Due to the trials of life, we might quite often feel defeated. We might all find ourselves amidst situations and circumstances that make us feel like we're losing ground. We might at some point find ourselves dealing with situations that leave us at a loss for words and numb to what we are feeling. At times we might find ourselves standing firm on our faith, but our hearts might be hurting and feeling a bit faint. And it is at that point that we must hold on tight and pour into God so that we don't waver in the very faith that we are standing on as we endure.

 

Deuteronomy 28:13 states, "And the Lord shall make thee the head, and not the tail; and thou shalt be above only, and thou shalt not be beneath; if that thou hearken unto the commandments of the Lord thy God, which I command thee this day, to observe and to do them" (KJV). We recite and proclaim the above scripture, but when life shakes us in a way that makes us feel like we've hit rock bottom, we don't feel like we are the head. We feel inferior and powerless. We feel like the tail. When those giants tower over us that remind us that we don't have the qualifications to go against them, we don't feel above. We often feel beneath and stand afraid to strike back much like King Saul and the army of Israel did when they stood against Goliath.

 

We can't just recite scripture, but we must stand firmly on them with the faith to live the scriptures out and the belief that what the scriptures say are true. Although King Saul and the army of Israel was afraid to go against Goliath, Goliath still lost the battle. And not because they mustered the courage to trust God and move forward amidst being fearful, but it was because a 'little' shepherd boy understood the power of the God that he served. Although David, in the eyes of man, might not have been qualified to go against Goliath, he understood that nothing could stand against his God. And because David held that in his heart and had a full faith in that belief, he understood his positioning regardless of where he was situated at and what he was situated in. 

 

Because we in our everyday lives find ourselves having to deal with the demands and instructions from workplace supervisors, governing authorities, and corporate executives and because we must abide by the laws, practices, and procedures that are a part of these institutions that we interact with, we are often left feeling like we have no power, authority, or say-so in many of the facets concerning our lives. We choose our jobs, BUT THERE ARE RULES AND LEVELS OF HIERARCHY that we must abide by and answer to. We might choose our schools, BUT THERE ARE RULES, PRACTICES, PROTOCOL, and LEVELS OF HIERARCHY that we must abide by and answer to. Even if we own our homes, cars, and other property and possessions, there are STILL city, county, and state regulations, laws, and practices that tell us what we can and can't do with what we personally own.

 

We can own our homes yet might still need permission from a city or county to make certain repairs and upgrades to something that we have paid our own money for. We work hard to earn a living and to save for retirement and are penalized by government for withdrawing our own money that we have sacrificed and sweat to earn. All of this is being emphasized to highlight the fact that in having to deal with the way in which our society operates, we can quite often feel POWERLESS and constrained! No matter how hard some of us try and how long and how hard some of us keep pushing forward, it is not enough to push us past that feeling of being downtrodden and into owning what it means to be victorious. How can we get there? How can we embody being the head and above, and steer away from our feeling that we are the tail and beneath? There is a pathway to this freedom and we call him Christ!

 

We spent the past few weeks discussing and dissecting Paul's instructions for us to "put on the full armor of God" (Ephesians 6:11, NIV). As we discussed salvation (helmet), righteousness (breastplate), the gospel of peace (feet fitted with readiness), the Word of God (sword of the Spirit), and faith (shield), all of these things are going to be impacted by truth (belt). Whether positively or negatively, what we accept as truth and place our belief in is going to impact our ability to put on the full armor of God. The trials of life can be debilitating and can cause us to place ourselves in a state in which we are not only bound by our circumstances but are bound by our own truths concerning where we find ourselves at and what we find ourselves in. 

 

Gideon is no stranger to our blog posts as we have focused on how God used him to defeat the Midianites. On last week, we specifically discussed Judges 6:14 which states, "The Lord turned to him and said, 'Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand. Am I not sending you?” (NIV). In other words what God was making known to Gideon was that it didn't matter how much strength he personally had because He was the one sending him into battle, which meant that the battle was secured. God was making known to Gideon, that it was by His power that the battle would be won. God was telling Gideon, "because I am for you, nothing can stand against you!" This was God's way of trying to get Gideon to understand that as oppressed as he might have been because of the Midianites, he was not beneath them. Regardless of how useless and hopeless Gideon felt, God saw him as a "mighty warrior" (Judges 6:12, NIV). God was rewiring Gideon's thoughts and his mindset as a means of getting him to readjust what he considered to be his truths. 

