But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does (James 1:22-25).
Putting the Word into practice causes the Father to begin to work in your life. You see, He watches over His Word to bring it to pass. All of heaven is back of His Word. When you take the Word seriously, it gives the Father permission to work on your behalf.
All spiritual failure can be traced back to a neglect of the Word. To hear and not practice is like looking at yourself in the mirror and forgetting the image of what you saw. The Word gives you the image of how the Father really sees you. This perfect law of liberty will cut the cords of the past and set a course for your future that lines up with the Father’s will. But you must act.
For us to turn a deaf ear to what the Father has spoken by failure to act is to thumb our noses at the cross and resurrection of Jesus. Putting the Word into practice makes the New Covenant real in your life. Putting the Word into practice clears the fog from the un-renewed mind and shines light on the pathway of life.
To refuse to practice the Word is to walk in darkness. God must back away when we choose to hear and not obey. Blessings are promised to those who practice the Word. If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land (Isaiah 1:19). Failure to act opens us up to the curse that sin brought into the world as God is forced to back away by our inaction. But if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured by the sword; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken (Isaiah 1:20).
The following is a very sobering scripture. It shows the results if we stubbornly choose to cling to our own thoughts and ways and refuse to practice the Word that we know. Sadly, the following is a description of what we see happening in America today. As a culture, we have tossed God’s Word aside and replaced it with our own thinking and desires. And, as a culture, it is costing us dearly.
Proverbs 1:24-33 – NLT – I called you so often, but you wouldn’t come. I reached out to you, but you paid no attention. You ignored my advice and rejected the correction I offered. So I will laugh when you are in trouble! I will mock you when disaster overtakes you— when calamity overtakes you like a storm, when disaster engulfs you like a cyclone, and anguish and distress overwhelm you. When they cry for help, I will not answer. Though they anxiously search for me, they will not find me. For they hated knowledge and chose not to fear the Lord. They rejected my advice and paid no attention when I corrected them. Therefore, they must eat the bitter fruit of living their own way, choking on their own schemes. For simpletons turn away from me—to death. Fools are destroyed by their own complacency. But all who listen to me will live in peace, untroubled by fear of harm.
Be the person who is blessed by God today by choosing to forsake your own thinking and the values of the culture around you, and by choosing to practice what God says. Make a fresh commitment to ve a person of the Word today. That decision will transform you!