What is God teaching you?
Sometimes, when I meet a friend I haven’t seen for a while, instead of asking, “Hey! What’s new?” or “How’s it going?” I’ll ask, “How is God working in your life these days.” Or “What is God teaching you?”
It’s always inspiring to hear their answers.
So, I’ll ask you the same questions. How is God working in your life these days? What is God teaching you?
All too often, we live life a little too close to the surface. We race from one activity to the next, trying to get everything done.
Are you aware of God teaching you?
Maybe you have a little Bible study and prayer time at the beginning of your day, but then it’s off to your busy schedule. Some folks live life at such a fast pace, they don’t pause long enough to see what God is doing in their lives or notice God teaching them an important lesson.
Now, I’m assuming if you’re listening to this podcast, which is obviously about the Bible, you probably are more inclined to take a little more time and go a little deeper in your prayer and Bible study so you can really connect with God. And hopefully you’re very much aware of God teaching you important lessons along the way.
And, I hope you are writing down these lessons from God in a journal or recording them in some way. It can be really helpful to go back and read them later to be reminded of everything God revealed to you. And that way you won’t forget something important God told you.
But there’s something equally important to God teaching you something. It’s putting into practice the lessons you learn. It’s doing what God teaches you.
Practicing what you learn
If you were in a Math class at school, went to class every day, and learned and studied all the math formulas and theorems, but never did the homework, never put into practice what you had learned, what kind of grade do you think you’d get in the class?
Hey, when I was in high school, and even college, I used to complain when a teacher gave us a lot of homework, but doing the homework helped me understand the ideas better, whether it was Calculus problems, conjugating French verbs, or Chemistry equations. Using what I was learning in class to do the homework, helped me understand better and prepared me to learn the next lessons in class.
This classroom situation of learning something and doing the related homework is a really good metaphor for what to do when we learn a lesson from God.
How is God teaching you?
Take a moment and think of a recent time when God taught you something you needed to know. Maybe it was a time when God led you step by step in an unexpected way to the happy conclusion of a problem or challenge.
Or it could be a time when you made some mistakes and either during the process, or after it was all over, God revealed how you could have done things differently.
What did you do with the lesson God taught you? Did you put it into practice the next time you were in a similar situation?
Some people like to say: There are no mistakes, just learning opportunities. That’s a pretty positive approach to take. But to really learn, you’ve got to apply those lessons in your life.
This is really important in every part of our lives, but especially when it comes to our faith and our relationship with God.
A life-changing experience
When I was in high school and made a commitment to follow Christ, and not just go to church because my parents wanted me to, I had an experience that has had a profound effect on my life ever since.
Not long after I had made this commitment to follow Christ, I came across in my daily Bible study these verses,
Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister. 1 John 4:20, 21 NIV
With all my heart, I thought I loved God. But at the time, I definitely did not love my little brother. I would lose my temper and was often physically abusive to him.
This passage from 1 John stopped me in my tracks. I realized I was a liar. I was not being honest with myself or with God.
There it was, plain and simple: “Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.”
I had to put my faith into practice
I had to sit with that command for a while. But I realized this was God teaching me a lesson, that I needed to love my brother. The real question then became: What would I do about it; would I love my brother?
I made a conscious choice to quit hating my brother and love him instead. Everyone in our family felt the difference immediately. My parents were beyond relieved. My sister no longer had to worry about us hurting each other. I felt a sense of freedom I had never felt. But more than anyone, my brother felt the change that took place in me because he didn’t have to worry about me yelling, being angry with him, or beating him up.
What happened? God taught me an important lesson through me Bible study that I needed to love my brother. And I put this lesson to practice in my daily life.
What would have happened if I had read those two verses from 1 John and just accepted them intellectually as important, and thought “Well, I’ll take care of this later,” but never did anything to change my attitudes or behavior toward my brother? I wouldn’t have really learned the lesson God was teaching me. And I would have had to learn it at a later time.
Looking back on that experience, that was really the first time I consciously put my faith into practice, took something I learned from the Bible, and applied it in my daily life. It has become a foundation that I’ve built on ever since.
If you want to hear a more in-depth version of this story you can listen to a previous episode I did just a few months after I started The Bible Speaks to You Podcast. It’s all the way back in Episode 15: How to Stop Fighting Your Brother and Love Him Instead.
God teaching people in the Bible
The Bible is full of examples where God taught someone an important idea, or someone reached out to God to be taught by Him.
Teach me, LORD, the way of your decrees, that I may follow it to the end. Give me understanding, so that I may keep your law and obey it with all my heart. Psalm 119:33, 34 NIV
When you ask God to show you something or teach you what you need to know, it’s important to keep the spirit of these verses from Psalm 119, so you can say along with the Psalmist, “that I may keep your law and obey it with all my heart.” It’s about doing what God teaches you.
Jesus expected action
Jesus put great importance on following through with what you’ve been taught.
After he finished his Sermon on the Mount, he painted a powerful picture of what would happen when his followers obeyed or disobeyed his teachings, did or didn’t do what he told them.
“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.” Matthew 7:24-27 NIV
Imagine you had been in the crowd listening to these words. You had been inspired by what Jesus said, but his closing remarks made it obvious he intended you to do what he had been telling you, not just be inspired by it.
Jesus as a teacher
Among all the other things he was and did, Jesus was a teacher. The interesting thing is that the religious leaders saw him teaching people in the synagogues, in the Temple, and wherever he was, but they couldn’t figure out how he could fill such a role because he hadn’t gone through any official training, like they had.
