“Brothers Beware”

There is a ministry every saint is called to fully participate in – the ministry of “Beware!” The word denotes a cautious watchfulness for any sign of danger. Our call to the ministry of “beware” is found in Hebrews 3:12 – “Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you and evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God.” The Greek word used here is “blepo” (to see); it is used in combination with another word meaning “not once”. This is why translators of the NIV used the phrase “See to it that there be in none of you.” A more literal translation might be rendered in this way – “Look so that not even once there will be in any one of you an evil heart of unbelief.”

We are all called to the ministry of “Looking to it that not even once” there will be in anyone among us an evil heart of unbelief. What then are we to “look” for? How does one recognize the early warning signs that someone has begun to develop an “evil heart of unbelief?” Those who know the scriptures well will remember that the actual departure from the living God begins in an inner falling away from full devotion. Here is the record of the beginning of Solomon’s fall “”As Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was not fully devotedto the Lord his God, as the heart of David his father had been.” No one but God knew when Solomon left his first love, but it became evident eventually; apathy always precedes apostasy. When desire has conceived it gives birth to sin, (another love). Another love full grown leads to divorce.

What early signs are we to look for? How does internal unbelief manifest itself in external actions? Understanding the relationship between faith and love is a key to answering this question. Paul explained to the Galatians that “neither circumcision nor un-circumcision has any real power, but real power comes from faith working through love.” Seeing the connection between faith and love will help us realize that whenever there is an area of “unbelief” at work, the first area to be affected is our ability to love. Can we see when a person has left their first love for God? Not initially, but we can recognize the first result of a loss of faith and love towards God. The first sign that a person’s love for God has been compromised is that their love for other brothers and sisters has been impaired. “…he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?”

Those who are loving their brethren are “abiding in God and God in them.” They have crossed over from death unto life, from darkness to light. Those no longer abiding in God will not have the ability to continue to love their brethren. The first effect of not abiding in the love of God is the loss of the ability to walk in the light of fellowship. “If we walk in the light as He is in the light we have fellowship with one another.” Without love, we cannot walk in the light, and darkness is the realm where those who think less of their brothers abide. “He who says he is in the light, and hates(literally –to think less of) his brother, in is darkness until now.” The first recognizable sign of an “evil heart of unbelief” is a loss of fervent love for a brother or sister in Christ. Everyone abiding in love is loving others as Christ has loved them. Only those abiding in God, living by faith and walking in the fellowship of light are able to do this.

Those who have developed an evil heart of unbelief, begin to walk in darkness and soon begin to have fellowship with the prince of darkness – “the accuser of the brethren.” The loss of faith towards God will nearly always first be seen in the loss of faith towards another brother or sister in Christ. When faith is working through love, hope and endurance never fail towards others. Faith is the evidence of things not seen, and faith enables us to see what the grace of our Lord will do in the brother or sister with whom we are having a difficulty. The heart of faith then works through a love that bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things and endures all things, and the relationship does not fail because love never fails.

Those who have lost faith in God cannot keep faith in people. Unbelief in God manifests itself in impatience with others. The most famous unbelieving generation in the scriptures is the generation that God redeemed from Egypt but destroyed in the wilderness. How did their unbelief towards God always first manifest itself? – in their quarrel with Moses. Their evil heart of unbelief was first expressed by accusing the person they blamed for being responsible for their trouble. This is also what David’s men did when they were wrestling with the shock of having lost their wives and children to the Amalekites. They became so disheartened that their hearts turned against David and actually contemplated stoning him. An evil heart of unbelief towards God will eventually manifest itself in accusing and blaming others for our difficulties. Once faith has been compromised, love will always be crippled.

When we fall from the place of faith working through love, we will revert most readily into that which is not of faith – “the Law is not of faith.” Where faith has ceased to work the Law will begin to work. We have already stated that the person no longer abiding in God will end up walking in darkness. Darkness is the hour when Satan works, but his favorite tool to accuse is “the Law” and it only takes “a little leaven” of Law to pollute the entire perspective of an unbelieving heart. In order to justify the decision not to fellowship with someone, there must be a “legal” righteousness legitimizing the judgment. Whereas “love is the bond of perfection”, the Law is the “dividing wall of hostility.” Love covers a multitude of sins, but the work of the Law is to expose sin. When faith is working through love, mercy is rejoicing over judgment. When the leaven of the Law is polluting the heart of the unbeliever, partitions are built dividing one person from another.

