Ears to Hear

The story goes there were two buddies out hunting one chilly morning. As they made their way through the woods to their hunting spot, one of the friends collapsed to the ground, unconscious .

In a panic, the other friend reached for his cell phone to call 911 at which point he told the operator that his friend seemed to be dead.

The operator asked the fearful man to try to remain calm and she would help him. then, she gave him his first direction, check to see if his friend was truly dead.

A gunshot was heard, followed by the man asking, "Now what?"

The English language is complicated. Playing a game on my phone where I take letters and make words out of them leaves me feeling inadequate almost every time I play. I will get stumped and begin to "make up" words to fit the spaces only to realize as the word is accepted that the way I was sounding it out in my head was nowhere close to the real word once I could see in in front of me. And, that realization makes me stop every time to think why did I not recognize that word when I was spelling it in my head.

So many of our words have different meaning and different pronunciation with the same exact spelling.

Just reading a sentence you can make it sound and mean different things if you are not careful and do not recognize the intent of the words as they are written.

In my time talking to my Friend recently I just kept saying over and over, "Lord, let me have ears to hear."

We have lost the art of listening. We don't listen to hear any longer, we listen soley to respond.

Active listening is an art that has gone out of fashion. Modern society is too worried about being heard, we don't really care to be spoken to. We long simply for our feelings and thoughts to be validated.

Lord, give me ears to hear.

Jesus mentions eight times from what I can tell some variation of "if any man have ears to hear, let him hear."

Each time He is giving direction.

"And as they departed, Jesus began to say unto the multitudes concerning John, What went ye out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken with the wind? But what went ye out for to see? A man clothed in soft raiment? behold, they that wear soft clothing are in kings' houses. But what went ye out for to see?A prophet? yea, I say unto you, and more than a prophet. For this is he, of whom it is written, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee. Verily I say unto you, Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist: notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heave suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force. For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John. And if ye will receive it, this is Elias, which was for to come. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear." (Mat 11:7-15)

"Behold, a sower went forth to sow; And whn he sowed, some seeds fell by the way side, and the fowls came and devoured them up: Some fell upon sony places, where they had not much earth: and forthwith they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth: And when the sun was up, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away. And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprung up, and choked them: But other fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear." (Mat 13: 3-9)

"The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things what offend, and them which do iniquity; And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear." (Mat 13:41-43)

"For there is nothing hid, which shall not be manifested; neither was any thing kept secre, but that it should come abroad. If any man have ears to hear, let him hear." (Mark 4:22-23)

"Hearken unto me every one of you, and understand: There is nothing from without a man, that entering into him can defile him: but the things which come out of him, those are they that defile the man. If any man hath ears to hear, let him hear." (Mark 7:14-16)

"Salt is good: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be seasoned? It is neither fit for the land, nor yet for the dunghill; but men cast it out. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear." (Luke 14: 34-35)

During every single day of our lives we have opportunities to have hundreds and sometimes thousands of words pass within our hearing range. This means that every single day we have hundreds and sometimes thousands of opportunities to listen, but not only to listen, to hear.

God speaks to us in so many ways. During my prayer time I entreated Him with specific needs. And, then I listened. Not with my ears, with my heart. Before long the Spirit of God within me responded with cries and grownings to the Voice of God in me.

Are you facing a situation that seems to be "dead" in your eyes? Instead of listening for the Voice of Truth concerning your lifeless dream, your marriage on life support, your child in a spiritual coma, have you "heard" the message God has sent you but instead of hearing Him say, "Listen, is it REALLY dead?" you hear "It IS really dead" and have a funeral while there is still a heartbeat?

Do you have ears? Maybe it is time you use them to LISTEN. Really LISTEN.

Is your situation out of control? Listen. The correction and the call to obedience is not the death toll on your situation, but more than likely it is the Lord saying "Come forth" to that which you declared dead. If you will but LISTEN to direction and apply it to your life, to your problems.

He that hath ears, let him hear the voice of the Lord, the voice of power, the voice of deliverence, the voice of redemption, the voice of correction, the true sound of mercy and grace and love.

Lord, please let me hear Your voice in my life, through Your Word, through my pastor, and let me LISTEN to HEAR. I don't want to miss a single opportunity to serve You. Help me to hear Your voice above the noise of the world. I need to hear You.