 

What we believe in impacts what we act out. Because Gideon's truth was that he was the tail, beneath, and inadequate, he would have never chose to stand against the Midianites. But because GOD CHOSE HIM, not only was he going to go against the Midianites, but he was going to defeat them and get the victory. If we reflect on our scripture highlight, Deuteronomy 28:13, and reflect on the story of Gideon, we see the concrete truth of this scripture brought to life. Let's consider the fact that the reason that Israel found themselves being oppressed by the Midianites was because they failed to obey God. They consistently did what was evil in the eyes of the Lord. They consistently worshipped false gods although God had already given them a warning against doing so. God allowed the Midianites to oppress Israel to the point that they were impoverished. They lived in great fear of the Midianites. The children of Israel were in such anguish and affliction that they cried out to God for help. And when we read the narrative, we are told the following:

 

When the Israelites cried out to the Lord because of Midian, he sent them a prophet, who said, 'This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: I brought you up out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. I rescued you from the hand of the Egyptians. And I delivered you from the hand of all your oppressors; I drove them out before you and gave you their land. I said to you, ‘I am the Lord your God; do not worship the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you live.’ But you have not listened to me (Judges 6:7-10, NIV).

BUT BECAUSE GOD IS FAITHFUL, although He reminds them of the when, where, how, and whys as to their falling short, the verses that follow tells us that God sent an angel to Gideon letting Gideon know that He was with him. Gideon's "personal truth" replies to the angel inquiring how in the world could God be with them seeing as though they had faced such oppression and was still enduring the burden of it. Gideon's "believed truth" was that there was no way that God could be with them considering how wounded they were, how forsaken they felt, and how much in lack they were. But God was understanding, compassionate, and patient enough to work with Gideon so that he could accept a new truth that was rooted in the realness and accuracies of who God was.

 

"And the Lord shall make thee the head, and not the tail; and thou shalt be above only, and thou shalt not be beneath; if that thou hearken unto the commandments of  the Lord thy God, which I command thee this day, to observe and to do them:"(KJV)

 

The reason that Israel found themselves the tail and beneath was because they did not abide by the commands of God, neither did they abide in Him. BUT GOD CHOSE GIDEON! If you take the time to read Judges 6-7, you will find that God calls Gideon forth and in commanding Gideon to come forth, He then gives him a series of instructions throughout the narrative and Gideon follows all that God commands of him. Gideon obeys God. And in doing so, he found himself moving out of oppression and being placed as the head. Gideon finds himself being placed by God to lead the army of Israel into battle. Gideon obeys God's commands and finds himself no longer being fearful and downcast, but he becomes courageous and expectant. Gideon obeys God and finds himself conquering and having triumph over the enemies who had previously conquered and triumphed over him.

 

Israel's disobedience brought them to a place of being the tail and below, but Gideon's obedience and willingness to follow God's commands put them in a newfound place in which they were the head and above just as God promises in His Word. And Gideon didn't get there by his own strength, but God called him forth and then patiently worked with him and in him so that He could then work through him to bring Israel out of the hands of the Midianites. God worked with Gideon and steered his thinking to a place in which he could accept God's truths concerning both who he was and what God would do through him. God worked with Gideon until he believed in what it was that God had spoken to him. God promised Gideon victory in battle and God encouraged him, molded him, and gave him the confidence and assurance that he needed to ARISE AND CONQUER! Before God changed Gideon's situation, He first had to change Gideon's mindset by steering him away from what he thought he knew about God and into the truth of who God was and who God saw him as, which then allowed him to step into what God had called him to do so that his situation could be changed. 

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Transforming Our Truths ....                            

