Listening Ears

I’m on a kick lately about “hearing” what God is saying to me.  Because when I know I am hearing Him, I’m more settled in the situations I find myself.   I think all of us struggle with and long to hear with ears to hear; either for our families and personal lives or our professional and ministry lives.  Hearing is a huge component of our daily living and our relationship with God.  Familiar truths we know speak to this; God’s sheep hear his voice, the Lord hears our cry, whoever has ears to hear, let them hear the word of the Lord.  We speak to God, God is speaking, God is listening, and we need to listen, we need to hear.  And we want to be those people mentioned in the parable of the sower who have ears that hear. 

Four days before my husband Brion passed away nearly four years ago, I needed to take him to treatment.  His worsened condition prevented him from receiving his treatment, and he needed a platelet transfusion instead.  Leaving one facility to go to the next, the oncology nurse was very tender to my need, helping me get Brion into the car.  For at this point in his disease, his eyes were swollen shut and tumors filled his ears so he couldn’t see or hear well. 

We drove to the busy hospital to meet with his physician.  I was concerned because I’d need a wheelchair to get Brion to the hospital, but this busy hospital meant parking was a challenge and I might need to leave Brion in the car for an extended period of time.  I couldn’t drop him off at the entrance because I didn’t want to leave him alone, unattended in a public area.  His outward appearance was quite frightening.  As I drove into the parking lot, God spoke to me and told me where to park, in a small, side parking lot to the hospital.  I never parked there because there were only a few parking spaces.  I looked and didn’t see anything, so I headed for my usual area of the multi-level parking structure, talking to God the entire time.  That area was packed as well, so I went back out to the small parking lot and there was a woman leaving her spot at the nearest parking space available.  I couldn’t believe it!  God had directed me there.  He was speaking; I needed to listen. 

That parking space meant so much to me.  I was able to leave Brion in the car for only a few minutes as I ran to the hospital to retrieve a wheelchair that happened to be right inside the front doors of the lobby.  I knew that was “his” wheelchair.  God was providing.  As I wheeled Brion to the hospital, God spoke so clearly, almost audibly, “The words you hear today are my words.”  I pondered this meaning as we rode the elevator and waited to see the doctor.  Praying incessantly, I trusted that what was said today was going to be meaningful.  After reviewing Brion’s blood work numbers, his caring, gentle doctor said, “Brion, do you think it’s time to stop treatment?”  I knew in my heart, these were God’s words. 

I was devastated for Brion.  We had been through so much, hoping and praying for a miracle.  Without that miracle, this could be the end of the weary road of treatment and man’s best efforts.  Brion pondered his answer for several minutes as we waited for his reply.  He finally said, “I guess so.”  My heart was already broken.  How could it break even more?  Yet, it did.  Brion and I both knew that God could do anything.  Healing could still come miraculously, so this we prayed for continually.  But, we also trusted that God is Sovereign and Holy.  He has the final say.  In silence, we left the doctor to receive the transfusion.  Brion slept.  I sat and watched him sleep, allowing the words for this day to permeate my thoughts, hopes, and dreams.  Life as I knew it was crumbling all around me.  Again, God’s words spoke to me through a nurse.  She was a Christian and stopped by just to see how I was doing.  During her very busy day, she probably spent an hour with me talking about life, death, and God.  Her words were God’s words.  God was speaking to me.  I was listening. 

I was so needy, felt lost and broken; I desperately needed to hear God.  And God was speaking.  What he was saying, Brion and I didn’t want to hear.  We had persisted in prayer for what we wanted and hoped for and what His Word says to pray for.  Yet, God was speaking.  I heard Him, Brion heard Him, and God’s words continue to bring me comfort and peace; not because I like what God said, but because I heard Him speak.  I am so thankful I listened that day.  In His speaking voice, God revealed Himself to me in a profound way.  That day is permanently imbedded in my heart.  God spoke, and I listened.   

In The Pursuit of God by A.W. Tozer, he writes, “. . . it is the nature of God to speak, to communicate His thoughts to others.”  “. . . God is forever seeking to speak Himself out to His creation.”   

God’s eternal words are forever loving and living, and speaking.  It’s not that God spoke and men recorded his words and we read them as they are past.  God speaks continuously.  The world is filled with his voice.  Tozer says, “. . . the expression of the will of God is the breath of God filling the world with living potentiality.  The voice of God is the most powerful force in nature, indeed the only force in nature, for all energy is here only because the power-filled Word is being spoken.”

