HE WHO HAS AN EAR

HE WHO HAS AN EAR

                “God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways in these last days has spoken to us in His Son…” Hebrews 1:1, 2a

                From this text in Hebrews, we learn that God has many different ways of communicating with His people. In the Old Testament He largely communicated with His people through prophets, those who had ears to hear. But now in these last days, as Hebrews one tells us, He speaks through His Son and His Son speaks to us through His Holy Spirit which we all have if they are born again.

                Seven times in the book of Revelation Jesus says: “He, who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” Rev 2:7, 11, 17, 29…3:6, 13, 22. God expects us to hear His voice.

                Everyone wants to hear God’s voice, but only a very few will do what He says. Acting on
God’s word is a lot like walking on water. There seems to be no tangible support for the next step. All you have is what God has told you and it is a bit like cutting off every safety line that has kept you from falling to date. We feel like we have been wrenched from our place of safety and sent into the storm.

                Questions begin to come to mind like, “Did we really hear from God? Are we out of our minds?

                Life in America is a lot less secure than most of us realize. We have never been more vulnerable as a nation. China is working feverishly to unseat our petro-dollar. (Which has been the source of America’s wealth for over fifty years.) Iran has rockets aimed at the Straits of Hormuz that could cut off our oil supply overnight. One rightly placed nuke from North Korea could take down our power grid and leave us in a “Mad Max” situation in a few weeks as every source of money and electronic funds transfer would come to a halt. Our banks could suddenly shut down, leaving us penniless as they attempt to move us into a cashless global system. We are on the brink of nuclear war and it will not be fought in the trenches of Europe this time. This time we can be electronically cut off warfare is different now. Today’s technology has made us more vulnerable than ever in history.  Our nation could be turned into chaos almost immediately leaving everyone to fight for remaining resources, food, water and firewood. In short, most Americans have no idea just how close we are to annihilation, chaos and desperate civil war.

                It seems quite enough just surviving in this day and age without trying to hear and obey
God. We would have plenty to worry about if we just stayed put.

                There is a reason why Hebrews chapter 11 lists God’s faith hall of fame. They are the ones who heard and obeyed. So we have to ask what life would be like on this planet today if these men and women of faith had not listened and obeyed God’s voice. What if Noah had not built a boat? What if Sarah had not conceived in her old age by faith? What if Moses had concluded that he was merely delusional? ”A burning bush? I must have been dreaming.” What if David had given up on the anointing poured out upon him by Samuel?  What if he had given up his chances at the throne when being chased by Saul? What if Elijah had not boldly gone before King Ahab? What if he had not called fire down from heaven?

                Hebrews 12 tells us that we are surrounded by the above mentioned cloud of witnesses and they are cheering us on to the finish line, because without us their lives cannot be made complete. All of those acted on faith in God, but we, in this last age have literally received the Spirit of Christ who now dwells inside of us. We have become that tabernacle that once housed the Shekinah glory of God in Moses’ day. (1 Cor. 6:19, 20.) We have become His dwelling place, we have become living stones in a temple that is being built and filled with all of the fullness of Christ. We are His Body and we hear His voice from the inside rather than from the outside. Our security then is not in what we see, but what we know and what we believe. Like Jacob at Bethel we must fully lean upon what the Lord has promised us saying: “And behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” Gen. 28:15. So do we look at the world situation or do we stand upon the word of God?

                Every one of us that has been born again has the Spirit of Christ dwelling in our spirit. As such He is constantly speaking to us. He is not far off, booming down words from a fathomless sky. He is near us, even in our mouths as we speak.

                Unfortunately in this age of spectator Christianity we have become dull of hearing, even as did some in Bible times for the writer says: “Concerning Him (Jesus as our Melchizedek High Priest) we have much to say and it is hard to explain since you have become dull of hearing.” Heb. 5:11

                Even so, we today, in spite of the fact that the Holy Spirit now lives in us and in spite of the fact that the Spirit is speaking to us, we too have become dull of hearing. Even if we did hear His voice, very few of us would actually think it was real and do what He said to do. Faith is one thing in theory and quite another in practice.

                It seems that God is in the business of calling us out…. Out of Ur… Out of Egypt… out of Babylon, out of slavery… out of the boat… out of complacency… out of the flesh and into the Spirit.

                We tend to think that our lives are merely products of our own thinking. We think: “I decided to do this… to pursue this career… to live in this state…apply for this job… to go on this vacation… have these children… live in this house… to go to this church… to be a Christian… to follow Jesus.

                We even sing the song, “I Have Decided to Follow Jesus”, but the truth is as Jesus said: “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him.” John 6:44. So we, who have been born again, are not simply products of our own thinking. We have been drawn into this relationship with Jesus by the Father. We have been chosen… elected if you will.

