The question isn't: Does God speak today? The question is: Do you hear Him?
God designed you to hear Him speak. He has given every person the capacity to hear Him. Just that one fact alone is incredible to ponder: presidents and paupers, Prime Ministers and lepers, Hitler and Mother Theresa, terrorists and Nobel Peace Prize winners. Whether we believe or don’t believe in God, Jesus, or the Holy Spirit, each of us, as His creation, has the ability to perceive God. If He had not given us that ability, we could not hear or respond to His invitation to draw near to Him and know Him. God reveals Himself in creation, and He knows how to make Himself plain to us. All revelation of God or His Kingdom begins with Him choosing to initiate. A. W. Tozer puts it like this:
“That God is here and that He is speaking - these truths are back of all other Bible truths; without them there could be no revelation at all.” https://www.the-highway.com/voice_Tozer.html
“The Voice of God is a friendly Voice. No one need fear to listen to it unless he has already made up his mind to resist it.” https://www.the-highway.com/voice_Tozer.html
Most of us don’t typically hear Him audibly, but once we find Jesus and decide to follow Him, we embark on a journey to receive and develop “ears to hear.” Several times, Matthew, Mark and Luke record Jesus saying, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” (Matthew 11:15, 13:9, 13:43; Mark 4:9, 23, 7:16; Luke 8:8, 14:35 NKJV) Since people come standard with ears, generally speaking, we can infer that Jesus means spiritual ears. Why would He desire for His followers to use their spiritual ears? He speaks to us, even today.
Training our ears to hear
I was ministering in Uganda a few months ago, in July 2024, and I was preparing to speak at a conference. As I rolled a few ideas around in my mind, I thought, “I’ll teach about spiritual gifts from 1 Corinthians 12.” With my spiritual ears, I heard God say “No.” So I thought OK, no problem, I’ll go with this other message. After I got done speaking at the conference, my ministry partner was next. When she told them to open their bibles to 1 Corinthians Chapter 12, I laughed to myself and thanked God for His direction. I was also very thankful I obeyed!
Mark records Jesus speaking to the crowds and teaching the people using the parable of the sower. (Mark 4:1-20) Jesus used parables to teach about the Kingdom of Heaven, or the Kingdom of God (they are the same). Parables are stories used to illustrate moral lessons or spiritual realities. He hides spiritual principles inside parables. In this parable, Jesus talks about a farmer who sows seed on different kinds of soil, which would be something they would be very familiar with, since they lived in a agricultural society. But, there’s a spiritual element He wants them to discern, so Jesus ends the parable with saying, “Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.” (Mark 4:9 NIV) The next verse records Jesus teaching His disciples and answering their questions about the parables when He was alone with them. “He told them, ‘The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you. But to those on the outside everything is said in parables so that, “they may be ever seeing but never perceiving, and ever hearing but never understanding;” (v11, 12 NIV) Jesus makes a point to say, “Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.” (Mark 4:9 NIV) In this passage, He connects being able to receive the secrets of the Kingdom of God with having ears to hear, for those who don’t have ears to hear will never understand. He wanted His followers to share in the Kingdom of God back then, and He still desires that for us. Throughout the ages, the Lord is still revealing the Kingdom of God to his children.
A few verses later, Jesus teaches about not hiding our light under a bushel or a basket, for our light is supposed to be on a stand. The shedding of light will cause hidden things will be disclosed, and nothing stays concealed. (Mark 4:21,22) He ends this with another, “If anyone has ears to hear, let them hear.” (v23 NIV) Then He proceeds to give more instruction, “Consider carefully what you hear,” (v24 NIV) He deeply desires for us to gain true understanding of the realities of the Kingdom of God. Jesus isn’t teaching about a literal light, which would be fire in their time, since they didn’t have LED bulbs, batteries, flashlights, and the modern things we have now to produce light. He wants His followers to go past the natural meaning and discern that there’s a spiritual reality to be understood. His instruction: Find the spiritual lesson, and consider it carefully. If you look up any of the “ears to hear” passages, you will find Jesus teaching spiritual realities to His disciples, using things familiar to them in the natural realm. Keep in mind, they are recorded and preserved for you and me, as well. He desires for them to be discovered by those who call themselves disciples, using their developing spiritual ears, and the Holy Spirit has been given to aid us in the discovery. But that’s another message.
Coach Jesus, developing skill and challenging us to use our ears to hear
Jesus, our elder brother, our Lord, the Son of God and Son of Man, shows Himself as a coach to the disciples in the following verses: “With many similar parables, Jesus spoke the word to them, as much as they could understand. He did not say anything to them without using a parable. But when he was alone with his own disciples, he explained everything.” (v33, 34 NIV) Here, you can see Jesus helping them develop their ears to hear and ability to perceive the Kingdom of God. He walks with them, teaches them what they can handle, explains Kingdom realities to them, and answers their questions. He doesn’t expect them to turn on their ears like a switch. Jesus is patient, and He understands how we learn. He is willing to walk us through times when we can’t hear, as He teaches us to hear.
While I was in Nepal ministering in October 2024, I was in the last meeting before I flew out the next day. During worship, with my spiritual eyes, I saw the Lord singing over the church we were in. It was so beautiful, and then I was prompted (in the spirit) to share a scripture with them about God singing over them. I knew it was in there somewhere, but I didn’t know exactly where. With some help from Google, I found Zephaniah 3:17-20. As I was getting ready to share it in The Amplified Bible, I felt the Lord tell me, “No. NIV.” So I found it in the New International Version and shared that version with the church. God wanted them to have something very specific from Him, and as I shared, the group of pastors was very impacted by the word. They received it with joy. God speaks to us, and if we develop ears to hear and eyes to see, we will receive much for ourselves and for those we minister to. He will use us if we will allow Him to teach us and develop our eyes and ears.
In Mark 8, Jesus is trying to teach them a spiritual reality, warning them of the “leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.” (Mark 8:15 NKJV) He had just used the disciples fed at least 4,000 people with seven loaves of bread and a few fish (v1-8), He was in the boat with His disciples, and they realized they didn’t bring much bread. Jesus takes that time to warn them about the two leavens, and the disciples think He is talking about physical bread. When the disciples “reason among themselves” (v16) and determine He must be talking about them not bringing physical bread, He uses that moment to redirect their attention to the spiritual realm. “Having eyes, do you not see? And having ears, do you not hear? And do you not remember?” (v18 NKJV) He’s basically saying, “I understand you think this is about what you’ve experienced in the physical, but I need you to start to use those ears and eyes we’ve been developing so you can see the spiritual realities around you. Don’t forget how we used the physical bread for our spiritual teaching! Don’t get so caught up in what you see with your eyeballs that you forget to engage your spiritual eyes!” I’m not sure if He is even scolding them, but He’s trying to open them up, He wants to see that lightbulb moment with them! He’s patient with us!
Prayer
My prayer is for each of us to be more aware of our spiritual ears and that we would ask God to help us develop our sense of hearing in our spirit. We want to hear Your voice, Lord. We want to have hearts that trust You and want to respond to You. Help us live in faith and confidence that You want to reveal spiritual realities to us and teach us, not just so we can receive for ourselves but so we can share Your word with others. Let us read Your word with new eyes, and hear Your voice with new ears!
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