When Faith Requires Movement: One Step in 24 Hours

BLOG POST — EPISODE FIVE

When Faith Requires Movement: Standing at the Threshold and Choosing Trust

There’s a moment that comes for every follower of the Way when more information stops helping.
Not because knowledge is bad.
Not because study does not matter.
But because you already know what obedience looks like, and the only thing left is a decision.
You are not stuck in confusion.
You are standing at a threshold.

A threshold is that place where the next step is clear, but the outcome is not.
That is where faith becomes real.
If I only move when I can control the outcome, I’m not walking by faith.
I’m managing risk.
And if I’m honest, most of my delays are not because I lack love for God.

Most delays are because I’m trying to reduce exposure.
I’m trying to protect myself from the cost of obedience.
I call it responsibility.
I call it wisdom.
I call it waiting.
But many times, it is avoiding.

Here are three delays that sound spiritual, but quietly keep a believer stuck.

First, “I need more confirmation.”
Second, “I need to feel peace first.”
Third, “I need to understand the whole plan.”

Yet in the Bible, confirmation often comes after obedience.
Peace often follows surrender.
And the whole plan is rarely given, because covenant life is relational, not transactional.

This is why Genesis 12 still shocks us if we let it.
God does not hand Abram the map.
He gives him a command, and a promise.
Go, and I will show you.
In other words, God will reveal the next as Abram obeys the now.
Put Abram back in his Ancient Near Eastern world and you feel the weight of that command.
Leaving land and father’s house was not self discovery.
It was severing security.
Identity.
Protection.
Inheritance.
Stability.
All of it was tied to kinship and place.
So when Abram goes, he is not stepping into a motivational poster.
He is stepping into covenant history.
And that is what makes this moment so important for you and me.
Because most of our faith challenges are not intellectual.
They are threshold moments.
I know the next right step, but I do not know how it will turn out.
That is the exact space where fear tries to dress itself up as carefulness.
Delay turns wisdom into a disguise for fear.
James addresses this same pressure from a different angle.
He is writing to a scattered community that knows stress, opposition, and fatigue.
And he says something that cuts through religious fog.
It is possible to hear, agree, and still be self deceived.
How?
By confusing hearing with obeying.
James ties blessing, not to what you felt in a moment, but to what you did in obedience.
That is a threshold statement.
Agreement isn’t discipleship.
Obedience is.
So let me make this painfully practical.
If you are at a threshold, you need a framework, not just inspiration.

Here is a simple three step way to turn faith into motion.

First, name the next obedient step in one sentence.
Not five steps, one step.
Second, put it on a 24 hour clock.
If it matters and it is from God, it does not need months of delay.
Third, attach it to a witness.
A trusted friend, spouse, mentor, or pastor.
Someone who can ask you tomorrow, did you do it?

A named step, a short clock, and a real witness turns faith into motion.
Now let’s bring it down to one question you can answer today.
What is your one step of obedience in the next 24 hours?
Not the whole journey.
The next step.
Make the call.
Send the apology.
Set the boundary.
Tell the truth.
Start the discipline.
Stop the habit.
Ask for help.
Open the Bible and obey the one thing God has been repeating to you.
This is the choice.
You can keep gathering information and calling it wisdom.
Or you can move in obedience and meet God at the threshold.
Obedience isn’t a mood.
It’s a direction.

What is your one step of obedience in the next 24 hours?
If you’re comfortable sharing, tell me in the comments. I read them and respond personally.

If you want help turning Bible knowledge into daily practice, my book, True Word, Faith for LIFE!, is available in the Store at TrueWordFaithforLife.com.

Shalom b’Shem Yeshua
© 2025 Dr. Shawn M. Greener. All Rights Reserved.
True Word, Faith for LIFE!

STUDY GUIDE

Episode 5: When Faith Requires Movement
Series: What Do I Do Now?