                Paul says it in Romans 8:29-30: “For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the first-born among many brethren; and whom He predestined, these He also called; and whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.” Now we can sit around and argue intellectually about what is meant by predestination, or we can simply grasp by faith that we who belong to Jesus, have been drawn to Him by the Father and for that we can indeed be grateful.

                So you are not a mere product of your own thinking and your own choices. God, the Aleph-Tav, knowing the beginning from the end knew something about you. He saw you standing on the sea of glass at the end of the age and so He went back in time and called you to be conformed to His Son. He is preparing you for that place for which you are destined in Him.

                Many are called, but few are chosen. That is to say that many are called, but only a few hear the call and respond to it. Many hear the call, but most turn to their own choices. To them the flesh speaks louder than the Spirit. As such they do become mere products of their own thinking and unless they, at some point listen to that voice and come out, they will never share the destiny that God has prepared for those that love Him and are called according to His purpose. Romans 8:28.

                Should this not motivate us to learn to recognize and to hear His voice? Should we not invest our spiritual efforts in learning how to distinguish His voice from the many voices that ring in our heads? Can there really be anything more important in this life than hearing His voice and fulfilling our destiny?

                Our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit. He is not far off. We don’t need to hear voices booming from the sky.  We have not come to Mt. Sinai, to a law written on stone. Rather we have come to Mt. Zion, to the city of the living God, to Jesus the Mediator of a New Covenant in which He now dwells in our hearts. And if they heard His voice and trembled at the foot of Mt. Sinai, how much more should we hear His voice and tremble at the fact that He now dwells in our spirit and speaks to us from the inside?

                We are now spirit of His Spirit and flesh of His flesh. We partake of His spiritual flesh and drink of His spiritual blood and we assimilate into His Body as living stones in His temple. He is in us and we are in Him and we are made into brothers and sisters in a kingdom that is not of this world.

                Are you learning to hear His voice? Surely by now you recognize the voices of the world, the flesh and the devil. They call us to serve self. They call us to do our own thing. They call us to ignore the voice of the Spirit and to serve our own desires. They tell us the Bible doesn’t really mean what it says… They write it off as allegorical…not intended for literal obedience. They tell us that the gifts of the Spirit passed away with the first apostles, so we can ignore Jesus’ commission to do the works that He did and even greater works. They tell us that we can no longer hear God’s voice… that He no longer speaks to us… that we are, after all, mere products of our own logic.

                The truth is we CAN hear God’s voice. It is the still small voice that ever remains true even in the midst of the cacophony of other ever- changing voices that pull us this way and that. We only have to be still and know that He is God. We only have to know His Word, because He will always speak in agreement with His Word.

                But we must also understand that God is not in the business of calling us into our comfort zone. He is calling us into Rest, but never into complacency. He is calling us into faith… the kind that walks on water… that comes out… that has ears to hear and a heart to obey.

                If a new faith chapter were to be written today, would you be among those listed? Greatness is not always in the doing of great things, but doing the little things greatly… faithfully… with integrity and joy.

                We are all called to be organs in the Body of Christ. We can either become organs that serve the Body or tumors that draw from the body and give nothing back. How many church members have become organs that actually contribute to the Body? How many just go to get what they can get? How many are actually involved in circulating the blood of Christ thus bringing life to those that hunger for life?

                Sometimes we are called to do something that stretches our faith to the limits. We can either stay in the boat tapping our hearing aids and complaining of a loose connection, or we can step out in obedience and do the thing we are called to do. Eleven disciples stayed in the boat and only one stepped out to walk with Jesus. All of them were His disciples, but one of them stepped out to do what is impossible with man.

                Not everyone is called out of the boat, but everyone is called out of Babylon… out of Ur… Out of Egypt… out of the flesh and into the Spirit, out of Satan’s kingdom and into the kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Each of us must learn to hear His voice and to do the thing to which we have been called.

                Some things God calls us to do don’t make sense from a human point of view. But what we don’t understand is that God is working all things in our lives so that we will stand before Him as complete in Christ. It didn’t make sense for Israel to spend another 40 years in the desert. It didn’t make sense for Moses to die just short of the Promised Land… but God was forming a much bigger picture… a story in which the Old and New Covenants could be better understood. So if it doesn’t make sense at the time, just hang in there.  Keep your eyes on Yeshua and His Word and He will cause all things to work together for God to those who love Him and are called according to His purposes. Rom. 8:28

                The life of faith is an adventure that will leave you breathless. I tell the Lord that I am too old for this big step, but He reminds me of Abraham and chuckles and says “Really? And would you and Bonnie like to live for another 30 years and then have a baby?”  You can’t argue with God… so don’t even try.