Extreme, Radical Obedience

“A man named Jesus made a paste and rubbed it on my eyes and told me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ I did what he said. When I washed, I saw.” John 9

This sounds crazy! But this teaches us a simple principle. Do what he says and you can’t go wrong! The blind man was explaining the miracle and the only explanation was Jesus said to do it and he did it and it happened. Even though it doesn’t make sense to rub wet dirt or sand in someone’s eyes. Usually that is the very thing that makes you not be able to see. Even though it didn’t make sense and people couldn’t understand it and I am sure there were naysayers but that didn’t matter to him, He did it and it happened. His faith and radical obedience made him well. He was at a place of desperation and He knew that it required extreme faith and extreme measures to see his miracle. The first leap of faith was his willingness to let Jesus even touch his eyes with spit and mud. I would probably think that you had lost your mind, if you touched my eyes with that. The second leap of faith was to go to the pool of siloam and wash it out. There was no guarantee it was going to work. There was no assurance of anything. He just had faith, he didn’t need to see progress or be encouraged that it was the right thing to do. It was between Him and Jesus. He believed, he obeyed and he saw.

Such a short scripture, with so much depth and stories to learn from. So no matter if people think it’s impossible or that you are crazy, remain faithful and obedient to God, because your miracle is coming. It may take you going through the spit and sand in your eyes. It may take going through the sludge and pain of this life but through those storms God is preparing us for our miracle. For me it’s my marriage and family! My faith is so strong, that I am willing to go through the mud and spit to get to see my marriage and family restored. God help us to be like the blind man and stand strong and show radical obedience and extreme faith in a God that heals and restores!

Sometimes we have to go through the mud, spit and dirtiness of life to get to the good stuff, we get to the point where we get so fed up with failure and disappointment that we are willing to do anything to follow Christ and His way! Nehemiah had to walk through the days of rubble, before the wall was rebuilt. Even before he laid one brick, there were people telling him, it’s impossible. These people were discouragers, naysayers and the doubters. I’m sure you have these people in your life. No matter what you try to do, they think you can’t do it or it’s impossible. They have told you that you are not equipped, you are not smart enough, you will never accomplish what you set out to do. It never fails, someone will also try to stand in our way and give us the wrong advice because it is what they believe, not what the word says. We need to recognize this for what it really is, it’s an attack from the enemy. Anytime we take a leap of faith for Christ, the enemy will attack. How are you responding to the enemy when these attacks begin to fly? In the book of Nehemiah it says, We must guard our hearts, day and night. (Nehemiah 4:9, NIV) A few verses later he gives us a strategy to defend. We must post our defenses in our weakest points, ready to defend, with other followers, with the strength of His word, with the power of the Holy Spirit. (Nehemiah 4:13, NIV) There is a point where Nehemiah instructs his crew to keep building with one hand and fighting with a sword in the other. If you really think about the distractions and the opposition that they faced and they still built the wall in 52 days. This is nothing short of a miracle, which is just another day for our God.