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Day Five: Supernatural Obedience

John 15:14-15 (NIV)
You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.

John 14:15 (NIV)
If you love me, keep my commands.

“True obedience is a genuine act of love. If you want to know whether you love God, ask yourselves the question: ‘Do I obey?’ Obedience is the most perfect act of love for God. I obey not because I am afraid, but because I love Jesus. Love for obedience is love for the will of God.”
[Quotes of Mother Teresa from Total Surrender]

Supernatural obedience is an invitation to friendship with and love for God. It’s worship – where we realize it’s not so much about what we do but more about the Lord and what/how much he is doing. We get to participate in what he’s already orchestrating as we follow him. Humbly ask God for greater openness to see how he is at work in your missional group/campus ministry as you worship to “Let There Be Wonder” by Matt Redman (click here).

Prayer: Lord, give me an undivided heart to recognize what you’re doing in my life and with your church. In Jesus’ name I pray, amen.

-JH

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Day Four: Serve

John 2:7-10 (NIV)

Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water”; so they filled them to the brim. Then he told them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.” They did so, and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside and said, “Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now.”


“It is our utter conviction that if we want to see the water of broken bodies, broken minds and broken hearts turned into the wine of whole people, we need to do whatever he tells us. It often won’t make sense. It will rarely be comfortable. Yet this kind of obedience to Jesus is the practical outworking of faith and the tangible expression of love.” [Pilavachi and Croft, Everyday Supernatural, 75]

It’s the servants who got to participate in what Christ was miraculously doing. Likewise, we get to supernaturally witness God’s transforming work as we serve him. Take time to surrender to how God wants to use you today as you worship to “Broken Vessels” by Hillsong (click here).

Prayer: Lord, I am your servant. Fill me with faith and love as you direct me today. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

-JH

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Day Three: Love

Let’s read aloud together the following scripture, confession and prayer:

As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love.
[John 15:9, NIV]

Love for God and love for neighbour constitute the first and greatest commandments on which hang all the law and the prophets. Love is the fulfilling of the law, and the first named fruit of the Spirit. Love is the evidence that we are born again; the assurance that we know God; and the proof that God dwells within us. Love is the new commandment of Christ, who told his disciples that only as they obeyed this commandment would their mission be visible and believable. Christian love for one another is how the unseen God, who made himself visible through his incarnate Son, goes on making himself visible to the world. Love was among the first things that Paul observed and commended among new believers, along with faith and hope. But love is the greatest, for love never ends.
[The Cape Town Commitment: We Love Because God First Loved Us]

You, O Lord, who commanded me to ask, grant that I may receive;
You have summoned me to seek, let me be happy in finding;
You have bidden me to knock, I pray You open unto me.
Be graciously pleased to direct and govern all my thoughts and actions,
that, for the future, I may serve You, and entirely devote myself to obeying You.
 Accept me, I beseech You, and draw me to Yourself,
that I may, from here on, be Yours by obedience and love,
since I am already Yours, as Your creation.
Indeed Yours, O Lord, who lives and reigns forever and ever.
[In Jesus’ name.] Amen.
[Augustine, adapted from Prayers of the Early Church]

-JH

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Day Two: Do

John 2:5 (NIV)
His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”



Hebrews 5:8-9 (NIV)

Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him…

“Something remarkable takes place when we return to Square One, to the place of adoration and listening – a terrific infusion of energy within us; a release of adrenaline in our souls which becomes obedience. The reason is that the word that God speaks is the kind of word that makes things happen… God’s Word is not, in essence, information or gossip or explanation. God’s Word makes things happen – he makes something happen in us. The imperative is a primary verb form in Holy Scripture: “Let there be light… Go… Come… Repent… Believe… Be still… Be healed… Get up… Ask… Love… Pray…” And the intended consequence of the imperative is obedience.” [Eugene Peterson, Subversive Spirituality, 28]

Jesus is the living Word of God. As he is the source of our eternal salvation and obedience to the Father, turn to him. Be moved once again by Jesus as you spend time with him now. Let him infuse you with supernatural obedience to do whatever he tells you as you worship to “Believe For It” by CeCe Winans (click here).

Prayer: Lord Jesus, thank you for your obedience that has brought about salvation. Change me and move me once again by your gospel and passion for my life and for those around me. In Jesus’ name I pray, amen.

-JH

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Day One: Listen

John 2:5 (NIV)
His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”

Psalm 86:11 (NIV)
Teach me your way, LORD,
that I may rely on your faithfulness;
give me an undivided heart,
that I may fear your name.

“Often we have this attitude: “Lord, we’ll do what you tell us, as long as we agree with your plan. It needs to be sensible. It needs to be realistic. And we don’t want to seem fanatical or extreme.” We must understand that whatever we call that – it is not obedience. Obedience is doing what God tells us even if it doesn’t seem to make sense.” [Pilavachi and Croft, Everyday Supernatural, 74]

We are actually good at obeying – a lot of us have grown up learning to do certain things without question. We obey hunger, thirst, traffic laws, social etiquette or various cultural norms like waiting in line, bosses/ teachers. It’s good that we know how to obey, but God is inviting us into supernatural obedience. It starts with listening to the Lord. We can hear so many other voices in a given day, whether it’s our own or from around us, but may we live giving God our attention in the midst of all the other voices.

Prayer: Lord, give me an undivided heart to listen and supernaturally obey as you speak to me today. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Take time to be still before the Lord and listen as you worship to the song “Fall Afresh” by Kari Jobe (click here).

