How Listening And Obeying Can Change Someone Else’s Life

We challenge the idea that obedience is a private test and show how a simple yes can be a lifeline for someone else’s breakthrough. We share personal stories, anchor them in Scripture, and end with a clear step to act quickly before fear talks us out of what God is asking. 

• obedience as faith in action and a reframed purpose beyond personal growth 
• learning to recognize God’s voice through intimacy and Scripture using John 10:27 
• delayed obedience as disobedience and why “later” becomes a hidden compromise 
• obedience as proof of love rather than performance using John 14:15 
• generosity and stewardship shaped by Psalm 24:1 including giving beyond money 
• discomfort as confirmation and how fear disguises itself as timing 
• obedience as service modeled after Jesus using Mark 10:45 
• prayer for sharper hearing, faster obedience, and courage to move 

Share this episode and help them see that their obedience might be holding someone else's miracle. 
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You can also find me on YouTube at @AwarenessUnlockedOfficial. 
And you can explore every transcript and resources on my website at awarenessunlocked.com. 

If this message touched your heart, please share it with someone who needs this message of hope. 

Take a moment to leave a comment or review. 
To continue this journey of spiritual awakening and transformation, subscribe to the podcast so you don't miss the next episode. 

Transcript

When Obedience Is For Others

Speaker 0:00

What if the instruction you keep ignoring was never meant for you in the first place? What if that nudge to make the call, the one you keep talking yourself out of, was for someone else's lifeline? What if that prompting to give, to go, to speak, to reach out, the one that makes no sense to your logic and no sense to your schedule, was actually attached to a breakthrough on the other side of your obedience. That's the part we rarely consider. We treat obedience like it's a personal test, a private transaction between us and God. But so often the thing He's asking us to do isn't about your growth at all. It's about a person you may never even fully understand, who is waiting, sometimes desperately, on the very thing God placed in your hands to deliver. There are assignments I dragged my feet on, conversations I dreaded, gifts I almost talk myself out of giving, only to discover every single time that my hesitation was standing between someone else and exactly what they needed from heaven that day. Here's what I've come to understand. Hearing God is one gift, heeding him is another entirely. And the space between the two, the gap between I sensed it and I did it, that gap has a name. Scripture calls it disobedience, even when it's just delay. So today we are going to talk about what it really means to listen and obey. The small things, the uncomfortable things, the things that defy your reasoning, and why your simple yes carries far more weight in the kingdom than you've ever realized. Come walk through this with me.

Welcome And The Season’s Big Question

Speaker 2:07

Welcome to Awareness Unlocked. I'm Stacy -Ann Carter. This is a space dedicated to awakening souls through spiritual awareness, inspiring transformation, and guiding us to discover our true identity in Christ. Here we explore real stories, biblical truths, and spiritual reflections that remind us of one powerful truth. God is love. My prayer is that every episode draws you closer to God, fills you with hope, and awakens you to the life He created you to live. It's so good to have you here. If you've been journeying through this season with me, you already know we've been building something — and if you just found this podcast today, you've arrived at the perfect moment, Because everything we cover stands on its own and connects to a bigger picture. All season long on Awareness Unlocked, we've been answering one question together. What does it actually take to build a real living relationship with God? We've moved through acknowledging Him, worshiping Him, and praising Him, surrendering fully to Him, getting rooted in His Word, and most recently, coming into alignment with Him. And alignment is exactly what sets up where we're going today. This is episode six. "Listen and Obey". Because here's the truth. Alignment tunes your ear, but obedience is what proves you were really listening. Once your life is in step with God, he starts to speak. He starts to direct. He starts to send. And what you do in those moments, whether you move quickly or talk yourself out of it, determines so much more than you know. I'm going to share with you some of the most personal, sometimes even funny ways the Holy Spirit taught me to obey, including a race in heart that wouldn't quit until I spoke. And I think by the end, you'll see your own promptings in an entirely new light. Let's dive in. So

