^“7 Who in the days of His (Jesus) flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto Him that was able to save Him from death, and was heard in that He feared;

⁸ Though He were a Son, yet learned He obedience by the things which He suffered;

⁹ And being made perfect, He became the Author of eternal Salvation unto all them that obey Him;” Hebrews 5:7-9

Jesus, being made perfect, learned obedience NOT to be obedient.  Being led by the Holy Spirit while here in His flesh, Jesus learned God’s perfect Will.  We, on the other hand, must learn to be obedient before we can learn obedience.

“And He said to them all, If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.” Luke 9:23

Before learning obedience, we must learn to be obedient.  In order to go after Jesus and learn obedience, we must learn to deny ourselves and learn to be obedient.  Our self will, efforts, talents, education, intellect and motivation hinder our learning of obedience because we have not yet learned how to be obedient through denying ourselves. The learning of God’s perfect Will through the leading and guiding of the Holy Spirit  is the learning of obedience and can only be found as our faith is placed in the Cross of Christ where the Holy Spirit is commissioned to work in us this learning.

^“3 For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: ⁴ That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” Romans 8:3-4

Once we learn to be obedient by denying ourselves, we can learn obedience through picking up our cross.  Precept upon precept and line upon line, our faith is authored and finished as we follow our Lord Jesus Christ.

^“6 Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.

⁷ And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:6-7

We learn obedience through much prayer and supplication…but only after learning to be obedient.

-Donna Clark Warren