Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will show thee:

— Genesis 12:1

Abraham heard the voice of God that required an action to obey. Pack up! Leave! Go away from kinfolk, to a land I will show you. The Word of God and the voice of God will many times cause you to move out of your comfort zone. It will take you away from familiar surroundings and separate you from “natural” people close to you who are natural thinkers and may discourage your move. This is why you must live prayed-up and in the Spirit to be able to make the right decisions. When a prompting comes by the Spirit, many times it will come one step at a time. Go! Get out! Leave relations! Go to a land I will show you! It is much easier to say, “Lord, you show me the land and I will go!” But unless you obey the first command, you will never get to the new land. If Abraham chose not to go, he would have never had a child, never had the blessings overtake him, never have become the father of many nations. His one decision--to obey God’s voice--would affect generations to come. He had to go based on a word he received and trusting in a God Whom he believed had spoken to him. Throughout the Bible, people who obeyed the voice of God succeeded. Listen to hear His voice today; then obey what He says.

Make thee an ark of gopher wood;

— Genesis 6:14a

God came and spoke to Noah and told him to make an ark. Noah was one of the few people left who was walking with God and able to hear His voice. But this command of God to make an ark had to test Noah’s obedience to God. An ark? A great big ark, large enough to house his family and many animals? An ark in a place where it had never rained (Gen. 2:5, 6)? An undertaking that would take a long time to complete? What would others say? What would his family say? “Why are you building an ark? Why are you wasting your time? It doesn’t rain! There is no water where you are building it!” “Did you hear about Noah? He believes God told him to build an ark, to get two of every living creature onto the boat. He always was a little weird, a little different than the rest of us.” “He claims it is going to rain and flood the earth. Poor old Noah!”  Noah could have easily said, “God, You make the rain start, and I will build an ark.“ But God told him to build it before the rain started. The day the rains came, the day the flood began, you can bet that Noah was glad he obeyed God. In spite of his natural mindset, in spite of persecution and the criticism of others, who was the fool when the rains came? Who was “wasting their time” obeying God then? Noah, make thee an ark.

And [Jesus] said, Come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water,

— Matthew 14:29

Peter heard Jesus speak one word-–“Come.”  If you hear one word from God and obey it, it can change your life forever.  Jesus was a man of few words:  “Come,” “Be healed,” “Be made whole,” “Go and sin no more,” “Come out,” “Go,” “Be of good cheer.”  Whenever anyone heard and obeyed the words of Jesus, a miracle went into effect.  Peter stepped out on one word, “Come,” and it was enough for him to do the impossible-–walk on the water!  He had to think, “What if I drown?”  The other disciples must have said, “Don’t be a fool, Peter!”  But Peter made a decision, a decision to obey the word, in spite of what his friends thought, in spite of what logic told him, in spite of the impossibility of walking on the water. Notice, once you take a step out in faith, once you decide to obey the Word, the natural evidence will attack you.  The wind was boisterous, and Peter was afraid.  He did not know that, wind or no wind, he could not walk on the water.  On a calm day he would still have sunk if He was not on the Word!  The natural will always try to get you back in the boat when you start in the supernatural–-with negative results.  Stop tithing-–never work!  Stop loving others–-just get hurt!  Stop reading the Bible–-never understand.  Stay focused on the Word that you obeyed.  Do not take your eyes off the promise.  Do not let go of your miracle!

…Simon, Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught.

— Luke 5:4b

Peter had fished all night. He was a professional fisherman by trade. He had caught nothing, and was cleaning his nets because it was daylight and time to go home. Peter was probably tired because he had been up all night, and could not wait to go home and go to bed. But along comes a preacher, a preacher who probably never fished a day in His life! He didn’t know anything about fishing. “He should stick to preaching and let me do the fishing!” But Peter decided to obey the word of the Lord, not excited or expecting to receive, but simply to make Jesus happy and then go home. But to Peter’s surprise, to his shock, they enclosed a great number of fishes and their net broke. Why didn’t he let down the nets for a catch (as Jesus said) instead of only one net? “I never thought I would catch anything! I had fished all night, it was now daylight, and the fish could see the nets. Nobody catches fish in the daytime! This doesn’t make fishing sense. This goes beyond all I know as a fisherman.” Even though it was a simple, reluctant, half-obedience to the Master, it resulted in a mighty miracle of provision for Peter. …Where have you failed to obey God? Where did you know more about something than God did and does? Forget what you know in the natural, and obey God’s Word. Your miracle is a “yes” away.