The one in whom an evil heart of unbelief has begun to work will soon be on one side of an issue based upon the principal of being in the “right” and acting as an accuser rather than a reconciler. If we are not seeing our brothers through the eyes of faith working through love, we will see them through the leaven of the law working wrath. When we have fallen from the faith, having left our first love – we will not necessarily be “lawless”, we will likely become very legalistic and principled. – Pharisees.

If we find ourselves unable to walk with someone who we once considered a dear brother or sister because we can no longer overlook or cover their glaring faults, “Beware the evil heart of unbelief.” Those who eventually depart from the faith, take their first steps by blaming others for their inability to enjoy fellowship. Blame is the language of the law of seeing others as they are. Faith is the language of love seeing others as what they will be.

When we are being filled with all the joy and peace of believing, fellowship is always sweet and difficulties are a bearable and fruitful. Those being filled with joy and peace in believing abound in hope for others – “love suffers long and is kind.” The first sign of an evil heart of unbelief is an unforgiving readiness to expose sin based upon the righteousness of the Law. Love is the bond of perfection, the foundation of our fellowship in faith. The heart no longer of faith, backslides into the Law, and becomes the dividing wall of hostility.

So brethren “BEWARE” – WATCH - LOOK! The first sign that we have developed an evil heart of unbelief is when we are no longer able to love everyone just as Christ has us.

A Covenant of Promise

The Covenant of Promise

The covenant of Abraham is a covenant of Promise.  God’s call to Abraham is an invitation to “come” to the land I will show you, “come” to me and I will make you what I have designed for you to become, and “come” and I will bless you and you will become a blessing.  God’s call to Abraham was “come out” of your country, “come out” of your father’s house, and “come out” your way of life, and live the life I will show you.  It is an invitation to experience God’s blessings based upon God’s promises.  The call of God for those who have ears to hear is to believe the promises of the covenant God invites us to partake of.   

Is this not the same invitation wisdom cries out daily, at the heights along the way, at the city gates, and at every intersection where men and women pass in their daily routines?  “She has sent out her maids, and she calls from the highest point in the city. Let all who are simple come in here! She says to those who lack judgment. Come eat my food and drink the wine I have mixed. Leave your simple ways and you will live; walk in the way of understanding.”   Wisdom’s cry is a constant invitation of promise to a way of life the simple and those who lack judgment are blind to.

This same call is echoed again in the invitation of our Lord Jesus.  “Come unto Me all ye who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you and learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly of heart and you shall find rest for your souls.”   His call is the promise to give rest unto the souls of men who are wearied and burdened from going their own ways.  He promises that those who receive Him will have the abundant life He came to give all men.

Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, sums up his message to those gathered outside the upper room with this call – “For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call.”  He explained to those astonished onlookers that what they were witnessing was “the promise of the Holy Spirit” being poured out, and he called them to partake of the promise by coming out of the corrupt generation that they were living with. 

Paul also received a great revelation of the promises of God we are called to.  In his 2^nd letter to Corinth he wrote “For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us.”  Later in the same letter, he pleaded “Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord.”  Paul’s personal quest and his equally fervent desire for every believer was to fully experience every promise of God in Christ Jesus. 

The call of both the Spirit and the bride is the invitation to come and partake of the promise of eternal life – “And the Spirit and the bride say, Come! And let him who hears say come! And let him who thirsts come.  Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely.”   God’s desire to redeem men from the curse of sin and death has always gone forth in a call to come and partake of the promise of His goodness.  He takes no delight in the punishment of the wicked, but delights to show mercy to those who have heard the invitation and responded in faith to partake of the promises.   God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but those who refuse to His invitation to come and be saved, forfeit all hope of experiencing His promises.

Peter’s own understanding of the promises God were the basis of his call to those of like precious faith to give all diligence to add to their faith.  “As His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.”   It is in the light of these exceedingly great and precious promises that Peter concludes – “But also for this very reason, giving all diligence to add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love.”    

