“He awakens My ear to listen as a disciple.”

A disciple attentively listens to God.

We discussed the tongue, but now we turn to the ear. The ear represents hearing and listening. To hear, we need to get close enough for sound waves to reach our ear. When I have trouble hearing someone, I sometimes cup my hand around my ear to improve reception. To hear properly, you must get close. Listening reveals a lot about a person’s attitude.

Have you ever seen a parent call their child, but the child was completely inattentive? The child kept doing what they were doing. You wonder if the child even heard the parent. But since you were next to him, you know it was not a hearing issue. He did hear, but he chose not to listen. He didn’t respond to the words that were reaching his ears.

When we notice this happening in our family, we gather everyone for a training session. We remind the children of the response we, as parents, expect. Then we actually rehearse it several times. We call, and they are to respond (as we instructed), “Coming Daddy.” We have them do it several times. For some reason, our children have always seen this as a fun activity, but it effectively reminds them of their duty.

Listening problems often stem from attitude issues. The common thinking is, “I am busy doing something. I don’t want to be bothered by another. I’ll just ignore them.” Frustrated parents often give up and do what they were about to ask their child to do. This, of course, reinforces the child’s poor response. They think, “Oh, I don’t have to do it now. Great!”

God our Father is not easily fooled. In fact, He never is. He never stops training us. If we tend not to listen to others, then we won’t listen to God, and we will face the consequences.

Let’s now focus on the example Christ gives us. He is not just in hearing distance to the Father. Jesus instead gets close enough to the Father through prayer and meditation on His Word so that He actually listens to Him. In Hebrew and Chinese, the words for 'listen’ and ‘obey’ are the same. The Lord, through His Spirit, touches the figurative ear of the heart so that He will listen.

When the Father speaks, there are often expectations that need to be fulfilled. He has asked me to do something for someone, perhaps. There is no telling what He might ask us to do. We should adopt the attitude, “Yes, right away.” Sometimes our flesh reacts with a meltdown, saying, “Yes, but.” Then there’s the Jonah response, “Not on my life.” Here are some truths to strengthen your faith so you always immediately obey the Lord.

God always gives us what we need to do His will.

God always has the highest goals in mind when asking us to do something.

God never makes mistakes.

Once God has defined what He wants, any other response than what He requested becomes sin.

Because of disobedience, some of you are not hearing from God. One way to fix this issue is to go back to the last thing He asked you to do and do it. You might not be able to do it right now. If you can, do it. Otherwise, you need to confess and repent for your disobedience. This brokenness of heart means you will be willing to do it if He asks you again. In many cases, He will ask you to pick up right where you left off.

Just think about it. If the purpose of listening to your Heavenly Father is to be guided, you need a heart prepared to accept this guidance. If this trusting heart is missing, you might get into more trouble by hearing what you do not want to hear. On the positive side, His will is always best for us. He is always inviting us to come back closer to Him.

Our humble and submissive attitude enables us to listen.

Jesus’ example was remarkable. We focus on the most difficult requests the Father gave Him. Think of the temptation of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. These were challenging circumstances filled with difficulties. Jesus both heard and listened to His Father. What do we learn from His obedience? We discover that God can work out the very best even in tough situations. God can always be trusted, whether we need to share our wealth, enter full-time service, use our spiritual gifts, or trust Him for a broken relationship. God’s way is always the best way.

Application

• Where are you on the hearing chart? Are you tuned in to the Father? Do you hear His voice?

• Where are you on that listening chart? From 0 to 10, with 0 meaning not listening and 10 meaning always listening, where do you stand?