Listening and Obeying

What happens when we hear from God?

If a wealthy investor gave you a hot tip on a share stock that was currently very low, but this investor knew something that this stock had the potential to be outstanding in returns.

Would you take the tip?
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Okay you’d probably want to know a couple of things first, right?
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Like can this wealthy investor be trusted.

And what's the minimum I can put in?

​So, after some investigation you find out there are a lot of testimonies from people who say the wealthy investor can be trusted and have prospered from his advice.

This all sounds positive, but the minimum requirement of investment would require you to liquidate everything you have in assets to invest.

Want to take the tip now?

Hold that thought.

God is very capable of making his message known to his people. Take Adam and Eve for example. God gave Adam free reign of the world he created for him, but just had one rule. That’s right Adam had only one rule in the beginning which God was very clear and concise on.
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15 Then the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it. 16 The Lord God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; 17 but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.”
Gen 2:15-17

​​God was very clear an concise. Adam and Eve’s problem wasn’t that they hadn’t heard God or what He said was ambiguous in any way. It’s that they failed to obey what God had said.

The Prophet Samuel in chastising Saul for his failing to do everything God had instructed him to do said to Saul; ‘Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice’ (1 Samuel 15:22).

You see, only doing partially what the Lord has asked us to do is disobedience. If we have clear instructions from the Lord as Saul did, it’s not obedience to only go halfway to completing what the Lord has asked.
 

God loves and blesses obedience.

 
The fastest way to God’s best is through doing exactly what He asks of us. Any delays in receiving God’s best usually come from our end of unwillingness to go all in or refusal to do what God asks us to do.

When we are listening to the Father, we need to develop an attitude of an open heart to receive what He says, but also have a heart to say ‘Yes’ and do whatever he says.

Jesus’ brother James put it this way, he said; ‘don’t just be hearers of the what God says, but actually do it, you’ll be blessed when you do (James 1:22-25).
 

Going back to the investment proposal we started with, what if God is the wealthy investor? We have accounts from His word of men and women who prospered by answering the call God had on their lives. They backed him even when it looked like they would lose everything in some cases. God was faithful and saw them through. But for most of them they did go ‘all in’. You see faith in Jesus is betting the house and everything you have and are on who he says he is. Faith is saying yes to God even when you fear loss, and even when it costs you. Obedience to God when we hear him says to God, Okay I’m taking you at your word that I’ll be alright because your looking after me, not me looking after me.
 
God loves you and desires to speak to you as an individual. He desires a personal intimate relationship with you. He created you, He knows you and has a plan for your life that will be more satisfying than you could have wished for yourself. God is a God of abundantly more. He is more than capable of speaking to you in a way that you can understand.

Are you willing to take the time to listen?
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Are you willing to be obedient to what He says to you? If you are, an incredible shift in your walk with your creator lies open to you and a life of hope and a future await.