In this final hour all who have truly given their hearts to the Lord are being brought into the obedience of Jesus Christ. Remember, He took on the form of man, a body of clay the same as we have. With that physical body came all the weaknesses of human nature, weaknesses Jesus overcame; and in doing so, He showed man how to be obedient in everything. But [Jesus] made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross (Philippians 2:7,8). The death on the cross was a most hideous, degrading death, a death shameful and agonizing. But Jesus was obedient to that death; humbly, He made Himself of no reputation. A man, yet divinity, Jesus provided the way for His obedient to be partakers of His divine nature. As Jesus humbled Himself, we must humble ourselves in the presence of God. He came as a servant, and now we must be His servants.

What If Jesus Had Failed?

The thought crossed my mind, Lord, what if you had backed out? Instead of crying, It is finished! what if you had cried on the cross, I’ve decided not to go through with this! Man and woman aren’t worth all this suffering. I’m not the one who sinned. I am not going to give all. Look how they’ve treated me—plucking out my beard and spitting on me, crowning me with thorns and mocking me. They just aren’t worth it. Oh, Jesus, what if you had backed out?

Then I thought about us; what if we back out in this final hour? Many would be lost who could have been saved, many go to hell. No, we can do nothing less than serve Jesus in total obedience. Nothing less will accomplish the divine soul-winning mission God has put us on, and nothing less will bring His best to our lives. Total obedience. We can’t afford to offer Him anything less than total obedience now, to be like Him in every way.

Obedience is not an “in and out thing” the way it has been for most people. Living in the Spirit of total obedience means staying there no matter the cost. Your life will consist of God, God, God, of delighting to please Him in every way.

Weigh Your Words

Total obedience is required to be a Jesus overcomer, with eyes, ears, mouth operating under subjection to Him. Many are deceived about their mouths, even God’s people. Criticism, gossip, complaining often turn friends and family completely away from God. Where is the love of God? Our words are to be governed by love. For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another (I John 3:11). The Bible teaches to speak no evil, to not gossip. God’s people are to have sanctified tongues, holy tongues.

Weigh your tongue. Do you speak that which the Lord wouldn’t speak? You have no license to say whatever comes into your mind; you have an obligation to speak the words of Jesus, to speak the truth. Total obedience. The wrong words not only rob you of the blessings of God here on Earth, they will rob you of your place in the Rapture. This is the hour to be wide awake to the thoughts you put into words; if you’re not awake to your tongue, you’re in danger of missing the Rapture. God marks every word you say.

So deceived, many feel religious and think they are pleasing God; but they are not holy. This pattern occurs again and again: people being religious but not holy, speaking words that hurt, destroy and weaken. That isn’t the Jesus way. Jesus didn’t gossip; He never said anything to weaken or destroy people when He was here.

I’m careful with my conversations; I don’t know what moment the angel of the Lord might join in. He’s subject to come to me any hour of the day or night. Sometimes when I’m talking, the angel of the Lord moves in, saying just a few words for me to give to that person.

What do you talk about? What is your conversation? If you were standing before the throne of God would your conversation change it’s tone? Many have been wounded and hurt by others. Oh, that people would exchange their sword-tongue for a tongue of love! It would mean so much. Some cannot weigh their words because they’re enclosed in walls of self-justification. Self will whitewash your actions, justify your words until you are completely deceived. Don’t justify your words, but examine them to find if you say the things Jesus would say.

Add Up the Grand Total of Self

Self is cunning, slippery in avoiding total obedience to God. You cannot trust self; but you can trust Jesus, the truth. What manner of person are you? Are you looking for the bad or the God in people? What is your life on planet Earth? Do you profit God? What is the sum total of you, the total value of you in the hands of the Master? What is the sum total of God in you? Paul declared the total sum of his life: I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me (Galatians 2:20). How amazing, how exciting to know that Christ lives in you! Yet some will never let the Word of God bring Christ into their hearts.

Take stock of self. See how much self is ruling your life daily. Is it ten percent, fifty, one hundred? Then find how much of Jesus shows up in your life each day. Face facts. Don’t spare self. As you weigh yourself on the scales of God with the Holy Word, you can learn about your hindrances, your bondages, your weaknesses and your strengths. You can find how human strength can be a weakness when it takes the place of the strength of God. God wants you to know everything about self, all its characteristics, so you will be aware when self rises up. But in order to know self, you must also recognize the characteristics of Jesus of Nazareth. He sets the standard. Compare self to His standard and learn if you are behaving in self or acting like Jesus. Are you living, talking like Him and doing His work? The Lord didn’t teach the disciples to be almost like Him but to be just like Him. He taught total obedience, not obedience part time.

