Chicken or Egg: Obedience or Awakening?

The thirst for spiritual awakening continues to express itself through the SBTC’s regional Pastor Prayer Gatherings across our state. We are not quite at the halfway point of praying in all of Texas’ 18 regions, yet we have experienced powerful times of prayer. I encourage you to make every effort to be a part of the prayer for spiritual awakening coming to your area.

I sometimes have difficulty understanding the balance, timing and relationship between obedience and blessing. It’s sort of like the chicken/egg dilemma; which came first? Do times of blessing bring obedience or does obedience bring times of blessing? To bring that dilemma to the issue of revival, renewal and awakening, does obedience introduce times of awakening or does awakening result in seasons of obedience? To believe that we are to pray and sit around until the fire falls before we step into obedience fails to pass the “smell test.” However, going out on our own without the power and presence of the Holy Spirit to make us successful woefully falls short as well.

It seems we cannot have one without the other; both are somewhat simultaneous. We pray and obey while we trust the Spirit to be at work. As Southern Baptists we have a built-in mechanism to help us on the obedience side. We call it the Cooperative Program. Let me explain.

The promise of our Lord in the Great Commission to be with us always is connected to the premise that we should always be involved in making disciples of all nations. Should we expect the presence, power and provision of the Holy Spirit if our lives and ministries are not attached to making disciples of the nations? I think not. God is not about making any of us successful or famous but about making his son famous. As we embark on the same track, he will be with us.

Make no mistake about it. The Cooperative Program is about making disciples. For those of us who attended a Southern Baptist seminary, it helped us financially. For those on the mission field, it pays their way (Ask any missionary, and they’ll be quick to tell you). We are in a season during which the Cooperative Program is under scrutiny by those wishing to make it better. I’m all for it. There are also those who wish to radically change it. If there is a better way for us to fund the ministries of disciple making than what we have undertaken together through our state and national conventions, I’m all for that as well. But until that way is discovered, I’m all in for CP. I encourage you to get all in as well.

Every spiritual awakening has been preceded by prayer and obedience. There have been no spiritual awakenings that did not produce lasting results from obedience by those touched by the quickening of the Spirit. As we continue to pray and obey, and as awakening comes, I am convinced that one of the lasting results will be a great increase in the amount of our offerings given to ministries that are making disciples of the nations. Our mechanism, our delivery system is in place. We call it the Cooperative Program.