Alignment Leads To Real Obedience

Speaker 4:33

here's my testimony. This was the season after I had come into alignment with everything the Lord had for me. And in this season, he showed me that it wasn't enough to simply operate off of just nudges anymore. He wanted me to truly listen, to pay attention to what he was saying, and to obey every step. Even the smallest things, even the things that didn't make logical sense, even the things that made me deeply uncomfortable. Because here's what I learned. Though my obedience in taking necessary steps leads me into alignment with people and connections meant for my journey ahead, most times my obedience is tied to someone else's breakthrough, someone else's growth, someone else's life. And obedience, I discovered is really just faith in action. Hebrews 11, verse 6 says, Without faith, it is impossible to please God. So he was teaching me to trust him, especially in the moments that didn't add up. There were times the Holy Spirit would tell me to do something or speak about something, and I just didn't want to. It was outside of my comfort zone. So what would he do? He would keep pressing it on my heart, gently, persistently, until I finally obeyed. And that's where I learned a hard lesson. Delaying that step is its own form of disobedience.

Racing Heart Prompts And Risky Giving

Speaker 6:06

Now let me tell you about something the Holy Spirit used to do. Whenever He wanted me to share something, like a testimony of some kind, he would make my heart start pounding, racing, and it wouldn't stop until I did what he was asking me in that moment. I literally had to start saying to him in my mind, okay, okay, I'll speak. But please calm my heart so I can actually get the words out. Because I'd be so nervous I couldn't speak clearly. That's how I knew the racing heart was my signal. It happened in moments of conviction too. Say I had something that offended someone, sometimes without even realizing it in that moment. The Holy Spirit would prompt me to reach out to that person. And if I didn't have their number, it would just stay on my heart until the next time I saw them. And in that moment, I'd had to apologize right away. And afterward, I felt relief. Every time peace would flood right back in. Then there's the area of giving. I had to learn to listen and obey there too. Everyone talks about the standard given rules, but for me, it goes back to Psalm 24, verse 1. "The earth is the Lord's and everything in it". So to me, that means the money he blessed me with belongs to him. So when he says give, I give. Sometimes it's been the very last bit of money I had on me. But you never know when the person you're given to was in that exact moment trusting God for provision. And giving isn't always money. Sometimes it's food. Sometimes it's something materialistic. I've come to know that when the Holy Spirit says give, there is always a purpose behind it. And here's the beautiful part. My obedience has brought me blessings too, unexpected blessings. Blessings I never even saw coming. Sometimes the Lord gives me what I like to call downloads. And sometimes they're not for me at all. They're for someone else I know. And he'll ask me to reach out to that person and share what he said. Now, when he first started using me in this way, it was so uncomfortable. I'd go back and forth, wrestling with whether to do it or not. And in the moments of hesitation, the Holy Spirit would go quiet. He wouldn't say another word until I did what he asked. And the truth is, every single time I obeyed, it turned out to be exactly what that person needed. Some piece of clarity they have been searching for. There was one night someone invited me to a small group meeting, and I didn't want to go. I felt like I didn't have the time. Life was full. I had so much going on, but the Holy Spirit told me to go. So I rushed to finish what I was doing, got ready, and went. At first, I had no idea why I was supposed to be there. He doesn't always tell me. He just says, go. It wasn't until I got home that night after meeting up with them, sitting with my Bible, then he finally revealed it. It turned out one of the women in that group had been struggling to understand something the Lord had been stirring in her. She brought it up that night unprompted, and in the moment, I didn't know what it meant either. But later, alone with him, he gave me downloads straight from scripture for her, explaining the very things she couldn't grasp. Then he asked me to call her, share the revelation, and tell her to take it back to him for herself, so that she could receive her own confirmation directly from him. Even the assignments he entrusted to me, those two were for other people, for their breakthrough, their encouragement, their hope. So here's the pattern I finally recognized. My obedience was never always about me. It was mostly for someone else. And that reframed everything. Because Jesus came to serve. And if I am truly living in his likeness, then listening and obeying is simply another form of serving. It's what's asked of me as a faithful servant and a disciple of the Lord.

