Hearing and the Holy Spirit

You may have heard it said that a blind person has more sensitive hearing, touch, taste or smell than a seeing person. Technically, the senses themselves are not sharper, but the perceptions of the sensations are. People who are blind at birth or at an early age tend to get better at accessing and interpreting information coming from their other four senses. (See this article in

"What's That In Your Hand?"

God can do anything, including everything that looks impossible for us -- like creating the universe from nothing, to start with! What's interesting is that he has continued to do the impossible, but now he's also doing it through

Do You Really?

"Do you want to get well?" That sound ridiculous, doesn't it? Jesus -- who in my estimation was never ridiculous -- asked that exact question of a crippled man. In John 5:1-15, Jesus encountered this man as he lay

Listening All the Time

The original 12 disciples had it easy. Jesus walked along and talked, and all they had to do was

The Gift of the Holy Spirit

I think God enjoys drama, good drama, in the healthy sense of raising everyone's expectations
for what he says is a truly spectacular event. He had Noah build

Taking Off the Veil, Part 2

Last week I wrote about our need to have the spiritual veil covering our eyes removed, by
surrendering our lives to the Lord Jesus Christ, as Paul writes in 2 Cor. 3:16: "whenever someone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away." When we see everything in the light of Christ, we no longer try to get justified before God on our own, but trust completely in what Jesus has done. When we're resting in Christ, we can be sure he accepts us, and be filled with his love, to the point we can overflow with it and pass it on to others.  That's what Paul means as he continues in verse 18, "all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord."

But sometimes the physical and emotional drives from our old selves interfere with our rest in Christ, and we aren't a very good example of Jesus' glory. In a time like that, we might react out of selfishness, spend our days in anxiety instead of peace, or speak from anger or self-defense instead of love. But we all want to "reflect the Lord's glory," and not leave other people confused about Christ, or hurt by our human reactions. So how can we see and root out the parts of our lives that don't reflect Jesus?

I'm glad you asked! That's actually one of the purposes of spiritual disciplines. When we halt our normal activities to have focused time with God, we get to shut off the normal background noise of chores, electronic interruptions and sometimes even our own physical needs like food and drink. With practice, we can learn to stop our minds whizzing around so fast, and hear God more clearly. We can learn spiritual practices that help us to review and reflect on our thoughts, giving us a more accurate picture of our true motivations. Through these tools and processes, we grow a step at a time in being able truly to reflect Jesus.

But what happens when we find parts of ourselves that don't measure up to Christ?  Instead of despairing, we throw ourselves once again on his infinite mercy and his absolute love! He showed us that love at the Last Supper: "He had loved his disciples during his ministry on earth, and now he loved them to the very end" (John 13:1). God loves us so much that he sent his Son, who not only died for us, but who served us in a very humble way by washing our dirty feet. How could we doubt such love? So then, why should we be afraid to admit to him what he knows anyway -- that we are still weak and need his help? That surrender of repentance, admitting our helplessness, is the final step in letting go of those old ways of the flesh. As Paul concludes the earlier verse, "And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image." Can we agree to take up the tools of spiritual formation and let the Lord change us?

Two Ears and One Spirit

My mom used to tell me I had two ears and one mouth for a good reason.  She tried many times to help me understand
what that reason was, but now finally I think I get it.  At least the two ears part. 

It goes something like this.  We have an outer ear and an inner ear.  The outer ear catches all the sounds outside us and funnels them through the ear canal,* (which sounds gross if you know what canals usually look like), into the inner ear where the sounds are coded and sent to the brain through the auditory nerve.

Just for now, let's look at that ear through Spirit eyes:  by way of analogy, what might the two parts of the ear mean? What if the outer ear is for listening to other people, and the inner ear is for listening to the Holy Spirit's voice?  What if we're supposed to listen deeply to others before responding to them, and listen deeply to the Spirit's voice telling us how to respond to them in the love of God?  How would that affect our conversations and relationships? 

