He That Hath an Ear

“He That Hath an Ear”

Is a Blog devoted to exploring God’s written Word with an ear to Hear what the Spirit says.

I was going to start this blog with “It is my belief” on page 3. However, on the advice of my daughter who is both an author and publisher. I will start with a life experience or testimony of how the Lord at times has spoken to me through His Word both in Spirit and Truth.

I had asked the Lord into my heart and surrendered my life to Him one week before Easter in 1976. I was nineteen at the time. In the fall of 1985, I was now 29 years old.  My wife and I bought a small summer cabin on a mountain in Harpers Ferry West Virginia. It was our intention to live with her grandmother next door while we renovated the existing cabin into a year-round dwelling and put an addition on.

When we bought the property, the previous owners had built a huge brick barbecue pit off the right side of the cabin as you entered the front door. Whoever built the barbecue pit was untrained in of at least two essential building principles. One, there must be a firm and level foundation, there was none, no foundation at all. And two, they used un-tempered mortar.

As a result, this structure was listing at about 10 to 15 degrees down the mountainside. And the mortar was so weak you could pull bricks out by hand.

The path from our driveway to the front door was made of dirt. During the spring-thaw this path would turn into mud. The mud would become deep enough to sink up to your ankles, literally.

I then had an epiphany. I would dismantle the barbecue pit brick by brick, cleaning the mortar off with a brick hammer as I pulled the bricks out. My purpose was to use the bricks to lay a pathway from our driveway to the front door.

I started working on my project in early August, three months later it is now late October. I’ve dismantled over half of the barbecue pit. In the process of pulling the bricks out and cleaning the mortar off. I would hold the brick in my left hand and the brick hammer in my right hand, then gently chip away at the mortar encrusted on the brick.

During this process it turned out that I was successfully cleaning the bricks, at about a 1 to 1 ratio. That is, I would successfully clean 1 out of every 2 bricks keeping it whole, while the other brick would break in half. So, I started two piles of bricks. one pile of whole bricks, intended for the pathway I was going to lay. And the other pile of broken bricks to fill in potholes and low spots on our property. I had become used to half of the bricks breaking during this process.

It is late October when I went outside to work on the project I dubbed “clean feet”, the dismantling of the barbecue pit. It was chilly when I started working, in the 40’s. I had been working at this for about 45 minutes when I pulled a brick out unusually heavily encrusted with mortar on three faces of the brick.

I wound up working on this single brick for about 15 minutes, holding it, turning side to side chipping away at the mortar ever so carefully. I had whittled the mortar off the brick until there was only about a silver dollar size dollop of mortar left. I gently tapped the last remaining dollop of mortar when this brick broke in half and fell to the ground.

Holding half a brick in my left hand and a brick hammer in my right hand. I am not sure if it was disbelief, anger, frustration or all three. But I immediately tilted my head back and looking up at heaven, yelled out loud “God I hate that”. To know me you would understand I really was directing my communication to God. Not just some comment made in frustration to nobody.

What I was communicating to God in those four words was my frustration of having worked on that one brick so long and having it break just before I was going to place it in my good brick pile. It wasn’t the fact that the brick broke, I had become used to that. It was, I was ready to place it in the good brick pile to use later. I know it sounds funny or irrational, but I took it personally, that the brick broke. After investing so much time in cleaning it up, as if the brick had volition in the matter.

Just as immediately as I yelled those four words towards heaven, the Holy Spirit said to me (within me) three words, “So Do I”.

Message received and understood. Before I knew of the principle or doctrine of the perseverance of the saints, or if there even was such a thing. God had taught me everything I needed to know on the subject in those three words from Him.

What I understood in those three words was this. That God takes a life from the mire of this world and gently starts chipping away at the filth this world encrusted on his/her life. Right at the end when He is ready to use us for His purpose (transforming us into the image of Christ) we voluntarily slide back into the filth, he took us from. I am not talking about some macho Rambo kind of superhuman endurance.

