An eagle has the ability to listen and hear from a very long distance. The ears of an eagle are located just behind the eyes, but they are often covered with the feathers, which prevents us from seeing them.
But just because the ears are hidden doesn’t mean that, an eagle is unable to listen and hear. The ears are very tiny, but they are very sharp in listening and hearing from long distances.
Our spiritual ears as Christians ought to be sharpened also, so that we can be able to listen and hear the Lord from afar, whenever He is speaking to us. We listen with the physical ears, but the hearing of faith is through the heart.
The process begins with the physical ears; but it has to go from the ears into the heart, for it to be able to release power when we are confessing to affirm what is heard. Power is not available for your healing, prosperity and the new things of life; until you open your mouth to speak in affirmation, whatever is heard with the ear of faith.
God is always saying something through His written word and into our hearts. But many are not paying attention enough to be listening to Him.
Oftentimes it’s the voice of the world that has drowned out the voice of the Lord in the lives of certain Christians. They can’t hear Him, since they are not in tune with His Spirit who lives in them.
It’s as a result of this that the Lord God will sometimes take His loved ones into isolation, so that He can be able to speak to them more intimately and tenderly.
This was the situation with the Prophet Elijah, as he was fleeing from the wicked woman – Jezebel. He had just killed all the false prophets in Israel on one stone (1 Kings 18).
This had been a great victory for God’s people. But when Elijah got challenged by Jezebel; whose false prophets had just been eliminated by him, he fled for his life away from her.
No one acting in fear can hear from the Lord. But a righteous man who is living by faith, is well positioned to being led in everything that he does by the Lord. The fear of what Jezebel could do caused Elijah to flee. The Prophet found himself in a situation which prohibited him from hearing the Lord God.
And as he was fleeing away from Jezebel, the Lord God had to intervene by rescuing Him through the ministration of an angel. Elijah had to go on a long journey into the mountain, so that God could be able to speak to him more intimately and encourage him.
This was the moment of the wilderness encounter for Elijah. He was taken away to mount Horeb (the mountain of God). It was on this mountain top that God’s voice finally came to him. God’s voice finally came to Elijah on the mountain in the form of a whisper.
The Lord God directed Elijah on the mountain:
“And He said, go out and stand on the mount before the Lord. And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains and broke in pieces the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; And after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire [a sound of gentle stillness and] a still, small voice. When Elijah heard the voice, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood in the entrance of the cave. And behold, there came a voice to him and said, what are you doing here, Elijah?”
1 Kings 19:11-13 AMPC
The process by which the Lord God revealed Himself to Elijah here was outstanding. The Lord God was teaching Elijah how to discern His presence here. He was using the strong wind, the earthquake and the fire to test what was in the heart of Elijah. The Lord God often tests those who He loves in different ways, so as to find out what is within their hearts, before establishing them in His purposes for their lives.
As Jesus said in the Parable of the persistent widow:
I tell you; He will defend and protect and avenge them speedily. However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find persistence in faith on the earth?
Luke 18:8 AMPC
The Lord God was using the strong wind, the earthquake and the fire to test if He could find a mustard seed of faith in the heart of Elijah, before speaking to Him. Fear is a killer of faith. It will prevent anyone from doing the will of God, even when it’s known. So, when God approached Elijah, He was searching for the tiny bit of faith in his heart that He could work with.
If we had to take into consideration the fact that Elijah had been in fear before getting to this place; then the strong wind, the earthquake and the fire which appeared to him, before the still gentle voice were justified.
The Lord God had to restore Elijah back to Himself. The Lord God had to nurture him with His spoken words, so that Elijah could finish his ministry well on the earth.
The Lord God never spoke to Elijah as a man would have spoken. And this is why you must recognize that, you don’t need the voice of men speaking into your life, when you know that you can run to God, and He will answer you. Elijah ran to the mountain top to meet with God. The whispering voice of the Lord God came to Elijah and calmed him down.
An old eagle on the mountain top gets its hearing capability sharpened, as it waits for the renewal time for its strength to be completed. In the process of waiting the eagle’s ears becomes sharper than before in picking up sounds from afar.
The Lord God also trains His beloved to listen and hear Him better, while they are waiting on Him. During our devotional times with Him, we are not to be in a hurry to leave His presence. He is teaching you to wait on Him.
There are Christians who can’t hear from the Lord God today, because they are always in a hurry about everything that they are doing. The Lord God is doing everything to get their attention, but they are more concerned about the things of the world around them.
That’s why the Lord God will sometimes allow them to keep on going in their ways, until they are at the dead end of doing their own things. At the end of it all they will get themselves into the place of an encounter with the Lord God.
Train your heart to listen to the Lord
Job once asked his friends during his own encounter in the wilderness:
“Does not the ear test words and the mouth taste its food?”
Job 12:11 NKJV
Job was here comparing the way that we can distinguish good and bad foods, with the way in which we can decode good and bad words during the process of communication. He apparently was pointing out here that the words which the Lord God speaks audibly to us, had to be tested with His written promises to us.
