Call To Obedience - Discipleship Training Home Page

And with many such parables spake he the word unto them,

as they were able to hear it—Mark 4:33 .

What is your ability to hear? Is it in small measure? Is it in greater measure? Is it in full measure? Jesus spoke to His disciples according to their ability to “hear,” that is according to their ability to understand in the inner man.

There are two kinds of hearing. Jesus said concerning the Pharisees: Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand (Matt. 13:13 ). Here Jesus groups the three most important means of perception into a triangle: seeing, hearing and understanding. Each one of them is then divided into two different categories: there is physical seeing and there is spiritual seeing; there is physical hearing and spiritual hearing; there is physical understanding and spiritual understanding because there is both a physical and a spiritual body. The physical man is born of woman; the spiritual man is born of God. This is why Jesus said: That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again (John 3:6, 7).

We humans communicate with each other physically. We need a physical mouth to speak and a physical ear to hear. But God is a Spirit and He communicates with us spiritually, in the inner man. Seldom does God ever use a physical voice to speak to man. The Pharisees could hear the words of Jesus physically, but they could not hear in their hearts what He meant. Every child of God has the capacity to hear the voice of Jesus in the inner man. As the natural man is born with physical ears for the physical world, so the spiritual man is born with spiritual ears to move about in the spiritual kingdom.

Hearing the voice of God is as essential as being born of God. Because if we can't hear, we can't follow, and if we don't follow, we can’t be His disciples. Jesus said: My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand (John 10:27 , 28).

Notice the sequence here: it is only as we hear and then follow that we receive eternal life. The rebirth gets us started toward eternal life. But following secures it, and again, following comes by hearing. Jesus wants to guide His children today as He led His children in days of old, at night by a pillar of fire and during the day by a cloud. In those years, there was never a day in which the children of Israel were in the wrong place. There is never to be a single day in our lives where we are to be in the wrong place, saying the wrong things, having wrong relationships and doing the wrong things. When Jesus came, He came to give us much more than the children of Israel ever had. We are to hear His voice to be His followers. If we don't follow Him, we are none of His.

The apostle Paul makes hearing from God a characteristic of every child of God: For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God (Rom. 8:14 ). The Holy Spirit dwelling within us is our pillar of fire by night and our cloud by day. If we do not hear the voice of Jesus, we will miss the still waters, the green pastures, the table He has laid for us, the comfort of His rod and staff. We will miss the anointing oil and our cup will not run over. If we don't live by the voice of our shepherd, we are like sheep lost in the wilderness. We will get tangled up in thorns or be torn apart by wild beasts. Practically speaking, we end up being spiritually famished. We find ourselves going to the wrong college, marrying the wrong spouse, choosing the wrong location for living, being in the wrong church and being out of the will of God over and over again every day. Then we wonder why we are having such a difficult time and why there is no heavenly joy in our hearts. READ MORE >