Improve Your Spiritual Ears

A recent TV series on Netflix called Tidying Up with Marie Kondo has “sparked” audiences across North America to endure the often-neglected effort to declutter their homes. After watching a few episodes of the show, I was motivated to clear out a good number of storage boxes that have been sitting idle in my home office for years. 

Many of these boxes contained CDs (compact discs), which many of you may recall having to painstakingly “rip” songs one by one into digital MP3 files to be stored onto our computers. It is amazing how evolving technology now allows hundreds, if not thousands, of songs to be stored on a single mobile device that can fit in the palm of our hands.

Part of the technology which translates sound waves into digital data, and then reproduced in playback, is a series of encoding and decoding through digital-analog converters. The thought occurred to me that in a similar way, I see how spiritual truths that are written (encoded) in the Bible can be reproduced in our lives through the work of the Holy Spirit.

I recall that prior to becoming a Christian, I had attended a private Catholic school and attended a good number of church services, but cannot recall a single sermon or any impactful experiences with the Bible. However, after I accepted Jesus as Lord and started a relationship with God through Christ, the passages in the Bible became immediately alive as I read them. Every sermon on Sunday seems to speak specifically to my personal situation and circumstance!

Jesus reminded the disciples, “But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.” (John 14:26 NIV) It is part of the Holy Spirit’s role to teach and, to bring into our remembrance, the Truth that Jesus has spoken. When we confess Jesus as Lord, not only do we receive the gift of salvation and eternal life with God, we also get to hear with our spirit what our heavenly Father wants to tell us. 

In the Gospels, Jesus speaks of those who have “ears to hear” at the end of a difficult saying or parable (e.g., Matthew 11:15; Mark 4:9, 23). The Holy Spirit acts like our spiritual digital-analog converter – He converts spiritual truths that our natural (carnal) minds does not always interpret properly.

May the Holy Spirit continue to translate every spiritual truth so that we can receive and remember the Word of God and reproduce those truths in a manner that leads to the decluttering of our hearts and minds to hear God’s voice over any others! 

Next steps:

–       Listen to Pastor Dave’s message on Reaching Up to Hear God’s Voice

–       Check out the Alpha Course and take in a weekend away to learn more about who is the Holy Spirit, what does the Holy Spirit do, and how you can be filled with the Holy Spirit!