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-JH

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Day Five: Mercies New.

Let’s read aloud the following passages together, as we receive God’s covenant of love afresh.

Psalm 103
3 who forgives all your sins
and heals all your diseases,
4 who redeems your life from the pit
and crowns you with love and compassion,
5 who satisfies your desires with good things
so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
10 he does not treat us as our sins deserve
or repay us according to our iniquities.

Ephesians 5.21-22,25-26, 31-32
21 Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.
22 Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord…
25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26 to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, 27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless…
31 “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” 32 This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, we receive your covenant of love afresh today. Thank you that you do not treat us as our sins deserve, instead your blessings are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Let’s worship to the song “Mercies” by Matt Redman (click here).

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-GK

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Day Four: Suitable Ezer.

Genesis 2:18 “Yahweh God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone. I will make for him a helper suitable for him.”

The word “helper” (’Ezer’) in this passage is an interesting one. It does not mean an assistant or an aid. Rather, the word helper is the word that is used when Scripture talks about God helping his people towards salvation. So, when the LORD helps, he brings supernatural salvation, healing, and redemption. Now to use that word for another human being, is to say that they are to helps us towards salvation, healing, and redemption. This is the description of what a pastor and minister does.

The words suitable for him literally means “I will make for him a helper as in front of him,” and someone who corresponds to him on a daily basis. Hence, the passage above speaks of our spouses being the most suitable, fitting, appropriate ones to bring the Spirit’s ministry in our lives. This gives the clear message that in biblical marriages, each of the spouses are to see themselves as helpers and ministers—those whose task is to pursue the rescue, healing, salvation of God in each other’s lives.

Today, consider the ways in which you can minister to your spouse. One clear way is in prayer, as you seek for greater healing and blessing for your spouse. Pray for the Lord to cause the dry bones to come alive in your marriage. As you pray, worship to the song “Dry bones” by Worship Central (click here).

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Prayer: Thank you Jesus for the wonderful vision of marriage, which is for your ministry to constantly occur in our homes. We pray for your empowering as we pray and minister to our spouses. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

-GK

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Day Three: Hard-Reset

1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

The wonderful aspect of God’s covenant of love is that there is a reset and restart the Lord gives his people. In the Old Testament, the Lord remakes and renews the covenant that he made with the Israelites several times, and this was done especially after a time when the Israelites would fail spectacularly. These renewed covenants were a time to reset the people to start their lives anew.

It is in this understanding that in our marriages we can also have a reset and to start anew. The question of “how do you undo the ball of string that is filled with hurts, disappointment, etc?” How do you untangle that? The answer is that we receive a reset in our marriages, where we re-covenant before the Lord and each other.

The reset is a hard-reset. Just like when you do a hard-reset on your phone or computer, and all the data is erased along with all the viruses, and you start fresh and new—in factory setting.
In Christ we are given a hard-reset!

Today, let’s receive and respond in worship as we receive the reset in Christ—to love the Lord, our spouses, and our neighbors afresh. As you pray, worship to the song “You make all things new” by Hillsong (click here).

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Prayer: Lord Jesus, we thank you that you have made all things new. We pray for the reset in our marriages, where the gospel is the only history that defines and determines how we live and respond to one another. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

-GK

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Day Two: Jesus is greater.

Romans 5: 20b (NIV) “But where sin increased, grace increased all the more.”

The supernatural-ness of the Christian life is because of this biblical truth: that in those areas where sin abounds—the deep hurts, disappointments, betrayals, things said and done, to the deepest experience of brokenness—where sin increased, the grace of God increased all the more! We daily live in the amazing grace of God’s covenantal love towards us.

Hence, the grace behind supernatural marriage is to experience the grace of God abounding and rising above the sinful history that had once marked our marriages. It is supernatural precisely because it is the increase of God’s grace in the places of sinful experiences. This is the biblical vision of supernatural marriage—where the gospel is now how we relate; in forgiveness, healing, and the desire to see one another made whole.

Today, may we experience this truth as we worship to the song “Raised to Life” by Elevation music (click here). As you worship the Lord, let’s declare this truth: Sin was strong, but Jesus is stronger; My shame was great, but Jesus is greater!

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Prayer: Lord Jesus, we declare today that there is no sin or shame that is beyond the power of the cross. We thank you that in those areas where sin abounded, your grace increased all the more! In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.

-GK

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Day One: Supernatural Covenant

Psalm 103.3-5, 10 (NIV)
3 who forgives all your sins
and heals all your diseases,
4 who redeems your life from the pit
and crowns you with love and compassion,
5 who satisfies your desires with good things
so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
10 he does not treat us as our sins deserve
or repay us according to our iniquities

The biblical view of marriage is not transactional, but covenantal. This is how God relates with us out of his covenant of love; that in our brokenness, shame, and rebellion, we are met by his forgiveness, healing, and redemption. When it says “your youth is renewed like the eagle’s,” it is contrasting how we feel when dealing with marriage issues—tired, worn out, and “aged.” In covenant relationship with the Lord, we are refreshed, renewed, for God does not treat us as our sins deserve! Therefore, just as the covenant of love is not transactional, our marriage relationships are also not to be transactional, but covenantal. May our marriages reflect the forgiveness, healing, and renewal that we have received in Christ.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, thank you for your covenant of love–for forgiving all of our sins and not treating us as our sins deserve. We pray that in our marriages, we will reflect your covenant of love, as we forgive and seek your healing for our spouses. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

Let’s worship to the song “It is well with my soul,” by Matt Redman (click here).

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-GK

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