In our spiritual relationship with God, we do not grow step-by-step; we’re either there or we’re not. The same is true when it comes to sin. God doesn’t cleanse us more and more from sin; either we are free of sin or we’re not. It’s a question of obedience, of keeping ourselves in the light. “If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus . . . purifies us from all sin” (1 John 1:7). The instant we obey, our relationship with God is perfected. But if we disobey, even for a second, darkness and death are immediately at work.
All of God’s revelations are closed to us until we obey; only through obedience are they opened. Beware of becoming wise and learned; you will never get his revelations open by thinking about them. But when you obey, a flash of light comes. You have to let God’s truth work its way in by soaking yourself in it, not by worrying about it. The only way you can get to know the great truths of God is to stop trying to know and to be born again.
Obey God in the thing he places before you, whatever it may be, and the next thing will open up to you instantly. We read book upon book about the work of the Holy Spirit, when five minutes of total obedience would make things clear as a sunbeam.
“I guess I’ll understand one day,” you say. You can understand now. It isn’t studying that will get you there; it’s obedience. God will never reveal more truth about himself until you have obeyed what you already know. The tiniest fragment of obedience on your part will cause heaven to open and the profoundest truths of God to become yours.
