Matthew 26:6-13, "And when Jesus was in Bethany at the house of Simon the leper, a woman came to Him having an alabaster flask of very costly fragrant oil, and she poured it on His head as He sat at the table. But when His disciples saw it, they were indignant, saying, "why this waste? For this fragrant oil might have been sold for much and given to the poor". But Jesus said to them, "why do you trouble the woman, she has done a good work for me. You have the poor with you always, but me you do not have always. Assuredly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be told as a memorial to her." I want you to notice here that this woman received a tremendous blessing because of her obedience.
The more we step out by faith and obey the word of God, the more of God's blessings we'll see manifesting in our own lives. Let me give you an illustration of what I'm talking about: Galatians 5:22-25 talks about the fruit of the spirit, "... the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. And those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit," All the fruit I just mentioned is inside the spirit of every born-again child of God, but just because they're there doesn't mean they're a reality in our life. This is where physical obedience comes in and brings forth a spiritual blessing. When we believe that we have the love of God in us, and we release the love of God physically, the more manifestation of the love of God we'll see in our own life. It's the same exact thing when it comes to joy. When we believe that we have joy and the more we release it by rejoicing we'll start to experience that joy.
Hebrews 13:15 says, "Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name." Notice, it says 'continually' offer the 'sacrifice' of praise, not just when everything is going good in our lives, but continually. If we only did it when things were going good then, it wouldn't be a sacrifice. A sacrifice has to cost you something; if it costs you nothing then it's not a sacrifice. This is where again physical obedience comes in to play, we may not always feel like praising because of the circumstances surrounding us, but by faith we offer up the sacrifice of praise. Rejoicing always sees through the eyes of faith.
