Do the Sayings of Jesus
by Charles Capps
No one will be really successful in life unless he puts Jesus’ sayings into action. Jesus said: “Everyone who comes to me, hears my words and acts on them — I will show you what he is like: he is like someone building a house who dug deep and laid the foundation on bedrock. When a flood came, the torrent beat against that house but couldn’t shake it, because it was constructed well. And whoever hears my words but doesn’t act on them is like someone who built his house on the ground without any foundation. As soon as the river struck it, it collapsed and that house became a horrendous wreck!” (Luke 6:47-49 CJB)
Jesus is not talking about housing projects. He has revealed secrets that will make you successful in life. The Word says, “The secret things belong unto the Lord, our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us…” (Deuteronomy 29:29)
Lay the Foundation with the Word
If we do the things Jesus says, we will have a firm foundation laid on a rock. When the stream beats upon our lives, the storm will not be able to shake us! However, Jesus said that if we don’t do His sayings, we will be like the man who built his house on the sand. When the stream beat vehemently upon that house, immediately it fell; and the ruin of that house was great.
Some people have thought this scripture meant one of the men was saved and the other wasn’t, but both men could have been saved. Both knew the truth, but only one did what Jesus said to do. The stream beating against his house couldn’t shake it! He did not say it didn’t shake it; He said it couldn’t. It was impossible to destroy the one who was doing what Jesus said — he was resting on God’s Word.
Doing the sayings of Jesus will transform your life! When floods and streams come against your life, you will remain immovable. The floods could be inflation, high prices, sickness, or any other problem. But God’s promise is: No weapon formed against you will prosper. (Isaiah 54:17)
God’s Word is eternal. If you plant incorruptible seed in your heart and do the things Jesus said, you will not fail!
Act on the Whole Word
In order to act on all of the principles, you may have to do a few things you don’t want to do, such as praying for your enemies. (Luke 6:28) If your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them a drink. (Romans 12:20)
If we begin to pray for our enemies, it won’t be long before we won’t have any! “When a man’s ways please the Lord, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him.” (Proverbs 16:7)
The man who built his house on the ground was trying to work on the surface. Many people try to use the Word as a formula without digging into the principles. The wise man dug deep to lay the foundation. You need to dig in the Word of God to find the principles and do the whole Word.
Dig a Deep Foundation
The man who builds his house on his confession only will get washed away. But the man who digs deep and lays the foundation on what Jesus said will remain. This man takes the time to find how the Kingdom works. He knows that it has to work because God’s power and Word are behind it. He will be able to stand on it and believe it when the flood comes.
When the flood comes, the doer of the Word will stand, and the other man will pass away. People seeing the other man’s house floating downstream may say, “He believed and he got washed away!” But they didn’t know all the circumstances. He was washed away because he didn’t dig deep and lay the foundation. The foundation is doing the Word.
Trials Come from the Devil
Some people believe that the storms and troubles of life come from the Lord to make us stronger. Luke 8 gives a classic example of why that can’t be. Beginning in verse 22 it says, “One day Jesus said to his disciples, let’s cross to the other side of the lake. So they got into a boat and started out. As they sailed across, Jesus settled down for a nap. But soon a fierce storm came down on the lake. The boat was filling with water, and they were in real danger. The disciples went and woke him up, shouting, Master, Master, we’re going to drown!”
Jesus didn’t say they were going to perish. He said, “We are going to the other side of the lake.” The disciples had let the Word depart from them. Satan stole the Word right out from under their nose!
What did Jesus do? “…When Jesus woke up, he rebuked the wind and the raging waves. Suddenly the storm stopped and all was calm. Then he asked them, Where is your faith?”
Their faith left on the wings of unbelief when they said, “We’re going to drown!” They came to Jesus and told Him what the devil said!
The storm didn’t perfect their faith; it stole their faith! Jesus said, “What did you do with your faith?” The devil stole their faith because they let his words get into their mouths.
First John 3:8 gives the reason Jesus came to earth: “…For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.” The Amplified Bible says that he might “undo (destroy, loosen and dissolve)” the works that the devil has done. Jesus stood in the bow of the boat and destroyed the storm with His Word. Did the devil send the storm, or did God send the storm to perfect their faith?
"The storm didn't perfect their faith; it stole their faith!"
Jesus spoke to the wind and stopped it; He spoke to the sea and stopped the waves. If the storm was from the Father, Jesus was destroying the works of His Father. But we know He didn’t destroy the works of His Father.
