I know you can hear, but are you listening?

“Glued to the television newscasts following the hurricane, I watched as an obviously poor African American woman was interviewed. She was trying to make her way into the Superdome, hoping to find shelter, food, and water. When the interviewer asked her what she thought of all she had been through, she said clearly and firmly, “God’s tellin’ us we need to repent of our sin.”

“I wonder….how many people who heard what she had to say on the nightly news didn’t truly “listen” to her message? I expect it would be safe to assume that the majority of viewers that night just didn’t get it.”

-Excerpt from EXPECTING to see JESUS by Ann Graham Lotz

This excerpt jumped out at me while in my search for God’s guidance for these troubling days. I had already been sent to Isaiah 28:29

“This also comes from the LORD of hosts, Who is wonderful in counsel and excellent in guidance.”

And while I know that God is the One in Whom we should seek wisdom and counsel from, the meaning of the scriptures didn’t really hit me until I read from Ann’s book. I was hearing His word, but not listening!

There is a wide difference between hearing and listening. And furthermore, there is an even wider difference between knowing and doing.

How often do we tell people, “ I hear you! I hear what you’re sayin’!”

I’m guilty! Many times I have told people that I hear them, and I did, but distracted by something else, I failed to listen to what they were saying.

To hear is an ability. It is a sense like seeing, feeling, smelling, and tasting. Most people are able to hear, and even for the hearing-impaired, technology gives them the ability to hear.

However, listening is so much more than ability. Listening involves effort, concentration, desire, and willingness. It requires sacrifice of time. To listen means you have to put aside the distractions and focus on what is being spoken. And a step past listening lays understanding.

We are living in a world where people hear the Word of God, but refuse to listen; and worse yet are those who listen, but lack understanding. God’s guidance and counsel are for whosoever will. But if you are not listening, or if you hear but lack understanding and seek no further to gain understanding by Him, you are undone.

Perhaps the saddest thing I have come to witness in this world are those who hear the Word of God, they read it, sing it, and speak it, but they have no conviction of it. They do not have an understanding of it, therefore they are unable to walk it out.

James warns us of this very state. In James 1:22-25, he says “²² But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.  ²³ For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; ²⁴ for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was.  ²⁵ But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.”

Unfortunately, many in the church today are only hearers. What’s sad is having people meet in a building at least 3 days a week, preaching, teaching classes, singing praises, helping on committees, coordinating events, all in the name of Jesus, but their hearts are as far from Him as the east is from the west.

And we are warned of this temptation of Religion. Jesus said ““²¹ Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. ²² Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ ²³ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’” (Matthew 7:21-23).

How sad it is to have heard His word and to know it enough to repeat it, but to not have the fortitude or desire to live it!

Even more saddening is that this is not a strange occurrence in the history of mankind. We know from the scriptures what God told Isaiah regarding the Israelites,

⁹ “Go, and tell this people:

‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand;

Keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’

¹⁰ “Make the heart of this people dull,

And their ears heavy,

And shut their eyes;

Lest they see with their eyes,

And hear with their ears,

And understand with their heart,

And return and be healed.”

Matthew Henry in his commentary of the Bible breaks it down like this:

“God sends Isaiah to foretell the ruin of his people. Many hear the sound of God's word, but do not feel the power of it. God sometimes, in righteous judgment, gives men up to blindness of mind, because they will not receive the truth in the love of it. But no humble inquirer after Christ, need to fear this awful doom, which is a spiritual judgment on those who will still hold fast their sins. Let every one pray for the enlightening of the Holy Spirit, that he may perceive how precious are the Divine mercies, by which alone we are secured against this dreadful danger. Yet the Lord would preserve a remnant, like the tenth, holy to him. And blessed be God, he still preserves his church; however professors or visible churches may be lopped off as unfruitful, the holy seed will shoot forth, from whom all the numerous branches of righteousness shall arise.”

If people will not listen to the truth of God, even when spoken in the love of God through Jesus Christ, what else is there to do? Was it not enough that God sent His one and only begotten Son to be the propitiation for our sins?

God loves His creation and has made a way for us to be reconciled to Him. That way is through Jesus Christ of Nazareth. The only way!

