Huh?
How's your hearing?
Romans 10:17 says, "So then faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God"
Why is it so important that we talk about hearing? What do we mean by hearing?
Let's break it down.
According to Romans 10:17, faith comes by hearing. So we need to be able to HEAR in order to have the faith we need.
And why is faith so important? Because Hebrews 11:6 says, "Without faith it is impossible (can NOT be done) to please Him (God)."
So what exactly is hearing?
Hear(ing) is a process. If it were past tense--I would say "heard". If it were present tense, I would say "hear". The (ing) indicates it is ongoing. It is not a one time thing. I should be continually hear(ing) what the Word of God is speaking to me.
For our purposes here and the length of this devotion, we'll use two examples in the Bible. But should you do a study, there are many examples to choose from.
In Joshua chapter 2, we meet Rahab. Rahab tells the two spies "I KNOW the Lord has given you the land....(vs. 10) For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red sea for you when you came out of Egypt...."
Rahab was referring to what had been told of the children of Israel. What she HEARD was "the Lord is on their side".
Let's look at one more--Luke chapter 18 we meet a blind beggar. He heard a commotion of sorts and asked what was going on. They TOLD him--"Jesus of Nazareth passes by" (vs. 37). He cried out, "Jesus thou son of David, have mercy on me (vs. 38). They TOLD him where Jesus was from (in the physical). What the man HEARD was WHO Jesus was!
This is proven in vs 42 when Jesus tells the man, "thy faith hath saved thee". As we have already discussed from Romans--FAITH comes by HEARING.
So how do we know if we are HEARING? How do we know if we aren't just reading words of a story, or performing our daily "Christianly" duty by reading our devotion? How can we HEAR what it is SPEAKING to us? How can we APPLY it to our daily life?
True Biblical Hearing Produces ACTION
Let's look again at Joshua chapter 2. Because Rahab HEARD --she hid and saved them. And in Luke 18 , because the blind man HEARD--he cried out. Even when the crowd attempted to shush him--he cried louder.
Hearing enduces/prompts/produces you to bring forth or take action. The Bible portrays this in Luke chapter 8. When discussing the sowing of the Word, Scripture says, "And other fell on good ground and sprang up and bare fruit a hundred fold. And when he had said these things he cried, "He that hath ears to hear, LET HIM HEAR."
If we are going to church and leaving like we came and Nothing CHANGES, no fruit is PRODUCED--We make the same mistakes over and over, have the same attitude, find ourselves in the same situations--we might need to check our ears (hearing).
***We'll dive more into this subject in other devotions where we'll discuss What can dull our hearing and how we can improve our hearing.
Dull Hearing
What can dull our hearing? Dullness of hearing can be defined as sluggish or lack of understanding. Â
Matthew 13:15 says the people's heart is "waxed gross" and their ears are dull of hearing. So, if the key to our being able to hear is the condition of our heart, what exactly is "waxed gross"? Most women are familiar with wax. It's what candles are made of. If you have ever spilled a tart warmer full of warm wax, you know how difficult it is to get the wax cleaned up. It cools quickly. It's thick. It's viscous--meaning, the water and spray cleaners you put on it just "roll" off. It can't be penetrated. I have actually had to get a paint scraper and scrape it off of my tables and wood floors. Now imagine a "heart" in this condition. No matter what is said to them--just "rolls" off. Impenetrable. Â
Gross, as in "waxed gross", is interpreted as overfed, fat or thick. In the natural heart, an oversized or enlarged/thickened heart limits the functions of the chambers and the ability of the heart to do it's job. Â
Applied Spiritually, if our heart is "overfed" and "thick" and covered in impenetrable "substance", it limits our ability to hear. Â
So how can our Spiritual "heart" get in this condition? What do we mean? The answer can be found in 2 Timothy chapter 2. Paul is instructing his young protege, Timothy, and he says, "Thou therefore endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No man that warreth entangeleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier. Â
In WAR--and make no mistake, we are in Spiritual warfare--Galatians 5:17 says "for the flesh lusts against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh and these are contrary the one to the other--so that ye CANNOT do the things that ye would". In other words, the Spirit and the flesh are at WAR. They are opposed one to the other. And if we "entangle" (picture a tangled rope around you) ourselves with the things of this life--we CANNOT do the things we would do. And as Paul instructs Timothy--we can't PLEASE GOD. Â
Of course we live on Earth. Of course, we are women who have families, jobs, responsibilities. We simply can't spend every waking moment in the church building. However, we CAN keep our mind on HIM. We CAN meditate and start our day in the presence of God. We CAN seek His guidance in our decisions.
Let's get to work "cleaning out our ears". *****More to come on this subject. Stay tuned.
Hearing Aid
How can we improve our Spiritual "ears"
Proverbs 4:23 says, "Keep thy heart with all diligence for out of it are the issues of life"
From a medical perspective, the heart provides circulation/oxygenated blood to all areas of our natural body. If my heart is working properly, I don't have to worry about what comes out of it because it's guaranteed. I just have to keep my heart in the correct condition and it will do what it was created to do.
For too long, we, the "church" have been trying to control what comes "out" of our Spiritual heart in our flesh. We try to "be good people", "control our road rage", "tame our tongue", "watch our temper". When what we need to FOCUS on is the condition of our HEART. When our heart is right--it will automatically supply what the "body" needs.
So when we look at Proverbs 4:23, what does "keep our heart" mean? Keep can be interpreted as "guard". When I think of guarding, my mind goes to a fort in an old Western. Assigned atop the wall were armed guards continually watching over the wall. The guards on the fort are always scanning the horizon for danger. It doesn't often sneak up on them because they can see approaching parties way out in the distance. In the same way, when we "guard" our heart, it requires such diligence. We can't "take a day off" and allow the flesh to breech the wall. We can't allow envy, strife, lust, discontentment (etc....--you can fill in the blanks here with your own personal struggles) to get closer and closer to the "fort gate".
We, as human beings, just don't "wake up one day" and decide we don't want to be married anymore, or want to start behaving immorally, etc....(again, fill in the blank). It's a PROCESS. In some cases, you can look back over a period of time and find the guards of our heart were on "leave". We let our "guard down", as the saying goes. If we apply this concept to our Spiritual heart, we should protect our hearts and not "open the gate" of the "fort" to just any thought or opinion. Paul says it this way, "For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds; Casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and BRINGING INTO CAPTIVITY EVERY THOUGHT TO THE OBEDIENCE OF CHRIST" 2 Corinthians 10: 4,5 If we take this Scripture and apply it to our lives, when we notice the flesh approaching our "fort" in the distance, we DO SOMETHING THEN. Bring it into captivity. Capture it. We don't wait until it's gotten so out of control that it's trying to overtake us.
*****More to come in this series on hearing. Stay tuned.
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