What is the grand total of self compared to the grand total of God in your life? How much of self takes you over, how much of God? How does your life weigh out? It’s time to face facts, time to know in whom you have believed. How much have you committed into His hands? Do you want the will of God all the time the rest of the journey or only when it’s convenient to self or family?

The days of indulging self are past if you expect to meet the Lord in the air. We have entered an hour you will be swept into the arms of God one hundred percent or swept the other way. In a lukewarm state you will be spewed out of His mouth into the Tribulation Period; and you’ll be left behind, saith the Lord. I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth (Revelation 3:15,16). How much better to serve the Lord in total obedience! Total obedience keeps the faith and love of God alive and working in your heart; total obedience keeps the humility of Jesus moving in your life.

Serving the total Jesus means total humble submission to Him daily. The Early Church possessed this total obedience; a few have had it down through the years.

Walk Like Jesus

Jesus paid the price for us to walk like Him in total obedience. As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him: Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving (Colossians 2:6,7). You can’t walk like Jesus unless you walk in total obedience. There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit (Romans 8:1). For we walk by faith, not by sight (II Corinthians 5:7). Walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us (Ephesians 5:2). Jesus walked in love and faith; He walked after the Holy Spirit.

It takes complete obedience to walk like Him, a complete surrender to the will of the Almighty. Jesus made that complete surrender and declared, Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God (Hebrews 10:7).

What some call doing the will of God is nothing but doing what they themselves want. As long as they want to do a particular thing, it’s the will of God; but if they don’t want to, they justify themselves by saying it isn’t God’s will. Why would you ask for His will and then ignore it, refuse to accept it? When God spends days, weeks, months or even years to bring you to that level of obedience in which you can carry out His will, walking like Jesus, would you betray Him by backing down? Again I ask, What if Jesus had backed down?

Much time was spent on God’s great plan of salvation, and much time has been spent on this great plan of evangelizing the world in this final hour. How dare we fail God anytime in this Jesus walk? How dare we ever put self ahead of God, and how dare we take anything less than God’s best on the road of total obedience?

Let not one speck of disobedience choke your voice so that God can’t hear you saying I have come to do thy will, oh God. Never deceive yourself by thinking you have come to do God’s will if you do not have a mind to do everything, if your life is not really on the line for Him, if you are not willing to die for His name’s sake. God wants you to be at the place it matters not whether you live or die so long as you are completely in His will. His will makes the difference. Would you dare plan a life here on Earth beyond that which He has planned for you? Would you dare stay here past that time?

Why not accept everything God’s way? Why shirk from part of the will of God? Why take your life into your own hands when they are so frail? Why try to project a great self image when you know that the vain voice of self will cease one day? There is no room for self indulgence on this Jesus walk.

Disobedience Muffles the Voice of God

God’s mighty eternal voice of strength, faith and love is muffled by disobedience. The more you disobey God the weaker His voice sounds in your ear until you become confused, wondering what the will of God really is. It isn’t that you don’t know how to yield to God; it’s a matter of whether or not you choose to yield to Him, whether you really want to give Him your heart. It’s surprising how many go through the motions of serving God without really giving Him their hearts. Everyone can yield to Him who wants. Most seek great results—if they follow God at all—but they don’t want to make the effort for daily results. They don’t want to pay the price to have God’s best, to be able to hear what God is saying to them because they don’t want to obey Him. God will allow you to close your ears to Him—He made man a creature of free choice—but He wants to manifest Himself, to make Himself real to you. The only way He can be real to you is through your obedience to the Spirit of obedience. You can hear the voice of God only through total obedience.

Disobedience takes people into paths of confusion. I see many of God’s people on paths of confusion, and God has nothing to do with confusion. For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace (I Corinthians 14:33). Those in confusion cannot hear God’s voice or find His will.

You will know the will of God when you yield to it in everything. You needn’t expect to find His will if you are disobedient, for then God will cease to give you His will, cease to make your paths plain. You will defeat your own life as many have done.

In this world of chaos, many have given over to the devil until they are controlled by him, possessed by demons. What a dangerous time to disobey God! This is an hour that requires total obedience so that we can be possessed by the Holy Spirit Himself.

A Glorious Church

Ephesians 5:27 in speaking of Jesus Christ and the church says: That he [Jesus] might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. Disobedience brings the spots, wrinkles and blemishes. Only perfect obedience, total obedience will keep your garment holy for God, for only through total obedience can the fire of the Holy Spirit remove the spots and blemishes and iron out the wrinkles.

