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The Importance of Hearing and Being Heard

One of fundamental needs of the human psyche is the desire to be heard. When a divorce filing cites irreconcilable differences as the cause, quite often one or both partners believe the other simply does not listen to them. When a plaintiff files a civil suit against another, from whom they believe they've incurred harm, there's a desire to have their complaint heard and an appropriate remedy applied. They want to have their day in court. When the Supreme Court hears a watershed case, litigants for both sides of an argument want to be heard by the Justices with the hope a ruling will come down in their favor. All of us would agree that there's nothing quite like being heard when it matters. 

Hearing involves more than just auditory function. It means the mind is creating word pictures as the listening process takes place. When a listener becomes a hearer, there arises an expectation that action is forthcoming on behalf of the one heard. Hearing can be direct or indirect, first hand or second hand. The critical factor is that hearing takes place with an appropriate response to the thing heard.  

The scriptures have a lot to say about hearing and being heard. The word “hear” is used 550 times in the KJV. The past tense “heard” is used 641 times. In biblical terms, hearing occurs on five distinct levels. First, the scripture speaks of men hearing other men. Secondly, it speaks of God hearing men. Thirdly, it addresses perhaps the most fundamental form of hearing: men hearing God. A man who makes the appropriate spiritual adjustments to hear the voice of God will most likely get the first two hearing functions right. Fourthly, God the Father hears God the Son. Lastly, God the Father hears God the Spirit, who resides in every believer, as an integral part of a believer's prayer life. These last two hearing levels are absolutely essential because the entire plan of eternal redemption rests upon them. 

Let's consider first the hearing of men by other men. The third biblical use of “heard” tells of Abram when he heard that his brother's son Lot and all his goods were captured (Genesis 14:14). Abram's reaction to hearing this bad news was to arm and train three-hundred eighteen of his servants, pursue the captors to Dan, defeat them, recover Lot and all his goods (14:15-16). Fortunately for Lot, uncle Abram did far more than merely listen to the bad news. He heard Lot's plight and took action necessary to mount a rescue.

Another poignant instance of hearing took place Ezra heard reports that the people of Israel, after God had graciously turned their captivity and returned them to their homeland, had intermarried with the heathen in surrounding countries and adopted their idolatrous customs. Ezra 9:3 records his response: “And when I heard this thing, I rent my garment and my mantle, and plucked off the hair of my head and of my beard, and sat down astonied.” This evil news of unequal yoking did far more than impact Ezra's eardrums. It impacted his heart inasmuch as he understood how much it must have impacted the heart of God. Oh that news of ungodliness in our fellow man could evoke a similar response from us!

Then there are references to God hearing men. Perhaps no biblical character was more aware of God hearing him than David. References abound. “I cried unto the LORD with my voice, and he heard me out of his holy hill” (Psalm 3:4). “Depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity; for the LORD hath heard the voice of my weeping. The LORD hath heard my supplication; the LORD will receive my prayer” (6:8-9). “In my distress I called upon the LORD, and cried unto my God: he heard my voice out of his temple, and my cry came before him, even into his ears” (18:6). “This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles” (34:6). John revealed a vital key to prayer when he wrote: “And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him” (1 John 5:14-15). The fundamental effectiveness of a man's walk with God is dependent upon God hearing him when he prayers. 

Before a man can expect God to hear him, he must first tune his spiritual ears to hear God. The first two instances of “heard” occur in a context describing the reaction of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden upon hearing the voice of God walking in the cool of the day after they disobeyed him (Genesis 3:8-10). Their reaction was one of fear and aversion for God's presence, the sine qua non of spiritual depravity. Depravity, contrary to the thinking of some, does not signify the inability to hear the words of God. It is rather the distaste for them, a reluctance to abide them. The first couple indeed heard the voice of God, but found it unwelcome, unpalatable due to their fallen state. God's plan of reconciliation through his Son, the Second Adam, was designed to restore broken communion and turn an aversion for the words of God back into fellowship. It would take nothing less than the blood of God Incarnate to bridge that gap.

