James 1:19-20 So then, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath; 20 for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God.
In the age of social media, where hot takes go viral, outrage spreads in seconds, and comment sections become battlegrounds, James offers a divine pattern that stands in stark contrast to the digital frenzy. His instruction is timeless but urgently needed today: be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger. These three commands — revolutionary yet straightforward — cut through the noise of our reaction-driven culture and call us to a Spirit-led posture in a screen-lit world.
In a world where replies are faster than reflection, being quick to hear means more than scrolling—it’s the posture of a disciple: humble, teachable, and tuned to the Spirit. There’s power in pausing to listen before we speak. When we seek to understand, not just react, we reflect God’s heart. True listening leads to grace, not assumptions, compassion, rather than conflict. In a world quick to comment, let’s be quick to care. Listening isn’t weakness—it’s Christlike wisdom.
In the digital age, words are no longer just spoken—they’re posted, tweeted, commented, and shared in seconds. But if we truly understood what it means to be slow to speak, our timelines would look very different. Words have weight, even online. A careless comment can ignite division, damage reputations, or deepen wounds. But words chosen with wisdom—seasoned with grace and truth—can heal, guide, and point people to Yeshua (Jesus).
Being slow to speak doesn’t mean staying silent — it means surrendering our words to the Holy Spirit. It’s the choice to pause, pray, and check our hearts before we speak or post. We’re not called to prove points or win arguments, but to speak truth with grace. Proverbs 25:11 says, “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver.” That’s more than poetic–it’s prophetic. God calls us to speak only after we’ve listened, sought His wisdom, and aligned our hearts with His.
In a world of instant opinions and viral outrage, Spirit-led silence is not weakness—it’s wisdom. And when we finally do speak, our words carry the weight of heaven.
Anger is not always sinful, but unrestrained, reactive anger is destructive. James will go on to say in the next verse that “the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God” (James 1:20). That means our outbursts, our need to defend ourselves, our bitterness—none of it builds God’s Kingdom. But patience, reflection, and forgiveness do. To be slow to anger is to trust that God is our defender, that justice belongs to Him, and that grace is more powerful than retaliation.
Ultimately, this passage is not just about behavior modification—it’s about spiritual transformation. James isn’t calling for politeness; he’s calling for holiness. This is what it means to walk in the Spirit—to reflect the character of Christ, who listened to the Father, spoke with purpose, and bore with our sins in patient love.
So in a world overflowing with anger and offense, let us rise higher. When we learn to hear from God, speak with Spirit-led wisdom, and refuse to be easily offended, we reveal the character of Yeshua within us. This is maturity—not reacting in the flesh, but responding in love. It’s not weakness; it’s strength under the rule of the Spirit. Let’s reject the culture of outrage and pursue our high calling in Him with humility, grace, and power. Let every word, every response, every post reflect the One we follow — for our voice should reflect heaven!
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[worthy_plugins_devotion_single_body]Revivals, that is, genuine Divinely ordained seasons of the activity of God among men, have a universally unusual character. Normal activities and behaviors give way to the tangible influence of God’s Holy Spirit, whose inspiration brings a freedom of expression, emotion, conviction, worship, and other variations from normal experience.
During the Catholic inquisitions, as millions of Christians were being killed by the Jesuit Priests for apostasy, throughout Europe, Christians were fleeing. In Bohemia alone, there were an estimated 4,000,000 Christians before the Jesuit inquisition, and ten years later, only 800,000 people remained in Bohemia – all of whom were Catholic. These terrible events prepared the ground for one of the greatest moves of God that have ever been recorded, the Moravian Revival, which lasted for over 100 years. Gustav Warneck, the German Historian of Protestant Missions, testified, “This small church in twenty years called into being more missions than the whole Evangelical Church has done in two centuries.”
I love to study past revivals and in studying them, there are two recurring themes that stand out:
First, that He has often used obscure and unknown individuals to lead revivals, and that even these men whom He used so powerfully never considered themselves to be “special”, but often wanted to stay out of the limelight.
During the Great Depression, poverty swept across America like a whirling tornado, ripping up dreams and scattering hopes to the wind. One such poverty twister hit a small part of Texas where a man named Yates ran a sheep ranch. Struggling even to keep food on the table, Yates and his wife did all they could to survive. Finally, they had to accept a government subsidy or lose their home and land to the creditors.
When Joseph was thrown into prison, his life was thought to be over. How could anyone escape an Egyptian prison? But then, in one day, according to God’s perfect timing, he was instantly promoted to reign over all Egypt with only the Pharoah, (“god on earth”) as his Lord…
As we continue our study of Mashiach ben Yosef, we observe that both Joseph and Yeshua (Jesus) were chosen or ‘anointed’ for a special task. When Jacob gifted his son Joseph with a coat of many colors, lifting him up above his brothers, he reflected Joseph’s calling by the Lord for a life work as a leader.
Joseph interpreted dreams and revealed their meaning to those around him, and so Pharaoh gave him the name, Tsofnat Paneach (Zaphnathpaaneah) which means the “Decipherer or Revealer of Secrets”. Yeshua, (Jesus) at his first advent as “Mashiach ben Yosef” also came revealing secrets; not as an interpreter of dreams, but as one who disclosed the secrets of men…