"Listen up!"

"He who has ears to hear, let him hear." Luke 14:35

Do you remember growing up and hearing your parents say to you “Listen to me!”? For those of you who are parents now, you know that if there is any hope of your child hearing what you are saying, you have to preface it with “Listen up!!” or for younger children “Who has their ears on?” My daughter says in a soft but firm voice, “Look at me” before she says anything to make sure they are paying attention and hearing her. Chances are very good that if they are NOT looking at her, they are NOT listening…

Children are so full of energy and their minds and thoughts are all over the board in imaginations and adventures of their own making. We have to rein them in and bring them back to “earth” and reality before we can say anything of importance to them or chances are good they won’t have a clue as to what we just said to them!!

I say all of this because I get the impression that this is what the Lord goes through with us!! We are so “busy” doing things FOR Him, coming and going, making plans, checking off our lists, and our thoughts all over the board, and before we can really HEAR Him, He has to say “Look at me!” Or in His words: “He who has ears to hear, let him hear…”! There are several scriptures in the Bible that are prefaced and/or ending with that phrase. Meaning, “This is important guys!! You really need to hear this”! Are we paying attention?? Are we hearing what he has to say??

“He taught them many things by parables, and in his teaching said: Listen…!”  He goes on to teach about the parable of the soils, and then he ends with; “If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear."  (Mark 4:2-23) I am not putting the whole scripture here but, since He prefaced this parable with LISTEN! And ended it with “if anyone has ears…” I would encourage you to look it up and read it again and ask Him to give you new ears to hear. Have we missed something when we have read it before?

In Luke 14:33-35 Jesus is teaching the people and again he says; "He who has ears to hear, let him hear." In other words, listen up! This is important!

Where I found most of these scriptures were in Revelation. Here is what He says:

“He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.” Revelation 2:7

“He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who overcomes will not be hurt at all by the second death.” Revelation 2:11

“He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give some of the hidden manna. I will also give him a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to him who receives it.”  Revelation 2:17

In the second chapter of Revelation He starts off with “… These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands…” In essence He says; Um, Hello… I am an important Dude, listen to me! Then He says a bunch of really important things, and He even ends with: “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”  Rev 2:29

Read these scriptures again and again and really listen to what He is saying! We have a tendency to read scriptures through our “doctrinal filters”, thinking we know what he is saying but really, are we hearing HIM or are we listening through our doctrinal filters and missing it!? Lord, give us NEW ears to hear You! Help us to remove the incorrect filters to hear what YOU have to say. Help us to know and understand what You are saying to us Lord!

Ok, I can list more scriptures but, I think you get the point… We can have a tendency to say “He’s not talking to “ME”… He is talking to some other people and churches thousands of years ago that I don’t even know”! But is He?? Is there something that He is saying that could be applied to me?? Lord, are you speaking to me?? If I need to hear You help me to really listen!!

Along with our tendencies to busyness and distractions, when we do take the time to be with Him we spend more time talking than listening!! We have to go through all of our prayer requests and laundry list of things we need to ask and pray for. I watched a video by Priscilla Shirer not too long ago and one of the things she pointed out was, “In the transfiguration of Jesus what did God say? God didn't say "ask him" or "talk to him" but LISTEN TO HIM!” (DOH!!)  “A voice came from the cloud, saying, "This is my Son, whom I have chosen; listen to him." Luke 9:35 Why is that SO hard for me to do?? (Here the other two scripture references for the other two gospels if you want to look them up: Matthew 17:5, Mark 9:7)

Here is Oswald’s two cents on listening to God in his February 13^th and 14^th devotional:

The Devotion of Hearing

” The LORD came and stood there, calling as at the other times, "Samuel! Samuel!" Then Samuel said, "Speak, for your servant is listening."  1 Samuel 3:10

Just because I have listened carefully and intently to one thing from God does not mean that I will listen to everything He says. I show God my lack of love and respect for Him by the insensitivity of my heart and mind toward what He says. If I love my friend, I will instinctively understand what he wants. And Jesus said, "You are My friends . . ." (Joh_15:14). Have I disobeyed some command of my Lord's this week? If I had realized that it was a command of Jesus, I would not have deliberately disobeyed it. But most of us show incredible disrespect to God because we don't even hear Him. He might as well never have spoken to us.

... What hinders me from hearing is my attention to other things…  I am devoted to things and even to service and my own convictions. God may say whatever He wants, but I just don't hear Him… Have you heard God's voice today?

Click here for the follow up in the February 14^th devotion“

The Discipline of Hearing” He has some great thing to say about listening!

But, as hard as it is to focus and listen, in this next scripture we can be encouraged to have hope!

 “See, a king will reign in righteousness and rulers will rule with justice. Each man will be like a shelter from the wind and a refuge from the storm, like streams of water in the desert and the shadow of a great rock in a thirsty land. Then the eyes of those who see will no longer be closed, and the ears of those who hear will listen. The mind of the rash will know and understand, and the stammering tongue will be fluent and clear.”  Isaiah 32:1-4

There will come a time when we will truly be able to hear and listen! Hallelujah!

So, what do you think God is saying to you right now? What did JESUS say to us when He walked the earth?? Are you hearing “You are not good enough!”, “Stop sinning!!” or “You are not doing enough for Me”? Well, please trust me when I tell you that is NOT God! He died to cover all the sins you have, and ever will, commit in your life! And there is NOTHING you can do to earn what He has already given you… UNCONDITIONAL LOVE! What I believe He wants us to hear MORE than anything else is HOW MUCH HE LOVES YOU! He wants you to know how special you are! He wants you to know you are cherished and doted on. He is your “Daddy” and He wants to spend time with YOU! Stop running away from Him to “do good works”… He says “Come to Me…!” And he says “Walk with Me and listen to Me… Let me lavish My heart and My love on you!”…

A VERY important thing for us to remember is that “listening” doesn’t just happen all by itself, we have to be “intentional”!

Father, I pray that we will hear YOU when You speak even now… not having to wait for a distant time. Not only to hear Your words but Your heart and Your intent so that we may know you better. Help us to let go of any misconceived ideas about You and REALLY HEAR YOU. Help us to LISTEN UP! Your “intentionally listening” daughter, Linda :)