"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
13th and 14th 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 14th 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
:)
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