Learn To Recognize God’s Voice

Speaker 10:46

Now let's get into the teaching segment. Let's unpack this together because I want you to walk away with real understanding, not just of how to hear God, but why your obedience matters so much more than you've been told. Number one, hearing requires knowing the voice. Before you can obey God, you have to be able to recognize Him. And the good news is you were designed to. Jesus said in John 10, verse 27, "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me". Notice the order in that verse. First they hear, then they're known, then they follow. Hearing and following are bound together. You can't separate the two and call it relationship. But here's what I want you to grasp. Recognizing his voice is a learned intimacy. The more time you spend with someone, the more instantly you know their voice in a crowded room. It's the same with the Holy Spirit. The reason some people can't tell his voice from their own thoughts is simply a matter of familiarity. And familiarity comes from the time spent in his presence and in his word. So have you been waiting to hear God more clearly when what he's really inviting you into is spending more time with him, so his voice becomes unmistakable. Number two, delayed obedience is still disobedience. This is one of the hardest truths I had to learn, and I shared it in my testimony. Delaying the step is disobedience. We like to think there are only two categories, obeying and disobeying, but there's a sneaky third one we hide in. I'll do it later. Look at 1 Samuel 15, verse 22. It says, "Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than that of the fat rams". King Saul didn't flat out refuse God, he partially obeyed on his own timing and his own terms, and God counted it as rebellion, because partial obedience, delayed obedience, convenient obedience, it all comes from the same root. I'll obey when it makes sense to me. But real obedience doesn't wait for the prompting to feel comfortable. It moves while the voice is still fresh. So is there something God asked of you weeks or even months ago that you've quietly filed under a folder titled Later?

Delay Breaks Trust And Withholds Help

Speaker 13:53

Number three, obedience is proof of love. Let's get to the heart of why we obey. Because if your motive is just duty or fear, it won't sustain you. Jesus made it deeply personal in John 14, verse 15. It reads, If you love me, you will keep my commandments. Obedience at its core is not about performance, it's about love. We don't obey to earn God's affection. We already have it. We obey because we have it. Every yes is a love language back to the one who first said yes to us. So when the Holy Spirit asks you to do the uncomfortable thing, to apologize, to give, to make the call, he's not testing your performance. He's inviting your love to find expression. To love God is to obey. Number four, your obedience carries someone else's breakthrough. Now here's the revelation that changed how I see every prompt ing, and it's the thread running through my whole testimony. Your obedience is rarely just about you. Think about it through scripture. When God told Ananias to go pray for Saul in Acts 9, Ananias was terrified. Saul was a known persecutor. It made no sense, but Ananias' obedience unlocked the ministry of the man who would become the Apostle Paul, whom God used to bring many souls to Christ. One uncomfortable yes altered the course of the entire early church. That woman in my small group needed clarity she couldn't find on her own. The person receiving my last bit of money was trusting God in that very moment. The download I almost didn't share was exactly what someone needed to hear. When you delay, when you shrink back, when you let discomfort win, you may be unknowingly withholding someone else's miracle. Your obedience is a delivery system for someone else's breakthrough. So whose breakthrough might be sitting on the other side of the very thing you've been hesitating to do? Number five, the discomfort is often the confirmation. Let's talk about that uncomfortable feeling because we've misread it for too long. You see, we tend to assume that if something makes us nervous or stretches us, it must not be God. But look at how God consistently moves in scripture. He told Moses, who stuttered, to go speak to Pharaoh. He told Gideon, hiding in fear, that he was a mighty warrior. He sends the timid to speak, the reluctant to lead, the comfortable to be stretched. For me, it showed up as a pound ing heart, that race impulse that wouldn't settle until I obeyed. I had to learn that the discomfort wasn't a red light, it was often the confirmation. 2 Timothy 1:7 reminds us: "For God gave us a spirit not of fear, but of power and love and self-control." So the next time obedience makes you uncomfortable, don't automatically assume it's not God. Ask this instead. Is this fear trying to keep me from something the Holy Spirit is leading me toward? So what has fear or comfort been disguising as "not the right time"?