But the voluntary choice to break, a step back into the world after we were taken out of it. This is tantamount to Israel telling God they were going back to Egypt _{NU 14:3-4, Acts 7:39}. It may be because of disappointment, or God did not perform as expected, or, or, or. The reason or because does not matter, the choice does.

It is my belief that most translations available today are very good. And can be read with relative assurance that they communicate what the scriptures have spoken by the Holy Spirit through the original writers. Where I identify a specific translation i.e., KJV, ESV, BSB or any other translation. It is only an agreement with that translation in reinforcing the point I am trying to draw out from that scripture. It is not an endorsement of one translation over another.

With today’s technology available for gathering and researching information. Google, Siri, Snap Chat, A.I. and an almost unlimited host of other search engines and study tools for exploring God’s word and other subjects. All these can make it easier to explore God’s word in depth on an intellectual level.

A person seeking, hungering and thirsting to know God and understand His word. All these can aid in a person’s pursuit of God and help us to understand Him.  No one can teach you to hear what the Spirit says or to hear from God.

However, I will attempt to make the case from the scriptures, on what they say on “hearing with the ear and seeing with the eye and understanding with the heart” _{MT 13:15}, and to bring out from the scriptures some hinderances and some beneficial postures that will position us favorably to hear what God says, in the spirit or inner man.

I will attempt to do this by exploring GOD’s Word and personal testimony.  And the Holy Spirits interactions with me over the years, which I think will be entertaining.

I believe that what can be tremendous tools in understanding God and his will for our lives both corporately and individually. Can also be a trap, to ensnare and draw us away from God.

Attaining knowledge of the scriptures only without discerning wisdom, understanding, and the fear of the Lord, will leave us crippled and unable to Hear what the Spirit Says. In Psalms 103:7 it tells us that God made known His ways (pathway, course, way of life) to Moses and His acts (deeds, actions) to the children of Israel. The difference being, knowing God, and knowing about God. In a later post we will discuss the difference between meditating on the scripture and memorizing the scriptures.  

In his letter to the Corinthians. Paul, through the Holy Spirit warns us that knowledge puffs up, but love builds up _{1Co 8:1 ESV}. Knowledge alone can lead us into a morass of pit falls, such as pride, judgementalism, and beginnings of a hardened heart.

Is not this what Jesus was telling the scribes and pharisees and yes us today, in Mathew 23:23 and in the sermon on the mount MT 5:17-48? The tremendous benefits available to us to further our understanding of God’s word and hopefully His presence. Can also be a trap to lull us into complacency or as the writer to the Hebrews warns his readers to be careful not to drift away from what we have heard. Not substituting knowledge alone of God’s word for maturity or growth. By seeking the Spirits input to speak to us through those words this becomes the difference of, knowing God, and knowing about God.

Jesus told the Samaritan woman in John’s gospel chapter 4 verse twenty-three that true worshipers of God will worship in spirit and truth. Amassing knowledge alone of God’s word, apart from the spirits working within us, we can be in danger of our heart being hardened within us all the while believing we are God’s, Matthew 7:23.

In Revelation, throughout chapters 2 and 3 there is the admonition to hear what the spirit is saying to the churches. He who has an ear, let him hear what the spirit says to the churches. It appears that it is not dependent solely on the attribute of physical hearing alone but hearing in that communication what the spirit is saying.

As God’s word is living and eternal, we must be aware that God may be communicating through His words (speech) something more than the plain meaning of the words used may convey. In chapter 8 of Luke’s gospel the disciples asked Jesus, why do you speak in parables. 

In Proverbs 4:23_BSB it tells us to, “Guard your heart with all diligence, for from it flow springs of life”. The heart in scripture is the center of one’s life and actions. Paul in 1Co 2:14 tells us that the natural person cannot accept the things of God as they can only be understood through the spirit.  

Scriptures are Full of Examples

Let’s begin by looking at examples of people NOT hearing what God was saying. They heard him with their ears but completely missed what he was saying. One of the most obvious is Nicodemus a pharisee and his interaction with our Lord Jesus in chapter 3 of the gospel of John. This is where the Lord Jesus tells Nicodemus that “HE Can Not See the Kingdom of God Unless He is Born Again”.