In John 6:63, Jesus said, “The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life.”  Tozer writes, “The life is in the speaking words.  God’s word in the Bible can have power only because it corresponds to God’s word in the universe.  It is the present Voice which makes the written Word all-powerful.  Otherwise it would lie locked in slumber within the covers of a book.”  God is constantly speaking and His words are powerful and persist through the years; years past, present, and future.

Sometimes I don’t want to hear what God is speaking to me in my daily life.  Because what He might be saying isn’t pleasant, “Turn to me, you have made a mistake.”  “Apologize, you are in the wrong.”  “Take the high road, repent, humble yourself, deny yourself, be less, don’t defend yourself, allow me to be your advocate, be still, trust even when you don’t see . . . “ And the list continues. 

When we embrace and live out Truth, we hear what God is saying.  But, if the answer isn’t what we desire, we may ignore or turn our face away from God speaking.  We wish for another answer. 

We may be praying for healing, for freedom, for answers, for more, for what we want.  But, if nothing comes of our groaning and persistence, what must we conclude?  God is still speaking.  We have to hear God’s truth and allow it to change our circumstance by its power, even when the answer hasn’t come yet or isn’t the answer we seek. 

Sometimes familiar truths seem too simple to be the answers we seek in prayer.  However, they speak and really are the most powerful at times – God is present.  God loves me.  God is my comfort.  His peace no man can understand, yet it sustains me.  Who God is, speaks.  His character speaks.  We must listen. 

Through my personal need of being completely dependent upon God in prayer, I have found and God has proven, a life steeped in prayer, hears. 

God’s speaking voice is a fact, but some don’t want to hear.  In observance of those who believe in the sciences over faith, Tozer points out that there are people who are more likely to explain than to adore.  Even so, the Voice of God sounds and searches for hearers.  Faith adores.  Eyes of faith, hear.  

Tozer explained that we’ve all had moments “when it seems like the clouds were rolled back and we saw and heard for ourselves, God’s speaking.”    But he says, possibly, this is because of God’s “persistent effort to communicate with mankind.”  So maybe we hear because of God’s persistent grace more than our obedience to listen.  I wonder what our ears would hear if we walked in life-altering obedience?

Listening ears, hear.  Listening is a discipline and not a popular one.  Listening requires stillness, quiet, allowing the other person to talk and for us to be quiet, not pushing our agenda.  As God’s people are facing great conflict he says, “Be still, and know that I am God.”  Psalm 46:10.  God still speaks these words to us today. 

Tozer says in reference to Psalm 46:10, “. . . he says it, as if he means to tell us that our strength and safety lie not in noise but in silence.”  God is not silent and never has been.  God’s nature is to speak.  Are we being quiet long enough to listen at all? 

Hearts seeking wisdom, hear. 

In chapters 1-4 in Proverbs we learn:  Don’t reject wisdom, there are benefits of accepting wisdom’s instructions, wisdom bestows well-being, and we should hold on to wisdom.

Proverbs 4:7, “Wisdom is supreme; therefore get wisdom.  Though it cost all you have, get understanding.”

Proverbs 3:13-18, “Blessed is the man who finds wisdom, the man who gains understanding, for she (speaking of wisdom) is more profitable than silver and yields better returns than gold.  She is more precious than rubies; nothing you desire can compare with her.  Long life is in her right hand; in her left hand are riches and honor.  Her ways are pleasant ways, and all her paths are peace.  She is a tree of life to those who embrace her; those who lay hold of her will be blessed.”  Oh, that we would have ears tuned to wisdom’s voice.

Tozer writes, “If you would follow on to know the Lord, come at once to the open Bible expecting it to speak to you.  Do not come with the notion that it is a thing, which you may push around at your convenience.  It is more than a thing; it is a voice, a word, the very Word of the living God.”  Wisdom is found only in the One who is wise.  May we hunger to gain understanding and depend upon and listen to God’s words as they speak.

A life steeped in prayer, hears.  Eyes of faith, hear.  Listening ears, hear.  Hearts seeking wisdom, hear.

I close with Tozer’s prayer for us . . . “Lord, teach us to listen.  The times are noisy and our ears are weary with the thousand raucous sounds which continuously assault them.  Give us the spirit of the boy Samuel when he said to thee, ‘Speak for thy servant heareth.”  Let us hear thee speaking in our hearts.  Let us get used to the sound of thy voice, that its tones may be familiar when the sounds of earth die away and the only sound will be the music of thy speaking voice.  Amen.”