Discomfort Confirms The Call To Serve

Speaker 17:59

Number six, obedience is the highest form of service. And here's where it all comes together, straight from the conclusion of my testimony. Mark 10 verse 45 says of Jesus, for even the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. If Jesus — God in the flesh — came to serve, then walking in His likeness means our obedience becomes a form of service, too. Every prompting you obey, is you serving someone else on His behalf. You become the hands that deliver the gift, the voice that speaks the word, the vessel that carries the breakthrough. Because Scripture says in John 4, verse 24, God is spirit. And in 1 Corinthians 6, verses 9 to 20, it states, Our bodies are not our own, we are temples of the Holy Spirit. So that means we are here to be used. The Holy Spirit is omnipresent. That means he's everywhere at the same time. He is here to do all that which he was sent to do by the Father from heaven, and our bodies are an expansion to that which he will accomplish. So that's the dignity of obedience. It's not God bossing you around, it's God trusting you to serve on his behalf in the earth. It's what he created you for, for his kingdom. So what if you began to see every nudge from the Holy Spirit not as an interruption, but as an invitation to serve? That single shift will transform the way you obey for the rest of your life. Now, after all of that revelation from the Bible, can we pause here and bring our hearts together before Him? If you are able, lower your shoulders, soften your posture, and simply make yourselves willing the way a servant stands ready, waiting for the next word from the one they love.

A Prayer For A Quick Yes

Speaker 20:21

Let's pray. Father, John 10, 27 says, Your sheep hear your voice, and you know them, and they follow you. So we ask, sharpen our hearing, quiet the noise within us and around us until your voice becomes the clearest sound in our lives. You taught us that to obey is better than sacrifice. So forgive us, Lord, for the times we delay, the times we negotiate, the times we filed your instructions away under later. We don't want partial obedience anymore. We want a quick, willing yes. So help us remember that our obedience was never only about us. Make us faithful carriers of someone else's breakthrough. Where you say go, let us go. Where you say give, let us give, where you say speak, loosen our tongues and steady our racing hearts. And Lord, where fear has been wearing the mask of not yet, expose it. You did not give us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and a sound mind. So let love move us past every hesitation. Make us servants in the likeness of Jesus, quick to listen, quick to obey, willing to be used however you see fit. We surrender our comfort for the sake of your purposes and the people you love. Here we are, Lord. Speak, and we will move. In your precious holy name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Act Today And Share With Someone

Speaker 22:06

Here's something to carry into your week because the Holy Spirit deposit this in your spirit for a reason. Act on the first thing. You probably already thought of something during this episode. A call to make, a person to forgive, a gift to give, a step you've been delaying. Don't wait for it to feel comfortable. Do it today while the voice is still fresh. Let this be the week your obedience move faster than your hesitation. And then bless someone with this message. Somebody in your circle, a family member, a friend, is wrestling with a prompting right now, talking themselves out of a yes. Share this episode and help them see that their obedience might be holding someone else's miracle. And if this space has been meaningful to you, consider following the show and leaving a quick rating wherever you're listening. It truly helps these messages find the people searching for them. You can also find me on YouTube at @Awareness Unlocked Official. And you can explore every transcript and resources on my website at awarenessunlocked.com. Now let me tell you where we're headed next. Episode 7 is called Fasting and Prayer. Because once you learn to listen and obey, the Lord begins drawing you into a deeper place of intimacy, one that often requires more of Him and less of the world. Fasting and prayer are how we quiet our flesh so that the Spirit can feast. Next time, we're going to talk about what fasting really is beyond just giving up food, how prayer becomes the breath of your relationship with God, and the kind of breakthrough that's reserved for those willing to press in. It's a powerful one, and I believe it's going to unlock something deep within you. I'll be saving your seat. Stay sensitive to his voice and brave enough to follow it. The smallest yes in your hands may be the very thing heaven is waiting to release. I love you, God loves you more. Thank you for spending this time with me on Awareness Unlocked. As we wrap up today's episode, I want to remind you, if this message touched your heart, please share it with someone who needs this message of hope. Take a moment to leave a comment or review. Your feedback not only encourages me, but also helps others discover Awareness Unlocked and join our growing community. To continue this journey of spiritual awakening and transformation, subscribe to the podcast so you don't miss the next episode. Until next time, stay aware, stay rooted in truth, and remember, God's love is always calling you into something greater. I'm your host, Stacy-Ann Carter.