LOYALTY

In Ur, the land of the Chaldees, Abraham, at seventy years of age, was called of God to give up the familiar surroundings of his home and family, a real sacrifice of friends, family, comfort and his position of prestige in the community. He was asked to journey in a particular direction toward an unseen land and reward. He had to count the cost of leaving Ur to follow God in His ways. When a person decides to follow God, it is not always a smooth and easy path. Until God forever cast the enemy from the earth, the devil is still there to kill, steal, and destroy any Word of God he can from your life. Yet, God's Ways are tried. His Ways will work every time you stand on the Word. God's not trying to figure out if His ways work, He knows they work...every time. God's Ways are tried and proven. Obedience to His ways, though proven and tried, doesn't mean the believer will live in a "rose garden," but it does mean the believer has a sure promise of eternal, blessed life with God; and God's promises are real...more real than anything you can see in the natural. The enemy will try to steal your vision, your health, your obedience, your loyalty, your faith, and your position in the kingdom of God, but don't let him. Continuing to be obedient to the Word requires that the believer bows down his ear to hear and does the commandments of God. It requires being willing to hear His wisdom and His sayings. It requires understanding and knowledge of all that God is. He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit of God is saying today. Is He calling you today? A willingness to accept God's call is rewarded with the eternal benefits and riches of living for God that cannot be compared in value to any earthly benefits or riches of not living for Him. God is a good God all the time! He calls a person to a particular vision, as He called Abraham to live in Canaan, but He does not give the entire "big picture" of the future or the difficulties that the believer will have to endure as a soldier of the cross for His sake. A calling is one of "following" to an eternal, secure place of living. It is not having insight and knowing the future of all things in this temporary, earthly place. Following requires faith, commitment, loyalty, obedience, patience, and love to receive the promises of God. Following Him in swiftness of justice, stability of a good life, and conquest over all of the enemy and the flesh is the power and beauty of victory "in Christ" to be able to live a quiet and and peaceable life in order to proclaim the "good news" of salvation to others. The Lord tries the hearts of believers to establish their loyalty to Him, yet He takes great pleasure in the uprightness of His people to endure the attempt of the enemy to try to discredit them before God. Believers cannot exalt themsleves, yet God has exalted the believer (who continues and abides) to sit in heavenly places with Christ Jesus. He has preserved our very life by the application of the blood of Jesus Christ, making His children the very righteousness of God, planting them with longevity, fellowship, and peace in heaven with Him. By faith a person believes and embraces all that God wants to do for His children.

Commitment. To be loyal one must be united and committed to a particular person, plan, or purpose. Much like patriotism, loyalty is a commitment from the whole heart to...

...Excerpt from Chapter 17.