The promises of God are the sole reason for giving all diligence.  This is what compelled Paul to strain towards what lay ahead.  The believer who has lost sight of God’s promises loses the motivation to give all diligence.   The promises of God are only realized through the full knowledge of Christ Jesus, therefore this is where the heart and mind of a believer aware of these promises is set.  Those who minds are set upon “earthly” things have lost their spiritual focus and become “near sighted” and “blind” to the promises set before them.   God has already blessed us in the heavenly realm with “every spiritual blessing in Christ Jesus”, and those with the greatest awareness of these spiritual blessing are pressing toward the mark of fully knowing Christ.  Their hearts and minds are not set upon things on earth, because the treasure they are pursuing is not earthly, but heavenly, not carnal but spiritual.  They are aware that the tradition handed down to them by their earthly fathers is an empty way of life without promise, leading to destruction.   They have come to understand that living to satisfy the lusts of their flesh is spiritual death. 

The god of this world has one aim, to blind the minds of the unbelieving so that they cannot see the light of the good news (promises) of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.   Satan does this much in the same way as the foreign Europeans used “trinkets” to persuade the Native Americans to give up their real treasure.   His strategy is to occupy our minds with trinkets of present pleasures to obscure the promised spiritual treasures God has given us in Christ Jesus. 

Those who continue in the words of Jesus are the only ones who become true disciples; they alone fully come to know the truth of the promises of eternal life; knowing this truth sets them free from being enslaved by Satan’s trinkets.   All of these disciples share a common passion; they are all on a quest to fully discover the riches of the treasures God has promised them in Christ Jesus.  Their lives are a diligent pursuit to lay hold of eternal life and their message to others is the same message that are hearing themselves – COME! Leave your simple ways and you will live.  Let him who has ears to hear – let him COME!  Let everyone who is thirsty COME!  God has promised and He is faithful, COME! let us return to the Lord.

makrothumia

The Ministry of the Watchman

Ezekiel was made a “watchman”, a person peering through a spiritual “scope” in order to warn the righteous and unrighteous of the danger of apostasy.   The New Testament term “overseer” comes from the same word used in the Septuagint – “skopon” (our English word for scope).   Ezekiel’s ministry was to scope out  disobedience and sound the warning in order to give the righteous and unrighteous opportunity to avoid the consequences of their sin.  This was to be God’s means of mercy and grace to His people Israel; herein is the ministry of the watchman defined.

The ministry of the watchman reappears in the New Testament: “Brethren, if anyone among you wanders from the truth, and someone turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins.”  James 5:19-20   “Wandering away from the truth” is what the watchman is to "scope out" and warn against.   Consider the parallel verse from Ezekiel 33:12 “And you son of man, say to the sons of your people, the righteousness of the righteous man shall in no way rescue him in whichever day he should wander.”  Again in verse 18, Ezekiel is told “In the turning away of the righteous man from his righteousness, should he do lawlessness, he shall die in them.” 

The ministry of the watchman is a ministry of “turning “ men away from lawlessness.  Paul understood that this "turning away" is the key indicator of those who truly belong to the Lord. “The solid foundation of the Lord stands firm, sealed with this inscription; The Lord knows those who are His and let everyone who names the name of the Lord turn away from unrighteousness.”  II Timothy 2:19    Paul warned the Corinthians in much the same way – “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived…” I Corinthians 6:9

The ministry of the watchman is grace and mercy to both the righteous and unrighteous.   The righteous man who trusts in his righteousness and wanders away from the truth will die in his sin.  The unrighteous man who turns away from his lawlessness and does righteousness will live and the multitude of his former sins will be covered.  The watchman is assigned to make the message heard - No one will live who continues to sin without turning away.   This is the message and ministry of the watchman. 

This is what James is reminding the believers whom he is addressing.  “Brethren if anyone AMONG YOU wanders away from the truth…”   Only those who have received the truth and walked in it for a season can be described as having “wandered away from the truth.”   This verse should not be understood to be addressing those who have never believed the truth or been converted.   Turning a sinner from the error of his way is meant to rescue the “sinners” who have walked AMONG US!   Those who have once walked in the truth and wander away from it need to be turned back in order to save their souls from death.  

