WE CAN SPEAK the truth from our minds, and it may or may not be heard. It may only fall on someone’s ears. When we “speak the truth from our hearts” (Psa. 15:2), the impact of those words may stir action in the hearts of others. The pathway of words from one heart to another is this: It begins with the desire to reach other’s hearts. This starts as the words of the messenger’s heart move forward tempered and guided by the mind past the lips, with a message colored by adjectives that birth and grow a story of truth. These become like “apples of gold in settings of silver.” (Prov. 25:11) As the words proceed, the body is engaged, leaning slightly forward. As the head slowly turns from side to side, the eyes actively look past the eyes of others, and into their souls. The hands dance in subtle rhythmic emphasis with the certainty of the spoken words. From first to last, everything that can be done to capture the attention of the listener, has been done. Like a comet travelling in its blazing orbit from one universe across the vast expanse into another, the message may inspire awestruck wonder. It is now in the listener’s sphere of perception, and may be examined or ignored.
There is a messenger, not from another universe, but from an entirely different realm, who speaks the message of preeminent truth. This messenger is like no other, and “He is faithful to the one who appointed him.” (Heb. 3:2) He is exceptionally careful to speak only the message he was given. “I do not speak of my own accord, but the Father who sent me commanded me what to say and how to say it.” (John 12:49) The message God gave him to speak was consistently this: “I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” (John 8:34-36)
This messenger knows well the differences between a listener and a hearer, between those who engage only with their ears, and those who are sensorially open to the meaning of the message. Of one, he says, “Some are like seed along the path, where the word is sown. As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them.” (Mark 4:15) This happens because “This people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.” (Matt.13:15)
He knows also the difference between those who hear, and those who do not. “Others, like seed sown on good soil, hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop—thirty, sixty or even a hundred times what was sown.” (Mark 4:20) In the agricultural metaphors, the seed principle is clearly at work. Similarly, the messenger of God says, “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit. This is to my Father’s glory, showing yourselves to be my disciples.” (John 15:5-8)
The glory of the Father is apparent to his Son’s true disciples, and they hear what he has to say. “A bright cloud enveloped them, and a voice from the cloud said, ‘This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!’” (Matt. 17:5) Still, of all those who are drawn near, there will be those who come to listen to the message, and those who come intent on hearing. Scripture warns the first, “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.” (James 1:22-24) Of the second, this same word says “But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it—he will be blessed in what he does.” (James 1:25)
When we listen to God, says Solomon, “wisdom will enter your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul. Discretion will protect you, and understanding will guard you.” (Prov. 2:10-11)
Q. Does my heart hear from God’s heart?
Leave a Reply