Ears to Hear

How does God speak to you, personally?  For me it can be through people and experiences.  In fact, this blog post has been inspired by my pastor's message from two weeks ago, which I feel is very relevant to what has been on my heart.  But aside from hearing God through people or experiences, I feel God speaks to me most through strong convictions.  I do believe God can speak using plain English (or whatever language you speak best), but I have yet to experience this “audible” voice of God for myself.  Regardless of how God speaks to you, it is good to understand that God is speaking to you. 

For the rest of this journal, or for as long as you wish, the moments in which you believe God speaks to you will represent your metaphorical “ears” in which you hear God. 

Revelations 3:22

He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

The first thing I think of when I read this verse is that I have two ears, one more than just “an ear”.  Fortunately for me, it doesn’t mean that I am twice as guilty when I fail to hear God speaking in my life.  Still, ignoring God’s call or voice in our life is often the easiest thing to do, but it is never the best thing for us.  Rarely are the best things in life easy to come by; you should anticipate difficult challenges, uncomfortable conversations, radical living, and having to think intentionally every step of the way.

In my last posting, I wrote about how strong feelings and convictions should receive special attention, well I’ve got a little bit more to say about dreams, visions, listening, and actions versus inactions.

Revelations 3 is most famous for discussing the topic of “lukewarmness”.  While I am not going to focus on what it means to be lukewarm, I intend to focus on listening (which still has a lot do to with remaining in a lukewarm state or moving out of it).  To be a useful tool for God we have to be able to listen when God is speaking.  When we struggle with complacency, urgency, listening, or even usefulness, we struggle with lukewarmness.  But don’t worry; God never stops pursuing us when we lose sight. Doubt may set in, and we may fail to obey. Struggling to carry out strong convictions, understand strong feelings, or trust God’s vision for our life is something that will happen.  However, even when we fail to act God is still standing at the door of our lives knocking, waiting for us to listen and respond (verse 20), “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock.  If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.” 

The next question is, “are we listening?” 

This is the part I struggle with the most, I can spend hours talking to God about all of my problems and transfer immediately into a grocery list of request, but never once do I stop and just listen.  I have “ears”, I know when God is speaking to me, but I still find it difficult to allow God the opportunity to speak before I interrupt with more concerns.  Fortunately for me, Jesus will knock for an eternity if that’s what it takes to get my attention…  I hope that’s not the case.

So here is the good news: when we finally learn to listen and respond to the Lord’s callings in our lives, Jesus promises us this (verse 21), “To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne.”

If you missed that part, let me give you play by play- God does not stop loving or pursuing us, still we are reminded that all who have "ears", have been called to act on the strong convictions that are of God...  and even though we will struggle and face adversity, those who overcome have been invited to the throne of our Father in heaven, sharing this seat with Jesus.

AMEN ("GLORY" and "HALLELUJAH" are also acceptable responses to this amazing truth).

Pure Innocence

When you were younger, what did you always want to be when you grew up?  It’s okay, no one will make fun of you for bringing up your old childhood dreams… I won’t have any of that on my blog.

For me, I always wanted to be a detective, or an FBI agent, I was always drawn to puzzles and mysteries… some days I wanted to be a pro-athlete, soccer mostly… other times when I felt a little more adventurous I dreamt of being Indiana Jones, a Ninja Turtle, or even Peter Parker (That is Spiderman for you old folks)…  But that was back in the day when we were able to dream, encouraged to dream.  Now, I have this feeling that I’m too old to dream… that I have to think “rationally” and refrain from stirring emotions, why?

Why is it that as adults we no longer dream?  Where has our “pure innocence” gone?  

I know I’m not the only one, but somewhere in this adult transformation I learned to be rational, limited, and boring.  Every time we dream our ideas our challenged by our friends, family, and even ourselves. 

What happened to dreaming big?  What happened to being the change we wish to see in the world?  Are we really that okay with our comfortable lives that we’ve lost all reason to dream big, and dream often? 

It’s okay; I’m not going to be entirely pessimistic tonight. In fact, I do believe that adults are still capable of dreaming, and dreaming big.  We may not dream in the same elaborate fashion that we used to when we were young, but we still wish to see change in the world… and we still feel strong emotions toward these changes. 

If you are feeling strong emotions, it’s my inclination to say that those are feelings that are not meant to be ignored.  Instead, those feelings should receive extra close attention.  When God calls us to move we will feel that desire to move strongly.  And knowing that these emotions were placed in your heart by God requires action, no more waiting for the next person…

It’s time to dream again, and it’s time to take action.  The first steps might seem so insignificant, and sometimes it is so hard to simply get started, but getting started is the part where people fail far to often.

The bottom line:  Dream big…   Dream often…  Get started....

(Credit to Grant for reminding me to “dream often”, props roommate.)