Following Jesus can be summed up in those three words: listening for His voice, obeying His voice, and repeating.
Religious activities can busy somebody so much that they don’t have time to listen to the voice of God. Hear this, my friends: if you use religious activities as an excuse to disobey God, do you think God will bless that activity?
Samuel replied: “Does the LORD delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the LORD? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams.” 1 Samuel 15:22
What does obeying the voice of the Lord look like? Well, it’s different for everyone because we all have a different mission. It can be something really simple, but it can be huge for somebody else.
For example, “go get your haircut now,” can be from the Lord. It was for me one day, and I found a stylist who is suffering because of her husband’s illness. The Lord did something special for me that day. I will never forget it.
One day I was prompted to pray for all the drivers of cars going by me. It taught me something really valuable: humility. I couldn’t keep up no matter how hard I tried. I’m not God and I can’t keep up with everything on my street. Yet He keeps up with everyone in the world. He is so worthy of praise.
Obedience can be difficult sometimes. It may cost us money or time, but whatever it cost us, it’s always worth it to obey God. He always equips us for whatever He wants us to do.
Obedience doesn’t come natural to us; we want to do our thing. I hope in the future that I can quickly obey the voice of the Holy Spirit. I have argued, I’ve questioned, and made excuses about things. My prayer is that in the future the Holy Spirit will shake me so that I will quickly obey his voice.
Sometimes we have to wait for what the Spirit has told us. This is nothing new and has been going on in relationships with God for thousands of years. When God told Abram and Sarai that they would have a child, they got impatient. They tried to work out God’s plan by giving him a child through the servant Hagar. Their plan didn’t work out because it was not God’s will.
God is fully capable of carrying out anything He promises to us. We know that and we say that all the time. We still try to intervene. How can we stop from doing that?
I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. Psalm 119:11
Meditating on God‘s word to the point where we have memorized it and it’s in our heart helps keep us from sin because it’s brought to our remembrance when self or evil rears its head. The Bible is called the sword of the spirit. It’s our weapon! The world trusts in steel blades, but the church trusts in the word of God.
There are three voices that speak to us: our own sinful nature, the Holy Spirit, and the tempter’s voice. Anything from the Holy Spirit has to line up with the word of God. By bathing ourselves in the Word of God, we are building a holy arsenal for this battle we are engaged in.
So when the Spirit speaks to us saying “go pray for that person,“ we know this is in line with scripture and it’s the Holy Spirit’s voice. Listen, obey, and repeat.
Following Jesus 