God has brought us together to reason with us in this final hour. It’s time for the spots and wrinkles to all disappear—if you’re planning to be a part of the Glorious Church Jesus will take with Him at His second coming. If you make the Rapture it will be because you planned to make it, carefully prepared for it, because you took the whole plan of God for your life. Until you surrender everything, everything, everything, your life cannot be laid at the Master’s feet in total obedience. However, if you’re planning for the Tribulation Period, it’s a different story.

From day one in the Garden of Eden, God has called for a Spirit of total obedience in man’s life. Obey me and you’ll eat the good of the land, He told a nation. Obey me, and your enemies will fall before you. Obey, obey, obey! Now God is crying just as clearly to individuals who will make up His glorious Church: Obey! You won’t wonder whether you are like Jesus if you just obey. Obey, and no power will be able to defeat you. Obey and you won’t have to worry whether you will be ready when your Lord comes…obey.

The Obedient Are Greatly Loved

The Lord is proud of the obedient. He was proud of Jesus. And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased (Matthew 3:17). Others in the Bible pleased the Lord. The angel Gabriel told Daniel: thou art greatly beloved (Daniel 9:23). And how proud God was of His servant Job! He said, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil (Job 1:8)?

John 21:7 speaks of that disciple whom Jesus loved. Total obedience brings the favor of God. John went all the way with Jesus. At the Last Supper John was the one leaning on the breast of Jesus. Why did the Lord love him so?—perfect obedience. Study the book of John, filled with such obedience that the Lord could flow those great words of the Gospel through him. Read First, Second and Third John; and then go to the book of Revelation for John’s final writings. Such obedience….

God’s Strength Made Perfect in Weakness

It is said that John was thrown into boiling oil, but he wouldn’t die. His enemies couldn’t kill him, for God wasn’t done with his life. Total obedience—you die when the Lord gets ready for you to die and not before. Total obedience to God was the reason John was banished to the Isle of Patmos. On that desolate place the book of Revelation was given and recorded.

Think on it…how would you have reacted had you been in John’s place? You had sat at the feet of Jesus, so loved that you had leaned on Him at the Last Supper. Everyone knew you were special to Jesus. Would you have been in despair on Patmos thinking you had done everything you knew to do for the Lord…and now this? John wasn’t. Through total obedience he had the victory. When you do everything for the Lord He wants you to do, you just keep doing. Never grumble at the Lord; never question Him in doubt. Tell your heart the words the Lord told Paul: My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness (II Corinthians 12:9). His grace is abounding for you.

Wicked men couldn’t kill the apostle Paul until the Lord was ready to receive him. All those years the Lord preserved him until the perfect timing of God came, the time for Paul to seal his testimony with his own blood. Paul wrote Timothy: For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight. I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing (II Timothy 4:6-8).

No Power Can Stand before the Obedient

Perfect obedience to God made the prophet Daniel great. Even in a nation that had completely failed God and sold out to the devil, Daniel remained totally obedient to God. In total obedience Daniel wrote of events to come, happenings that would take place in the future. Much of his prophecies have been fulfilled, and those concerning the Great Tribulation will soon transpire. Total obedience made it possible for God to use Daniel in such a marvelous way.

God did amazing things through the totally obedient. Study those in the Bible who with love yielded to everything God wanted. The Church of Jesus Christ in operation set forth with members totally obedient. No power could stand before them. The totally obedient couldn’t be held in jails if God wanted to bring them out. Angels worked among them as though they themselves were angels. Anytime a need arises, angels work with the obedient, those with the Spirit of a man called Jesus. That’s the way it is when you’re obedient to everything of God.

What reality lies in total obedience! What joy! What strength you can have! Total obedience destroys despair, depression and oppression. Living in total obedience is choosing not to live in oppression and depression. Total obedience brings about what God has willed for you, and then in all reality you live knowing what He wills and what He doesn’t will for you. You know you are an obedient child of the King. Confidence in His promises is your daily blessing, daily help. You are not to be weak, but strong, a Jesus overcomer and nothing less.

Daily move in a little closer to the Lord; daily be a little more like Him. Again and again check self with the Spirit of the Living Truth to make sure that you’re walking like Jesus, that you’re in the same channel of obedience He was in with the same vision, the same tears for the lost, willing to give all as He gave all. No power can stand before the power of God in His totally obedient.

What Will You Do with the Message of Jesus?

The cry of Jesus is: Come, come, follow me! Yet the cry of the world is: Follow your dream! The Bible never tells us to follow a dream; it’s the devil who presents glittering images to lure people away from the paths of God. Follow your star, he tells them. Make your dreams come true. God isn’t calling us to be dreamers in this hour, but to be filled with the Spirit, filled with living reality of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost.