 

Much like Gideon, when God called Moses, he had a lot of truths that he had imposed upon himself, and he used those self-inflicted truths as reasons why he was not qualified to do what God had called him to do.

 

"But Moses said to God, 'Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” Exodus 3:11 (NIV)

 

If you review Exodus 3 and 4, you will find moments in which Moses is full of inquiries (a.k.a. excuses and fear) concerning the task that God had given him. We find Moses being full of "God, what ifs" and "God suppose this happens". But despite Moses' hesitance, doubt, or any other concern that he might have had, God was not going to choose someone else and send them to do what He had purposed for Moses to do. We will find that God does not entertain the false truths and narratives that we might have concerning who we are and what we can do because He knows us better than we know ourselves. God is never going to focus on who we think we are, but He looks past it regardless of how good or bad of a life we might have lived and regardless of if it is good or bad choices that we have made. If we were to look at a non-biblical definition of truth, one definition of truth states that truth is:   

• the true or actual state of a matter

 

Our problem is that we quite often look at the state of what we are in, where we are at, what we have done, and where we have been and accept that as our truth. Gideon was in a state of oppression and affliction and thus considered himself unworthy, incapable, and inferior. When God called him forth, Gideon was broken in spirit and felt like the bottom of the barrel. He did not understand how God could work through him.

 

Moses had many woes prior to his burning bush experience in which God called him forth. Even one of Moses' own people rejected him when he tried to steer them from harming a fellow Hebrew (Exodus 2:11-14). Since one of his own had already rejected him, Moses perhaps with that in mind, considered it far-fetched that he could bring a whole nation of Hebrews, out of the bondage of Egypt.

 

When God calls us forth, we must understand that HE KNOWS THE TRUE AND ACTUAL STATES OF OUR MATTER. We only know what we think we know. We only know what we have experienced, BUT GOD KNOWS OUR WHOLE STORY! God knows what we have experienced, but He also knows our what's to come. God knows what lies ahead and He also knows what lies within us, and He uses it all to show us and others the glory of who He is and the power of what He can do. There is a reason that in His Word, God made sure to include scriptures such as:

 

"So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them."

-Genesis 1:27 (NIV)

 

"I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well."

-Psalm 139:14 (NIV)

 

"Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be."

-Psalm 139:16 (NIV)

 

"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart;..."

-Jeremiah 1:5 (NIV)

 

"For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works,

which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them."

-Ephesians 2:10 (KJV)

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"Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—"

-John 1:12 (NIV)

 

"For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God."

-Romans 8:14 (NIV)

 

"So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith,"

-Galatians 3:26 (NIV)

 

GOD WANTS US TO UNDERSTAND AND EMBRACE OUR IDENTITY IN HIM! If we are to live in the concrete truth of who and what we are, WE MUST UNDERSTAND OUR IDENTITY IN CHRIST! Our earthly DNA can connect us to a history of failure, poverty, lack, bad decisions, addictions, sin, depression, and many other struggles, defeats, and oppression, but our identity in God, our identity in Christ, does not consider ANY OF THESE THINGS, it only considers the image in which we were made in which is the image of God. That means that no matter who defeated us, who rejected us, or who persecuted us, WE CAN STILL CONQUER! That means that WE ARE ALWAYS CAPABLE! That means that WE WILL ALWAYS BE THE HEAD AND NOT THE TAIL! But part of accepting our identity in Christ MEANS THAT WE MUST OBEY!

Deuteronomy 28: The Prosperity of Obedience .....                      

 

If we were to read Deuteronomy 28, in which this week's scripture highlight is taken from, the chapter as a whole focuses on the reward of obedience and the punishment for disobedience. Verses 1-14 expound on the blessings of obedience. Prior to our highlighted verse (verse 13), verses 1-12 read as follows:

 

