From Hearing to Living: The 18 inch Journey of Faith

Lately, I have been thinking about the nearness of God’s presence. Not just knowing that He is near in my mind, but truly living aware of His presence in my everyday life.

I don’t want to simply know about God. I want to walk with Him. I want to hear His voice, follow His leading, expect His miracles, and live in the fruit and gifts of the Holy Spirit. I want my relationship with Jesus to move beyond Sunday morning, beyond Bible study notes, beyond good intentions, and become the way I actually live.

Because if I am honest, I have grown tired.

Tired of feeling spiritually bored.

Tired of feeling dissatisfied.

Tired of hearing truth but not always doing anything with it.

Tired of knowing what the Word says but not always walking it out with my feet.

There is a difference between hearing and living. Scripture tells us not to be hearers only, but doers of the Word. That means the Word of God is not meant to stop in our ears or even stay in our minds. It must take a journey.

I once heard someone say the longest journey is the 18 inches from the head to the heart. But I believe it must travel even farther. It must go from the brain, to the heart, and then down to our feet, where we actually live this thing.

That is where faith becomes visible.

That is where love becomes patient.

That is where peace shows up in a stressful situation.

That is where kindness answers instead of pride.

That is where self-control keeps us from saying what our flesh wants to say.

That is where obedience becomes more than a nice thought.

The Christian life was never meant to be lived only in our heads. Jesus did not save us so we could only collect information. He saved us so we could be transformed from the inside out.

And the beautiful truth is this: we are not expected to live this life in our own strength.

When we receive Jesus, He does not leave us empty. He places His Holy Spirit within us. The Spirit of God takes residence in us. That means we are not walking through life alone, trying to figure everything out with the wisdom of this world.

In 1 Corinthians 2, Paul teaches that we have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us. He explains that the Holy Spirit searches even the deep things of God.

That thought is powerful. The Holy Spirit knows the mind of God and because He lives in us, He can reveal to us what we could never discover on our own.

This is why we can expect to hear God’s voice.

This is why we can anticipate His direction.

This is why we can live with spiritual wisdom that does not come from this world.

This is why we can walk in peace when circumstances make no sense.

This is why we can bear the fruit of the Spirit and be used through the gifts of the Spirit.

But we have to be willing to move from hearing to doing.

We cannot stay satisfied with spiritual information if God is inviting us into spiritual transformation. We cannot keep listening to the Word without allowing it to shape our thoughts, our choices, our reactions, our relationships, and our daily habits.

I believe many of us are hungry for more of God, but sometimes we are waiting for something new when God is asking us to live what He has already spoken.

The goal is not just to know more.

The goal is nearness.

The goal is obedience.

The goal is walking in step with the Holy Spirit.

The goal is becoming people who not only hear the Word of God, but live it.

So maybe today is a good day to ask ourselves: What truth has God already spoken to me that I need to start walking out? Because faith was never meant to sit still.

It was meant to move from our ears, to our minds, to our hearts, and then to our feet. That is where the Word becomes life. That is where relationship becomes obedience. That is where we begin to truly live this thing.