In the time of Job, they never had the holy scriptures written as we have it today. They had to rely on the encounters of others with the Lord God.
In most cases they relied on the inner witness to help them in testing words. This was how they knew what was good and what was evil, before the law of Moses came to them.
But the ear of the spirit is the heart of man. It’s our responsibility as Christians to be training ourselves to hear with our heart from the Lord.
This is very important if we are waiting on the Lord to answer our prayers. The more you are putting His written word into your heart, the more you are empowering yourself to hear directly from Him with the heart.
The word of God is there for our meditation day and night. And in the process of meditation, God’s word is being rooted and planted in our hearts. The very word that you are meditating on will eventually speak back to every situation in your life.
When a Christian is not meditating on God’s word, it’s going to be hard for that Christian to receive the ministration of the Holy Spirit. God’s word is the foundation of every good thing that we receive from the Lord. The wisdom of the Lord flows through our hearts when we are meditating on His word.
As David said:
“Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden part You will make me to know wisdom.”
Psalms 51:6 NKJV
It’s from the hidden part of the heart with which we believe that godly wisdom flows. When God’s word is in our hearts, we have the wisdom of God within us, that we can always tap into whenever we need it.
That’s why it’s important not to be allowing the distractions of this world, to take our eyes off God’s written word. Many are being distracted daily from the Lord’s presence, because of the cares of this world. They are not paying attention to the presence of the Lord around them. The voice of the world is louder in their lives than God’s Covenant promises to them.
We use the physical ears to listen, but the heart is meant for hearing and receiving from the Lord. By heeding to listen to His voice, not with the physical ears but with the heart, then we are being instructed and directed by Him. The heart must therefore be open to listen before we can receive from the Lord God.
The Scripture says:
“For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”
Romans 10:10 NKJV
It’s with the heart that we believe God’s word and His voice. But when we believe what is heard, we must respond in faith by opening the mouth to confess His promises to us. That’s how salvation, healing and deliverance comes to us.
The heart needs the righteousness of God by faith in Christ Jesus imputed to it, so as to become effective in confessing God’s promises.
The Lord God is actually teaching us when we are hearing from Him. He is instructing us in His way of living in His Kingdom on the earth. He is teaching us how to follow His plan for our lives.
As the scriptures says again:
“For the Lord’s training of your life is the evidence of his faithful love. And when he draws you to himself, it proves you are his delightful child.” Fully embrace God’s correction as part of your training, for he is doing what any loving father does for his children. For who has ever heard of a child who never had to be corrected?”
Hebrews 12:6-7 TPT
That’s why we must be separated from the noisy crowd and the distractions of the enemy, so as to be able to hear from the Lord God. The distractions of the crowd around you will hinder your ability to hear from the Lord clearly.
Pay careful attention to His sayings
It’s because of this that Solomon said:
“My son, give attention to my words; Incline your ear to my sayings. Do not let them depart from your eyes; Keep them in the midst of your heart; For they are life to those who find them, And health to all their flesh. Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life.”
Proverbs 4:20-23 NKJV
To be able to hear from the Lord the heart must be well inclined to His written word. The word “incline” here suggests that we are “leaning or bending over towards something”. And in this context, it means “to listen carefully to the sayings” or words of the Lord God.
When we are inclining our spiritual ears to the Lord God, we have to be on the alert with our eyes, as we look at His written word.
His written word assists us in testing what is heard, so as to make sure that we are hearing correctly from Him. We reject the bad words, and we embrace the good words of faith. Our faith is built up when we are embracing His word.
The testing of His audible voice with the written word, helps us to know if what we are hearing is truly from God, or from what is in our own inner man (the spirit man).
This is how we can differentiate the voice of the Lord God from the voice of our inner man. In other instances, the voice of the inner man is referred to as the inner witness.
And as Solomon pointed out in the above scripture texts, the word that heals your spirit, soul and body comes to you in this way. God’s word to you personally is the healing to your flesh.
We train the heart to be prepared for hearing from Him, by first putting His word at the center of our heart.
If God’s word is not abiding in the center of your heart, you are probably not hearing from the Lord God. Be careful about what you are allowing into your heart, from the world of corruption in which you are living.
Our ability to hear the voice of the Lord God must therefore be sharper and more accurate, so that we can be ready to obey Him; just as the ears of an eagle can pick up sounds from about five kilometers away on the mountain top.
When the ear of an eagle picks up the sound of a prey, it wastes no time in moving aggressively towards it. This is how we are to be responding to the voice of the Lord God, when we hear Him.
We respond by faith to receive His word, as Mary responded to the voice of the angel Gabriel:
“Then Mary said, “Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.”
Luke 1:38 NKJV
Mary wasted no time to receive what the Lord God had for her. She released her faith by embracing the promise of the Lord God.
We must be quick and ready to obey God’s voice when we hear from Him, just as a disciplined child obeys the voice of the father. Are you training your heart to hear from the Lord daily?
