First Time Obedience
“You need to get in here immediately, if not sooner!” This parental edict, still lingering in the annals of my adolescent memories recorded over half a century ago, left no wiggle room for negotiations. I never did figure out what could possibly be sooner than immediately, but I did know the only option was to obey. Immediately.
As I sat down with the Lord for our quiet time together, I asked, “Papa, where would you like to take me today? Teach me from your Word.” His response was, well—immediate. The gospel of Mark.
Opening my Bible (immediately) to the second book of the New Testament, I suddenly saw something that had never caught my attention before. As I read through the first chapter, I kept noticing the word immediately. Over and over.
The first reference was in the context of Jesus being baptized by John in the Jordan River in Mark 1:10. And immediately, coming up from the water, He saw the heavens parting and the Spirit descending upon Him like a dove. A single, very significant verse follows, Then a voice came from heaven, “You are My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased,” before we encounter it again in Mark 1:12: Immediately the Spirit drove Him into the wilderness.
The next iteration of this apparently ubiquitous adverb comes in verses 18 and 20, where Jesus is calling the young men who would form His core group of disciples—Simon, Andrew, James, and John—to follow Him and become fishers of men. There is an implied urgency, both in His call and in their response, that couldn’t wait. They immediately left their nets and followed Him (verse 18). And immediately He called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants, and went after Him (verse 20).
Leaving everything familiar to follow Jesus to Capernaum on the Sabbath, they immediately entered the synagogue, where Jesus taught (Mark 1:21) as one having authority. Delivering a man in the synagogue from a demon, everyone was amazed by Jesus’ command over these unclean spirits that obeyed Him and came out at once. Immediately, His fame spread throughout all the region around Galilee. Mark 1:26.
As soon as they left the synagogue, Jesus and His new recruits continued on to the house of Simon and Andrew, where Simon’s mother-in-law was lying ill with a fever. Wasting no time, the disciples told Jesus about her, So He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up, and immediately the fever left her. And she served them. Mark 1:31
“What’s this all about?” I wondered. My eyes opened wider and wider as they scrutinized the pages for more sightings of this word. Continuing to linger in the first chapter of Mark, I read the story of the leper who challenged Jesus with the words, “If You are willing, You can make me clean.” Of course, Jesus was moved with compassion, stretched out His hand, and said, “I am willing; be cleansed.” As soon as He had spoken, immediately the leprosy left him, and he was cleansed. Mark 1:40-42
Coming to the conclusion that the Holy Spirit was making a point with all this, I looked up the word immediately in the original Greek—euthys. A compound word meaning well-placed or to place well, its connotation is one of passive positioning, rather than active movement.
Jesus is portrayed in the gospel of Mark as the consummate servant, yielding Himself completely to the command of His Father, allowing His being to move only at the impulse of the Holy Spirit, with the three members of the Godhead continually operating in full agreement. Jesus would never act on His own; He only did or said what the Father demonstrated first. In His submissive, seemingly passive obedience, He would respond immediately to the Father’s promptings in one accord with the Holy Spirit. No questions asked.
As I sought to absorb all of this, I remembered a concept my husband and I had learned about through a parenting class we took when our son was young—first-time obedience. Focused on training the heart of a child to respond to parental instruction from a position of honor and respect, it sought to demonstrate the perfect obedience of Jesus to His Father. Never wavering or questioning God’s authority, never testing the limits, Jesus simply did what He saw the Father doing and said whatever the Father was saying. His immediacy was born out of intimacy.
What if Christ-followers, those redeemed by His blood and bearing His name, practiced this same model of first-time obedience to our heavenly Father? What if we stopped resisting Jesus’ mandate to heal the sick, cast out demons, and raise the dead? What if we gave no credence to our own inexperience, qualifications, comfort zones, or reputations in favor of simply following His instructions to the letter—immediately? I believe we would begin to see His kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven.
As members of MICN’s Ambassadorial Prayer Team, we are growing in first-time obedience to the promptings of the Holy Spirit as we receive requests from pastors and church planters around the world needing our intercession. Sometimes prayer ministry is like triage in a hospital emergency room—some things just can’t wait, for lives may depend on our prayers. Other times, we can thoughtfully reflect before responding. Our desire is to grow in such intimacy with God that we simply do what He is doing and say what He is saying, just as Jesus did. Immediately.
Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them. John 14:21
Jan de Chambrier
MICN Prayer Ambassador
If you have a prayer request of any nature for the APT, feel free to contact Jan at jan@micn.org. We want to serve all members of MICN through the ministry of intercession and will hold your requests in confidence.
