.It is time to stop just Hearing and start Doing.



James 1:22
But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.

    Many times in our lives we are deceived by many things, and one of the worst things that we can be deceived by is ourselves. This is why the Bible points out in James 1:22 that when we do not obey what Gods word tells us, we are deceiving ourselves.
   We have to understand that deception is of the devil, it is his way, it is his philosophy in life, and he will use it on you if you let him.
   I have a question for you? Would not a real Christian want the will of God? Of course they would.
   Why because they do not want to disappoint God. God is looking for people that are willing to walk in obedience to him; are you that person?
Then we need to begin to walk as Doers and not just Hearers only.

If you look in the book of Matthew 7:22-25 it says:
22 "Many will say to Me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?'
23. "And then I will declare to them, `I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!'
24.  "Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock:
25.  "and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock.

   In the society that we live in today we have what I call the Adam Syndrome.
You may ask what is Adam Syndrome?
Adam Syndrome is somebody that always has an excuse for what they do or how they live.
Just like Adam had his excuses to God when he was caught in the garden.
But when we go before God there will be no excuses, we may say Lord, have we not done a lot of good things?
See, God knows the good things that you have done, but he also knows the bad things that you have done.
    In these last days many will be deceived and believe the lies that Satan tells them, this is why we always have to be on our guard and watching for the devils tricks.
The devil always tries to make things look good for the moment.
But it doesn’t matter how it looks here in our eyes, the way we live, the way we talk, the things that we do. Are we obeying God are not?  God takes all of these things into account.
   How sad it will be if we find ourselves before the Judgment Seat of God and find out we have been deceived.
We will probably do just like those people did in Matthew 7:22- 25 we will start with a list of excuses why we did this or why we had to do that.
But when it comes down to, we need to make clear decisions in our lives to be a Doer of what God tells us to do and live according to his guidance in his word.

Let’s take a look at another scripture in the Bible.

Luke 6:46- 48
46.  "But why do you call Me `Lord, Lord,' and do not do the things which I say?
47.  "Whoever comes to Me, and hears My sayings and does them, I will show you whom he is like:
48.  "He is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently against that house, and could not shake it, for it was founded on the rock.

The question that God is giving us here is this:
If he is Lord of our lives why do we not listen to him?
He has given us a instruction manual called the Bible to guide is through life and all of its good times and bad.
He is trying to make our lives better through his word.
And I know that it seems to be such a struggle for some to be good Christians but you will never reach that goal unless you’ll apply the complete Bible to your life, it’s like trying to make a cake without all the ingredients, it just doesn’t work.

But when you apply the total Word in your life, it will work. God is just asking that you allow him to take complete control of your life.

Man has always struggled with letting go of things he likes to be in control of his life, and his destiny. We just like to be in control.
   God is saying “let it go” we have tried to do our best to have a good life and have failed at it.
Don’t you think it is time to release your life into the hands of a God that has been around a whole lot longer than you have?
   Even as children we think we know more than our parents even though they have been around longer than we have.
But usually we find out just like you, that this is not the case with God.
All God is trying to do is to give us the direction we need to go, in order to improve our lives.
This does not mean that all of your problems will go away.
This just means you will have a source that will help you to cope with them better than you used to.

If we look in the book of Luke 11:28 we will see that we are blessed when we listen to God’s guidance.
Luke 11:28  But He said, "More than that, blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it!''

You see all God is trying to do is to bless your life with the knowledge that he has.
Let’s face it we only have a limited amount of knowledge even with all of our Ph.D.’s.
Man is still limited in his knowledge of everything that is going on around him.
And especially in the last days we are in we see everything that is going on and let’s face it is hard to cope with it.
But God is saying I will help you if you let me.
I would like to encourage you at this moment to think about your life and how it’s going.
Wouldn’t you like to give up some of the problems and stopped carrying them around yourself.
This is what God wants to help you to do.
But you have to let go, you have to be willing to surrender to his leadership in your life. Will you do that today?

In the book of James 4:17 it says this
James 4:17  Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.

What ashamed it will be for many people when they stand before God and God begins to open up their life to them and they see the mistakes that they have made throughout their life.
The problem with this is we won’t be able to change it,  it will be too late.
This is why when God puts these warnings out in His Word before it is too late so that we will not have to face that day of Judgment and give account for all the sins we have done.

    James, points out that if we know we are sinning and we do nothing to change it, we will be held accountable for it.
And many Christians know they’re sinning and they do nothing to change it.
We come up with excuses well it was just a little lie, or that’s not stealing just because we say it’s not stealing does not change what it is. If it doesn’t belong to you and you take it, it is stealing.
It’s like taking a gun and killing someone and saying I didn’t kill him.
The bullet did, you know what you did.
It goes back to the Adam Syndrome it is time we take responsibility for our actions.
It is time we stop doing what is against God’s Word and take responsibility for what God’s Word tells us to do.

There is a simple way to tell if you are a real Christian are not.
The test is in 1 John 2:3 lets take a look at it.

1 John 2:3  Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments.

  I think the Scripture is very plain and easy to understand.
If we know him, that is God, we will keep his Commandments it’s that simple.
If we do not keep his Commandments we are acknowledging that we do not know him or follow him.
It is hard to argue with Scripture’s.
It’s kind of like this, God said it, we believed it, that settles it.
We need to get a real grip on our lives and began to live by the examples that God has left us.

  It’s a little like the Ten Commandments that God gave us.
And I still don’t understand what part of  “you shall not” don’t we understand.
Why is it we struggle so much with the simplest instructions that God gives us. God is not trying to be a dictator he is just trying to give us helpful instructions on how to live a good life until his coming.

Let’s take a look at another Scripture
This scripture will be found in 1 John 3:7 and it says:

1 John 3:7  Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous.

  If we practice righteousness, the Bible says, that makes us righteous people.
And this is what God wants us to be his righteous people.
The Bible teaches us that sin has no power over us.
It only has power over us when we let it.
And the only way sin can overtake us is when we are not walking in the will of God, and without the Armor of God on.

Jesus said I am the way, the truth and life.
  If he is, why are we not following him and doing as he has commanded us?

There’s another Scripture I would like you to look at.
You’ll find it in 3 John 1:11

3 John 1:11  Beloved, do not imitate what is evil, but what is good. He who does good is of God, but he who does evil has not seen God.

According to the Scripture here we are to completely stay way from or imitate evil.
But rather to do good according to God’s word.
And he goes on to say he who does good is of God.
But where it says that if he who does evil has not seen God, it’s talking about having a relationship with God
When we do evil we do not have a relationship with God because God does not do evil.

When we have a true relationship with God, we will want to do well,  not some of the time but all of the time without excuses.

God is looking for people who realize “it is time to stop just hearing and start doing” what God is telling us to do. Is that someone you?
I encourage you to examine your life and see if you are living up to God’s expectations of yourself and not your.

If you’re not, God wants to help you change by simply asking first of all for forgiveness of not walking completely in his obedience.

You can simply pray this simple prayer.
God, forgive me for my shortcomings and for failing you and myself, from this moment on I want to be a Doer of your Word not just someone who hears your words only and doesn’t do them.
I do not want to live a life of being deceived by the enemy
Forgive me and teach me to be an obedient servant to your guidance
The guidance of your Word and of the Holy Spirit
Make my life well pleasing in your sight.
Amen

Written by: Rev. Bruce Miller