1 If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the Lord your God will set you            high above all the nations on earth. 
2 All these blessings will come on you and accompany you if you obey the Lord your God:
3 You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the country.
4 The fruit of your womb will be blessed, and the crops of your land and the young of your livestock—the calves of your herds       and the lambs of your flocks.
5 Your basket and your kneading trough will be blessed.
6 You will be blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out.
7 The Lord will grant that the enemies who rise up against you will be defeated before you. They will come at you from one             direction but flee from you in seven.
8 The Lord will send a blessing on your barns and on everything you put your hand to. The Lord your God will bless you in the        land he is giving you.
9 The Lord will establish you as his holy people, as he promised you on oath, if you keep the commands of the Lord your God       and walk in obedience to him. 
10 Then all the peoples on earth will see that you are called by the name of the Lord, and they will fear you. 
11 The Lord will grant you abundant prosperity—in the fruit of your womb, the young of your livestock and the crops of your            ground—in the land he swore to your ancestors to give you.
12 The Lord will open the heavens, the storehouse of his bounty, to send rain on your land in season and to bless all the work of       your hands. You will lend to many nations but will borrow from none. (NIV)

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God will securely establish those who obey His commands. God will take care of those who fear, reverence, and obey Him. God will reward those who are faithful to Him. God will honor our faith. Verses 1-13 are the type of verses that many of us love to proclaim. They are the type of verses that uplift us. They remind us of the omnipotence of God. However, while many of us glory in these verses, we often neglect the last verse of this section, verse 14, which states, "Do not turn aside from any of the commands I give you today, to the right or to the left, following other gods and serving them" (NIV).

 

Over the past few months, we have discussed how we being the children of God and followers of Christ will face persecution, affliction, trials, trouble, and tribulations because of our allegiance to God. We have discussed how salvation may not always make us feel good when we have to endure all of those pits, giants, and lions' dens that we are faced with. We explored how God will at times test us and how He will also allow satan to inflict various trials and attacks upon us with His own plans and intents in mind. There are things that we will often have to face even when we are fully following God and wholeheartedly pleasing Him. BUT THERE ARE THOSE TRIALS THAT WE WELCOME INTO OUR LIVES WHEN WE CHOOSE TO DISOBEY GOD!

 

It is of interest that God explicitly tells the Israelites what their failure to obey would result in and clearly describes the consequences of such (verses 15-68), yet they still did not heed the warnings. Despite God giving Israel such clarity outlining what their consequences would be, they still defiled themselves, they still worshipped false gods, they still abandoned their love for God, and THEY STILL DISOBEYED GOD'S COMMANDS! While it may be easy to recognize the poor decisions that the Israelites made, how often are we able to recognize our own poor choices as it concerns our relationship with God? 

 

Trust and obedience always seem so easy when we are doing the spectating, watching someone else sit in a place in which they are being judged. The Israelites did not trust God. They were not loyal to God. They consistently looked to and worshipped false gods. But what is our downfall? What is it that keeps us from obeying? What is it that we pour into in the place of pouring into God? What is it that we find comfort and safety in apart from God? Who is it that we are looking to and placing our hope in apart from God? What is it that God has commanded us to do that we are disobeying? What decisions are we making that is putting us in the position of being the tail? What decisions are we making that is causing us to be positioned beneath? 

 

One of the things that we MUST understand as it concerns disobeying God and trying to do it our own way as a means of surviving and getting ahead is that our plan WILL NEVER BE BETTER THAN GOD'S. The plans that we establish apart from God will not stand neither will they give us the growth, increase, power, positioning, strength, or stability that we are searching for. The plans that we make apart from God will never be able to effectively fulfill what it is that we need. And though many of us know this, it does not stop us from testing the waters and seeing how far we can go on our own strength without making God a part of the plan.

 

Although God had instructed Gideon saying, "Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand", that was because God was going with him. We CANNOT TELL OURSELVES TO GO IN OUR OWN STRENGTH AND LEAVE GOD COMPLETELY OUT! That is the difference in Gideon going forward in the strength that he had and us making our own plan going forward in our own strength. God was backing Gideon because HE WAS SENDING GIDEON FORTH into battle. God was filling in the missing pieces. God was making up (contributing to) whatever it was that Gideon might have naturally lacked. Gideon did not have to worry about his strength because God was pouring His own strength into Gideon.

