Matthew 13:15a – For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing,
There He was; the Lord Himself preaching His heart out and some would hear, and some would not. How daunting it must be for the preachers when they preach the Word realizing that if they ignored Christ, how will their message ever get through? It s for certain that the world has partial hearing loss when it comes to Spiritual things. The Word of God convicts the soul, you’ll either change or turn it off; because if you continue to listen you will not continue to stay in your sin.
I think there are at least three reasons we lose our Spiritual hearing.
Noised Induced –
I detest talking to someone when the television is on. I’m either listening to them or the show or bits of both and only half catching either. It ends up being a mass of confusion. Listening to the Holy Spirit can be much the same if we refuse to turn off the world around us. You can hear one or the other clearly, but bits of both leads to confusion. Listen to something loud enough and long enough can cause at least temporary hearing loss, and so it goes spiritually. If you constantly listen to worldly music and entertainment, if you read magazines instead of the Bible, if you stay at home and watch the race instead of going to church, the noise drowns out the Holy Spirit. God will take second place to nothing, and why should He?
Selective hearing –
When the world speaks contrary to the scripture regarding lifestyle choices and behaviors you cannot partially hear and entirely obey. We cannot pick and choose from the scripture what is right for us and omit what doesn’t fit into our lives. Amen? God is 100% correct. The longer you read the scripture, the more prophesy you see coming to life right before our very eyes, the more you realize the end of the book is nearing. Just because you don’t like, doesn’t make it null. And believe me when I say there is always effect for failing to obey the Word of God. ~ I’ve gotten that tee shirt.
Natural causes – The gradual loss of sensitivity to hearing. It almost goes unnoticed; until one day you realize you’ve missed half of what someone says. It’s often embarrassing for the listener, so rather than confessing it they just go on, pretending all is well. The world has desensitized themselves to hearing God. When the Holy Spirit moves on them to testify or do something out of character they refuse to leave their comfort zone. And eventually their closed off the Spirit completely. He could be sitting right beside them in a literal form and they wouldn’t notice.
Another reason for Spiritual hearing loss is Trauma – life circumstances
It’s true when they say that a painful circumstance will either make you bitter or better. I have no idea why horrific things happen to good people, and why horrific people receive good things. But scripture tells us that it rains on the just and the unjust. And one of the greatest of all truths is Romans 8:28 ~ “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”
There is a true story of twin girls who were molested by their father and one chooses to forgive and the other chooses to forgo forgiveness. Guess which one lived the happier life? Not to make light of the situation, because no one should ever violate a person in that way. But the twin who refused to forgive relived the circumstance every day, and the twin who forgave moved on to the newness of life that the forgiveness of Christ affords. Traumatic circumstances like this can cause a person to turn God off. And it’s a wonderful tool of Satan to help them with the volume button. If you’ve been hurt, get your Bible and turn the volume up as loud as you can to drown out what Satan is telling you. Because in those pages are healing. God to a good Bible preaching church, because in the Pastor’s anointed words are healing.
Hearing brings healing. There’s a reason you may walk by car and hear a loud mouthed preacher shoutin’ to the top of his lungs. I’m drowning out the world. You may see me at a the restaurant table reading my bible rather than having lunch with someone, I’m drowning out the world. And its not that my life has been perfect, its just that I’ve chose to listen to God because I’ve experienced the peace He offers. And so can you.