What Does It Mean to Obey God? How to Obey God

“What it means to obey God and how to obey God” is a topic with which many believers are concerned, for it involves the important matter of whether we can gain God’s approval and enter the kingdom of heaven in our belief in God. So what does it mean to obey God? Do you know how to obey God? Let us fellowship and explore them now together.

What It Means to Truly Obey God

When it comes to what it means to obey God and how to obey God, some people will say, “Merely by being able to give everything up and work hard for the Lord, we are obeying God. In this way, we can be sure of gaining God’s approval.” Is this the right perspective? It looks like working hard, making sacrifices, and expending ourselves for the Lord is a manifestation of obeying God, but all we do is actually contaminated by our own intentions and impurities. Although we can expend ourselves for the Lord, when encountering natural or man-made disasters, we can misunderstand and blame God, try to reason with Him, and in serious cases deny and betray Him. These behaviors sufficiently prove that our hard work, sacrifices, and expending contain our personal motives and adulterations—we want to use these things as a bargaining chip to exchange for God’s blessings. All we do is solely to gain blessings and benefit for ourselves, not at all to love or satisfy God. We are so rebellious and resistant; how can this be called obeying God?

So what exactly does it mean to truly obey God? God says, “In measuring whether or not people can obey God, the key thing to look at is whether they desire anything extravagant from God, and whether or not they have ulterior motives. If people are always making demands of God, it proves that they are not obedient to Him. Whatever happens to you, if you cannot receive it from God, cannot seek the truth, are always speaking from your own subjective reasoning and always feeling that only you are right, and are even still capable of doubting God, then you will be in trouble. Such people are the most arrogant and rebellious to God. People who always make demands of God can never truly obey Him. If you make demands of God, this proves that you are making a deal with God, that you are choosing your own thoughts, and acting according to your own thoughts. In this, you betray God, and are without obedience. To make demands of God is senseless; if you truly believe that He is God, then you will not dare to make demands of Him, nor will you be qualified to make demands of Him, whether they be reasonable or not. If you have true faith, and believe that He is God, then you will have no choice but to worship and obey Him.”

“If your intention is not to obey God, and you have other aims, then all that you say and do—your prayers before God, and even your every action—will be in opposition to Him. You may be soft-spoken and mild-mannered, your every action and expression may look proper, and you may appear to be one who obeys, but when it comes to your intentions and your views about faith in God, everything you do is in opposition to God; everything you do is evil.”

We can see from these words that truly obeying God means that man no longer commits sin, defies or rebels against God, but is able to absolutely obey all of God’s work, to practice God’s words and live by God’s words, to loyally and obediently expend for God for the sake of being considerate of God’s will, practicing the truth and satisfying God, without personal intentions, exchange or demands, to obey God and practice God’s words regardless of what God says or does, and to stand witness for God to satisfy Him no matter what trials or hardships they face. Only people like this are those who truly obey God and receive God’s praise.

Let’s think about it: Is there anyone who has freed himself from the bonds of sin and achieved true obedience to God? If a believer focuses only on working hard but is unable to practice God’s words, and even engages in transactions with God, exploits, tricks, betrays as well as opposes God while toiling and working, then how can such a person obtain God’s praise and enter the kingdom of heaven? The Lord Jesus has told us long ago, “Truly, truly, I say to you, Whoever commits sin is the servant of sin. And the servant stays not in the house for ever: but the son stays ever” (John 8:34–35). “Not every one that said to Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that does the will of My Father which is in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name? and in Your name have cast out devils? and in Your name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess to them, I never knew you: depart from Me, you that work iniquity” (Matthew 7:21–23). And Leviticus 11:45 says, “You shall therefore be holy, for I am holy.” From here we can see that God is holy and righteous and that people who constantly sin are servants of sin, and no matter how much they expend or how great their suffering is, they are evil-doers in God’s eyes and can’t enter God’s kingdom in the end. Only those who cast off the shackles of sin, are purified and are able to truly love and obey God can enter God’s kingdom. Just as it is prophesied in the Book of Revelation, “Blessed are they that do His commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city” (Revelation 22:14).

How to Obey God

Then, how can we cast off the shackles of sin, be purified, and become people who truly obey God? The Lord Jesus prophesied long ago, “I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth” (John 16:12–13). “He that rejects Me, and receives not My words, has one that judges him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day” (John 12:48). “Sanctify them through Your truth: Your word is truth” (John 17:17). These verses show us that when the Lord returns, He will utter new words and express the truth to do the work of judgment of the last days on the foundation of the Lord Jesus’ work. This allows mankind to thoroughly escape the bondage of sin, be purified, become people who truly obey God, and be led by God into His kingdom. Only by welcoming the Lord’s return, accepting and experiencing God’s work of judgment in the last days can we become people who truly obey God and ultimately gain God’s salvation.