Nicodemus came to Christ on an intellectual plain. “Teacher”-a person (relaying of facts or instructions). Christ will have none of it and goes right for the jugular vein of the problem. He tells Nicodemus that he must be born of Water and Spirit. Water in scripture is used in part as a symbol or euphemism for God’s word, Ephesians 5:26.  It is not only in water (Truth, God’s Word) but in Spirit also that a person must worship or in this case Understand what Christ was saying to Nicodemus. Nicodemus you must be Born Again. To which Nicodemus on an intellectual or natural plain questions HOW can a man be born again, can he enter again into his mother’s womb.

In chapter 5 of the Gospel of John we have the healing of an invalid at the pool by the Sheep Gate. As a result of Christ healing this man on the sabbath a discussion ensues as to Christs authority to do this. The apex of this chapter in my opinion, is verse 39 and 40 of chapter 5, “You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life”.

Which brings into clarity a stark reality. The possibility of searching the scriptures only to miss the entire focus of them, that is Jesus Christ. Searching the scriptures on an intellectual level only without asking the Holy Spirit to open our ears, eyes, and heart, to Hear What the Spirit Says can be possible.

We must not look for hidden meaning in everything we read past the plain or obvious meaning. Scripture also tells us there is nothing new under the sun. Scripture MUST interpret scripture. However, we need to be seeking, and knocking, and asking for the Lords help and direction. If we do not, we are going to go astray. Cursed is the man that trust in mankind and makes flesh his strength _{JER 17:5}.

If we evaluate God’s word apart from the Spirit of God with our heart or intellect alone, in our strength or comprehension only. A heart that does not seek the meaning of God’s words as understood through the spirit of God and how to apply it in our lives. Then we can only fall into error. God’s witness of the natural man’s heart is that it is desperately wicked and deceitful above all things. _{JER 17:9}

Finally, we want to look at Abram and God’s call of him. The promises made to him and how Abram, looked only in the natural for the fulfillment of them. I will develop this more fully in a book I am writing on faith called “Beyond Unbelief”.

Let me say briefly, that in chapter 13 of Genesis God reveals himself to Abram, and in chapter 15 God comes to Abram in a vision. He tells Abram that He (GOD) is his (Abram’s) shield and exceeding great reward and reaffirms the promises he made to him. It’s been approximately 10 years since God told Abram to leave Haran and made the promises to him.

Let us ponder for a moment, exactly what God said to Abram and Abram’s response. The creator of the universe and all creation the “I Am that I Am” _{EX 3:14} has told Abram that He (God) is his (Abram’s) shield and very great reward. That is, God himself the God head, is Abram’s very great reward and protector.

What is Abram’s response to this declaration from God but, “Lord God what will you give me, for I continue childless” _{GN 15:2 ESV}. God has just declared “I Am” is your reward “I Am” is your shield. We see in Abram’s response the inability to grasp the true purpose of God when Abram was instructed to leave Haran. Which is the revelation of Jesus Christ “the Promise”. In chapter 8 of John’s gospel verse fifty-six, Christ tells the Pharisees that Abraham rejoiced to see His (Christ’s) day. Abraham moved from an intellectual understanding of God’s word to understanding the purposes of God in those words.

Again, we will develop this more fully in the book on faith “Beyond Unbelief”. We see that Abram’s faith is still earth bound or as I call it “Under the Sun faith” just as Nicodemus was centuries later. Looking for the natural fulfilling of God’s promises only.

To be sure Abram would have a son, indeed he already did. Ishmael the son of the flesh, not the son of promise which God said he would have. They were both physical sons. However, Isaac was the son of promise, as God had waited until Abram and Sarai were without strength in their natural mortal bodies to secure the promise that whose fulfillment necessitated a son, but a son by faith.

It is my belief that God’s word will have natural fulfillment. However, if we see that as the only thing God was trying to reveal through his word, then we like Abram will fall into anxiousness and will be prone to take matters into our own hands (or “help God out”). God is a spirit in heaven and does not REALLY (emphasis mine) grasp how the real world works under the sun. If we have this mindset, this is where the Ishmael’s in our lives are created. The sermon on the mount, not muzzling an ox, the Samaritan woman at the well and many, many other examples are there for us to see if we are looking, listening, and seeking to understand.

