Entry Four: Obedience develops a mind of Christ

Obedience has never been my strong suit. Some might even say that I have issues with authority. I’ve always believed authority should exist to nurture growth and success. So, if I was convinced there was a better way, I wouldn’t hesitate to bypass it – even if that meant stepping on toes. I’ve seen my successes, but it’s not the wisest approach, especially in the context of long-term trust or healthy leadership structures. It’s something I’ve had to unlearn, and I hope that with time, wisdom, and experience, I’ll continue navigating this better.

I’ve often considered myself a pioneer. But many of my great plans collapsed – not because the vision was flawed, but because obedience was lacking. I didn’t wait on God’s timing. I didn’t submit the way I should have. Joseph, on the other hand, was a true pioneer. He played by the rules. He honored each leader he served under. He stewarded what was given to him with excellence, and when the time was right, he executed the divine pioneering plan that God had given him.

Like Joseph, we may find ourselves in times of trouble with hurts and scars so deep that it seems impossible we’d ever recover. And while God can heal in an instant, most of the time we have to go through the messy process of feeling and experiencing every bit of dread it brings. I look to the life of Joseph as something that is exemplary. By no means was any of his morbid circumstances in his first 13 years in Egypt ideal. Somehow he made it. 

In Tozer’s writings on prayer, he points out how we’re quick to pray for breakthroughs but slow to obey. We want the reward without the alignment. But in 1 Samuel 15:22, Samuel lectures King Saul who disobeyed God’s orders. Samuel tells Saul, “to obey is better than sacrifice”. I believe this quality of obedience applies to both God and the leadership you’re placed under. 

In Romans 13:1-7, it says “Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established”. 

For prayer to be effective, it must be rooted in a life obedient to God. “When the believer is obedient to the Lord, he develops the mind of Christ and prays more about what God lays before him to pray about.” - Prayer, by Tozer. 

In this broken world that we live in, we are so severed from connection to Christ. We must be intentional to seek Jesus, involving Him in our daily lives, consuming the word of God, to be hungry and thirsty and to come to the well of living waters that is God. It’s like working out – we will never see gains if we do nothing. But if we put in the work and time, it’s a certainty. We will get more and more in shape. 

I think the key question here is: How are you nurturing your spirit and your connection to God? Taking that time to seek God is obedience. 

So many people ask me, “How do I hear God’s voice?” And while there’s grace for the journey, it’s also true that many ask out of vanity or impatience. Be still, read the word, speak to God about whatever is in your heart. As you nurture this discipline, you will hear Him. He will reveal to you your next steps, and that's when real obedience comes in. “If you remain in Me and My words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you” - John 15:7. When you remain in God and His words are alive in your heart, you will be aligned with Him and whatever you pray will be His desire and purpose for you. 

In 2020, I hit a wall. I was newly ordained but deeply dissatisfied with the state of the church I was in. It felt like a cycle of surface-level validation with no outreach, no power, no transformation.  I was frustrated, I wanted more. I wanted to see people healed, I wanted to see the lost found, I wanted to see people accepting Christ for the first time, I wanted to see true breakthrough, beyond the mundane everyday problem of the privileged. 

God told me something, He said “Sam, I want you to pray for hunger to lead people to me”. I prayed for it every day for 2 weeks. After 2 weeks, a pastor I had initiated to talk to a month prior notified me about an operation he was conducting – packing health packs for migrant workers in Singapore. 

I showed up. Only one person from my church joined me as a volunteer. Together with a group of 50 volunteers, we packed 5,000 health packs. This opportunity led to another that led to another and another. Pretty soon, I was serving as the right-hand man of a pastor whose ministry was to migrant workers. God told me to quit my job, and I did. I was now heavily involved in this pastor’s NGO in the capacity of a volunteer. At some point, I looked at my finances and told myself I needed a job by Monday. 

I prayed “Lord, please give me a job by Monday” and immediately the words from John 15:7 came to me. In the book “Prayer Lambs”, Mark Geppert states “The most powerful prayer is the one the Holy Spirit prayers through you”.  Beyond that, I did nothing but feel peace from God. I had totally forgotten about that prayer when a call came in on Monday night. That same pastor offered me a job at the NGO, a new role they had opened up. 

Since then, I have helped over 13 dorms with a food program that fed over 2,000 migrant workers. 

I was still hungry to see the salvations. One day I was tasked to get to a dorm in Tuas, and I mixed up the number of the building and ended up at the wrong building. I ended up in a conversation with a migrant worker named Alamin. He spoke perfect English and we instantly forged a brotherhood. As I left that dorm God told me to pray for Alamin, and that he was the key to the breakthrough I’d been praying for. 

I kept returning. Each time I’d worship and pray before seeing Alamin. One day, after eating a McSpicy that upset my stomach, God told me, “Hold it in.” I did. I met Alamin and he said, “What is this magic you carry?” That every time I came, what he felt was beyond relief – it was a supernatural uplift in his spirit. Right then and there I shared my testimony, and told him that I am but a messenger of God. I shared the parable of the prodigal son and asked him if he wanted to accept Christ. He accepted on the spot. Thirty seconds later, the dorm manager who I had never seen showed up, yelling at all the migrant workers to go back in. If I hadn’t held in my stomach issues, Alamin would not have been saved. 

Alamin went on to lead seven more migrant workers to Christ before returning to Bangladesh.

My greatest miracles happened when I obeyed. Not when I complained or when I strategized, but when I took courage, and trusted in the Lord with all my heart. This is the way, this is the path. Soaking in Christ and obedience that leads to breakthroughs in prayer and action. 

The way out of shame is a journey through acceptance, forgiveness, and taking faith to obey God, who surely leads us to a place of real freedom and purpose.