But as long as people choose to stay bound by sin, there is nothing to be done to save them. Some of you may be wondering “Who would choose to live imprisoned? Who would choose to be bound by sin?” And the answer is as sad and simple as this:

“ ² And all the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron, and the whole congregation said to them, “If only we had died in the land of Egypt! Or if only we had died in this wilderness!  ³ Why has the Lord brought us to this land to fall by the sword, that our wives and children should become victims? Would it not be better for us to return to Egypt?”  ⁴ So they said to one another, “Let us select a leader and return to Egypt” (Numbers 14:2-4).

There will always be those who will not go all the way with God. They will refuse to trust in Him, no matter that He created them, provided for them, kept them from harm, saved them, showed them miracles, loved them, forgave them……

But I feel that this intense rejection of listening and following after God is far more than standard human rebellion. When you search the scriptures, you find references to God allowing His people to be taken over by a spirit of stupor and of mankind being given over to a debased mind.

Romans 11:8

⁸ Just as it is written:

“God has given them a spirit of stupor,

Eyes that they should not see

And ears that they should not hear,

To this very day.”

Romans 1:18-32

¹⁸ For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, ¹⁹ because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them.  ²⁰ For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, ²¹ because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. ²² Professing to be wise, they became fools, ²³ and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man—and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things.

²⁴ Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, ²⁵ who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.

²⁶ For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. ²⁷ Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due.

²⁸ And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting; ²⁹ being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers, ³⁰ backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, ³¹ undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful; ³² who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them.”

Quite simply, God removes His hand from those who rebel against Him. He leaves them uncovered, naked and exposed to the world and the enemy.

Do not take this the wrong way. It is not that God does not love those who have chosen to reject Him. Quite the opposite! The Bible is full of examples of God’s enduring mercy and kindness. Jesus is all the proof we need of God’s unstoppable love! However, the scriptures are also full of examples of God's judgement. There is a point that God will bring judgement for the sake of the righteous. He will not let the hate, the perverseness, and the wickedness of mankind continue to destroy itself.

One of the my most favorite examples of His justice are in the story of Cain and Abel (Genesis 4). We know that Abel’s offering was found acceptable in the sight of God (reflecting His own plan to redeem mankind) and that Cain became hateful and jealous of his brother because of this. In his hate, Cain killed his brother and then went on his way as if nothing had happened. God confronts him, knowing what had transpired, but giving Cain the chance to repent. We know that Cain hardens his heart and does not repent of his actions, even after hearing the LORD say that his brother’s blood cried out from the ground. Cain is then judged for his sin, and God’s justice is brought forth.

Knowing our own downfalls, God has made a way for us. He has given us all the choice to be exempt from His wrath. With each day, His mercy and grace are poured over us. The fact that we even have another day is proof of His love for us, because it is not His wish that anyone should perish (2 Peter 3:9).

The world is fortunate in this era considering that God's word is more accessible today than ever before in history! And since the day of Pentecost His Spirit is here with us, ever ready to be in communion, to live on the throne of our hearts.

But LISTEN! 

Exemption from His wrath will only be for those who truly desire God, have humbled themselves before Him, and have sincerely repented of their ways.

So the question you must ask yourself is this “Am I listening to the word of God?”

If you hesitate to answer, that is your answer.

I admit that there were times I hesitated. I admit my failing to serve Him in truth, surrendered to His will. I have accepted my part in this failing. It was never God who pushed me away, it was I who pushed away!

The wonderful thing is that my God has new mercies for me everyday and He loves me enough to stop me in my tracks and say “What are you doing?”

My part in the conversation is to listen and then to act. And I thank God for giving me the understanding of the importance of that choice.

If you are reading this and have truly listened to what God is saying, I pray that the Lord of all mercies wrap you in His arms as tenderly and as lovingly as He has me. I pray that He removes the shame that has tried to keep you from returning to Him. I pray that He sends His Holy Angles to surround you right now and minister to you His truth. I pray for His presence to be stronger with you now more than ever before so that you may endure the hard times ahead and that you may overflow with His joy, for in His presence is fullness of joy. All this I pray in the name that is above all names, my Lord Jesus Christ.

God bless you!

Love,

Kelly