John 10:11

I am the good shepherd. 3 The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.

A true shepherd doesn’t push from behind with force—He calls from the front with His voice.

lead—exagei - to guide forth. Implies voluntary movement, willing submission.

John 10:27

My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.

1. Hearing God & Obedience Go Hand In Hand

Law of first mention - The first time something shows up in the Bible, it sets the tone. It lays down a precedent. It becomes the framework God keeps building on through the rest of His Word.

Genesis 2: 16 

And the Lord God commanded the man,“You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”

From the very beginning, hearing God and obeying God are bound together.

Exodus 19:5 — “If you obey My voice, you’ll be My treasured possession.”

Deuteronomy 28:1–2  “If you obey My voice, blessings will overtake you.”

Jeremiah 7:23  “Obey My voice, and I will be your God”

Isaiah 1:19 “If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land.”

Luke 11:28 Blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it.”

Matthew 7:24 — “Everyone who hears these words of mine and does them s like a wise man who built on the rock.”

John 14:23 “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.”

James 1:22 “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.”

Revelation 3:20 “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with Me.”

Hearing God & Obedience Go Hand In Hand

2. Hearing God & Obedience Go Hand In Hand with blessing

Hearing and obeying go hand in hand. And every time those hands lock—blessing walks right in the room.

God wants to bless you!

According to scripture, It blesses God to bless you!

Jeremiah 32:41

I will enjoy blessing them. With all my heart and soul I will faithfully plant them in this land.

Isaiah 56:3 

My blessings are for gentiles too when they accept the Lord. Don’t let them think that I will make them second class citizens. They can be as much mine as anyone. 

God’s blessings are not reserved for a select few. They’re for anyone who calls on the name of the Lord. 

One of the greatest blessings of God is being able to hear God!

We have access to the wisest, richest, most powerful being in existence, and He’s saying, “I want to guide you. I want to speak to you. I want to lead you.”

The blessings of God are conditional.

God’s love is not conditional

1 John 4:8 …God is love

The promises and blessings of God flow out of the rhythm of hearing and obeying.

Take note, beloved, the promises of God are not scattered in Scripture like trinkets upon the ground for any careless passerby to pick up. No, they are guarded treasures, keys that fit only the locks of faith and obedience. God has bound Himself by covenant, and the covenant is full of holy conditions. He says, ‘If you confess… if you repent… if you seek Me with all your heart… then will I hear, then will I pardon, then will I bless.’ Let us not suppose we can pluck the fruit while despising the root. Obedience waters the tree from which the promises grow. If we will not yield to His command, how can we expect to reap His reward? —Charles Spurgeon

3. Hearing God & Obedience Go Hand In Hand with Continuing to Hear God

If you want to keep hearing God, you’ve got to obey what He’s already said.

Brethren, remember this: the last command from God is your present duty until it be obeyed. — Charles Spurgeon

God’s Word always comes with purpose— and it always calls for a response.

Revelation without obedience eventually becomes silence. — Tim Keller

Mark 4:24–25

Pay attention to what you hear: with the measure you use, it will be measured to you—and still more will be added to you. Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them.

That phrase, “Pay attention to what you hear ”means:

• Guard it—don’t let God’s word slip by like background noise.

• Value it—weigh it like treasure.

• Act on it—turn what you hear into obedience.

Obedience multiplies revelation; disobedience diminishes it.

Isaiah 55:9 

As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.

The higher the perspective the greater the scope of understanding.

Proverbs 3:5

Trust in the Lord with all your heartand lean not on your own understanding;

Obedience is trust in action.

Hebrews 3:15

Today, If you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.

The man who hears God but does not obey will soon not hear Him at all. Revelation rejected hardens the heart, but revelation obeyed enlarges it. God hath not spoken merely to delight our intellects, but to claim our wills. And when our will bows, the voice of God grows clearer. For the Spirit of the Lord doth not indulge the curious—He leads the obedient. — A.W. Tozer

Fresh words from the Lord come when you obey the last words from the Lord.

4. Hearing God & Obedience Go Hand In Hand with the Gospel

Jesus was obedient to the Father

John 4:34 My nourishment comes from doing the will of God

John 5:30 I carry out the will of the one who sent me, not my own will.

John 14:31 I will do what the Father requires of me, so that the world will know that I love the Father.

John 15:10 When you obey my commandments, you remain in my love, just as I obey my Father’s commandments and remain in his love.

Philippians 2:8 He humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross.

Matthew 26:53 Do you think that I cannot now pray to My Father, and He will provide Me with more than twelve legions of angels?

Matthew 26:39 “O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me;  nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.”

Philippians 2:9-11 God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of the Father.

Hebrews 12:2 For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame

Jesus obeyed for you!

The cross is not simply the place where Jesus died—it is the ultimate testimony that obedience and the gospel cannot be separated. In Gethsemane, Jesus heard the Father’s will. And though every fiber of His humanity longed for another way, He submitted. He chose obedience in the face of unimaginable suffering. That obedience is the very reason we are saved. Which means this: to embrace the gospel is to embrace obedience. We are not merely saved from sin, but saved into surrender. Jesus’ obedience secured our salvation, and our obedience is how we demonstrate that salvation to the world. — Jon Tyson