12 September 2013

STAY FRESH AND FLOURISHING (3)

By John Ollis

Some people seemed a little confused after my first blog in this new series. I trust with my second blog you now can see I am talking about staying spiritually fresh and flourishing, but using the physical signs of aging as an indicator of where we are going in our spiritual life.

The Bible  continuously uses these physical signs to relate to our spiritual life.

 2.POOR HEARING

I have already mentioned I use hearing aids. It all started with missing words in a conversation, which caused at times a misunderstanding, plus the need to turn the TV sound up so I could clearly hear the program. I went and had a hearing test, the result was the need to wear hearing aids.

Do you remember when you were first born again, many believers automatically it seemed began to hear the Lord’s voice as they read and meditated on the Word of God. We also began to hear the “still small voice” within speaking to us.

Many other believers needed a Mentor to walk with them to help discern the Lord’s voice. Others through trial and error have learnt to hear the Lord’s voice. Sadly, of course, many only thought they heard the Lord speaking to them and got into error.

Here is a key fro you, if you believe God has spoken to you, it MUST ALWAYS agree and line up with the written Word of God. God will never say anything contrary to His written Word.

Paul says in 1 Cor. 14.10 There are many voices (and languages) in the world and they all have significance. The enemy of our souls wants to deceive us, our own heart (Jer.17.9) wants to deceive us that is why it is important we develop this important spiritual sense.

Some people naturally seem to start to lose their physical hearing, but in reality  it is a build up of wax in the ears.

Spiritually, wax, can be:

compromising what the Word of God says,

Deliberate sin in our lives,

Not continuing to  live the surrendered, Spirit filled life,

Thinking we know it all and ceasing to be teachable.

I believe with all my heart, God wants to speak to us EVERY DAY, if we would discipline our lives to spend quality time reading and meditating on the Word of God.

Poor spiritual hearing can start slowly and subtly, and you don’t immediately know it is happening.

Rom. 10.17 tells us faith comes by HEARING, AND HEARING  by the WORD OF GOD.

Are you spending time EVERY day in the Word? it is our food and drink, unless we are fasting we would automatically take time to eat at least 3 meals a day. I don’t know how a Christian survives unless he spends quality time daily in the Word.

Are you continuing to affirm the Lordship of Christ in your life? Rom 12.1 clearly indicates this must be a continuous decision of our will. why ???

Every day we can be faced with challenges, the need to make decisions, to confront circumstances and problems that come our way. We can’t say, hold on please, I need to go and fast and pray for a day or two!!!!  If our spirit is in tune with the Lord,  we can hear his voice “This is the way walk in it”.

So, may I ask you, How is your hearing? just as we can have 20/20 vision naturally we can maintain perfect hearing until we see our Saviour face to face.

I trust you can say “my hearing has never been bette”, if you can’t say that, let Jesus the healer show you why, and you repent and deal with it today.

WE CAN STAY FRESH AND FLOUISHING