Listening - Part 2

Luke 8:18 “Therefore take care how you listen…’ ”

            In the previous lesson we looked at what you listen to. Now we turn our attention to another important aspect of receiving the word of God into our hearts. This one involves “how” we listen. We do not just listen with our ears. To simply listen with our ears, means we’ve heard something, we perceive that something has been said, but we are unable to distinguish the meaning. Real listening occurs within the heart. In Romans 10:10 Paul says that “with the heart man believes, resulting in righteousness…”.

            Listening from the heart will impact what we believe to be truth. If our heart is not involved with hearing God’s word, then God’s word will not penetrate to the deepest recesses of our heart and it will not bring about the transformation God desires. Many people “hear” the Bible read and taught. Yet, there are many who go away from hearing God’s word read, without one word of it sticking in their hearts. The reason is because “how” they listened affected their ability to receive the living word.

            When I speak of “how” we listen, I am referring to what I call the “filters” on our mind. These “filters” cause us to hear things differently than other people around us might hear them. This is why ten people can listen to a sermon by one person and still manage to come up with ten different interpretations about what the speaker was trying to communicate. These “filters” are like looking through glass that is warped or bent. The light traveling through such glass bends and distorts the images that our eye receives so that what we see does not actually match the reality of the object on the other side of the glass. The reason we all have these “filters” on our minds, is because our minds have been affected by the sin of this world.

            All of us have been damaged by sin to one degree or another. Sometimes it is sin that we do ourselves at other times it is sin that is done to us, or sin that indirectly affects us. An example of this latter form, is that the sin of the terrorists who struck this country on September 11, 2001 has affected everyone who wants to travel on an airline in this country. It has meant longer lines at security. It has meant that we can no longer take some items onboard the plane with us. In essence, our freedom of choice and movement has been impacted by the sins of these terrorists, even though we may not have lost anyone in the attacks.

            One of Satan’s goal’s is to wound us so badly that we begin to put filters on our minds and our hearts. These filters are what determine whether or not we are able to receive the word of God in the manner God wanted it to be received. There is so much in God’s word that He wants us to understand. The scriptures can only be understood by faith, however. Without faith, we cannot truly understand nor operate correctly in this life. God’s word speaks about the power and authority that we have as children of God to be able to change the physical world through signs, wonders and miracles. If we have been wounded by life to such a degree that we no longer believe in signs, wonders and miracles, then we will not even attempt to walk in that power and authority. We will simply accept our situation as our lot in life and at the most we will pray and ask God to change it, but without any real expectation on our part that anything will really change. That is a filter.

            The warning of Jesus is an important one. The example that Jesus set for us was that His desire is to impact the kingdom of the enemy through the power of the Holy Spirit. There is nothing in this life that we can or should be doing through our own power. Jesus prayed every morning because it was there that He was able to get the mind of the Father regarding those things that He was to do that day. Jesus said that He did nothing and said nothing except what the Father had given Him to do and say. It was in the confidence that Jesus had that whatever came His way that day, it was ordained by the Father, and He had the power and the authority to do whatever was necessary to accomplish the Father’s will.

            Jesus gave that same power and authority to us when He left this earth and returned to His throne in heaven. What we should be doing is seeking God’s will daily, for all those things that will come our way. Most of us, instead, simply use our own thoughts and desires to guide us through the things we encounter. Few of us genuinely walk in the way Jesus walked. Few of us believe the word of God the way Jesus believed the word of God. Consequently, few of us affect this world the way Jesus affected the world. Can you imagine what would happen if every believer were walking in the way Jesus walked? Can you imagine the difference it would make in this world if believers truly believed in the power and authority Jesus has given them and used it according to the will of God? If only 120 people were able to change the world in a few short years from the day of Pentecost, what could even just a few thousand people do who were truly walking in the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit?

            In order for us to get to such a place, most of us need to be healed from the damage that sin has done to us. Then, our thinking can be renewed and our lives will be transformed, as we learn to listen to God’s word with hearts that have no “filters”.