Skip to main content

 

HEAR OR BECOME DEAF

Psalm 58:1-5

 “Justice—do you rulers know the meaning of the word?  Do you judge the people fairly?  No! You plot injustice in your hearts. You spread violence throughout the land. These wicked people are born sinners; even from birth they have lied and gone their own way. They spit venom like deadly snakes;  they are like cobras that refuse to listen, ignoring the tunes of the snake charmers,  no matter how skillfully they play.”

People can harden their hearts, close their ears, blind themselves and then curse the darkness they have brought upon themselves. Refusing to “hear” they become deaf to the voice of God and justice dies in the streets. But, God speaks; He reveals truth; He gives guidance and correction and offers forgiveness and a new way of being.

Proverbs 2:1-8

“My child, listen to what I say   and treasure my commands. Tune your ears to wisdom  and concentrate on understanding. Cry out for insight, and ask for understanding. Search for them as you would for silver; seek them like hidden treasures. Then you will understand what it means to fear the Lord and you will gain knowledge of God. For the Lord grants wisdom!  From His mouth come knowledge and understanding. He grants a treasure of common sense to the honest.  He is a shield to those who walk with integrity. He guards the paths of the just   and protects those who are faithful to Him.”

To the Hebrew mind and heart, when God speaks, “Hear, O Israel…” hearing was not simply the picking up of sound vibrations interpreted by the brain as language. Hearing meant doing. Jesus said over and over in His teaching of the Kingdom of God, “You who have ears to hear, then hear!”

There is a danger of becoming spiritually deaf, for when God speaks to our heart and mind and we are aware that something of import has been communicated to us and we refuse to hear, to act on it, to ignore it, we can become more and more “hard of hearing.” I’ve heard people say, “I just can’t hear the Lord.” I have asked more than once, “When was the last time you heard Him? Did you respond in faith doing what He asked? If not, recall what He said, repent and do it, asking Him to open your ears once again.”

When the Lord has a passage of His Word come alive to you by the Holy Spirit, listen with the intent of hearing what He is saying and, in the Holy Spirit’s power, doing what He has said.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

  PRAYER Jesus Christ NEVER taught on what we call "unanswered prayer." James wrote that a divided loyalty between trusting the Lord God for life and at the same time relying on the world's systems to get what you want will result in you not getting anything from God you may have prayed about. God will never reinforce the unbelief that flows from divided loyalty. THAT is not unanswered prayer. That is God saying, "No." to your request. God saying, "No." to your requests is not unanswered prayer. It is His grace. His "No" is just what I would want if I knew what He knows. The Lord also answers with, "Not now; not yet." because we are not yet prepared to receive what we think we need. God works in us both to will and to do His good pleasure. If I am praying for something God wants to do in me and the Holy Spirit is working in me preparing me to receive what God has in store, His "Not yet." is NOT unanswered prayer. As we see...
Post a Comment
Read more
 HEBREWS 10:1-2, 10-18 "The sacrifices under that system ( the Old Covenant) were repeated again and again, year after year, but they were never able to provide perfect cleansing for those who came to worship.   If they could have provided perfect cleansing, the sacrifices would have stopped, for the worshipers would have been purified once for all time, and their feelings of guilt would have disappeared.   For God’s will was for us to be made holy by the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ, once for all time.  Under the Old Covenant, the priest stands and ministers before the altar day after day, offering the same sacrifices again and again, which can never take away sins.   But our High Priest offered Himself to God as a single sacrifice for sins, good for all time. Then He sat down in the place of honor at God’s right hand.   There He waits until His enemies are humbled and made a footstool under His feet.   For by that one offering He forever m...
Post a Comment
Read more
  From Oswald Chambers today: "If the Spirit of God detects anything in you that is wrong, He doesn’t ask you to make it right; He only asks you to accept the light of truth, and then He will make it right. A child of the light will confess sin instantly and stand completely open before God. But a child of the darkness will say, “Oh, I can explain that.” When the light shines and the Spirit brings conviction of sin, be a child of the light. Confess your wrongdoing, and God will deal with it. If, however, you try to vindicate yourself, you prove yourself to be a child of the darkness. What is the proof that carnality has gone? Never deceive yourself; when carnality is gone you will know it— it is the most real thing you can imagine. And God will see to it that you have a number of opportunities to prove to yourself the miracle of His grace. The proof is in a very practical test. You will find yourself saying, “If this had happened before, I would have had the spirit of resentment!”...
Post a Comment
Read more