Follow Each Step

For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little. (Isaiah 28:10)

Isaiah gives us the clearest picture in all of Scripture of how God builds a believer into someone capable of carrying greater revelation. It is not complicated, but it is demanding. The method is precept upon precept and line upon line, which means here a little, there a little. This is how it works. The word precept comes from Hebrew and means command. Isaiah was saying that it is a series of commands. God gives you an instruction; you obey it. Then He gives you another one. You obey that one, too. Through that pattern of hearing and obeying, hearing and obeying, you are built up layer by layer into someone who can receive more.

Each act of obedience positions you for the next level of revelation. Each step of faith opens the door to the next instruction. That is how the light comes. Most people get stuck at the first precept. They have already heard from God. He has already told them what to do. But they are still arguing with Him, still waiting to feel more comfortable, and still looking for a way around the obedience that requires real faith and feels uncomfortable to their flesh. Because they will not move on to what He has already said, they do not get the next word. You cannot stack commands upon commands while still sitting on the first one.

There was a time when God told me to leave a good job, pack up my young wife and my baby boy, and go somewhere I barely knew. There was no detailed explanation and no financial guarantee. It was just a word from the Lord. And that word required faith to hear it, faith to receive it, faith to confess it out loud, even when people were calling me a fool, and faith to actually pack up and go. That is the whole cycle of faith working together. When all of those show up in response to a command from God, you are ready for the next precept. God does not just give commands in isolation. He gives His commands with conditions, specifying how He wants things done—here a little, there a little.

Practical Application

Do not despise the smallness of any step God asks you to take. The little acts of obedience stack up.

Isaiah 28:13; Deuteronomy 6:1