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How to Hear
This section’s topic discusses the art of listening.
Hearing God requires your attention, effort, and practice.
John 12:28-29 gives us an example of the different capacities in hearing God: “Then a voice came from heaven, "I have glorified it, and will glorify it again." The crowd that was there and heard it said it had thundered; others said an angel had spoken to him.”
The audible, thunderous voice of our Father broke into the physical realm. There were some that heard nothing (“The crowd that was there and heard it…), some heard only thunder, and others could not make the distinction between an angel’s voice and our Father’s voice. Even today, some will hear nothing, some will hear only noise, and some will hear the words but attribute the source incorrectly. But, there are those that will hear the words and know the source (John obviously did!).
Once in the gospels and eight times in the book of Revelation, Jesus stressed this concept: if you have spiritual ears, hear the spiritual words that God is speaking. Jesus repeated that phrase even more times than the next most-frequently repeated phrase, “Fear not.” (eight times). Hearing God’s voice is of great importance.
Mark 4:23–25 says, “If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear." Then He said to them, "Consider carefully what you hear. With the measure you use, it will be measured to you—and even more. Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him."
An excellent illustration of this principle is the relationship of the quarterback and the receiver on a football team. The more the receiver catches the passes from the quarterback, the more the quarterback will throw the ball to that receiver. In regards to our topic, the more you hear (and act on what you hear), the more you will receive what God is saying to you.
1 John 4:19, 20 says, “We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen.”
These verses reveal a powerful truth: how you interact with your brother is the limiting factor on your relationship with your Heavenly Father.
If you don’t love your brother, you cannot love God.
Applying that concept to hearing God, this truth can be stated: if you do not hear your brother, you cannot hear God.
The amount of listening you give to the person speaking to you can fall into one of the following categories:
- Not listening
- Not listening, but pretending to
- Hearing, but interrupting with something off the topic
- Hearing, but thinking about something else
- Hearing, but interrupting with how you feel about the topic
- Hearing, but thinking about what you feel about the topic
- Listening to the person’s words
- Total concentration and attention on the person’s words, heart, and emotions
Total concentration on the person’s words and heart, and hearing with the ears of your spirit—giving total acknowledgment to that person’s significance, in love and vulnerability, with a willingness to learn something from the encounter—God’s way of listening.
When your total concentration is on the other person’s words and heart, you are showing that person how God listens to them!
As you develop God’s way of listening, you become a true listener and a true listener will easily hear God’s voice. If you can truly hear and listen to your brother whom you can see, you can hear the voice of Him whom you cannot see.
(This topic is discussed further in the Ears-2-Hear Teachings.)
