORD.

• The Spirit of God is in you to lead you and to show where to bring your ‘guns of authority’ to bear.
• The Holy Spirit has every demon on His radar.
• He knows every foxhole and hiding place.
• Now, does this verse mean a bit more to you?

John 16:13 (NASB 2020) — 13 But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth…

• He will guide you—can you hear the gears of the naval guns swiveling and coming to bear? [Make the sound].
• Ready, aim, fire: “I command you in the Name of Jesus to desist in all your maneuvers against so-and so.
• So-and-so is the piece you need.

Romans 8:14 (NASB 2020) — 14 For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons and daughters of God.

• Sons are led.
• Sons exercise authority by the Spirit’s command.
• Sons push back darkness into the dry places.
• Spirit-led sons are effective soldiers because they have practiced obedience and learned the voice of their Commander-in-Chief.
• Obey God. Be led. Take authority.

Where Obedience Becomes Real

• Obedience is not built in the big moments—it is forged in the daily decisions to say yes to God.
• So, examine your heart.
• Are you fully toward God?
• Are you obeying what you already know to do?
• Are you walking in love when pressured, standing on the Word when challenged, and following the Spirit when He leads?
• Are you hearing God?
• Remember: authority does not begin when you resist the devil—it begins when you submit to God.
• That’s what makes authority effective.
• So, Obey God. Be led. Take authority.
• If this teaching strengthened your understanding of obedience and spiritual authority, subscribe to the Light on Life Podcast, share this episode with someone who needs encouragement, and visit EmeryHorvath.com for more Bible teaching to help you grow in God.

Father God, thank you for the truths of your Word that helps us to walk effectively in kingdom dominion. We look forward to the direction of your Spirit in the matters of praying for all men including kings and all others in authority. We thank you for the marvelous outcome of men coming to know Jesus. We thank for leading the way in Jesus’ Name, Amen.

• The Truth About How Practicing Obedience Makes Authority Effective.
• You guys have a great God week and we will see you next time for another edition of Light on Life.

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