WEDNESDAY WEEKLY WORD...do you hear what I hear?

I read the most interesting story the other day. It had to do with the things that we hear...

The story was told of two men who were walking along a very crowded city sidewalk. Suddenly, one of the men said ..."Listen to the lovely sound of that cricket." But the other man did not hear the sound. The second man asked the first how he could possibly hear the sound of a cricket amid the loud roar of traffic and all the sounds of the people in the crowd. The first man was a zoologist and he had trained himself to hear the sounds of nature, but he did not share this with his friend. Instead, he simply dropped a half dollar coin from his pocket onto the sidewalk, and at least a dozen people stopped and began to look around the two men. Then the first man simply said this, "We hear what we listen for."

Wow! Isn't that true for us today. We hear what we want to hear. We simply do not listen at times. This is also very true when it comes to listening to the voice of God. Sometimes, I have to admit, I hear what I want to hear from Him. There are times when I simply do not listen for His voice. His voice is muffled by all of the sounds going on around me.

In last weeks YOUR OPINION MATTERS POLL, I polled the readers the following question, "Who in your life can be described as 'ever hearing, but never understanding'...'ever seeing, but never perceiving' "? The top answers were:

1. 50% of those voting said that this would apply to their children.

2. 25% of the readers voted and said that this would apply mostly to themselves.

In the book of Isaiah, I recall how God spoke to Isaiah ...

ISAIAH 6:8-10 "Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, 'Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?' and I said, 'Here am I. Send me!' (9) He said, 'Go and tell this people: Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving. (10) Make the heart of this people calloused; make their ears dull and close their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed."

It is no doubt that just as God spoke to Isaiah, He also speaks to us. I have read some Bible Scholars say that many Christians envy Isaiah for this experience of hearing God with an audible voice. Hearing an audible voice from God was reserved for a handful of select people in the Bible, but yet God spoke to many, as He does with us, just in different ways.

GOD SPEAKS THRU HIS WORD

2 Timothy 3:16 says that "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness." So if we are listening for God's voice ... we need to be in His Word.

GOD SPEAKS THRU HUMAN MESSENGERS

When God wanted to speak to the people of Israel, He did not use a loudspeaker to broadcast His message. He instead, entrusted the message to specific people. God not only uses the local Pastor and Evangelist to bring His message to you and me, but sometimes, He even uses your next door neighbor! God speaks to us thru His people, and we must be sensitive to the fact that WHO brings the message forth is not as important as WHOM the message comes from.

GOD SPEAKS THRU WORLDLY EVENTS

On at least one occasion, the Apostle Paul had planned to preach in various places in Asia, but only to have his direction blocked and discovering a different direction to take. Sometimes, our plans are altered, this could possibly be Gods way of telling us to go another direction.

However God chooses to speak to us (audibly, thru His Word, thru His messenger or thru events) it is imperative that we listen and be obedient to His calling. I often wonder, if God ever asks Himself ... "Do they hear what I hear?"

HAVE YOU HEARD FROM GOD TODAY?