Obey God's message! Don't fool yourselves by just listening to it. If you hear the message and don't obey it, you are like people who stare at themselves in a mirror and forget what they look like as soon as they leave. But you must never stop looking at the perfect law that sets you free. God will bless you in everything you do, if you listen and obey, and don't just hear and forget.
If you think you are being religious, but can't control your tongue, you are fooling yourself, and your religion is useless. Religion that pleases God the Father must be pure and spotless. You must help needy orphans and widows and not let this world make you evil.
James 1:22-27
There is a well established practice in the field of medicine for educating those who will one day be doctors. It is "see one, do one, teach one." First, you observe a medical procedure, then you perform that procedure yourself, and finally you teach someone else how to do it.
Many Christians try to skip the obedience step in their walk with Jesus. They hear the Word and even see others living in obedience, but they move on to teaching others without walking in that truth for themselves. It is the basis of the hypocrite accusation that is directed toward many Christians. They hear and teach others, but they don't obey the truth themselves.
Some call the process that God wants for us, "Obedience Based Discipleship." It is easy to rest in "Knowledge Based Discipleship" and skip the obedience part. Some even warn others not to obey until they understand what their obedience means.
There is an old church song titled, "Trust and Obey," there is not one call "Understand and Obey."
So we must sharpen our hearing skills before being concerned with understanding the reason God speaks this or that to our lives. Obedience is simply doing what God tells us to do. It is no more complicated than that. So listen for God's voice even in the small things like "speak to that person," or "pray for someone you don't even know." Then you will know it is the voice of God when He says "go to Africa and preach to the lost there!"
"Lord, I am so thankful that when I know the sound of Your voice I don't need to understanding everything You tell me to do! But Lord I do need to recognize Your voice today and every day. I need to know You better and better, every day. Speak Lord, today and I will obey. Amen."
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