Well. for starters, what if everything we said -- after listening to the Spirit -- was completely along the lines of what God would have us say? What if we never had to take anything back, because all we said was just the right thing? I think, if we listened to the Spirit well enough, it's at least possible.  The fruit of the Spirit is "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control" (Gal. 5:22-23) and those qualities would certainly reduce the amount of apology and explanation needed for our wrong words and attitudes to others.  In the book of Acts, the speakers were often said to be "full of the Holy Spirit" and they said some wonderful things -- so maybe what we say would be more wonderful if we could better hear what the Spirit is telling us.   

One of these days I might have to buy a hearing aid to capture those outside sounds better.  But what I really need right now is to capture those inner sounds, that voice of God telling me how to respond to others, and make sure I pay attention to that before I speak.  How about you?  Would listening to God more closely make a difference?  Let's pray for better hearing in the "inner ear."

*sometimes called the "middle ear," but having three parts to the ear instead of two really messes up this illustration. Sorry.

Hearing from God, Part 3

God has been talking to humans since He walked and talked with our first parents in the garden of Eden. We've responded by turning away from Him, refusing to listen, and talking back, like a bunch of self-willed kids. Even Abraham, the father of the faithful, had trouble remembering what God had said and trusting Him to work it out -- like in the ill-planned birth of Ishmael as his heir, instead of waiting for the promised son Isaac.

The nation of Israel continued to have trouble hearing God's voice, even though He spoke to them through the judges and prophets of the period before the kings, and by prophets and priests during the time of the kings of Israel and Judah. Time and again He sent someone to call a king or the nation back to covenant-faithfulness. They spoke in words that were clear, or sometimes not clear (especially to us in the modern Western world who don't understand Eastern thinking). Sometimes the people listened and turned back to God; and sometimes they didn't even listen. Sometimes they killed the prophets God sent.

At the right time, God sent His Son into the world (Galatians 4:4) to save us, as Gabriel explained to Joseph: "And she will have a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” (Matthew 1:21). Finally, we had someone we could hear. Not a prophet who spoke for God, or a priest who offered sacrifices, or a judge who interpreted the law, not a king to make and enforce law, but the true Son of God, who came to be God-With-Us, Immanuel (Isaiah 7:14). But in His own way, He was also prophet, priest, king and judge. And when He spoke, Jesus said the words of the Father Himself: " I don’t speak on my own authority. The Father who sent me has commanded me what to say and how to say it. And I know his commands lead to eternal life; so I say whatever the Father tells me to say" (John 12:49-50).

As the Son of the Father, Jesus spoke the words of the Father; not as some representative but as the Son who knew the Father personally. Finally, we had a chance to hear the words of God, in a way we could understand! As before, some people heard, and some rejected Him, to the point of killing Him. But now, finally, God was speaking for Himself, not through some intermediary, and Jesus came as God to show the heart of God to all humanity -- if we will hear.

Hebrews 12, verses 18-29, compare the imagery of Sinai as a contrast to Jesus' presence and teaching. And it says "Be careful that you do not refuse to listen to the One who is speaking." That tells us once more that, as God, Jesus was and is speaking to us the words of God.

God speaks. Do we hear? That is the question of the ages. In Jesus, we are given the words of God to us all. In Jesus, we hear the Father's heart, calling us to hear and follow just as the prophets of old did. Jesus continues, but more importantly brings personally to us, the message of salvation. Do we hear? Do we believe? Do we accept?

I think it's a lot more comforting and peaceful, from the human point of view, to listen to the voice of Jesus in the pages of the Bible than it will be to hear His voice thunder from the heavens at His second appearance. One way or the other, though, we will all hear Him. I pray you will hear Him, clearly, today.

Hearing God, Part 2

Last time we looked at humanity's on-again, off-again way of hearing from God, starting with Adam and Eve and going through Abraham. The times when people actively tried to listen, things went a lot better with them, and vice versa. Now we come to Moses, in the book of Exodus.

