If we would but obey, we would waste less prayers. Ten loud lepers met Jesus, needing a miracle. He never prayed, He only instructed: “Go shew yourselves unto the priests.” Their miracle came “as they went.” Jesus didn’t say a prayer about their case (Luke 17:14). Prophetic instruction is not less potent than prophetic prayers (2 Chronicles 20:20).
To a man born blind, Jesus instructed, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam.” Healing for that man came not by prayers offered but by obedience implemented: “He went his way therefore, and washed, and came seeing” (John 9:7). Many a miracle is hidden not in mighty prayers but in simple obedience. Certain sacrifices and prayers would have been unnecessary if there had been obedience. In the equations of God, “rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry” (1 Samuel 15:23). A pending obedience could be a pending miracle.
From The Preacher’s diary,
January 12, 2023.