"SELECTIVE HEARING"

Good Evening to All!

Again He sets a definite day, [a new], Today, [and gives another opportunity of securing that rest] saying through David after so long a time in the words already quoted, Today, if you would hear His voice and when you hear it, do not harden your hearts. Hebrews 4:7 AMP. [Psalm 95:7, 8]

The Message Bible relates it this way: God made that vow, even though he'd finished his part before the foundation of the world. Somewhere it's written, "God rested the seventh day, having completed his work," but in this other text he says, "They'll never be able to sit down and rest." So this promise has not yet been fulfilled. Those earlier ones never did get to the place of rest because they were disobedient. God keeps renewing the promise and setting the date as today, just as he did in David's psalm, centuries later than the original invitation:

Today, please listen, don't turn a deaf ear . . .(Hebrews 4:7)

To do as He asks we must stop praying long enough to listen to His voice.

I chose the above picture because so many people associate that verse strictly with "allowing Him into their heart and life. Well, it also can be associated with listening for His voice. We can't hear Him knocking if we don't quiet our spirit long enough to hear His still small voice. I know some times I wish he would do like the lower picture and scream in my ear, but that won't happen. He won't go where He's not welcomed. So we must welcome Him by being attentive to His loving voice.

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How many times have you said "he or she has selective hearing". They claim to be hard of hearing, but they hear what they want to! I know I have many times. I just amazes me. My husband is completely deaf in one ear and hard of hearing in the other. I can talk directly to him and he can't hear me, I can walk into another room talking and he says he can't hear me. . . yet I can whisper something under my breath and he hears every word! Yeah, right! Selective Hearing, that's what I call it!

Anyway, that's what we do to God more times than we would like to admit. Oh sure, we pray and ask for help, we ask for his advice and we ask for other things. The problem is, if He gives us an answer we don't like, we ignore that answer and say "he hasn't answered my prayer.

I am so thankful that I am "growing" up and beginning to be able to handle the words "no" and "wait" from Him. For a long time I was one of those "pickers and choosers". You know the type. I picked and chose the verses I wanted to hang on to. Such as the one where "He would give me the desires of my heart". I chose not to read or "remember" If you abide in Me and My words abide in you, than anything you shall ask will be done, or Delight thyself also in the LORD ; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. By "delight" they mean cherish, live for Him, spend time with Him and so forth. They don't mean just think about Him when it suits us, or when we want something. Needless to say it's a two-way street.

Now back to "selective hearing" . We need to pray to Him, but then we also need to "rest" our thoughts and mouths, and listen for His still, small voice within our spirit telling us the answers to our prayers. If you don't hear (feel something in your spirit) right away, then wait, because you will. It may not be within minutes, hours or even days, but you WILL get an answer. If certain things aren't turning out the way you planned, then there is your answer. God knows best. We must learn to accept His answers when we ask, and go on. There is ALWAYS a reason for the answer He gives. We need to listen to EVERYTHING He tells us, and abide by it. He would never steer us wrong. He is our Father and we must respect His decisions just like we would our earthly dad's and "sometimes more". Our earthly dads make mistakes sometimes, God Doesn't.

It's one thing to use "selective hearing" on your spouse, girlfriend, boyfriend, your children, brother or sister, or friends.

DON'T USE IT ON GOD. It could mean the difference between life and death, or heaven and hell. Always keep your spiritual ears tuned into God. As it says in 1 Corinthians 15:52, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. Matthew 24:40-42 says then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left. (41) Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left. (42) Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come. (43) But know this, that if the goodman (man of the house) of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up. As I am not a theology major, or a preacher, I will only give my take on this last verse. What my spirit is telling me it is saying is that the "man of the house" should be making sure that he and his whole family is right with God, and that their spirits are steadily watching for the Lord's coming to catch them ALL away. Now obviously, once a child is grown, a parent cannot force his child to go to church, but if dad trains the child up in the way he should go, he will not depart from it. They may drift for a time, but it will always be in their hearts so they will eventually come back. Now, of course this last part is just thoughts running through my little brain, but I have to believe that for all the parents that I know whose children have drifted away, for the husbands who are not saved, ( in the Bible it states that a husband may be saved by his wife's "conversation" (lifestyle). If the wife lives for God, then by example, eventually the husband will come to God also.

I know I got off on a rabbit trail. I apologize, but I just type what God puts on my heart. I guess that is why I would never make a good writer, because when God speaks, I listen and I haven't learned to compartmentalize my thoughts. I type as the words come to me so that I don't forget. God's Words are too important to forget. I'm always afraid that I might forget something and the one thing I forget to type is the one thing that SOMEONE needed to hear.

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The Answers to the Challenge from last night's "Music" are as follows:

1. True (Exodus 15:20)
2. d) none of the above (trumpets made of ram's horns; Joshua 6:4-5)
3. d) Saul (1 Samuel 10:5-6)
4. b) David's (1 Samuel 16:23)
5. c) Levites (2 Chronicles 5:12)
6. c) for his subjects to bow and worship his golden image (Daniel 3:7)
7. True (Matthew 26:30)
8. b) brass and cymbal (1 Corinthian 13:1)
9. True (Ephesians 5:19, Colossians 3:16)
10. d) trumpet (Revelation 8:2)


Good Night to All and May God Bless!