The phrase “Hear, O Israel” is found five times in the scripture (Deuteronomy 5:1; 6:4; 9:1; 20:3; Mark 12:29). Every hardship and affliction God's people Israel endured was due primarily to a failure to heed this admonition, hear the words of God and obey them. On numerous occasions, Jesus followed up an instruction or admonition with these words: “He that hath ears to hear, let him hear” (Matthew 11:15; 13:9; 13:43). On the Mount of Transfiguration, the Father spoke this words to the disciples of Christ: “This is my beloved Son: hear him” (Mark 9:7; Luke 9:35). To all seven churches Jesus addressed in Revelation, he included the following admonition in each message: “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches” (2:7; 2:11; 2:17; 2:29; 3:6; 3:13; 3:22). An individual or church whose ears are indifferent toward God has no expectation of securing the ear of God!

When it comes to men hearing God, the young Samuel, whose mother Hannah had committed him to the tutelage of Eli, serves as the perfect model (1 Samuel 3:1-10). When the Lord began to call Samuel by name, he thought Eli had called him, and said to his mentor, “Here am I.” After three of these calls, Eli finally figured out it was the Lord who called Samuel. He instructed Samuel that, upon hearing his name called again, to say, “Speak Lord, for thy servant heareth.” Samuel did exactly that upon hearing the Lord's voice again (3:10). That submissive response launched Samuel's ministry and usability as a prophet of God. It seems to me that every youth ministry in every local church should aspire to infuse this kind of attitude in its young people. Such a vision presupposes the same attitude is operative in its adults, beginning with its pastor. Show me a church growing in holiness, obedience and the salvation of sinners, and I'll show you a church with a core of Samuel-like members!

The fourth and fifth levels of hearing are perhaps the most critical because the whole of our redemption rests upon them. The fourth level pertains to God the Father hearing God the Son. The fact that the Son was heard by the Father on EVERY single occasion of prayer secured the vicarious value of his death for sinners. After the friends of deceased Lazarus had removed the stone from his four-day old tomb, Jesus lifted up eyes toward heaven and said: “Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me. And I knew that thou hearest me always...” (John 11:41-42). In another text, we read this of Christ, who was made a priest after the order of Melchisedec: “Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared” (Hebrews 5:7). It is important to note that although Jesus was heard by the Father, the Father did not deliver him from the suffering of the Cross. What the Father hearing the Son DID provide was supernatural grace to endure his suffering and accomplish the Father's will. You and I are the benefactors of that hearing. 

The fifth level of hearing is a subset of the fourth. It involves God the Father hearing God the Son and God the Spirit on behalf of believers. John wrote: “My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (1 John 2:1). An advocate is an attorney for the defense, one who pleads the cause of another. While a believer in Jesus is justified by faith, he or she will NEVER live a sin-free life as a child of God. If and when the believer misses the mark, his Advocate pleads his cause before the Father. When the Son defends one of his own before the Father, who is the Finder of fact, the Father finds in favor of the Defense EVERY time because he is heard EVERY time as the Satisfaction for our sins. Jesus Christ, who IS righteous, makes the case for our eternal security on behalf of those he MADE righteous by faith.

One of the vital roles of the Spirit of God is intercession on the part of believers. “Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God” (Romans 8:26-27). This text accentuates the infinite holiness of God. Crude illustrations of the Spirit's intercession might be a signal booster for a TV antenna and a final filter in any number of applications. In our prayer lives, the Spirit performs both these functions, filtering the heart desires of a believer and delivering, with appropriate divine strength, our petitions in accord with the will of God. When the Father hears the prayers of believers, it's because he hears both the Son and Spirit, who are advocating and interceding their behalf. 

Hearing and being heard are fundamentals of life. There are none so miserable as those who will not hear or cannot be heard. When was the last time you knew you were heard, either by your fellow man or by God himself. Moreover, when was the last time you knew you heard God speaking to you? The first stanza of an old Fanny J. Crosby hymn comes to mind: “Pass me not, O gentle Savior, Hear my humble cry; While on others Thou art calling, Do not pass me by.” 

 
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