Paul was one of the greatest watchmen of all times.  He so understood the need of this ministry to the church that he reminded the elders of Ephesus “Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all men. For I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God. …Therefore watch, and remember that for three years I did not cease to warn everyone night and day with tears.”  Acts 20

The church is in great need of instruction, but instruction without the ministry of warning falls short of God’s full grace.  The grace that brings salvation, disciplines (corrects) us to deny ungodliness, and worldly lusts, so that we might live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present age.  Paul so understood the importance of instruction and admonition working together, that he described his own ministry in this way – “…to whom God willed to make known the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.  Him we preach, warning and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.”  Colossians 1:27-28

Therefore, let us be thankful for and render that cup of water to those watchmen/overseers who give themselves no rest and give the Lord no rest until they see God's people established in Jerusalem (the city of peace) that home of the spirit of righteous men made perfect.  They do this first out of love for God and secondly because they know that they will render an account for the souls under the scope of their assigned ministry.   We can help these watchmen/overseers by being submissive to them so that their work can be with joy rather than with groaning.  If the watchmen/overseers groan, they may be tempted to stop their ministry so beneficial to everyone - remember Elijah!

The prophets are the watchmen in Israel, yet they are usually dishonored in their own home town and among their own people.   Because their primary ministry involves warning those who have begun to wander away from the truth, their message brings them difficulty.   Confronting those who have wandered away from the truth has never been popular according to Jesus.  “Blessed are you when men shall revile you, and persecute you and say all manner of evil against you falsely because of me….for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”   Prophets always have more persecution than popularity. The teacher is honored with the endearing title of  “Rabbi”, the prophet is derided as a “religious fanatic.”

Hosea explained the reason for this treatment “Let Israel know this. Because your sins are so many and your hostility so great, the prophet is considered a fool, the inspired man a maniac.  The prophet, along with my God, is the watchman over Ephraim, yet snares await him on all his paths, and hostility in the house of his God.”   Those who need the watchman’s ministry the most, usually welcome it the least.  Even our Lord tasted this – “He came to that which was His own, and His own received Him not.”  Jesus came not to call the righteous, but the unrighteous to repentance.  He brought the word that would heal His own people of their wrong ways and they crucified Him for it.  This fulfilled the words of the prophets - "they hated me without reason."

makrothumia

The DE Liberation of Women

Now here is a cause worth promoting and celebrating – the DE – liberation of women.  Paul promoted women’s Deliberation, and Peter jumped on the bandwagon too.   Sadly, the Deliberation of women movement has lost much of its early momentum as the DE has been lost to a great extant.  The only place the De liberation of women ever had a strong beginning was in the church, but the DE liberation of women in the church is now a very controversial matter.

Terms often need a definition in order to glean their meaning.  DE liberation  comes from the French language, the root word being deliberate – a compound of the preposition “de”(of or from) and “libra” (scale).   Deliberate therefore applied to things that had been weighed in the scales to access their worth.  

Some assume that modern, “liberated” women have increased in worth, but how are we to know the worth of women who  no longer “weigh on the scale”?   Many women have an aversion to scales!  This is an area where nearly all women insist upon privacy – unless of course they believe they are doing very well.  But enough rabbit trailing – back to our DE liberate topic.

Nowhere is it more evident that women have abandoned Paul and Peter’s DE liberation movement than in the mode of women’s dress.   Here we are able to discern the difference between women who once were DE liberated in how they dress but are now simply liberated.  There is no disputing that Paul and Peter would both be greatly disturbed at this trend, for both of these two spirit-filled apostles were staunch DE liberationists. 

Their instructions on women’s dress called for careful DE liberation in the choices that women were to make while adorning themselves.   A simple word study on the appropriate biblical passages will substantiate this unequivocably (without a doubt).  Both of these distinguished church founders wanted women to dress DE liberately – weighing carefully their choice of attire. I will not delve into the specific cautions included in their instructions, but would strongly encourage those who are still with me to examine them on your own.

What I will say is that SIN happens when women fail to dress DE liberately; yes, many miss the mark simply because they have not carefully weighed what they put on.  Improper dress can be due to “intentional” or “unintentional” factors, but the affects of either were the apostles concern. That is why they both exhorted Christ honoring women to dress DE liberately. 

