While driving on a highway, you would often see a road sign that indicates “Bumps ahead” or “Sharp bend ahead”. Seeing such a sign, a wise fellow will immediately slow down while a foolish fellow will keep speeding. When the danger that should have been averted happens, everyone will consider such a driver to be foolish. This scenario describes the case of those who read the Bible and see some truths in it that will save their lives but choose not to act on what they have read.

James 1:21-25 tells us that the word of God is like a mirror which shows us what needs to be changed in our lives. It is a dangerous kind of foolishness to read or hear the word of God and not act on it. Some people hear the word and resolve to do something, but they procrastinate taking action until their resolve fades away with time. They are like a man dressed up to go out who sees in the mirror that his tie is a little too far to the right, but then leaves the front of the mirror without correcting it. If after a while he remembers that his tie is a little off to the right and then tries to adjust it to the left, he may adjust it a little too far to the left. The wise thing to do is to make the adjustment while still in front of the mirror. If you hear or read any word from God that requires you to make an adjustment in your life, you must do so immediately, because delay may be dangerous.

Many years ago, my Father in the Lord preached a message on keeping our environment clean if we wanted God to live in our homes. He also said that the kind of music we listened to would determine if the Spirit of God would be comfortable dwelling in our homes. My wife and I got home late and tired that day, but tired as we were, we raised up our mattress and swept off a lot of dirt from under our bed. We also broke and threw away all the secular tapes that we had in the house. We acted on the word immediately and we were better off for it. Matthew 13:23 says:
“But he that received seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word, and understandeth it; which also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.”
When you have heard a word that can change your life for the better, the devil knows it, and he immediately springs into action to steal it from you. You must be on guard, and your best strategy is to act on the word before he brings distractions and suggestions that will destroy the fruits that God intends the word to yield in you. Are you just a hearer of the word or a doer of it?
Written by Pastor E.A. Adeboye.