If it were true that trials and financial troubles are sent to make us stronger, Luke 6:48 would read this way:
“The man who hears My sayings and does them is like a man that built his house on the sand. And when the stream beat upon it, and the trials came against it, and the flood arose against it, the windows broke, the roof blew off, and part of the siding came off; but, finally, the storm blew the house into the air, just high enough until a firm concrete foundation formed under it. And when the storm was over, his house was stronger.”
This paraphrase is a little ridiculous, but it reveals the error of that kind of thinking. If trials and troubles of life were to perfect us, Jesus would have said every time a storm is through blowing and a stream is through beating, your house will be stronger.
satan doesn’t come to make you stronger or to help your faith. In the fourth chapter of Mark, Jesus said that satan came to steal the Word of God. Satan may be able to steal the Word from some people; but if your foundation is firm, he won’t be able to steal it from you!
The foundation is doing the sayings of Jesus. It is not being saved, or being filled with the Holy Ghost, or going to church, or paying your tithes; although these things are important. Doing what Jesus said to do is what builds the foundation!
Erroneous Prayer Opens
the Door to the Devil
Jesus gives us the key to understanding how to operate in the Kingdom of God (how to receive God’s blessings) when He says in Mark 4:14, “The sower soweth the word.”
If you have been saying, “I’ve just left it all up to God!” you haven’t left it up to God. What you have done is to open the door to the devil! Then whatever satan does, you will think it was God doing it. God will not assume your responsibility. You must act on Jesus’ words. “A little extra sleep, a little more slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest — then poverty will pounce on you like a bandit; scarcity will attack you like an armed robber.” (Proverbs 6:10-11 NLT)
If you fold your hands and say, “Lord, do whatever Your will is; I’m going to leave it all in Your hands,” poverty will come on you like a bandit, robbing you of what you have. You are, in essence, doing nothing!
It’s dangerous for you to say, “Lord, just whatever You will, let it come to me.” Whatever bad things the devil brings your way, you will then accept as being the will of God. To pray specifically and accurately, you need to know the will or the Word of God; otherwise, you can open the door to tragedy and circumstances that will destroy you.
Resist the devil! If you don’t, God won’t. God will allow anything you allow.
Find the will of God; then make your stand on it and proclaim it. Get knowledgeable in the Word, then you speak to the situation. What you speak will determine to a great degree what will happen. But it is you, not God, who must be motivated to act.
How to Act on God’s Word
- Speak to the Problem
“And the Lord said, If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you.” (Luke 17:6)
The sycamine tree in this scripture is the problem, the circumstance, the situation that stands between you and your destination.
He did not say, “If you had faith as a seed you would pray that God would move that obstacle before you. Then if you pray and cry and beg long enough, if you promise to be good and pay your tithes, then God will pluck it up for you and cast it into the sea.”
No, He said, “Speak to it, and it will obey you.”
If you had faith as a seed, Jesus said you would speak to that sycamine tree (to that obstacle, that problem, that difficulty, that financial crisis you have been begging God to do something about). So quit begging and crying, and speak to that thing. Say what you want done with it. Tell it to be plucked up by the root! Jesus said it would obey you!
- Continue Speaking the Solution
Several years ago I began to say that every disease germ and every virus that touches my body dies instantly, that I was redeemed from the curse of the Law, and that I forbade sickness and disease to operate in my body.
Though I said these things, I really didn’t believe these statements were true in me. I knew the words were true. The Word of God said they would be true if I could get them in my heart; but I was saying them to get them into my heart. As David said, my tongue is as the pen of a ready writer. (Psalm 45:1)
Your tongue will write God’s Word on the table of your heart.
When I got sick, someone said, “It didn’t work, did it?” I said, “Yes! It’s working. Faith is coming.” I just kept saying it.
There’s a difference between being a doer and “a tryer.” If I had been “a tryer” of the Word, I would have given up the first time I was sick.
I wasn’t trying the Word; I had set out to do the Word! I knew it would work! Jesus said it would. You can always find some “unbelieving believers,” who don’t believe the Word will work.
When things look bad, continue to sow seed. Believe the best of the situation. Then if things grow worse and it looks like everything is against you, just keep your mouth shut. Don’t speak negative words. Rest in what you have already established by your words. Keep doing what Jesus said to do!