But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed. [James 1:22-25]
The Hearer and the Doer: The Hearer does not understand that He has been born of the Word. Doing the Word activates the Faith that he is to live by. The just shall live by Faith. The Hearer is carnal; soulish. He is like the man that Jesus describes as the one whose house is built on sand:
And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it. [Matt. 7:26-27]
The Word has not become a part of him enough to withstand the storm that will inevitably come. Because his house is not built upon the Rock of Jesus' sayings, his house is destroyed. His house has no foundation because of a lack of the Word. That house signifies his life and everything that he is. It's not limited to a physical structure. It has to do with provision, healing and everything that has to do with our inheritance in this realm; what sustains us.
The Doer is the opposite. He receives the Word in his spirit, meditates it, allows it to "settle" in him and becomes a disciplined follower. He is the man in Psalm 1:1-3 and Joshua 1:8:
Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. [Psalm 1:1-3]
This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success. [Joshua 1:8]
By becoming intimately involved with the Word, the Doer begins to show the fruit that the Word produces in his born-again spirit. The spirit and the Word are in agreement and more Life is produced in him.When the storm comes, he speaks the Word that is a part of him. The Word is the foundation of His Life. He understands that he is of incorruptible, eternal Seed. He knows that the Incorruptible defeats the corruptible, that the Eternal has dominion over the temporal. By the Faith that the Word in him produces, he will speak to the storm and it will obey him, just like Jesus did.
Nothing is impossible to him, because his faith has matured from spending his time in doing Jesus' sayings. He understands that he is the just, justified by Faith; justified by the Word. That Faith is his Life, his source and he cannot survive without it. The hearing of Word-producing Faith saved him, and speaking the Word of Faith sustains him. He speaks the Word, and He does what the Word says.
We are not what we appear to be on the outside. We are the very Image of Jesus, the Seed on the inside of us. As He is, so are we in this earth. NOW.
The carnal, soulish Christian lives in what I like to call a "back and forth" existence. We come and go. Some days, we are on fire for God; some days we're not. Like that double-minded man, we're unstable, undisciplined. Rather than looking into the mirror and stepping away, only to have to come back to take a second and a third look, let's do this: Abide. Abide in the pure Love of God. Abide in that place of refining, in the fire of that altar of sacrifice. Let's look into that perfect law of liberty that we have in Him--the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus that has set us free. Only then can true spiritual maturity take place.
But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.
[2 Cor. 3:18]
Be Blessed!
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