{"id":31532,"date":"2026-11-16T00:00:34","date_gmt":"2026-11-15T23:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/?p=31532"},"modified":"2026-11-15T19:57:27","modified_gmt":"2026-11-15T18:57:27","slug":"higher-still-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/2026\/11\/16\/higher-still-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Higher Still"},"content":{"rendered":"<!--[if lt IE 9]><script>document.createElement('audio');<\/script><![endif]-->\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-31532-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"http:\/\/gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/Nov-16.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/Nov-16.mp3\">http:\/\/gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/Nov-16.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bible.com\/bible\/97\/2PE.1.5-7.MSG\">2 Peter 1:<sup>5-7<\/sup> <\/a>\u201cSo don\u2019t lose a minute in building on what you\u2019ve been given, complementing your basic faith with good character, spiritual understanding, alert discipline, passionate patience, reverent wonder, warm friendliness, and generous love\u201d (MSG)<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Yesterday, we said that on level one, <em>follow me<\/em> equals <em>love me<\/em> and translates to express that love by <em>worship<\/em> and <em>devotion<\/em> to Jesus. On level two, <em>follow me<\/em> equals <em>love me <\/em>and translates to <em>obey me<\/em>. <!--more-->This is where maturity happens spiritually. It is beyond singing and crying in worship and devotion on Sundays and at midweek services, then doing whatever you want for the rest of the week. When you grow and mature, <em>love me<\/em> equals <em>follow me<\/em> and it translates to <em>obey me<\/em>. Jesus said to His disciples when they were at this level, \u201c<em>If you love me will <u>obey<\/u> my commandments<\/em>\u201d (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bible.com\/bible\/116\/JHN.14.15.NLT\">John 14:15<\/a>). From love me equals follow me in devotion and worship, you should mature to the next level which is love me equals follow me in obedience.<\/p>\n<p>So, the things you used to do, you do them no more. The things you used to say, you say them no more. The errors you used to make, you make them no more. You move from devotion to obedience. Your obedience at this level of maturity is the indicator of your love for Jesus. Again, the first level is your devotion. You don&#8217;t want to miss church or miss fellowship. You worship God by yourself\u2014devotion. I don&#8217;t want to put a percentage to it, but a large percentage of Christians are on level one. And there are a lot of people who are keeping them there because they are happy that they are there. But there is a higher level that God is calling you to, a higher purpose, and that is obedience. Jesus says, the higher level is if you love me, you will obey my commandments.<\/p>\n<p>Then there is yet a higher level, which is what Jesus was saying to Peter. If you love me, you will take care of my sheep. So, to a Pastor or Minister who would rather not attend church because he or she had a bad day or a bad week, Jesus is saying, do you love me? \u201cYes, Lord, I did my devotion this morning.\u201d Jesus says, \u201cYou are not a child anymore; you are not in kindergarten.\u201d \u201cLord, I had the opportunity to steal from the office, but I obeyed You. In obedience, I didn&#8217;t steal. I was supposed to defraud someone, but I didn&#8217;t do it. I was supposed to commit adultery, but I did not. I obeyed You.\u201d Jesus is saying, \u201cFor your level, that is kids\u2019 stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>What will determine your love for Jesus on level three is <em>service<\/em>. On level three, follow me equals love me, and it translates to <em>service<\/em>. It is the things you are doing to serve God&#8217;s people at this level that shows you love God.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Prayer<\/strong>: Father, empower me to steadily build on what I have been given, complementing my faith with good character, spiritual understanding, discipline, passionate patience, reverent wonder, warm friendliness, and generous love, in the Name of Jesus. Amen!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>2 Peter 1:5-7 \u201cSo don\u2019t lose a minute in building on what you\u2019ve been given, complementing your basic faith with good character, spiritual understanding, alert discipline, passionate patience, reverent wonder, warm friendliness, and generous love\u201d (MSG) &nbsp; Yesterday, we said that on level one, follow me equals love me and translates to express that love [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[324,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-god","category-jesus"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31532","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31532"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31532\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31719,"href":"https:\/\/gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31532\/revisions\/31719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}