Spiritual Hearing Checkup: How to Tell If You're Deaf

BQ: Spiritual deafness is mentioned often throughout the Bible, and it's a lot worse than being physically deaf. I got this ball rolling for myself by reading some verses mentioned spiritual deafness, so I'll start off by relaying some of them to you.

Eze 12:2 “Son of man, you live in the midst of the rebellious house, who have eyes to see but do not see, ears to hear but do not hear; for they are a rebellious house."

Zec 7:11 "But they refused to pay attention and turned a stubborn shoulder and stopped their ears from hearing."

2 Ti 4:4 "and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths."

These all seem bad, and we can look at them and say, "Yep, I've met the world before and it really sucks!"  However, these verses are always referring to people that are allegedly followers of God, so we need to be very careful that they're not describing us. More tomorrow.






BQ: Yay! Spiritual deafness is what we're still looking at. Yesterday we saw that people who claim to be Christians can be very spiritually deaf.  Can a person truly think that they're a good-to-go, good-doing Christian and still be...ya know...in spiritual danger? 

The answer is LOW ALTITUDE ALERT, CHRISTIAN, CHECK YOUR SPIRITUAL ALTITUDE IMMEDIATELY!, to use some air traffic control phraseology. This was an issue in the Old Testament times, which we see with Eccl 5:1 "Guard your steps as you go to the house of God and draw near to listen rather than to offer the sacrifice of fools; for they do not know they are doing evil."

But humans, being humans, haven't really changed, and the threat still exists in our times. Matthew 7:22-23 explains, saying, "Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’" 

So how can you know that you're not spiritually deaf, since some people think that their hearing is fine, but isn't? We'll learn more tomorrow.





BQ: So how can you tell if your spiritual hearing is doing well? Luke 8:15 has part of the answer! "But the seed in the good soil, these are the ones who have heard the word in an honest and good heart, and hold it fast, and bear fruit with perseverance."

Well it looks like bearing fruit is how we tell that we're hearing well, but what exactly is bearing fruit? Think about it...but don't think about too hard. When a plant bears fruit, the fruit becomes another plant just like it. A real raspberry bush will make more raspberry bushes. Same for an apple tree. So a true Christian will bear...more true Christians. :)

Mark 4 makes this a little clearer, once again pointing out the value of hearing:  And He was saying to them, “A lamp is not brought to be put under a basket, is it, or under a bed? Is it not brought to be put on the lampstand? For nothing is hidden, except to be revealed; nor has anything been secret, but that it would come to light. If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.” And He was saying to them, “Take heed how you hear." 

It's incredibly important to spread the word and focus on making new Christians! Don't be deluded and dull of hearing, be a loving, listening, productive person!