Digest The Best
Be strong and of good courage, for to this people you shall divide as an inheritance the land which I swore to their fathers to give them. Only be strong and very courageous, that you may observe to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may prosper wherever you go. This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. Joshua 1:6-9
You need to digest what you ingest.
You ingest material from your bodily senses and from your spiritual awareness. You then take what you have ingested from your body and spirit and digest it in your soul. You shouldn’t try to use what you haven’t digested yet because reading one book or watching one video doesn’t make you an expert on anything. In fact, 1 Timothy 3 says that positions of church leadership shouldn’t be given to those who have digested the gospel yet (“new convert” v. 6). While you are often excited about new experiences you ingest, you need to take the time to digest material before you hastily move from experience to evangelist for the cause. As you take time to digest what you ingest, you determine what things you should get rid of and what things need to be connected to other things in order to have them make sense to others.
Two voices call out for you: temptation/sin and conviction/the Holy Spirit.
The two categories of things you ingest are temptations and promptings by the Holy Spirit. As your soul throws away the lusts of 1 John 2:15-17, you let God’s promise abide in you (vv. 24-27). As your soul digests the temptations and convictions that you ingest, you become more resistant to ingesting the things you reject and more receptive to ingesting more of the diet you accept. As you digest the voices you ingest, you become what the voices tell you to be. You are what you eat. The more temptations you digest, the more temptations you will find; the more you digest the voice of the Holy Spirit, the more you will hear His voice in your life. You will always hear both voices, but the voice you digest the most will be the voice you hear the most.
One walkie talkie is useless by itself.
You are like a walkie talkie, you receive voices, translate them into signals, and then speak them into the world around you. Receiving the voice of God without having someone to send it to is as useless as one walkie talkie by itself. Even if you function properly, receiving the right voice and sending it, if there is your message must be received by someone else for it to be useful. As you ingest the voices around you, choosing which voices to digest, you will send the message of the voices to those around you. You will communicate the messages you digest, make sure your soul is digesting the right messages as you ingest the voices of temptation and the Holy Spirit.