The other day I was riding my bicycle around the beautiful city of Fairbanks. From the beginning of my fifteen-mile ride I kept hearing the Holy Spirit telling me, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” Matthew 4:4 (KJV) I heard those words before, it was one of the answers Jesus gave the devil as the devil was temping him right in the beginning of the Lord’s ministry. But I kept hearing this Bible verse like a song or a melody that get stuck in your brain.

The last four to five miles of my bicycle route are the toughest one because it is all up hill. My heart rate was going up, I could feel my legs feeling every inch of those hills. Then I asked the question, “Lord, what do you want to tell me?” As I started to listen to His voice, I started thinking less and less about that hill and how tired I was feeling and more and more about the curiosity of God’s answer to my question.

The revelation was simple; we have a wrong idea of what it is to live “the life”. Many think that money, parties, relationships, having things, eat well, etc. is the good life, but the reality is that we can do all of those things, appeared to be doing well and be nothing but dead people walking.

Food helps us to sustain the body; if we don’t eat, eventually we will die. However, Jesus is making the point that food is not the only or most important supplier of life, listening to God is.

On this verve, the word, “Word” is the word Rhema, which means, “That which is spoken, a statement, word. (I) Particularly a word as uttered by a living voice.” ^[1] This is not an article against the written Word; the Rhema Word must be inline with the written (Logos) Word. However, what give us life is not the reading or study of God’s Word, but to listen to the Father.

To understand what I am trying to say, I have to use the example the Holy Ghost told me to share. Imagine as a parent, you start writing a special book with all you want your children to know. After you complete that book you supply each one of your kids with a copy. After that, they are no longer allowed to speak to you; every time they approach you, you redirect them to read your book. They may have questions about the book, but you stand firm that all they need is to read the book. Don’t you think that is just terrible?

God wants to speak to us; He establishes that His spoken Word for us is life. However, the enemy is doing a good job in keeping us distracted. The reason the church is dead is because people are dead, spiritually dead. Every born again believer should be able to answer this question, what is the Lord telling you?

If you are waiting for Sunday to hear what the preacher has to say and that is the only thing you hear from God, you are a dead man walking. Are you listening? Many feel that if they just read the Bible, if they just “go to church”, if they just listen to this or that TV Evangelist, if they just read this or that book, if they join this or that denomination, if they just surround themselves with worship music, if they join the men’s group, or the women’s, or the youth group or this or that Bible study, etc. they be on fire for God. I have news for you, you can be involved in one, two, three or even in all of these activities and, still be a dead man walking. You know why? Because you are still not listening.

The greatest problem of our world is not the economy, is not illegal immigration, racism, the homosexual agenda, government corruption, etc. The greatest problem in our world is sin and, the sin that we violate the most is the first commandment to love God above all things. God is not our priority! Not in our time, not in our money and not our commitments. For many, God is not even on the top ten list of what is really important.

Beloved, we are dead because we are not listening. The moment God’s voice become our priority, we will experience life, we will experience God’s presence and we will experience Re-vival! The greatest teaching our pastors can give us is to learn to hear God’s voice. Are you listening?

^[1] Zodhiates, S. (2000). The complete word study dictionary: New Testament (electronic ed.). Chattanooga, TN: AMG Publishers.