In order to restore the DE liberation of women movement in our churches and our homes, we will have to give careful consideration and pay close attention to this subject, awkwardness or difficulty notwithstanding.   Pastors, Dads, and Moms, those under our care may not be “intentionally” dressing inappropriately, but without instruction DE liberate dressing will likely never occur.    If our wives and or our daughters are NOT dressing DE liberately, be a Parent, and exercise our God given calling to oversee those under us.   If we see attire that has not been carefully “weighed” – DE Liberated – our place is to help.

This is one area where the “liberation” of women will never produce true freedom.   Virtuous women of faith do not seek liberation from God’s council;  the liberty they seek is “from” conformity to the world never “to” it.  Godly women will always be very DE liberate in how they dress.   

DE liberated women do not fear the oppression or opinion of men.   DE liberated women are empowered by God Himself to throw off any unjust oppression of man-made tradition or rules, but a DE liberated woman will never throw out the godly concerns of the apostles of Jesus Christ.   Virtuous women always weigh everything they do very carefully – in word, in deed and in dress.

Mercy Unrecognized

Knowing our hearts tend to wander 
our Father has safeguards in place

Those men borne about by His Spirit, 
His own vessels of mercy and grace

These servants who call out in wisdom
 to those in their own eyes thought wise

We sadly too oft in our ignorance
 this grace and true mercy despise

Our Lord Himself knew this same treatment
 as One sent to reclaim His own

Saw most close their eyes and their ears to Him, 
and harden their hearts like a stone

Do we claim we’re past this same danger, unshakably firm that we stand

 While blind to how many around us are setting aside His command

To steadfastly render all diligence our election and calling make sure

Salvation assured not to many, save those few whose love will endure

Yet knowing a judgment awaits us, the record of all we have done

We’ll each give account for our actions and words every unwholesome one

These men borne about by His Spirit like prophets of God gone before

Are still much opposed by the people their message is meant to restore

For discipline never is pleasant but lovingly comes with much pain

To rescue the spiritually hardened and turn them to God once again

So beware lest we quench divine fire deceived we’re right in our own eyes

Rejecting true grace of His mercy the same prophecy we now despise

Seeing God, A Promise to the Pure

We have heard -
"The pure in heart shall see God." The word Matthew uses for "pure" here is "katharoi", a word translated "cleanse" in most passages. So it is the "cleansed" heart that shall "see" God.

This gives all of us great hope to be able to "SEE" our Father - if we will allow our heart to be cleansed! But how shall a young man "cleanse" his way? OH YES! "By taking heed to Thy word!" Isn't this what happens when the Holy Spirit convicts us of sin as we are walking in the light? The Spirit brings the word of cleansing to our attention and if we receive His word, and "confess" our sin, which literally means "to say the same", then He is faithful and just to both "forgive our sin" and “CLEANSE US FROM ALL UNRIGHTEOUSNESS.”

This is how we keep a "CLEANSED" heart. In the First Covenant, no one who was ceremonially unclean was even allowed to approach the temple area. If a man had become unclean, and refused to receive the "water of cleansing", he was to be "cut off" from his people (ie put to death). Refusal to confess our sins and be "cleansed" of all unrighteousness" will also prevent us from being able to approach our Father and will result in the same judgment, actually even worse - the second death! Only eternal torment is worse than physical death without mercy!

Do we want to "SEE" God? Then - "let us purify (cleanse)
our self from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord.” Cleansing our self is how we perfect holiness -without which no man shall see the Lord.

Those who want to "SEE" God will be diligent to "cleanse" themselves, every time the Holy Spirit points out a sin to them. This is how we keep a "cleansed" heart and are then able to approach the throne of grace in full confidence to receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

God wants to be seen by all, but He will not let the "unclean" approach Him. If we want to "SEE" our Father, we must be continually cleansing our hearts in order to perfect the holiness that without which neither we nor any other man will ever "SEE" the Lord.

