Develop Your Ears To Hear God.

The Lord asked me years ago, “How does faith come?” I immediately said, “Faith comes by hearing Lord.”  (quoting Romans 10:17). The Lord then asked: “So then how does hearing come?”   

I recalled all the scriptures that state: “he who has ears to hear let him hear,” and passages that said, “they had ears but could not hear, and eyes but could not see.” I began to see why people who confess that Jesus is their Lord have the appearance of faith but are struggling in their Christian walk and getting little results. They don’t have a hearing ear, so faith never comes.

The standard teaching is that faith comes by hearing and hearing and hearing etc. And there is truth to that line of thought. However, there are different ways to hear, and there is a difference between natural and spiritual hearing.

 Romans 10:17 (NKJV) So then faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.

Let me give you a more accurate translation of this verse to make it clear.

Romans 10:17 (my paraphrase) “So then faith comes by what you hear, and your hearing comes from acting on the word of God you have heard.”

Just because we have ears does not mean we can hear spiritually. The word of God alone opens our spiritual ears (our hearts). That word can come from the written and spoken word, but only the word we act on will develop our spiritual ears. When we are obedient, it demonstrates faith, and we become receptive to more instruction. Obedience is the act of faith; disobedience is the act of doubt and unbelief. Faith without the work of obedience is a dead faith, and dead faith has deaf ears.

The Bible shows us repeatedly that the disobedient and rebellious people “had ears but could not hear.”

Deuteronomy 29:4 (NKJV) Yet the LORD hath not given you a heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, unto this day.

Jeremiah 5:21 (NKJV) Hear now this, O foolish people, and without understanding; which have eyes, and see not; which have ears, and hear not:

Ezekiel 12:2 (NKJV) Son of man, thou dwellest in the midst of a rebellious house, which have eyes to see, and see not; they have ears to hear, and hear not: for they are a rebellious house.

Spiritual hearing only comes from the word of God that we act upon. Suppose we find ourselves unable to discern God’s voice rightly. In that case, we should humble ourselves before the Father and ask Him why. If we are rebellious or disobedient in any way, He will reveal it to us if we are sincere in our asking.

There are vast realms of understanding and revelation that we will never acquire if we are not doers of the word. If we do not act on what we have heard, the bible says we are deceiving ourselves. When we hear the word and do nothing about it, we become spiritually deaf. 

James 1:22 (NKJV) But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.

Quoted from the book, The Spiritual Warfare Manifesto

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Spiritual Warfare #26 Eyes That See

          Now that we understand how to develop our spiritual ears, let’s focus on what causes us to have eyes that see.

For many years I prayed that God would help me see things, people, opportunities, and situations the way He sees them. That sounds like a pretty good prayer, don’t you think? I did too, until the Lord interrupted my prayer one day and said, “Jack, I don’t want you to pray that way anymore, instead, pray that you would see things the way I want you to see them.”

At first, I thought, “Isn’t that the same thing?” But He quickly showed me that it wasn’t. Man is not capable of seeing the way God sees. His ways and thought are so much higher than ours.

1 Samuel 16:9 But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature, because I have refused him. For the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”

Isaiah 55:9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.

  There is a way that God wants us to see everything and everyone. We are not capable of seeing how God sees because we are viewing life from the filter of two natures. The fallen nature we inherited from Adam, and the nature of God that we received at the new birth. Living in this incredible paradox demands that we adapt to seeing things from a very specific perspective called faith.

Faith is a perspective, not a tool to get our needs met. Faith is a very narrow way of seeing, thinking, believing, and speaking. Faith is the perspective that fills our entire being with light.

Matthew 6:22-24The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good (single), your whole body will be full of light. ²³ But if your eye is bad (evil), your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness! ²⁴ No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.

          The word “good” in verse 22 is the Greek word “haplous.” It means single. It is used only one other time in Luke 11 in his account of this same passage. The word “bad” in verse 23 is the Greek word “poneros” and is always translated “evil, wicked, or wicked one.” Why is this important? Because anything other than having a single eyed, faith perspective is evil.

Paul said in Romans 14:23 … whatever is not from faith is sin.

          If we are not seeing from a faith perspective, we are seeing things from an evil, or wicked perspective. What we look at illuminates our entire being with what we see.       

          Look at Matthew 24, “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.”

          It is significant that this statement comes right after the instruction to have a single eye. How we see determines who we will serve.

          Mammon is often defined as money. But a more accurate definition would be avarice, or selfish desire. We don’t have the ability to serve money, but we can serve our selfish desires and lust for money, and other earthly things. There are only two masters available to serve. God and self. To serve self is to serve the Devil. It has always been that way.

            The only influence Satan can gain in our lives is through our selfish desires. In the garden of Eden, Satan deceived Eve into yielding to selfish desires. It all started when she looked at the fruit and found it desirable to eat and make one wise.

Galatians 3:6-7 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. ⁷ Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings.

          Satan did not ask her to bow down and worship him. He tricked her into being selfish and doing what she felt was good for herself. He caused her to look at and consider the wrong things and it led to her disobedience.

          We only need to see and know very little if we are living by faith. We are to walk in love believing the best of every person. If we saw what was in the hearts and minds of everyone it would be hard to believe the best of them. We only need to know the next step, the rest we walk out by faith, trusting that God knows best and that He only wants the best for us.

The Word of God gives us plenty of instruction on how we should see things, and if Gods Word abides in us, it filters everything we see with spiritual insight.

I believe now that asking God to help me see things the way He would have me see them is another way of asking for His wisdom. It also removes a huge burden to understand every detail. If God gave us every detail of every situation we would have no need for faith, and it would be impossible to please Him.

Hebrews 11:6 ~ But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. 

Just knowing that God is pleased with faith should give us comfort when we don’t know all the details. Faith will always consider the unseen realm no matter what is seen with the physical eyes. Faith is a perspective anchored in trust.

Paul gives a powerful lesson in Philippians about living with this perspective.

Philippians 4:6-8 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; ⁷ and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. ⁸ Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things.

If we practice verses 6 and 7, we qualify for supernatural peace. We need this supernatural peace to wage supernatural warfare. In verse 8 it gives us the instruction on what to do while we are trusting God and waiting for the next step. We fill our thoughts with believing the best, thinking the best, and expecting the best. It keeps our faith alive and makes our walk pleasing to God.

We don’t need to see how God sees. We only need to see enough to take the next step. Sometimes that step may look like the wrong one in the natural. Many times, that step will go against our natural understanding, but that is why supernatural peace passes our understanding. We must learn to recognize, and be led by peace.

Peace is to be the arbitrator of our lives, sitting as ruler over everything and every decision.

Colossians 3:15 ~ And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful.

To walk by faith, to have eyes that see from a supernatural perspective, we must understand the peace of God and its function in our lives. The more we walk in peace, the less we will feel the need to know all the details, and we will be better equipped to live our lives with a single eye.

For more teaching on Spiritual Warfare, CLICK HERE.

Thank you for visiting truthpressure.com. I hope this has been a blessing to you.

JC