Our ears are marvelous instruments that God has given us to listen to Him, to people, and to our surrounding environment. One of the first things I learned as a pilot was to listen to every sound the plane made. This helped me in many instances in my 34 years as an ag-pilot.
There is the saying, “The Lord gave us two ears and only one mouth was because He wanted us to listen twice as much as we speak.” Although this saying is not in the Bible, the Bible does have a lot to say about the Lord’s ears and our ears. Job says, “Does not the ear test words as the tongue tastes food?” (Job 12:11). Job is not asking a question as much as he is making a statement that our ears make a judgment on every word we hear. Sometimes we are in a position where the only way we can avoid listening to a dirty joke is to plug our ears, but we don’t have to laugh at them. Sometimes silence is more of a rebuke than speaking out.
I believe that every human on this earth has selective hearing. We don’t want to listen to what is being said, or we only listen to part of what is being said! One of the worst problems that a speaker has is that people will often quote him out of context. They have only heard what they want to hear. This is the problem that many people have with the Bible, they quote it out of context, and when a person does that they are almost always wrong.
There is the saying, “The first, second and third rules of learning is repetition.” Why is this almost always true? Because us humans rarely “get it” the first time we hear instruction. The Bible is one of the most repetitive books there is. The phrase, “Hear the Lord” is used over 500 times in the Bible. This should teach us that the Lord knows about our inability to understand everything the first time we hear it. That is the reason He wants us to read the Bible over and over.
I have been asked, “Have you ever heard the Lord speak in an audible voice?” The answer is “no!” But the Lord speaks to me almost every day in many different ways and circumstances. How do I know God is speaking to me? I can’t always tell, but I will usually know if He is speaking to me if my thoughts and circumstances lead me in a safe and godly manner. “The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord” (Psalm 37:23). I have also found that usually, and most often, the Lord speaks to me as I read through His Word, the Bible.
The Lord is always speaking to us, and the only way we can hear Him is tune Him in and seek His voice, only then can we hear what He has to say to us. If the voice we hear causes us to think on what is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent and praiseworthy (Philippians 4:8) and causes us to show “compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience” then we can be sure the voice is from God (Colossians 3:12). But if the voice we hear is causing us to be sarcastic, judgmental and selfish, then what we are hearing could very well be from satanic forces.
How we react to what we hear from other people says a lot about whether we are listening for the Lord to speak to us or not. A friend had surgery and the surgeon botched the surgery. He had to go to another surgeon and have him correct the problem. A couple of years later he was visiting a patient at the hospital where he had the first surgery. The surgeon that made a mess on his body walked by. This friend of mine got up and was going to punch this doctor, but just as he started down the hall to catch the doctor, he heard a familiar voice from behind him call out his name. Behind him, just coming out of an elevator, was his pastor. The Lord used this pastor to keep this man from making a fool out of himself, and getting into a lot of trouble. “For God does speak—now one way, now another—though man may not perceive” (Job 33:14).
Sometimes we don’t like to hear criticism, but the Bible says, “He who listens to a life-giving rebuke will be at home among the wise… The heart of the discerning acquires knowledge; the ears of the wise seek it out…Like an earring of gold or an ornament of fine gold is a wise man’s rebuke to a listening ear” (Proverbs 15:31, 18:15, 25:12).
After speaking many of His parables, Jesus said, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear” (Mark 4:9). Many Bible scholars believe that the seven churches in Revelation is a picture of the church from the time it was written until Jesus comes back to this earth. To each of these churches Jesus said, “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”
The Spirit of God is speaking today; all we have to do is turn off the TV and radio, read the Bible, and tune in and listen for the Spirit to speak to us. Our problem is that we get so wrapped up in worldly noise and worldly things that we cannot hear God speaking to us. God rarely raises His voice to speak to us, He spoke to Elijah in a gentle whisper (1 Kings 19:12). Do you listen in on God’s council? Or do you limit yourself to your own wisdom? “For the Lord gives wisdom, and from His mouth come knowledge and understanding” (Proverbs 2:6) —but only if we listen to Him!