And They Overcame BY the Blood of the Lamb and the Word of Their Testimony

I will now draw on one more interaction where the Lord instructed me in understanding beyond my natural mind. In my thirties and early forties, I had the opportunity to be a guest speaker in churches of different denominations. Non-denominational, Baptist, Methodist, and Wesleyan. I was known for knowing the scriptures well. As such, I taught different principles, precepts or doctrines as laid out in the scriptures.

One of these was the sign of circumcision. I used to go through the scriptures starting with Abraham then explaining the covenant significance of circumcision and usually ending in Romans. This is before what God taught me, by listening not just with my natural ears or intellect alone.  

In teaching on circumcision, I would have given lip service to or at least taught from head knowledge to the fact that circumcision of the heart was the reality of the sign of the covenant of circumcision. That was, until the Lord taught me the significance of or the reality of circumcision, in God’s circumcising our hearts. 

It was late July on the east coast where we lived at the time. Mid-nineties with humidity in the upper eighty to low ninety percent was normal for 30 days or more. As the sole provider for my wife and eight children there were times when there was more month, than paycheck. It was during one of these times that I told my wife that we were not going to be able to pay for the trash pickup for about a week.

We lived in the city limits and had to pay for trash pickup. I thought it would be no problem as we had three 45-gallon trash cans out back. I went past a weigh station on my way to work where I could dump bagged trash for free.

So, I talked with my wife and asked her to tell the children that when they dumped the trash outside in the cans to make sure they tied the bags up tight. That way I could load them in the car to take them to the weigh station without a lot of mess. About a week later, I woke up on a hot July morning a few minutes early so I could load the trash in the car to dump on my way to work.

When I went outside to grab the bags, I discovered there had been a breakdown in communication or at least a total lack of understanding of the instruction my wife had given our children. What I found was they had taken the untied trash bags to the cans, turned them upside down, shook out all the trash and threw the now empty bag on top of the trash.

I now had to put all the rotting trash back into bags. I found myself up to my arm pits in this delightful smell from the rotting trash. I finally finished the chore of loading the bags and left for work.

It was about a 25-minute drive to work. I wish I could say that I was rejoicing in all things and giving thanks in all things during this drive. However, quite the opposite was true to my shame. I spent the 25 minutes while driving to work complaining to God. Blaming my kids, my wife, our dog (we did not even have a dog) telling God it was not fair. I was working as hard as I could, and this was unfair and unnecessary.

I complained to the Lord, the entire 25-minute drive to work, how unfair it was, and so on, and so forth, you get the picture. As soon as I turned on the street to the weigh station where I would dump the trash. The Holy Spirit spoke to me and said, “Kevin it’s time to take out the trash”. I knew immediately God was not talking about the car full of smelly trash bags I had with me, but the smelly trash in my heart.

I cannot tell you exactly what God did or cut (taken) out of me that day. But there was a physical difference in my countenance that was noticed by my wife. I knew the Lord had cut (taken) out something in my heart that was unpleasing to Him, a circumcision of the flesh that had taken place in my heart.

Jesus tells the disciples in Mark chapter 7:18-23 it is not what goes into a man that defiles him, but that which comes out of the heart that defiles him.

I can assure you that when I taught on circumcision again, we covered all the points I used to. However, the emphasis was on the circumcision of the heart now and not the sign of circumcision in the flesh. The real fulfillment of the covenant sign of circumcision is evidenced  or made manifest in our heart, not the physical flesh. That is why Paul says with God’s authority that circumcision or uncircumcision (that is in the physical body) avails anything _{GAL 5:6, 6:15} God fulfills the covenant of circumcision not in our flesh but through His spirit in our heart _{Rom 2:29.} We will discuss this more in depth in the next blog.

I look forward to discussing further aspects of listening to God with an ear to “Hear What the Spirit Says” in upcoming blog posts. I plan to post a new blog every three to four weeks Kevin Meier