I’m going to ramble a bit here, so I hope this post makes sense to other people besides me. 🙂 If not, I’m sorry.
Here’s an interesting phrase Jesus used several times as a coda when he was teaching in parables, and again to all seven of the churches He addressed in Revelation 2-3:
“He who has ears to hear–let him ear.”
This is intriguing because it suggests that even though He is speaking, not everyone will hear or understand what He says. Hearing is not automatic here. And it also suggests that the key to hearing and understanding is that our ear needs to be inclined to hear Him.
Jesus echoed this theme in Matt 13, quoting Isaiah as an explanation for why He taught in parables:
“You will keep on hearing, but will not understand; you will keep on seeing, but will not perceive; for the heart of this people has become dull….”
This idea of having eyes and ears, but not seeing or hearing, is really a good explanation for why so many people did not recognize Jesus as the Messiah when He came. He fulfilled every prophetic Scripture about Him, but He did not come the way everyone expected. Their eyes and ears were filtered by their context and religion to see the Messiah in a completely different way; so Jesus came in under their radar, so to speak. They saw and heard Him–but not really.
I think the reason Jesus continually admonishes us, not just to hear, but to have “ears to hear”, is precisely because our spiritual hearing gets filtered by what we expect to hear. When we are seeking after God, or asking Him for direction, or whatever, we might expect Him to speak; but we also come into that with some predisposition of how He will speak to us. That “how” factor is often where our filters come in, so that when He does speak, we won’t have “ears to hear”, because we were looking for something else.
The reason I’m sharing all this is that I recognize that I, and many others like me, are in a season of change. It’s a time of re-thinking everything, a time where sometimes nothing seems familiar anymore, a time of serious transition. Sometimes I get frustrated because I feel like there’s this monumental shift and change going on in my life, and I feel like I can’t hear God, like I’m flying blind. I feel like He’s silent in the whole process.
But He’s not.
It’s dawning on me that God does not always speak or appear the same way. If the season is changing, it is reasonable to believe that the way God is speaking to me is changing also. Maybe I’m just listening through old filters. I’m listening for Him to speak in the ways I heard Him in the past, as a familiar place to guide me into the new. But in new seasons, you can’t rely on old methods.
So why would God do this? Why would He change up like that, just when we think we’ve got a handle on hearing His voice in our lives? Is He trying to fool us?
Nah. But faith comes alive in the unknown. It’s a subtle thing, but I think when we start believing we’ve got God figured out in any area of our lives, that area becomes a place we control, a place where we no longer have to trust God. And that goes for hearing Him as well as any other area.
God’s not playing tricks on us. He’s asking us to trust Him. For everything. And so with a new season comes a new way of provision, a new way of thinking, a new approach to seeking, a new everything. Even new ears to hear. We don’t need to just trust God to speak to us; we need to trust Him to show us how to hear Him. We need to take off the filters, the preconceived ideas, the mindsets, and truly seek Him as though it were for the first time.
There’s a promise I’m hanging onto these days, in John 14:18, when Jesus said:
“I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.”
Jesus, help me to see the signs of Your presence in my life now. Help me have new eyes to see, and new ears to hear. And let it be so for all of us who are in a place of change.
Amen.
Wayward Son
Musician. Composer. Recovering perfectionist. Minister-in-transition. Lover of puns. Hijacker of rock song references. Questioner of the status quo.
I'm not really a rebel. Just a sincere Christ-follower with a thirst for significance that gets me into trouble. My quest has taken me over the fence of institutional Christianity. Here are some of my random thoughts along the way. Read along, join in the conversation. Just be nice.
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Jeff,
This post is excellent. Ah…how I can very much relate what you are going through. This Journey for me is certainly always changing and it’s a good reminder to keep the eyes and ears of my heart open, because I agree with you that Papa shifts the ways in which He speaks to me as I grow. Thank you for this important message Holy Spirit and Jeff.
Blessings,
~Amy :)http://amyiswalkinginthespirit.blogspot.com
I understood Jeff, you make cents lol to me. Even though we aren’t always hearing Him, or hearing what we have once heard in the past, faith is nevertheless expectant, within us, it stays expectant, and is patient.
In other words, though we aren’t necessarily hearing what we once heard, we are listening. There is joy in listening. Once we get rid of all the crap of what we used to hear or expected to hear, somehow things can get very quiet at times. Maybe because now we are in the listening mode : ) it’s not so much what we are hearing but we only want to hear what He has to say, nothing else. Maybe being a part of Him (eyes to see and ears to hear) is that we encourage each other just to listen, listen for Him.
Hey Jeff ..
thanks for these thoughts – my wife reckons that my hearing is very selective!!!
I know what I’ll be sharing at the Bridge tomorrow morning – your thoughts here!!!
I was going to speak on the first three words in the Bible “Genuine Moroccan Leather” but I like your thougts WAY better!!!
Amy,
Thanks. I just pass it on as it comes to me. 🙂
Ruth,
The art of reflection and listening has been lost to the church at large for quite awhile. It would do us all good to practice it afresh.
Mork,
I think I’ll use this in my house church this weekend, also.
I mean the “Genuine Moroccan Leather” thing–that’s pretty cool. 🙂
Jeff,
This thought really illustrates imo what you are asking here bro.
After God’s Silence-What?
http://www.myutmost.org/10/1011.html
Good post!