Purpose Statement
This study guide is designed to help followers of the Way recognize “threshold moments,” the places where the next step of obedience is clear, but the outcome is not. We will ground the teaching in Genesis 12:1–4 and James 1:22–25, with Ancient Near Eastern context, key language insights, and a practical framework for taking one faithful step within the next 24 hours.

Summary
Episode 5 centers on a defining spiritual reality. There are seasons when more information will not move you forward because your mind already knows the next right step. What you are facing is not an information gap but a threshold. A threshold is that moment where obedience is clear, but the outcome is still hidden. In that space, faith becomes tangible. If we only move when outcomes are controllable, we are not walking by faith. We are managing risk.

The episode identifies a common danger for believers. Delayed obedience does not remain neutral. It slowly hardens into fear, often disguised as careful “wisdom.” The heart is not always rebelling against God, but it is often attempting to reduce exposure. That impulse produces spiritual sounding delays such as “I need more confirmation,” “I need to feel peace first,” or “I need to understand the whole plan.” Yet the Bible repeatedly portrays the opposite pattern. Confirmation is often granted after obedience. Peace often follows surrender. The complete plan is rarely disclosed because covenant life is relational, not transactional.

Genesis 12:1–4 places this threshold principle into covenant history. God calls Abram to leave land, family, and father’s house for a land that God “will show.” In the Ancient Near Eastern world, identity and survival were tied to kinship and land. To leave was to sever stability, inheritance, and protection. Abram’s obedience becomes a template for covenant life. God calls. Man responds. God confirms along the way.

James 1:22–25 reinforces the same truth in the language of discipleship. It is possible to hear the Word, agree with it, and still be self deceived if hearing replaces obeying. James locates blessing in doing, not merely listening. Agreement is not discipleship. Obedience is. The episode then offers a practical framework for moving through threshold moments. Name the next obedient step in one sentence, place it on a 24 hour clock, and connect it to a trusted witness who will ask if you followed through.

Primary Passages Side by Side

Genesis 12:1–4
LEB
And Yahweh said to Abram, “Go from your land and from your family … to the land that I will show you … And Abram went, as Yahweh had spoken to him.”
NASB 2020
Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go forth from your country … to the land which I will show you” … So Abram went away as the Lord had spoken to him.
CJSB
Adonai said to Avram, “Get yourself out of your country … go to the land that I will show you” … So Avram went, as Adonai had said to him.

James 1:22–25

LEB
But be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves … But the one who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it … this person will be blessed in what he does.
NASB 2020
But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not just hearers who deceive themselves … But the one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of freedom, and continues in it … this person will be blessed in what he does.
CJSB
Don’t deceive yourselves by only hearing what the Word says, but do it … Whoever looks intently into the perfect Torah, which gives freedom, and continues doing it … will be blessed in what he does.

Narrative and Socio Cultural Context

Genesis 12 is not a motivational anecdote. It is covenant history. Abram is not portrayed as an impulsive young man chasing novelty. He is an established household head in an Ancient Near Eastern environment where “land,” “family,” and “father’s house” define a person’s identity and survival. In that world, kinship networks provided protection, legal standing, inheritance pathways, economic continuity, and social stability. To leave the father’s house meant stepping away from one’s primary system of security. This is why the call to “go” is not merely geographic. It is relational and covenantal. God is re anchoring Abram’s life away from clan security and toward divine promise. The text emphasizes that Abram is not given full visibility. God will show the land. The revelation unfolds as Abram obeys.

James writes into a different crisis, but with the same human problem. His audience is a dispersed community under pressure. Trials, uncertainty, and spiritual fatigue create a temptation to substitute religious consumption for covenant obedience. James exposes self deception, not as atheism, but as the quiet replacement of doing with hearing. In covenant terms, it is possible to admire the mirror and still refuse to live the reflection. James ties blessing to continuing in doing. He is discipling people out of passive listening and into embodied faithfulness.

