When Obedience Isn’t Enough
Tuning the Heart Through Failure
Hello, I’m Joel Osoba and I write to draw your heart close to Jesus. I lead The Branch Ministries, a Christian organisation set to keep your heart tethered to Christ and His love for those around you. Kindly subscribe to ensure you don’t miss a thing and find me on Instagram @thejoelosoba and @thebranchglobal
It is one thing to hear God.
It is another thing to obey Him.
But it is a higher thing still to obey Him from the right heart.
We don’t often talk about this third dimension - the spiritual posture that must accompany divine instruction. In a results-driven world, we celebrate the courage to act. But in the kingdom of God, success is not only in action, it is in alignment. Not just doing what God says but doing it how God says - with a heart that mirrors His.
The people of Israel in Judges 20:18-46 are a haunting illustration of this reality. They heard God. They inquired. And God answered.
“And the children of Israel arose, and went up to the house of God, and asked counsel of God, and said, Which of us shall go up first to the battle against the children of Benjamin? And the Lord said, Judah shall go up first.” - Judges 20:18
Permission granted. Yet they were defeated. Not once, but twice.
How could people who had heard God rightly fail so bitterly?
Here lies the lesson: obedience detached from the right posture of heart may still end in defeat. It is not that God lied. It is that Israel approached with a heart high on moral superiority, draped in the rags of self-righteousness, not clothed in humility.
Failure as a Tool of Divine Tuning
Failure, in the hands of God, is not cruelty — it is craftsmanship.
Israel had to be broken down to the bedrock of their hearts. Not merely to weep from loss, but to weep in surrender. The third time they approached, it was not with battle cries, but with broken spirits:
“Then all the children of Israel, and all the people, went up, and came unto the house of God, and wept... and fasted that day until even, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the Lord.” — Judges 20:26
Burnt offerings: the symbol of total consecration.
Peace offerings: the return to fellowship and communion.
These were not just rituals. They were revelations. The Israelites were being tuned —not in mind, but in heart. They were learning that you don’t fight God’s battles from a place of vengeance cloaked in holiness. You execute His judgment from a place of yieldedness. Not from rage, but from peace.
And then—and only then—did victory come.
The Spirit of Meekness: Posture Over Pride
We live in a time of confident declarations, spiritual certainties, and loud obedience. But God is looking for something quieter, yet far more powerful: meekness.
“Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? Let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom.” — James 3:13
Meekness is not weakness. You know that. It is restrained strength. It is wisdom that does not compete. It is obedience without arrogance. It is submission with clarity. It is being right without needing to be seen as right.
James contrasts two types of wisdom: one from above, and one from below. The wisdom that comes from above — the kind that births strategies from God after hearing Him — is pure, peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy (James 3:17).
That wisdom doesn’t come to the proud. It visits the meek.
You May Have Heard Right… But Is Your Heart Right?
This is the crucial tension many believers live in: they heard God. Truly. But the doors remain closed. The results don’t match the instructions. Confusion sets in.
Could it be that your heart is being tuned?
The chords of your soul may still be discordant with the melody of heaven. Obedience without surrender is noise. But obedience from a quieted heart? That’s music.
So if you’re in a season where what you heard is clear but the results are blurry, don't despair. You may not be disobedient — you may just be unbroken. The failure is not punishment — it is invitation. God is tuning you to carry His Word with His heart.
Strategy Comes to the Meek
After hearing God, the next divine necessity is strategy. And strategy flows into hands that are open, not clenched. Israel didn’t just go to war — they went to worship. They laid down self-righteous zeal and picked up sacred wisdom.
The difference wasn’t just action. It was attitude.
And so I say to you, beloved:
You may have heard God right.
But you may be carrying it wrong.
Don’t just check your hearing — check your heart.
The difference between defeat and victory may not be in the instruction, but in the posture from which you obeyed it.
Let failure do its sacred work. Let it humble you, not harden you. Offer again — this time with burnt offerings and peace offerings. With surrender and restored fellowship.
And you will see that the same Word which once seemed to fail you, was waiting for your heart to catch up.
Enjoy one of my AEO favourite.
Joel Osoba
Living, writing, and wrestling in the light of grace and truth.
If this article blessed you, share it with someone in a hard obedience season. And if you’re in that season yourself, I see you. More importantly, God sees you — and He is tuning you for something greater.
God always loves a humble heart and He loves to reveal His hidden secrets to a heart that is completely yielded to Him. Holy Spirit, show me areas where my attitude does not align with you word and grant me the grace to yield myself completely, IJN, AMEN!