The Importance of Hearing

Jesus gave us the key to receiving the abundance of grace that His Father and ours has made fully available to us through the ministry of the Holy Spirit.  “He who has ears to hear – LET HIM HEAR!” Hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit is a spiritual discipline we must carefully undertake.  The only way the Holy Spirit can guide us into all truth is by leading us through what He says to us.  He does not force us into all truth, but He guides us into all truth by speaking the truth to us.   If we do not learn to hear Him, we will miss out on much of what God desires for us. 

    Jesus said of the Holy Spirit that “When He the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all truth for He will not speak on His own, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will TELL you things to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and DECLARE it to you.”   John 16:13-1  Jesus spoke to the seven churches of Asia and at the end of every instruction He gave to them through the vision John had were these words, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear what the Spirit is SAYING to the churches.”   God leads us into paths of righteousness by speaking to us through the Holy Spirit.  This is why Abraham was declared righteous; God spoke to him, he heard, believed and obeyed what he heard.

     The righteous shall live by Faith, and “FAITH COMETH BY HEARING”.  A more literal translation of this verse in Romans 10:17 is “faith cometh by the thing heard”.   When the Holy Spirit speaks the words of Jesus Christ to us, this gives us the opportunity to receive His words.  We can choose to ignore His words and fail to hear, or we can choose to receive His words and believe what we have heard.   This hearing and believeing is what it takes to do the works of God.  When the Jews asked Jesus, “what must we do in order to do the works of God”, Jesus gave them the clear answer – “the work of God is to believe in Him whom He sent.”   This is how we do the works God has appointed for us.  Jesus speaks to us through the Holy Spirit and as we believe what He says to us and obey what we are told, the work of God is done. 

     How critical is it that we learn to hear the Holy Spirit?  Consider how Jesus summed up the meaning of the parable of the sower: “Is a lamp brought to be put under a basket or under a bed?  Is it not to be set on a lampstand?  For there is nothing hidden which will not be revealed, nor has anything been kept secret but that it should come to light. IF ANYONE HAS EARS TO HEAR, LET HIM HEAR.  Then He said, TAKE HEED WHAT (or HOW) YOU HEAR, With the same measure you use, it will be measured to you; and TO YOU WHO HEAR, MORE WILL BE GIVEN. For whoever has, to him more will be given; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him.”   Mark 4:21-25

     Hearing and receiving even more works just like it does when learning a foreign language.  When we are first beginning to learn, we can receive very little from another person who is trying to speak with us.  The more vocabulary we learn, the more we are able to understand what is being said to us.  Our ability to get all the details increases as we begin to grasp more and more of what is being said.   The more of the language we know, the more we are enabled to receive.  This is the same with the hearing of faith.  The more we begin to hear of what the Holy Spirit is saying to us, the more we begin to receive all the fullness of the Lord Jesus that the Holy Spirit wants to DECLARE UNTO US.

    The opposite of hearing well is hearing poorly, and if we are hearing poorly, this will limit our ability to receive the fullness of Jesus that the Holy Spirit longs to declare unto us.  This is the problem the writer of Hebrews was addressing in chapter 5, verse 11-14 “Of whom we have much to say, and hard to explain, since YOU HAVE BECOME DULL OF HEARING.  For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food.  For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But solid belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.”    When a believer is “hearing poorly”, his dullness of hearing limits his or her ability to receive the fullness of Jesus Christ that the Holy Spirit want to DECLARE . 

    So the question we need an answer to is “How do we learn to be good hearers?”    We must first realize that our natural mind can not hear the Holy Spirit, the things the Holy Spirit declares are spiritual truths declared to spiritual men.   We must learn to walk IN THE HOLY SPIRIT by hearing with spiritual ears. How do we learn to walk and keep in step with the Holy Spirit?   We must begin by “establishing a connection” with the Holy Spirit.  Paul explained the importance of this to those in Rome. “Those who walk according to the Spirit, SET THEIR MINDS on the Spirit; those who walk according to the flesh set their minds on the flesh.”   The mind of the flesh does not receive the things of the Spirit but is hostile to God and will not submit.   We must set our minds upon the Spirit.  Those of us who use GPS to navigate know that when we first turn on the GPS it has to “establish a connection” with the satellite; the unit must LINK UP, with what is above.

