Ears to Hear

“Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.” ~ Jesus Christ

Ever own a dog? Specifically, a puppy?

If you have, you know that they require training. You will also know that the big thing with training them is that they listen to you. Hard to train a puppy that will not listen to the sound of your voice.

The first obvious thing is that they listen to "you" as opposed to every other voice and noise around them. That comes with spending time with them. You spend time together and eventually, they know your voice and can pick it out pretty quickly.

Now that they know who they are supposed to be listening to, now comes the training portion.

Training is a lot of repetition. For example, you say "sit". Their response is to stare at you. Do you smack them for not sitting? By no means! No, instead you repeat yourself "sit" and maybe give their hind end a bit of a push down. Then we try again without the push "sit". They stare and drool. After a couple more times of this, they sit. Now they still may not have put you saying "sit" and "sitting" together, but they did sit, so you give them a treat and maybe tell them what a good dog they are. Eventually, as you reward their sitting and do not reward their not sitting, they figure it out - if they sit down when you say "sit", it's treat time. Yay! They are listening and obeying - good dog!

I think that we who are saved by the grace of God can relate.

We get saved. And while we did respond to His voice drawing us initially, at first, we really cannot recognize His voice out of the rest of the clutter. And there is lots of clutter. Everything from own voice, to the voice of friends or peers, to the voice of the enemy, to the voice of the world and its' lurings, and so on and so on. It is a big list so do not kick yourself too hard if you have trouble picking Him out at first (think of trying to train a puppy in a pre-school class).

So what can we do?

Well, like our puppy, we spend time with Him. Whether that be reading, praying, worshiping or just sitting or , well, anything else really. God does not want you to just spend 45 minutes with Him on Sunday morning. Nor does He want you to think you can only spend time with Him speaking all 'old school' biblical talk (thou, thee, shalt, etc). He is with you here and now, even as you read He is there, just as He is here with me. He knows how I talk, act, think, etc so me pretending shows pretty clearly. So just be honest with Him. I know a fair number of people who chat with God as they drive.

So step one is just to spend time with Him. Now remember though, conversations are "two way", so stop doing all the talking once in a while and just "listen". Eventually, you will find yourself being able to hear His responses - being able to pick His voice out of all the other noise. Is that the end of it? Nope.

Now that you are hearing His voice, now comes the training. Do not worry, it is a lot like our puppy story. If He tells you something (like, bring God into a conversation with someone), He is not going to nail you with a lightning bolt if you do not do it. Our God is not only an awesome God but He is also a God of second (and third, fourth, etc) chances. So He does not punish you for not listening but He also does not reward you either.

Now you may get another chance in the exact same situation or it may be something similar or maybe even something altogether different, but you will be hearing from Him again. Now you may just stare and drool a few times but eventually you will respond correctly to what He says. Do not expect a doggie treat but you can expect a blessing of some form and frequently, confirmation that you have done what God has asked of you (that is a pretty huge blessing right there).

All done now? Not hardly. You know as well as I do that just because you got it right once does not mean it will happen right of the get go the next time - or at least you should know that anyways. For me, I would like to think that I get it within the first three times He says something. Now that is hearing Him. I cannot say I always respond how He wants me to even if I do hear Him clearly. But I am getting better. The more time I get with Him, the more I listen, the more willing I am to actually listen and the more I respond. And I have to be honest here, I can be pretty deaf by times - pretty sure God has had to use a megaphone to get through to me more than once.

So if you find yourself not hearing God's voice much as of late, make a point of spending some good old fashioned quality time with Him and just listen. There is a lot of noise to filter through and He knows it too. So do not think that He is going to "smite" you after you miss it 5 times, or 50 times, or even 50,000 times. The same goes for responding to that voice. He is patient, even if we are not - thank God for that!

Psalm 37:7~"Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for Him"