Key Hebrew and Greek Terms With Pronunciation Helps

1. “Go” and the call to depart, Genesis 12:1
   Hebrew tradition often summarizes this call with the phrase lekh lekha, pronounced lekh LEKHA. While translations capture the basic movement, the covenant force of the moment is that God is summoning Abram into a new allegiance structure. The call is not merely “walk somewhere,” it is “depart from old anchors and move under God’s direction.”¹
2. “Torah,” James 1:25 in the CJSB rendering
   Torah, pronounced toh RAH, refers to God’s instruction, teaching, and covenant guidance, not merely a legal code. James frames God’s instruction as “the law of freedom,” which fits a Hebraic worldview where obedience is not bondage but ordered life under God’s kingship.²
3. “Doers” and “hearers,” James 1:22
   James contrasts hearing with doing and warns of self deception. The Greek emphasis is practical and embodied. Faithfulness is not mental assent alone. It is enacted allegiance.³
   Practical Application Framework
   Use this three move framework from the episode to break paralysis.
   Step 1, Name the next obedient step in one sentence.
   Write it down. If it takes a paragraph, you are still negotiating. Make it one sentence.
   Example: “Today I will call my brother and ask forgiveness for my harshness.”
   Example: “Tonight I will delete the app that keeps feeding my temptation.”
   Step 2, Put it on a 24 hour clock.
   Set a time. Put it on your calendar. Covenant faithfulness rarely grows through vague intentions.
   Step 3, Attach it to a witness.
   Choose one trusted person. Tell them your one sentence step and your 24 hour plan. Ask them to follow up.
4. Discussion Questions
5. Where are you currently standing at a threshold, where the next step is clear but the outcome is not?
6. Which “spiritual sounding delay” do you use most, more confirmation, peace first, or needing the whole plan?
7. In Genesis 12, what security structures was Abram asked to leave, and what does that teach you about how God forms covenant people?
8. According to James 1:22–25, what kind of self deception is possible for religious people who hear the Word but do not obey?
9. What would change in your life if you treated obedience as a direction rather than a mood?
10. Identify your one sentence step. What is it?
11. Who will be your witness, and when will you tell them?
12. What does “freedom” mean in James’s phrase “the law of freedom,” and how does that challenge modern assumptions that obedience is restrictive?
    
    This episode’s approach is strengthened when we read the Bible with Ancient Near Eastern context and with attention to language and covenant patterns. Dr. Skip Moen’s word study work is a helpful companion for thinking in Hebrew categories rather than modern Western assumptions. Dr. Michael Heiser’s scholarship helps restore the Bible’s ancient worldview and context, which protects believers from shallow proof texting and pulls them back into what the text meant to its first hearers.⁴
    Footnotes
13. On the covenant weight of God’s call and the necessity of reading Hebrew thought patterns on their own terms, see Skip Moen, “Daily Word Studies,” SkipMoen.com, accessed January 8, 2026.
14. For a Hebraic framing of Torah as instruction and covenant formation rather than mere legalism, see David H. Stern, Jewish New Testament Commentary (Clarksville, MD: Jewish New Testament Publications, 1992), commentary on James 1.
15. For the practical, embodied emphasis of James on hearing versus doing in early Jewish Messianic contexts, see Scot McKnight, The Letter of James, The New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2011), 171–190.

• 15. For a robust recovery of the Bible’s ancient worldview and how it shapes reading and discipleship, see Michael S. Heiser, The Unseen Realm: Recovering the Supernatural Worldview of the Bible (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2015).

Bibliography
Heiser, Michael S. The Unseen Realm: Recovering the Supernatural Worldview of the Bible. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2015.
McKnight, Scot. The Letter of James. The New International Commentary on the New Testament. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2011.
Moen, Skip. “Daily Word Studies.” SkipMoen.com. Accessed January 8, 2026.
Stern, David H. Jewish New Testament Commentary. Clarksville, MD: Jewish New Testament Publications, 1992.

Shalom b’Shem Yeshua
© 2025 Dr. Shawn M. Greener. All Rights Reserved.
True Word, Faith for LIFE!