When you continually hear and follow His voice, Jesus becomes more than a religious belief system. He becomes both your Lord and your friend. Hearing Jesus requires no skill. It only requires your willingness to hear.

If you’re not excited about Jesus, you’re probably not hearing Him speak to you. The first step to hearing Jesus is being willing to hear Him. If you don’t want to submit to and obey Jesus, you won’t be willing to hear Him speak to you.

Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. –Colossians 3:16.

Sermons are easily forgotten. Passively listening to one man talk, week-after-week, isn’t a very effective way to create sold-out, surrendered, and sacrificial Christ-followers. Perhaps you’re on to something. Songs make us want to participate, not just spectate. Singing faith-filled songs from the bottom of your heat is powerful! When I’m at home, I’m frequently asking Alexa to play whatever Christian songs come to my heart. Then I sing along and pour my heart out to the risen Jesus. What a blessing! Anointed songs release joy that causes us to want to sing along, but sermons compel us to be passive (even board) members of an audience.

The phrase, “teach and admonish one another” is one of the more than 50 “one another” commandments in the New Testament. It appears that early Christianity was participatory, not passive! Let’s free up modern Christians to “teach and admonish one another” rather than always being taught and admonished by the same person, week after week. 1 Corinthians 14:26 tells us that everyone can have something to share when we come together. “When you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, . . .” Jesus wants to speak through everyone present, not just through one special person.

When we gather in Jesus’ name, let all God’s people sing. Let them all testify. Let them all share what God is revealing to them and what He is doing in their life! Because churches have neglected to train their members to be “led by the Spirit,” many don’t even know what it means. (See Romans 8:14.)

People cling to the belief that Jesus only speaks in special ways to special people because that relieves them from the responsibility of hearing Him for themselves. However, according to the Bible, true Christians are supposed to hear Jesus and are led by God’s Spirit. (John 10:27 and Romans 8:14.) If you’re unwilling to hear and obey Jesus, you can’t follow Him.

Debating doctrine is divisive. Hearing and obeying the living Jesus brings Christians into heart-felt unity. You can’t give your total loyalty to your nation (or anyone or anything else) and to the risen Jesus at the same time. Caesar and Jesus can’t both be Lord.