What do you hear?

We’ve already seen several ways to complete the sentence “If you want God’s best…”. Another is: be careful how and what you hear. Obviously, this relates closely to the previous chapter’s theme of hearing and obeying God’s voice. We are going on with this theme of hearing.

I have already pointed out that all through the Bible, from the Old Testament into the New, the basic requirement for belonging to God’s people is hearing and obeying His voice. In the Old Testament, God said to Israel, “Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be My people” (Jeremiah 7:23 NKJV). In the New Testament, Jesus said, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me” (John 10:27 NKJV). That requirement never changes in any dispensation or any age.

We will now consider more of what is involved in hearing God’s voice. Jesus said two things at different times in the Gospels. He said, “Take heed what you hear,” and later on, He said, “Take heed how you hear.” Let us examine both of these statements and see what they have to say to us.

The first one, “what you hear,” is in Mark 4:23–25, where Jesus begins, “If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.” I understand that to mean, “If anyone has ears to hear God’s voice, let him hear.” I pointed out that we are not born naturally with the ability to hear God’s voice. It is something that must be imparted to us by the Holy Spirit. It is something that must be cultivated.

“Jesus goes on to say: ‘Take heed what you hear. With the same measure you use, it will be measured to you; and to you who hear, more will be given. For whoever has, to him more will be given; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him.’” (Mark 4:24–25 NKJV)

Jesus unfolds three principles here. First, the basic requirement is having the ability to hear, that is, to hear God’s voice. “If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.”

Second, by right hearing (or by listening to the right thing), we increase our spiritual resources. “To you who hear,” Jesus says, “more will be given.” The same measure that you use will be measured back to you. The more you give of your-self to hearing God’s voice, the more God will give Himself back to you. In other words, we settle the measure with which God will give Himself to us. The measure with which we hear is the measure with which God will impart Himself to us.

The third principle is that by wrong hearing (or failure to hear), we decrease our spiritual resources and finally become spiritually bankrupt. Jesus says, “Whoever has, to him more will be given; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him” (Mark 4:25 NKJV). In my experience, I have encountered Christians who seem to be totally bankrupt, yet in past years they were abounding in the blessing of the Lord. What bankrupted them? They had lost the ability to hear (had ceased to cultivate that ability) and had begun to listen to the wrong things. They had cut God off and opened themselves up to evil, negative sources, which had bankrupted them spiritually.

The choice is up to you: are you going to allow God’s voice be stifled by other sounds, taking away what you've already received? Or do you choose to be someone who hears ... Someone to whom is given more?