Ears

There are 52 Sundays in a 365-day year, there may be an extra day which could be a Sunday but could be any other day as well, so we’ll settle for the 52. Agreed? Now, I know that there are some people who go to church every Sunday. So, for 52 days they attend church religiously. Religiously…yes that is the correct word. Religiously, because they hear the Word of God preached repeatedly 52 times, yet they understand absolutely nothing biblical, far less spiritual.

A few years ago, at bible study, someone related an incident where a burglar entered a home, upon seeing said burglar, the owner of the home an elderly lady, started shouting out, “Jesus! Jesus!” and the intruder ran off. I, first-time attendee at this bible study, stood up and said, “Well that’s because at the Name of Jesus etc etc” and took my seat. A regular member of church and bible study then got up and said, “No no. The burglar ran away because the old lady reminded him of his own grandmother who would have taught him the prayer, Gentle Jesus meek and mild.” She, satisfied with her profundity, took her seat.

Sadly, there are too many persons in church who haven’t a clue. Whose “ears are hard of hearing”. They only hear with their natural ears. To be able to hear spiritually is a gift, without this gift, it is impossible to understand even the basic concepts of a spiritual nature.

“The knowledge about the secrets of the Kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them.” – Matthew 13:11 (GNT) Here, Jesus was responding to His disciples who had asked why He spoke in parables.

Going to church every single Sunday does not qualify you to receive this knowledge. What are you doing outside of the regular church service? Are you so attached to the brick and mortar that you are neglecting what is more important?

A man said to me, “I haven’t seen you in church”, my reply, “That’s because I wasn’t in church”, he continued, “But how you expect to get close to God if you don’t come to church?”, my response, “Don’t you understand that you can have a relationship with God outside of the building?” his response, dead silence.

Now please don’t get me wrong, I am certainly not advocating that you don’t attend church services, I am just saying that don’t just attend and do nothing else out of the church. You must do church otherwise, not just in a building that is designated a church. You can go into a church for an hour or mare for 52 Sundays in a non-leap year and leave the building 52 times and still have no understanding whatsoever of God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Spiritual ears are God-given and there are very few churchgoers who, like Jesus’ first-century listeners, have this gift. Why? Jesus, quoting Isaiah’s prophecy, put it this way…

“This people will listen and listen, but not understand…because their minds are dull, and they have stopped up their ears...” – Matthew 13:14, 15 (GNT)

According to Isaiah, dull mindedness which results in blocked ears, is a malady that is not uncommon within the Body of Christ.

Beloved this is a condition we can pass on for without spiritual ears, you can neither hear nor understand spiritual things. We should all want to possess this vital gift, so we need to pray for our spiritual ears to be opened and for the ability to listen, hear and understand spiritual things.

Only then can we, “Listen…if you have ears!” – Matthew 11:15 (GNT)

Amen†

 

Shelley Johnson “Ears” © March 2, 2025