Not until halfway through the festival did Jesus go up to the temple courts and begin to teach. The Jews there were amazed and asked, “How did this man get such learning without having been taught?”
Jesus answered, “My teaching is not my own. It comes from the one who sent me.” John 7:14-16 NIV
In effect, Jesus is saying that God taught him what to say. In doing this, he’s actually setting an example for us by putting into practice what God taught him. And he expected his listeners, which includes you and me, to put into practice what he taught them.
Doing God’s will
Jesus made this point on more than one occasion, the importance of doing what God teaches you.
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” Matthew 7:21 NIV
It’s not enough to be taught and know what God’s will is. Jesus is emphatic we have to do God’s will.
What happens when you experience God teaching you an important lesson but then you don’t really learn from it or put it into practice?
The book of James gives us a practical explanation of what happens.
Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do. James 1:22-25 NIV
The best way to learn from and remember what God has taught you is to do it.
God teaching you step by step
Now you may be thinking: Hey James, you make it sound so easy. But sometimes when God teaches me something or tells me to do something, I don’t completely understand what He says or what He wants me to do, or I don’t even think I’m cable of doing it.
Well, I totally understand how you feel. There have been times when God has repeatedly shown me something, taught me something, revealed something to me and I just didn’t get it, or not all of what He was teaching me.
When that happens, I have had to learn to appreciate taking smaller steps than it may seem God wants me to take, but at least I’m moving forward and putting into practice whatever little bit I can of what God has taught me.
For example, for many years I’ve had times of God teaching me to be more loving, more forgiving, less judgmental, less egotistical. God has taught me many times that I am His child, made in His image and likeness. But I haven’t always acted like it.
Now I have to say, more recently I’ve been more consistent in learning the full implications of and putting those ideas into practice in my daily life. But at times it seems like a very slow process.
God teaching us what we need to know often results in us putting those teachings into practice slowly over time and by degree.
And that’s okay. It’s really about which direction you’re walking, away from or toward doing what God is teaching you.
What was God teaching Jonah?
One of the most obvious examples in the Bible of someone not doing what God was telling him to do was Jonah. He consciously chose not to follow God’s instructions. But after an underwater meeting with a big fish, Jonah decided to humble himself and follow through with what God had in store for him.
What was God teaching Jonah? To not be so judgmental, to have mercy, and to obey God the first time. What can you and I learn from Jonah’s experience about God teaching us and us doing whatever that might be?
What is God teaching you?
So let’s come back to my original question: What is God teaching you today? What is God revealing to you? How is God working in your life right now? If you’re not sure what the answer is, that’s okay, but it means it’s time to stop and reflect, be quiet, and listen to what God is saying to you.
Maybe you’re full of joy over God teaching you whatever it is. God has a purpose for you and has called you to do it. He will teach you everything you need to know and do to carry out that purpose. God will prepare your heart and mind, your hands and your feet, for everything you need to do.
This happens over and over in the Bible and has probably already happened in your life, whether you realize it or not.
God prepared me over many years
Somewhere between 12 to 15 years ago, God kept telling me He was appointing me to:
Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. Mark 16:15 NIV
At first I was amazed at this and was a bit impressed with myself that God chose me to do such a thing. But then reality set in and I realized how unprepared I was spiritually, not to mention logistically, to carry out such a task.
I basically told God He would have to find someone else to do the job. I was just not qualified. I was not good enough or spiritual enough to even know where to begin. So I dropped the idea and got on with my life.
But God had other plans. He began to prepare me for what He wanted me to do. When I started helping a friend with their prison ministry, which I’m still doing today, it was really God teaching me how to talk about the Bible with others.
I thought I was pursuing a career as a voice-over artist, but it was actually God teaching me how to record and edit audio files.
So here I am now, talking about the Bible and recording and editing audio files for a podcast about the Bible, as of this episode with listeners in 210 countries and territories and over 11,000 cities as of this episode.
Several years ago, it dawned on me that I was going into all the world and preaching the gospel to all creation. It happened by God teaching me what I needed to know each step of the way, but not really realizing what He was doing at the time to prepare for what I’m doing now.
God is always teaching you
God is teaching you right now, every day in fact, to prepare you for what He wants you to do. You may or may not be aware of how He is at work in your life, but He will take you one step at a time and lead you, literally and figuratively, in the direction you need to go.
Open your heart to God teaching and preparing you in this way. Be willing to listen, learn, and follow.
What God teaches you is His gift to you. What you do with what God teaches you is your gift back to Him.
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Photo Credit: Jayden Yoon ZK
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James Early, the Jesus Mindset Coach, is a Bible teacher, speaker, and church mentor. He conducts Bible workshops online and in person. His focus is on getting back to the original Christianity of Jesus by learning to think, pray, and love like Jesus. Contact him here.
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Bible References
1 John 4:20, 21 NIV
20 Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen.
21 And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.
Psalm 119:33, 34 NIV
33 Teach me, LORD, the way of your decrees, that I may follow it to the end.
34 Give me understanding, so that I may keep your law and obey it with all my heart.
Matthew 7:24-27 NIV
24 “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.
25 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.
26 But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand.
27 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”
John 7:14-16 NIV
14 Not until halfway through the festival did Jesus go up to the temple courts and begin to teach.
15 The Jews there were amazed and asked, “How did this man get such learning without having been taught?”
16 Jesus answered, “My teaching is not my own. It comes from the one who sent me.”
Matthew 7:21 NIV
21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.”
James 1:22-25 NIV
22 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.
23 Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror
24 and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.
25 But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.
Mark 16:15 NIV
15 Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.