Christ is not a dream, and He is soon coming. The world needs to hear the message of Jesus, of His dying for all. You have His message in the Bible. What are you going to do with it? How much of it are you going to use? All? Half? None? Will you use it until every power is put down, until self is buried so deeply that the Spirit of obedience to the Lord can never be defeated in your life? What you do with the message of Jesus all depends on how obedient you are.

The Barrel of Meal Wasted Not

Because the widow woman of Zarephath was totally obedient, God was able to tell Elijah in time of severe famine: Arise, get thee to Zarephath, which belongeth to Zidon, and dwell there: behold, I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee (I Kings 17:9). This widow was the one through whom God chose to perform a miracle in that day of famine because hers was a life He found in total obedience toward Him. She didn’t blame God because she and her son were starving to death, because they were about to die. Gathering sticks to bake a last morsel of bread, she found no fault with God. When Elijah asked her for a little bread she simply stated the truth: As the Lord thy God liveth, I have not a cake, but an handful of meal in a barrel, and a little oil in a cruse: and, behold, I am gathering two sticks, that I may go in and dress it for me and my son, that we may eat it, and die. And Elijah said unto her, Fear not; go and do as thou hast said: but make me thereof a little cake first, and bring it unto me, and after make for thee and for thy son. For thus saith the Lord God of Israel, The barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruse of oil fail, unto the day that the Lord sendeth rain upon the earth. And she went and did according to the saying of Elijah: and she, and he, and her house, did eat many days. And the barrel of meal wasted not, neither did the cruse of oil fail, according to the word of the Lord, which he spake by Elijah (I Kings 17:12-16).

Gift of Miracles Works Only through Total Obedience

Total obedience was the reason God performed His Bible miracles; and now, saith the Lord, the hour has come for the gift of miracles to work in perfection throughout the whole Earth. Because it can only work in total obedience, the Spirit is crying to you, Child of God, to step into total obedience, to not do anything that grieves the Spirit in the body of Christ. Take your place and be everything God wants you to be. Be diligent not to be deceived even a tiny bit, not a little disobedient. The gift of miracles works in total obedience, and we are entering the hour it must work. Multitudes can be shaken only by the manifestations of Almighty God through the gift of miracles.

Only through the fantastic gift of miracles was God able to shake the Children of Israel in Egypt as well as that nation of Egypt and its evil ruler. Nothing less than the gift of miracles can shake the earth in this final hour. All the gifts of the Spirit must operate, with the gift of miracles shining like a great mighty light from God as it performs. God will reveal Himself in His love and greatness through the mighty gift of miracles. In the gift of miracles you will find all the supreme love, all the supreme yielding, all the supreme power that God has ever offered and yielded to man to serve man. It’s all in the gift of miracles.

In consecration and dedication, walk softly before God, girding yourself with the truth of God, turning neither to the left nor to the right. Be humble and dedicated the way Jesus was, like Him in every way. Every day make sure that you walk like Him, that you say nothing He would not have said, that you don’t complain. Rebuke only what the truth rebukes, and then let the Spirit of Truth do it. Total obedience means His plans are yours; you take all of His plans. Your days and nights are His. Your thoughts are His thoughts. You take on the mind of Christ in total obedience.

What an understanding spirit, what an understanding heart one has living in total obedience! It’s God’s Promised Land of Canaan for every child of God: God’s Canaan—total obedience. Your hands become His—so willing to work for Him—holy hands that serve as His hands serve. Remember the hands of Jesus were hands of clay, but they served. They touched the eyes of the blind and sight returned. Jesus told Bible believers that they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover (Mark 16:18).

Called to Preach

I’ve stood at the crossroads more times than one. Would I do His will, all of it? When He called me to preach and gave me the Spirit of total obedience I didn’t rebel. I fell to the floor at His feet, tears streaming down my face. “I can’t preach,” I cried, “but I will. I can’t preach, O Lord, I don’t have one sermon.” How could I preach without a sermon? “But I will, Lord, because you’ve asked me to.” I started on my journey, never saying no to Him.

