Sitting and hearing a sermon makes me feel out of place. I want to be a doer of the word, not a passive sermon-hearer. I want to meet with people to be led by God’s Spirit together so that we can actively demonstrate the presence of the living Jesus by obeying the 50+ “one another” commands in the New Testament.

People of God, “Be led by the Spirit.” Refuse to stay stuck in the same ole same ole of routine religion. Get a vision beyond Sunday tradition.

Jesus told His disciples to “Go.” He wants us to grow in our relationship with Him and our obedience to Him, not to settle comfortably into what we think we already know about Him. Jesus wants us to experience His presence living and working inside and through us day and night.

Listen to Jesus. Do what He says. Be led by His Spirit, not by your opinions, feelings, and desires. Lift up your head and look unto Jesus as the Lord and Head of your life. Let God lift up your heart as an everlasting door so the King of Glory can come in. (See Psalm 24:7-9.)

It’s good when God speaks to you through a preacher, but it’s even more powerful when you let Him speak directly to your heart! Preaching and teaching alone aren’t working to make Spirit-led, Christ-like people. Just look at how divided faithful church attendees are–how angry, how prideful, how bound up in self-focus.

Where are the disciples who put Christ and His will first–above nation, family, and personal desires? They can only be produced by daily surrender to and obedience to the risen Jesus. It’s time for churches to begin to actively train and disciple people to set aside self-focused desires and to continually listen to and obey Christ’s inner voice.

The people of God need Spirit-led, hands-on training sessions where they open their hearts to God and to one another. We need to learn to individually listen to Jesus and to faithfully say and do what He tells us to (regardless of our discomfort level). The goal of church should not be just to get people to passively reflect on and ponder a sermon, but to train people to actively reflect and radiate the wonder and glory of the risen Jesus with one another and everywhere they go.

A one-size-fits-all sermon can give you information about God, but a message received from God directly by your heart (without going through a religious system) is far more powerful. Now is the time to begin to listen to and obey God’s Spirit!