Listen and Obey

“This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.”

‭‭Joshua‬ ‭1:8‬ ‭NKJV

It is one thing to know in concept how important it is to remain in God’s Word., it is another to be diligent with it and remain diligent in it, not just in action but in heart posture as well. If your heart is not invested in your action and you’re just ticking a box, revelation will not seek heart deep.

Walking with God requires a special discipline. It is so easy to slip out of alignment with God once yo begin to think, ‘that time I spent with God then was enough to hold me.’‬‬ the scripture says to meditate on the Word day and night. Consistency is not a recommendation but a requirement. And it is a hard commitment to make.

We so easily start to prioritise worldly work or actions over time in the Word. We rationalise the importance of it and find ourselves failing to discipline ourselves to be consistent in the Word of God. It often feels so much easier to pray than to read the word but the Word is a prerequisite for prayer because prayer without the word is void. The bible says;

“Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.”

‭‭I John‬ ‭5:14-15‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

If we don’t pray in accordance with `His will, we don’t have the assurance that He hears us. Where is His will made known? His Word. Why? Because His Word is Him.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

‭‭John‬ ‭1:1‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

But there’s the other side of the coin. You’re not really doing it if your heart isn’t in it, if you’re ticking a box. The word doesn’t become the Word until it comes with revelation. And revelation doesn’t come when you’re ticking boxes. If you aren’t guided you’re ticking boxes. If you’re ticking boxes you may as well read the content page of an IKEA manual.

the Hebrew language is so steeped with the importance of obedience. If your heart isn’t in it, it may as well have never happened. For example the Hebrew Word ‘SHEMA’ translated to hear, doesn’t mean simply to hear but to hear and do that which you heard and so if you didn’t obey you didn’t really hear. So when in Psalms 115 it says ‘they have ears but do not listen it uses the same word, SHEMA. Hebrew has no separate word for obey.

‘Likewise when we pray in accordance with God’s will and have confidence that he ‘SHEMA’s’ us. It is confidence that not just does he hear but he focuses and will act on that which He heard.

i say this to say if you read the word but do not obey it you didn’t not truly hear.