Some pass off the power of God in my life, saying, “Oh, Ernest Angley’s just different.” Did they ever stop to think what makes me different? I bow to everything that God wants, and I do it willingly. I don’t battle and battle with self; I conquered self through the Spirit of God a long time ago. I know one thing: I must bow to everything the Lord wants, everything—no exception, and no fuss. No need to rise up to tell God I can’t take anymore. The Lord promised; There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it (I Corinthians 10:13). Any time I feel I can’t take any more, I look around for the way of escape. If it’s not there, I settle down in total obedience, saying, “Lord, I can take some more. I just thought I couldn’t. You’ll know when I get to the cut-off place.” I learned to bow when He speaks. I learned to answer when He calls, to be on answering ground, to know where to be when He calls. You can learn it all, too. I’m not obedient to God because I’m exceptional. I’m not. I’m just a human being like you but one who learned to bow to everything God wants. I cry for His divine will, nothing less. I never ask what it will cost me. I never ask how much I’ll have to fast or say, “Don’t take me this road, Lord.” I ask Him, “Just take me the road that has plenty of souls to be won for you, please God. No matter how rocky, no matter the thorns, no matter…just so there are plenty of souls for my hire.” And God sees to that. To be obedient to Him, to know you have the nail-riven hands holding fast to yours is the deepest satisfaction that anyone could have in life.

Stand Still and See the Greatness of God

In this world of chaos when people don’t know where to turn or what to do, the totally obedient have serenity. They wonder what all the scrambling is about, all the hysteria. Why don’t people stand still and see the greatness of God? Total obedience—even obedience unto death—means you have but one life given completely to Him. Your life is marked in Heaven because you asked God to use it any way He wants. You don’t consider how much you will cry or how heavy the load will be; you just want Him to give you grace to carry the load, that’s all. The totally obedient are determined to please Him in every way, in everything. One day in Heaven they will look on His face and hear Him say, “You’ve done everything I wanted you to do. You did it all, never refusing one thing I asked of you. You walked each path I marked for your feet.”

He is your Lord; He is your God, the horn of your salvation. That horn of gladness is sounding loud and clear in the ears of the totally obedient in this final hour. They’re born of the Holy Spirit of God, new creations, filled with the Holy Spirit. He tabernacles in houses of clay, teaching the truths of God and shedding abroad God’s love in hearts.

It’s wonderful to walk without fear, to walk in the sunlight of God’s grace and love, in anticipation of the great prophecy to be fulfilled: Surely I come quickly (Revelation 22:20). He will come; He will come! My heart shouts it, and my spirit shouts it within. He will come, He will come, He will come! And He will come soon; we are the Rapture generation.

Lift up your heart and make a vow to God for total obedience. Pray this prayer of obedience with me:

Oh, God, give me the Spirit of total obedience. I want to be like Jesus. I want to obey like Jesus obeyed. I want to be able to say in all faith believing: Father, you always hear me, because I know you hear an obedient voice. I want to be obedient to take this Gospel to the world, to tell everyone in darkness about the light of God’s salvation. I want to win the lost no matter the cost. I want the obedience that Jesus had, to obey my Lord in everything. I don’t want to come up lacking in one small thing. I want to be obedient no matter how much it costs me. I give myself completely to you, Lord. Use me for thy honor, for thy glory. Use me! Work through me; work with me and do your perfect will. And I will abide by it; I will accept the will of God the rest of the journey. I won’t grumble. I won’t complain. Just give me your will, and I know you’ll give me grace to do it.

A Message from the Holy Spirit

I have come down to draw you into my arms of love. I have come down to let you know that your hour is indeed late. I have come down to purge you from everything that is unlike me. I have come down to establish you in my goings like you have never been established before. I have come down to draw you to my bosom of love and greatness. I have come down to breathe upon you my strength of love and grace in this your final hour. I have great need of vessels, vessels that I can fill to the brim; but they must be pure, pure as I am pure. They must be holy as I am holy.

Yield to my Spirit. Yield to my truth. Yield to my sight so I can let you see as I see. Yield to my mind, saith the Lord, so you can think as I am thinking and know as I know. Then you will rise up in total obedience because you will see the darkness, and you will see the great tribulation approaching, and you will know the mighty storm of destruction is headed toward the humanity that you know. Then you will cry the tears of God for the lost. You will cry the tears of Calvary for the lost, saith the Lord. You will cry in total obedience with all the compassion that my Son cried when He was on Earth. I have tears, tears to give you, tears to give you for a lost world.

Yield to my love and Spirit. Yield to all of my ways, and be all that I desire you to be. And you will be used for my honor and for my glory. And you will do the works of my Son, saith the Lord.

God is seeking to manifest Himself. There will be more miracles and healings than ever before. What a miraculous time we are entering into! Night and day we must not lose sight of the Lord. Step into total obedience. Be rid of all stubbornness, every ill wind of disobedience that would influence you. Yield to the power and love of Jesus. All of God’s paths are leading to total obedience, total service in this final hour. God needs all of our voices, all of our minds, all of our hands. God needs us.