James 1:22 “Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves”.
1 John 3:18 “….let us not love in word, neither in tongue, but in DEED and in truth”.
Jesus said, Matthew 7:26-27: “Everyone who hears these sayings of mine and does not do them, shall be likened unto a foolish man, who built his house upon the sand. And the rain descended and the floods came, the winds blew and beat upon the house and it fell, and great was the fall of it”.
Let us do a little stock take of our lives under the Holy Spirit’s light. How many of us have put words upon our lips declaring truths we believe and yet have not applied them to our lives? Where is the evidence in our lives of what we declare we believe? Do the above scriptures describe us? Jesus declared that a tree is known by its fruit, (Matthew 12:33). My believing must produce fruit as evidence of the truths declared, otherwise I am nothing more than the man described in 1 Corinthians 13:1 “Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not love, I am become as a sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal”. If my “love life” is out of order, (empty words), my life will be out of order.
Just as faith is belief and action, my life must demonstrate the truth my lips declare, otherwise I deceive myself. James 1: 23-24 “For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like a man beholding his natural face in a mirror. He sees himself and goes on his way and straight way forgets what manner of man he was”. Verse 25 refers to him as a forgetful hearer! ……..a person who forgets to apply what he has heard.
Jeremiah 17:10 “I the Lord search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings”.
Galatians 6:7 “Be not deceived, God is not mocked: for whatever a man sows, that shall he also reap”.
If you have read thus far and are feeling downcast and condemned, take heart! God does not tear down to destroy you, but to encourage you to build on a right foundation and grow up into Him. Our God is not a God of discouragement. He is our Heavenly Father ever seeking to draw us with His chords of love into a right relationship and close fellowship with Him in everything we do and say.
Here is the interpretation of a tongue given this morning at the close of our Gathering. Be encouraged:
“Where does My Presence lie? Where does it take its rest? Where is My Presence felt, if not in your being? Have I not said and shall I not do it? Am I a man that I should lie? No, never! I would not be the God you believe in if I lie.
Many times your heart does not come in line with what I have said. Be encouraged! I see the end from the beginning. I am Alpha and Omega. I have not finished with you yet.
Listen! That which I said to you, I will perform. I will finish the work.
Every time you slip or seem to take a backward step – be encouraged! I CHOSE YOU. Do you think I did not know how you would be? I am the God you have served up till now. I am the God who is ALL IN ALL. Never let these words express themselves from you again that I will not finish the work I started. Never believe that because you have failed, that I will fail. NEVER! NEVER!”
Faithful is He!
