Things They Don't Tell You When You Follow God Closely — Obedience Will Look Foolish to Smart People

This is post 7 in Things They Don't Tell You When You Follow God Closely, a weekly Sunday series from Alpha VI Battalion.

They Did Not Tell You God's Instructions Would Look Irrational

God told Noah to build a boat in a desert before anyone had seen rain. He told Abraham to leave everything without telling him where he was going. He told Gideon to reduce his army before going into battle. He told Joshua to march around a fortified city and blow trumpets.

Every one of those instructions looked absurd to a rational observer. Every one of them produced exactly what God said it would produce when the person being instructed trusted and obeyed anyway.

The pattern is consistent enough that it is worth naming directly: when God gives you an instruction that does not make sense by conventional wisdom, that is frequently a signal that the outcome is going to be something conventional wisdom cannot produce.

Smart People Will Have Smart Objections

The people around you who love you and are genuinely trying to help you will sometimes be the loudest voices against the thing God told you to do. Not because they are wrong about the world in general. Because they are applying the logic of the world to a decision that operates by a different logic entirely.

This is not a reason to be arrogant or to dismiss every concern as lack of faith. Wisdom includes counsel. But there is a difference between wise counsel and the unanimous skepticism of people who do not share your faith asking you to justify a spiritual instruction using secular reasoning.

You cannot fully explain obedience to someone who does not recognize the authority being obeyed. At some point the explanation runs out and the obedience has to speak for itself through the outcome.

The Outcome Vindicates the Obedience

Noah looked foolish until the rain came. Then the ark was the only rational place to be.

You will not always be able to defend the decision while you are making it. The defense comes when God delivers what He promised, which He does when the obedience is complete. The sequence matters. Obedience first. Vindication after.

In the meantime you hold the instruction, do what God told you to do, and let the people watching decide what they think after the ark is full.

Stay in it, Light Bringer.

Continue Reading in This Series

Previous: Faith Does Not Make You Immune to Pain

Next: The Blessing Will Be Tested Before It Is Released

Wear What You Believe

Obedience when it looks foolish takes a warrior posture. The Kingdom Soldier Hoodie carries that posture. Or declare it with the Carry the Cross Tee. Browse the full Spiritual and Inspirational Collection.

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