preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. 2 Timothy 4:2-4
Here is apostle Paul’s ‘charge’ to Timothy (Paul’s younger disciple), when Paul is very close to the end of his ministry. In verse 6 Paul even states “the time of my departure has come.” These instructions couldn’t be more appropriate for today. How many ‘well prepared’ sermons have you listened to? How many are at the spur of the moment and the Holy Spirit bears witness to His words being spoken? Can the Holy Spirit ‘preach’ through you? Are you always listening to Him and ready at any moment to deliver His words to whomever, whenever? Or are you always listening to another voice?
Our culture and technology has more voices now straining and begging to be listened to than ever before. The internet and media are FILLED with voices wanting your ‘ears’. Everywhere people are ‘plugged in’ and listening to some voice more than ever before. Who is plugged into the Holy Spirit’s voice and listening to Him? Who can discern if the voice they’re listening to is really worth listening to? There is an increasing need for our souls and minds to be ‘unplugged’ and in the non-urban spaces of nature. We need to reconnect more often with His creation, and be grounded with it. Our bodies basically are … dirt (from the earth).
then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. Genesis 2:7
Only when we know the Original Voice so well that we will be able to discern what we should and we shouldn’t be listening to. How do we ‘hear’ that Voice? Do you know if Jesus is actually your ‘Lord’, and you’ve asked Him to ‘come into you’, and you ask Him to ‘baptize you’ with His Holy Spirit that you are actually indwelled by His Holy Spirit?
Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 1 Corinthians 6:18-20
What did Jesus promise?
“These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.” John 14:25-27
Are you listening to Him? Are you giving Him any time to teach you? How much do you cherish this relationship with the Holy Spirit? Do you know His Voice inside of you? Can you discern it?
The Voice of the Holy Spirit is wanting to speak to you well beyond the conviction of your sin, He wants to teach you, and give you the Words of Jesus. He wants to tell you of the Father’s love for you. He wants to guide you, and comfort you, and teach you about His Kingdom. He wants to explain scripture to you and help you understand it through the Rhema Word to your heart.
This is how we grow spiritually. This is how we learn to eat the ‘meat’ of the Word rather than always having to drink the spiritual ‘milk’ served most by Sunday morning sermons. The depth of relationship has to do with the humility, honesty, vulnerability, and heart felt questions and conversation shared. This is true in the marriage relationship as well as in the relationship with the Spirit. To just sit and listen with no response to the speaker is a ‘one-way’ road and is the shallowest form of communication and lowest form of teaching. Listening takes real work. Real understanding comes from the Spirit of God whom discerns … hearts, and reveals truth to the ‘listener’.
Work on your listening skills today. First to the Holy Spirit, ask Him what He wants to tell you today. Listen well! Do anything He tells you to do. Then listen carefully to the world around you. Observe. Ask the Holy Spirit to show you, and point out certain things. Ask for His direction, and help. Listen to your spouse, with His wisdom and love. Listen to your children. Listen to your friends, and make it more about them than about you.
Listen.