Throughout the entire world, only The Church of Almighty God is openly testifying that the Lord Jesus has returned as Almighty God, Christ of the last days. Almighty God has expressed millions of words and is performing the work of judgment beginning in God’s house, to purify and save man, and in the end He will turn man into people who obey God and conform with God’s will, and bring them into God’s kingdom.

Almighty God says, “Though Jesus did much work among man, He only completed the redemption of all mankind and became man’s sin offering; He did not rid man of all his corrupt disposition. Fully saving man from the influence of Satan not only required Jesus to become the sin offering and bear the sins of man, but it also required God to do even greater work to rid man completely of his satanically corrupted disposition. And so, now that man has been forgiven of his sins, God has returned to the flesh to lead man into the new age, and begun the work of chastisement and judgment. This work has brought man into a higher realm. All those who submit under His dominion shall enjoy higher truth and receive greater blessings. They shall truly live in the light, and they shall gain the truth, the way, and the life.”

“Christ of the last days uses a variety of truths to teach man, to expose the substance of man, and to dissect the words and deeds of man. These words comprise various truths, such as man’s duty, how man should obey God, how man should be loyal to God, how man ought to live out normal humanity, as well as the wisdom and the disposition of God, and so on. These words are all directed at the substance of man and his corrupt disposition. In particular, the words that expose how man spurns God are spoken in regard to how man is an embodiment of Satan, and an enemy force against God. In undertaking His work of judgment, God does not simply make clear the nature of man with a few words; He exposes, deals with, and prunes over the long term. All these different methods of exposure, dealing, and pruning cannot be substituted with ordinary words, but with the truth of which man is utterly bereft. Only methods such as these can be called judgment; only through judgment of this kind can man be subdued and thoroughly convinced about God, and moreover gain true knowledge of God.”

“People cannot change their own disposition; they must undergo the judgment and chastisement, and suffering and refinement, of God’s words, or being dealt with, disciplined, and pruned by His words. Only then can they achieve obedience and faithfulness to God, and no longer be perfunctory toward Him. It is under the refinement of God’s words that people’s dispositions change. Only through the exposure, judgment, discipline, and dealing of His words will they no longer dare to act rashly but instead will become steady and composed. The most important point is that they are able to submit to God’s current words, and to His work, even if it is not in line with human notions, they are able to put these notions aside and willingly submit.”

We can see from God’s words that in the last days, Almighty God uses words to do the work of judgment, and expresses all aspects of the truth that the corrupt mankind should understand and enter in order to receive cleansing and salvation; this is to judge and expose our sinful and satanic nature as well as satanic dispositions, so that we can see clearly the truth of our corruption by Satan. At the same time, He points out the path by which we can attain salvation and be purified. Through the judgment and exposure of God’s words and revelations from the facts, we see clearly that everything we reveal is the satanic dispositions of arrogance, conceit, crookedness, craftiness, selfishness and ignobility. We also see that we act based on the principle of self-interest. In our belief in God, when there is something to be gained, we forsake and expend energetically, otherwise we blame and resist God—we are self-interested, selfish, and despicable, without a shred of a human likeness; we are not worthy to live in God’s presence. Meanwhile, we also feel God’s righteous and holy disposition that is unoffendable by man, and a God-fearing heart gradually arises within us. We then become willing to forsake ourselves from the very bottom of our hearts, begin to pursue being honest people, knowing, obeying and being devoted to God, and performing the duty of a creature to repay God’s love, and seek to practice the truth to satisfy God. By experiencing God’s judgment in this way, we experience the transformation of our life dispositions, and live out more and more of a genuine human likeness, thus living in the light.

From this, we can see that only by accepting God’s work of judgment in the last days can we attain purification in our corrupt dispositions, truly obey God, and be compatible with God. Now, Almighty God’s work of judgment in the last days is drawing to an end. If we want to become people who obey God and attain God’s salvation, we need to investigate Almighty God’s work in the last days with an open heart. Only thus can we have the opportunity to be made by God into people who obey God.

Editor’s Note: We believe that, after reading this essay, you have found the way to obey God and known how to obey God. Should you have any further issues or questions, you are welcome to contact us using the online chat buttons at the bottom.