God had been keeping track of the descendents of Abraham and their problems for the last 400 years. In Exodus 2, he arranges for a new leader to be born and trained to accomplish the next step in the plan. Moses is a sheepherder, and God starts talking to him out of a burning bush. Moses has enough sense to listen; although his version of listening includes a lot of arguing and complaining (see 3:11, 4:1, 10, 13). Moses continues to listen to God and to complain to Him for another 40 years. But God seems to enjoy the give-and-take; He compares His conversations with Moses to that of friends in Ex. 33:11.

God brings the Israelites out of Egypt, where they saw His miracles in the plagues against the Egyptian gods and His parting the Red Sea for them. They still hadn't heard His voice, though, as Moses had. So He calls them to Mount Sinai and there He speaks. But they can't listen; in a kind of irony, after Moses was afraid they wouldn't listen to him at all (4:1), they want to hear him instead of God: "don't let God speak to us, or we will die!" (20:19).

Moses was like the later prophets: he told the people, over and over, to hear God and not turn away, even though he knew they were going to (Deut. 4:1-14, 31:27, etc). Moses had seen from his own life and from watching others that we aren't very good at listening, but that God is talking and we should pay attention.

Now, here's a point: God had continued to find various ones who would listen, and He kept up the dialog. Why? Because He wants relationship with us. He wants the dialog, even when we get argumentative and difficult. And He sent His Son to talk to us, tell us more about Him and to call us back to that dialog and to walking together. We'll see some more of that next time. In the meantime, keep your ears open. He will definitely have something to say.

Hearing God, part 1

Humans started out hearing God's voice, kind of like a baby hears its parents' voices, just as a part of living. Adam and Eve seem to have listened to God (Gen. 1:28-30) as he told them why they were in the garden and what they should do about it, and to stay away from that one pesky tree of 'knowledge of good and evil' (chapter 2). But in chapter 3, after they'd already taken the one thing they weren't supposed to take, the tone of the conversation is strained -- it reminds me of some discussions I've had with my children. "What did you do?" "I didn't do it, it was her fault!" and evasion instead of honesty. Adam even tried to blame the whole thing on God ("“It was the woman you gave me who gave me the fruit, and I ate it.”). I can imagine God sighing at this point, and shaking his head.

From then on, things get tense. God tries to discuss things with Cain, who isn't in much of a listening mood (chapter 4) and from that time, there don't seem to be many who are in a conversation with the Creator. God speaks with Noah (Genesis 6) and Noah does everything God tells him to (verse 22). But Noah is the only one who seems to pay attention at that point. Not even his three sons and their wives, who get saved from the flood also, seem to have any ongoing contact with the Lord.

After the great flood, everything continues much as it had before. The gift of speech, which includes the need to hear, is used by the humans to plan and build a tower. They are listening to each other, but nobody is listening to God. So he confuses their speech (11:7-8) and now they can't hear each other!

Along comes a fellow named Abram. This man seems serious about hearing God; when the Lord tells him to pick up and move to a different land, he does (12:1-4). And throughout the rest of his life, through all sorts of adventures, God talks to this man and this man listens. Sometimes the conversations are more difficult, like in chapter 15 where Abram complains that God's promises aren't coming true because he doesn't have a son. But Abram/Abraham learns to trust God and even more, to be honest with him -- as Adam and Eve didn't do. And he keeps hearing when God speaks.

There's a lot more to the story, and I want to go into that the next few weeks. But every time we read in the Bible about God, it seems like he is trying to reach out to us, to help us, to teach us. Will people learn to hear him? Will we learn to trust him? That's the continuing question -- not only for humanity as a whole, but for each one of us.

What are you doing to hear from God today? He speaks through his word, the Bible, and to our minds and emotions as we pray, and through circumstances and other people. I need to hear from him about all kinds of things and I bet you do too. How about spending some time talking with him, and asking him to talk to you? And then actively listening? It will change you. It changed me, and a lot of people I know.