Converting Hearing to Doing

 We sit in church and listen to a sermon.

We drive in our cars and listen to a podcast.

We chat with friends and listen to stories of God’s faithfulness.

We gather around a table and listen to the bible study video of the week.

We flip through Instagram and listen to soundbits of encouragement from a preacher.

I can attest to the necessity of hearing and being drenched in the Word.  Hearing and reading is integral to our walk with God.  How else do we sharpen our sword?  (Remember those “sword drills” from Christian elementary school or Awana or Sunday School??  To be perfectly honest, I sucked at those. I’ve gotten better only after having gone to a Christian college and getting a Biblical Studies minor, but still.  The struggle is real.)  The Word of God is indeed a weapon in the arsenal of a Christian.   

“Blessed be the LORD, my rock, who trains my hands for war, and my fingers for battle; he is my steadfast love and my fortress, my stronghold and my deliverer, my shield and he in whom I take refuge, who subdues peoples under me.” (Psalm 144:1 & 2)

We were not born on a playground.  We were born on a battlefield.  And swords tend to become dull after sustained and prolonged use.  As such they must be cared for, maintained, and improved for maximum efficacy.

So how do we reconcile the need for honing defensive weaponry with the command to love deeply and limitlessly?

“And he said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.  This is the great and first commandment.  And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’” (Matthew 22:37 & 38)

As we’ve discussed before, the Word and Spirit of God is active.  It is moving.  It is speaking.  It is breathing.  It is working.  It is healing.

It is victorious over sin, death, and the grave.  “It is finished.” (John 19:30) 

Let’s just take a moment and praise God.  Hallelujah!

* * *

It may be finished, but He is Risen. Indeed.

He is performing miracles.  He is granting wisdom and prophecy.  He provides healing.  The completely wild part: we all drink from that same Spirit. (1st Corinthians 12)

That same Spirit descended on Christ. (Matthew 3)  Its gifts were present in Him and they were bestowed on His people. (Acts 2)  He didn’t give us a helper to help ourselves.  He gave us a helper to HELP -- to do! ...To do for the kingdom unshakable.

“Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.” (Hebrews 12:28 & 29)

So what am I doing?  What can I do with the help of the Spirit to testify of the greatness and goodness of my Savior? I think to myself: I’m not sure about performing miracles...I’ve never healed people...What am I to do?  

We have a High Priest who has given of His Spirit so that we can make intercession. Spiritual gifts are witnessing tools. Being filled with the Holy Spirit is not meant to be for the benefit of our own self. God pours the Spirit into us so that we may bring others closer to Himself. Miracles and healing ABSOLUTELY have a profound, awesome, and exciting effect for the person experiencing them!! But have you ever taken a step back and observed a person who witnessed the miracle?  THAT is where the power is.  So that He is magnified.

The miracles and healings by God were just as much -- I opine, more so -- for other people as they were for the subject of the miracle.

• In Joshua 4, when God dried up the Jordan River for Israel to cross, stones were piled to mark the miracle for a time to come when their children will ask their meaning.

• In Mark 5 when Jesus heals a man with a demon, Jesus tells him to “Go Home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.” And “everyone marveled”.

• In Mark 2, when Jesus healed the man whose friends lowered him through a roof… “So that they were all amazed and glorified God…”

• In John 11, when Jesus raised Lazarus.  Sure, Lazarus benefitted (he was brought back to life!).  But Jesus witnessed to Martha: “Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?”

You might balk at these.  You may want to scream “But that is GOD!  Of course He can do those things.  I am not capable!  I am not good enough!  I am not worthy!”  

Please believe me: I am first in line to utter these fallacies.  Fear of incapacity, inability, and incompetence is quite crippling.  Self-doubt is often dressed up as false humility.  It’s my favorite excuse not to do.

You do not need to meet your own definition of ‘worthy’ to be a doer of the word.

When we self-identify our worthiness as less than, we doubt the pervasiveness and glory and supremacy and gift of the gospel.  The gospel is the transformation of our souls bought only through the shed blood of Jesus Christ. If we acknowledge and accept salvation, yet deny the existence of transformation, we are essentially attempting to confront, rebut, challenge, and contradict the premise that the Son has made us worthy before the Father.  

“...be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger...be doers of the word, and not hearers only...the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who act, he will be blessed in his doing.” (James 1: 19, 22, & 25)

Don’t be afraid to do for the cause of the gospel.  Share the good news and do great things for others for the sake of love and victory in Christ.  Giants and walls will fall in His mighty Name.

“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.  And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:19 & 20)

God, I pray you would give me eyes to see the hurting, the dry bones, and the need for your grace.  Give me a quiet and humble heart to serve others without boasting or anticipating gain.  Fill me with your Spirit so that it may be poured out in love and edification.