 

Too many of us are choosing our own battles, dwelling in our emotions instead of dwelling in God, and placing ourselves in wars that we were never meant to fight. And then we stand looking at God saying, "What are you thinking?" and "Why are you not moving?" while God is looking down at us saying, "You don't know what you're doing" and "Who told you to go there?" We cannot go around declaring "the battle is the Lord's" over things that God told us are not worth the fight. There are certain battles that God is not entertaining nor calling us to acknowledge but because we want to make mountains out of molehills and attack things that are not realistically warring at us, we exhaust and distract ourselves so much so that when the real battle comes along that God is calling for us to stand firm in and fight, we are too fed up and disgusted with ourselves, our enemies, and if we were to be honest, we are fed up and disgusted with God as well. Disobedience, running from God, doing it on our own, and entertaining distractions, will only lead us into the belly of the whale which will then leave us stuck in Nineveh like Jonah. We must simply learn to let God be God. We MUST try our best to obey God no matter how unorthodox, uncomfortable, unclear, inconvenient, or uncertain the instructions may seem and regardless of what we ASSUME the outcome will be.

 

The Armor of Obedience ...                             

 

If we are going to learn to put on the full armor of God and operate in it, we must be willing to accept and obey the battle tactics that God calls in all matters of our lives. We are going to have to trust God's call no matter how intense the battlefield becomes. In our post, "wounded BUT NOT defeated", we stated that the attacks will indeed come, BUT they won't prosper against us. If we reflect on Isaiah 53:5, it states, "But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed" (KJV). Let's break this scripture up:

 

he was wounded for our transgressions... (WOUNDED)
he was bruised for our iniquities... (BRUISED)
the chastisement of our peace was upon him... (CHASTISED)
AND WITH HIS STRIPES WE ARE HEALED (BUT HEALED)

 

Being wounded, bruised, and chastised might cause any of us to consider these things as a defeat, but amidst all of these things that might appear defeat, it states, AND WITH HIS STRIPES WE ARE HEALED! We were healed through what looked like an unhappy ending. If we review the prior verse (verse 4), it states:

 

"Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows:

yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted" (KJV).

 

"Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering,

yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted " (NIV). 

 

If we reflect back on our discussion of what we accept as our truth, many in witnessing the pain and suffering that Christ was enduring, easily considered him to be at a loss. There are many who stood aside watching Jesus endure the cross and labeled him a sinner. There are many who labeled him as punished. BUT THEY DID NOT LABEL JESUS ACCORDING TO HIS TRUTH! However, that attack on Jesus' character, integrity, and credibility did not prosper. If we read the full verse of Isaiah 54:17, it states, "No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of me, saith the Lord" (KJV). The New International Version (NIV) reads, "no weapon forged against you will prevail, and you will refute every tongue that accuses you. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and this is their vindication from me,” declares the Lord."

 

Jesus' truth was made known because although the attacks were formed against him, not only did they not work, but every lie about him and all the slander and defamation against him was put to shame when he took his last breath. God vindicated him and made his name great. And every knee on, above, and beneath the earth must bow before him as he now has ALL POWER AND AUTHROITY IN HIS HANDS! While there were many who might have thought that Jesus lost the battle when the cross became his temporary war zone, it was a victory in disguise. Although Jesus was the Son of God and was created by God to carry out his duty on the cross, his obedience and willingness to fulfill God's will for him is part of what got him there.

 

Jesus accepted God's battle tactics in every facet of his life regardless of the battle that he was in. Whether being tempted by satan in the wilderness, journeying with his disciples, performing miracles, preaching the gospel of who he and his Father were, teaching those whom he came into contact with, courageously standing against the false teachings, slander, accusations, and judgment of the Pharisees, elders, and teachers of the law, or being beaten, mocked, and hung on a cross to die, Jesus never steered to the right nor to the left of what God instructed and commanded of him. Jesus successfully carried out every tactic that God had created, written, designed, and purposed him for. Jesus accepted every tactic according to what God's will was for him. We can put on the full armor of God and still fall short if we do not use our armor as God instructs us to. We cannot put on the full armor of God and appease our flesh. We cannot put on the full armor of God and fight the battle based on our own strategy. If we put on the full armor of God, we have to sign on the dotted line of obedience. 

