God's Way

 Imagine you're attempting to conquer a great city; A city which is surrounded by a great, big wall. Would you consider marching around a walled city one time, six days in a row? And then, on the seventh day, would you think to march around the walls seven times, blowing trumpets and horns, and shouting? Probably not. If we were in charge of leading people to conquer Jericho, the above scenario probably would not have even so much as entered our minds. To the human mind, this seems like a ridiculously silly way to try and conquer a big city; However, this is what the Lord instructed Joshua to do. (Joshua 6:1-5) I wonder if the people questioned the plan in their minds as Joshua relayed it to them. 'Those big walls are going to fall because of us marching and blowing horns?'

 It wasn't the marching, blowing of trumpets, or shouting that caused the walls to come tumbling down; But the children of Israel wrought victory over Jericho that day because of their obedience to God. They did what He said to do, as silly as it may have seemed to them. God brought the walls down to their victory because they believed and obeyed.

So....

What if you had leprosy? You travel to see a great man of God, because you want to be healed. When you arrive on his porch, he doesn't even so much as come out to greet you; Rather, he sends you a messenger. This messenger instructs you to go wash in the Jordan river seven times to be healed. What? The Jordan? The water is filthy! This is what happened to Naaman, the leper. His reply to these instructions (after he went away very angry) was, "Behold, I thought, he will come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of the LORD his God, and strike his hand over the place, and recover the leper."

 He goes on to name other rivers which are a bit more sanitary than the Jordan, as he complains. 'Why couldn't I wash in one of those?'

II Kings 5:13... "And his servants came near, and spake unto him, and said, My father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it? how much rather then, when he saith unto thee, wash, and be clean?"
So, Naaman obeyed and went down to the Jordan river, washing him self seven times. When he came up after the seventh time, according to the saying of the man of God, his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.

What about Gideon and the battle against the Midianites? Doesn't it sound pretty crazy to get rid of thousands of men in your army before battle, and leave only 300 to fight? Doesn't it sound crazy to come against the Midianites with trumpets, water pitchers, and torches? Yes, it does sound pretty far fetched. But, this is what God instructed the Israelites to do! And when God says to do something, we'd better just believe Him, and obey, no matter how far fetched it sounds. You see, God's ways are not our ways. Sometimes we don't understand why He says to do certain things, because it doesn't make sense to the human mind. But as far as I can see, some of Israel's greatest victories were brought about because of their obedience to God's plan, and not their own. When we take matters into our own hands, we lose the battle.

Why does God operate this way? I believe I Corinthians 1:27-29 says it well:

"But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; And the base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are:

That no flesh should glory in his presence."

If we did things our way and succeeded, we might find ourselves praising our own selves. The glory should always go to God!  ..."He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord." (I Cor 1:31)
When we obey Him and do things His way, He shows us His power, that He might be glorified. He uses and small and despised things to bring about some of our greatest victories.

So, when your pastor tells you to do or not to do something and you don't understand, just submit!
He is the watchman on the wall, and he sees the things you don't see. Obedience is better than sacrifice.

Let's obey, and do things God's way! When we obey Him, the victory will be ours, to the glory of God.