     Those who desire to walk according to the Holy Spirit must LINK UP with things above by “SETTING OUR MIND ON THINGS ABOVE AND NOT ON EARTHLY THINGS.”   Those who set their minds on things of the earth end up living as an enemy of the cross.   The cross is the means by which the old man of flesh is crucified with Christ so that the new inner man of the spirit can become one spirit with Jesus who has become the life giving Spirit of God.   We either walk by one of two ways; we walk according to the desires of the flesh or we walk according to the desires of the Holy Spirit.   We choose day by day, moment by moment which LINK we are making, whether the flesh or the Holy Spirit  The carnal man, may be an infant in Christ Jesus, but he will forever remain stunted and unable to grow into a mature spiritual man until he fullycooperates with the Holy Spirit in putting to death the deeds of the body, and mortifying his members which are upon the earth.  Paul called this “putting off the old man which is being corrupted by deceitful lusts.”   Carnal believers are those who have yet to put off the old man, and thus their minds are more linked to the earth and the old man with its deceitful lusts.   Spiritual men are mature believers who have cooperated with the Holy Spirit in setting their mind on things above, and putting to death their members upon the earth and putting off the old man.  They are being transformed through the renewing of their mind as they learn to hear the leading of the Holy Spirit.   They stop fulfilling the lust of the flesh and stop making provision for the flesh as they choose to follow what the Holy Spirit is declaring to them.

      Moment by moment as we walk throughout each day, the Holy Spirit is seeking to guide us into all truth.  Every time we are tempted, the Holy Spirit speaks the words of Jesus Christ to us so that we can take the way of escape and bear up under the temptation.   Spiritual believers are those who have learned to hear what the Holy Spirit is saying, and through the faith that comes from what the Spirit is declaring, they overcome the temptation, and the evil one by faith.   We overcome sin by choosing to hear what the Holy Spirit is declaring, and not listening  to our own natural mind and following our own desires.  This is the victory of faith, the faith the comes through hearing what the Holy Spirit is saying.

     Learning to be led by the Spirit and keeping in step moment by moment, is what causes us to begin to receive more and more of the fullness of Christ that the Holy Spirit  is sent to declare unto us.   This is why Paul describes the “sons” (mature ones) of God as those who are “led by the Holy Spirit.”    Those who have exercised their senses to learn to hear the Holy Spirit very carefully receive more and more of all God has already given to us in Christ Jesus.  Those who are poor hearers, limit their own ability to receive more, because they have not yet learned to listen very carefully.   Many of them think they already have and do not even realize how much they are missing out on.   Those who hear carefully begin to receive more and more until they have an abundance of the grace of God. 

      We call what determines how much power can be tranfrered from one point to another “capacity”.   Our spiritual capacity to receive the fullness of Christ is limited by being poor hearers.    It does not matter how much voltage is available to run the powerful machine we have purchased if we have only a little wire to connect the power supply to the machine.  Attempting to transfer a large amount of power through a little cord creates great problems.  The small cord does not have the capacity to transfer all the power that is available.  The more power needing to be transferred from one point to another, the larger the wire is necessary so that it will have adequate capacity for the power to flow through it.  The reason so few of us are filled with the Holy Spirit is we have not fully developed the spiritual capacity to receive all that the Holy Spirit wants to declare to us.   When we are poor hearers, it is hard for the Holy Spirit to declare to us all that He longs to show us.   God has already given us every grace in Christ Jesus, but the way He has designed that the fullness of that grace is to become ours is the ministry of the Holy Spirit taking those things and declaring them unto us.   Until we learn to hear what the Holy Spirit is saying, we will have a limited capacity to receive and will continue to remain spiritually immature and weak. 

     God did not send the light of the world to hide anything from us, light is intended to make everything manifest.  Nothing that God has hidden in Christ Jesus was meant to stay hidden, except to the world – not to His children whom He loves.   If the things God has given us in Christ Jesus are hidden to us, it is our own fault.   We need to examine how we are hearing.  Do we have a hearing problem?  Maybe we have “lost connection” and do not even realize it.   In order to walk according to the Spirit, we must set our minds upon the Holy Spirit.  Through setting our minds on things above, the wisdom from above will begin to flow into us guiding us into all truth and bringing every grace of Jesus Christ so that we can know it and live in it.

He who has ears to hear - CHOOSE TO HEAR!