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LISTEN TO GOD’S VOICE: HE WHO HAS EARS LET HIM HEAR
Somewhere along the lines in my education for my masters one of my classes taught on how to be a good listener. They called it “Active Listening”. Active listening is engaging with the person speaking to you by asking questions for clarification and more detail and to confirm you’ve heard them correctly. I cannot remember who came up with this, but they also gave some errors we make in listening. I’m willing to bet we have all been guilty of these from time to time.
- Make Believe Listening – your face says your listening, but your mind is somewhere else
- One up Listening – you listen just close enough to hear how you can one up their story
- Analytic listening – listening with the intent to offer quick answers
- Ipod listening – this is where you don’t even make yourself available to listen to others.
- Suck it up buttercup – this is one I added. It’s where you minimize the problems of the other person because they don’t seem like a big deal to you.
The reason they taught on this was because listening is the key to compassion; connecting with and understanding where another person is coming from. It is not beneficial for us as a society nor in our personal relationships to make assumptions about another person. Jesus took the time to engage people and listen to them even though society said he should not. He did this because he knew it would help them know that God sees them and help them see God.
Jesus had a phrase he repeated quite often, typically when he was telling people something that was going to be difficult for them to hear, it was “He who has ears let him hear”. I cannot help but think we are guilty of making the same listening mistakes with God that we make with people. Perhaps we show up physically to church or in prayer time, but our mind is somewhere else. Or Maybe God is trying to make us aware of something that is near and dear to His heart and we shrug it off because it doesn’t seem like a big deal to us. Or maybe we’ve shut out God’s voice altogether and are only listening to what we want to hear. That’s the beauty of headphones; we can control what we hear.
[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]21 And he said to them, “Is a lamp brought in to be put under a basket, or under a bed, and not on a stand? 22 For nothing is hidden except to be made manifest; nor is anything secret except to come to light. 23 If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.” 24 And he said to them, “Pay attention to what you hear: with the measure you use, it will be measured to you, and still more will be added to you. 25 For to the one who has, more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.” – Mark 4:21-25[/perfectpullquote]Warren Wiersbe responded to this text with these words “The more we hear the Word of God, the better we are able to share it with others. The moment we think that we know it all, what we think we know will be taken from us. We must take heed what we hear (Mark 4:24) as well as take heed how we hear (Luke 8:18). Our spiritual hearing determines how much we have to give to others. There is no sense trying to “cover things up” because God will one day reveal all things.”
Like in our relationships we need to hear the Word of God in order to connect with Him and understand His heart. We are always in need of hearing God’s voice so we know how we can respond to situations in this world in a way that honors and glorifies him. This time in our country is no different; we have racial tensions, riots, a global pandemic, an upcoming election. In the midst of all of these things I want to ask- are we engaging in what God has to say to us or are we going through the motions because we want to avoid it all or our mind has already been made up? My prayer for us is that we will have “ears to hear” what God is saying through our quiet time, through His word and through conversations with other people. So that we as Christians can lead in the midst of chaos in a way that reflects who God is and points people back to him.
-Adam Deering
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