Listening All the Time

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

listen to what he taught them. True, they didn't understand a lot of it yet, but they could hear his words and even ask questions. It reminds me of what God told the Israelites in Deut 6:6-8: "you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands that I am giving you today. Repeat them again and again to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up. Tie them to your hands and wear them on your forehead as reminders." The disciples got to live through the best possible fulfillment of that idea, by having God himself available all day and night to teach them. Wouldn't you enjoy what they had?

But wait, there's more! Jesus told the disciples he was going away so that the Holy Spirit would come to them and to us. In John 16:12-15 Jesus promises the Holy Spirit will guide us into all truth, including things the disciples couldn't yet bear to hear! So there were some things they just weren't ready to hear, and the Holy Spirit's job, then and now, has been to reveal them to us. Truths about who God is, how he loves us and how his Son's life, death, resurrection and ascension brought us into the life of the only Eternal One. Revelations like our adoption in Christ (Eph. 1:3-6) and our being accepted by the Father through Jesus, who is the supreme ruler over everything that exists (Col. 1:11-22).

How did the new church come to understand these things? They heard the Holy Spirit as he drew them more and more deeply into a walk with God. In the book of Acts, the Spirit is said to speak or lead about about 18 times -- without even getting techical about all the ways he spoke. It seems like the Spirit spoke in much the same way Jesus had: as they were sitting around, walking around, lying or rising, going out or coming in, just like in Deut. 6. The new Christians were accustomed to hearing from the Spirit of God all the time. So all of this seems to tell us that we also should be listening all the time, ready to hear and ready to respond.

Listening requires being aware there is something said, and paying attention to what it means. For example, we can listen to the Spirit respond to us while we pray; as we meet and interact with others, because he might have something for us to do or say to bless that other person; and while we read or meditate on the Bible. We'll look at some specific exercises and ideas next time.