"See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!..." 

-1 John 3:1 (NIV)

 

As children of God, Christ has already won every battle that we will ever have to fight. We have expressed that fact throughout many of our posts. And if you consider the phrase of that fact to be redundant, then go ahead and accept it as truth because as children of God, that is a truth that we cannot detach from. That fact must be part of our repertoire of truth. And the fact that Christ has already won every battle on our behalf shows us that HE CANNOT AND DOES NOT LOSE! GOD HAS NEVER LOST ONE! And neither will we if we commit ourselves to dwelling in God and hold on to Him despite what tries to deter us and take our focus off of Him. If we want to win and embrace the champion within us, we must TRUST GOD. We must check our truths and make sure that they are God's truths. And we must OBEY!

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If we do not do what God commands of us, WE WILL MOST DEFINITELY FIND OURSELVES BEING THE TAIL AND BENEATH! Because Israel so badly wanted a king, God gave them one. God gave them King Saul. God took Saul, who did not even consider himself worthy of such an honor, and placed him as the head of Israel. Saul could have built a dynasty from his descendants, BUT BECAUSE SAUL DISOBEYED GOD, HE LOST IT ALL! God tore the entire kingdom from under Saul and gave it to David (who was God's chosen king). If you were to read the book of 1 Samuel, you will find the history of how God placed Saul over Israel, how Saul disobeyed and sinned against God, and how his being taken from the head and being made the tail of David caused friction between the two. And not because David had an issue with Saul, but because Saul was relentlessly 'in his feelings' concerning David's victories and success. God was with David in all that he did, and David began to be recognized as a mighty man and warrior. God allowed David's name to become known. Saul began to both envy and fear David. David, who was a little shepherd boy, was taken from watching over a flock of sheep and placed by God to watch over and defend all of Israel. God took David out of a place that many would have considered the tail and beneath and placed him at the head and above all of Israel, because God knew that David would obey. God labeled David as being a man "after His own heart".  

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We see Gideon being taken from the tail end and being made to be the head. And though he had to overcome some doubt, he obeyed and trusted that God would do as He had promised. He went forward and won the battle against the Midianites, conquering what once conquered him.

 

We see Moses being taken from a place that seemed lowly. He had given up the palace and Egypt and denounced his identity as Pharaoh's kin and chose to be mistreated and identified as a Hebrew (God's chosen people). BUT God took him from that lowly place and placed him to deliver Israel out of bondage, and he obeyed and trusted God, and delivered Israel out of Egypt.

 

We see Saul who considered himself "small", becoming king of Israel yet being brought down lower than he was before because he disobeyed God and would not follow His commands. And then we see David, who man considered "small", being placed on high, becoming the head, and having the willingness and desire to please God and keep His commands which is why he was able to remain the head and above. Although David made mistakes, because he recognized the truths of who God was, he held tight, sought God's face, repented, and kept moving forward in the strength and will of God. And it is important that we highlight the fact that DAVID ALWAYS RECOGNIZED HIS TRUE IDENTITY!

 

Even as a shepherd boy, David did not look at his earthly position and consider himself incapable, but he set his sight on who was positioned above. David focused on God and placed his full faith and belief in the fact that GOD HAD ALL POWER IN HIS HANDS. David knew that as long as HE HAD GOD, NOTHING COULD DEFEAT HIM! And this remained a truth that remained concrete throughout every facet of David's entire life! David never wavered in the truths of who God was and that was a key component in his ability to win the wars that he found himself in.​ If we want to win, we must stand firm on God's truths including the truth of who we are in Him. However, we won't be able to do so unless we dwell in God and allow His Spirit to operate within us and cleanse us of everything that tries to place false narratives in us of who we are. We won't be able to stand firm if we don't believe in the Word of God. WE MUST HOLD TIGHT TO GOD'S TRUTH. WE MUST HOLD TIGHT TO OUR FAITH. WE MUST HOLD ON TO GOD AND DON'T LET GO! AND WE MUST OBEY!