Revelation 2:7 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.

I have long loved the phrase, “He who has an ear…,” and include it in my faith declarations that I make periodically. It appears in each of the messages to the seven churches, which should drive home the importance of listening to God, however He speaks to us. This particular instance, in the very first of the seven messages, strikes me particularly because the benefit given for listening is a renewal of the offer given to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, which they didn’t take up because they were deceived by Satan into the first active sin. God is many things, but He is very much a God of second chances. If we examine the “heroes of faith” in the Bible we find mistakes, at least, recorded for just about every one of them, and some of those were pretty horrific. Even Moses was a murderer! (There’s a meme circulating on the Internet that points this out, and it’s a good one.) Here, we find an offer to essentially erase original sin. How good is that? Should it not make us absolutely eager to listen to the Spirit of God? That’s why the devil tries so desperately to distract us, to make us listen to anything except Holy Spirit. Music can be fine, though some of it is total trash, but even good songs can be a distraction from listening to the One who loves us enough to send His Son to die for us. I feel sorry for those who spend their lives with earbuds in! God doesn’t need electronics to speak to us, if we are listening.

As someone who speaks for a living, so to speak, I am very aware of listening. I have had people thank me for a sermon when I can tell that probably not even the title remains in their brain! As a school teacher as well as a pastor, I know without question that attitude makes all the difference in the world as to how we hear things, or even whether we hear them. I have had students who were so convinced they were “bad at English” that they literally could not hear what I was saying to them. I don’t want to be that way toward God! I am to choose my words carefully and always speak the truth in love, but what happens after that is between the hearer and God. I am to pray for them that they might indeed have ears to hear, but I can’t force it on them. I am not to offend needlessly, but “political correctness” has nothing positive to do with either truth or love. Rather, it is a negation or at least obfuscation of both of those. If I am to do that accurately, I’ve got to be listening to Holy Spirit myself, because I don’t have the wisdom to do it right on my own.

Father, thank You for this reminder, and for giving me the message for Sunday! I speak on this theme multiple times a year, but it’s certainly that important. Help me indeed be Your agent in all I say and do, so that Your will may be done through me for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!