Doing is important. Acting on our conclusions is one way of receiving God’s directions. In his book The Divine Yes, the late E. Stanley Jones, a missionary to India, told of encountering a Chinese engineer who had been in America for some years. In talking about religion, the engineer said, “I am a man without religion. I don’t believe in Confucianism anymore, and I don’t believe Jesus is divine, so none of the Christian churches will take me in. I am a man without a faith.” Jones then asked him how far he had come in his understanding of Jesus. The man replied, “I think that Jesus is the best man that ever lived.”

Jones said, “Jesus is your ideal?”

“Yes, he is,” the man answered.

Then Jones said, “If Jesus is the best of men and he is your ideal, you should take out of your life everything that contradicts that ideal.”

“That isn’t easy,” the man said.

“I didn’t say it would be easy,” replied Jones, “but that it was necessary. If you are willing to do the will of God, you will know the will of God for he will teach you.”

The man’s face lit up, and he said, “Everybody else has said I had to believe something first, but you said if I were willing to do, I would know.”

The man began to do as Jones suggested, and within a short time, the faith and assurance that Jesus was his Lord developed within him.