- 1 Peter 4:10

 

      There are three level of engagement when it comes to true communication.  A person can be fully engaged, partially engaged, or totally disengaged.  I am sure we can all testify of having a conversation with someone that seemed as if we were talking to ourselves.  Its sort like the idiom, "The lights are on, but no one's home."  You can see it on their face they are totally somewhere else.

      I find this to be the case in many lives.  They hear, but they aren't listening.  Learning how to listen is a true art.  You have to develop the skill of being able to turn things off and hone in on what you hear.  It is kind of like when someone says, "Did you hear that?"  If you weren't listening you may not hear what they heard.  However, if your interest to hear is stimulated enough, immediately you will begin to hone in, almost as if you are targeting your hearing to a whole new level.  What actually happens is you go into a listening mode where your hearing now becomes an organ of perception.   You find yourself filtering out sounds to detect a specific sound, a sound of interest.

      That is one of the great benefits to becoming a meditator.  Meditation demands a listening ear. It puts you into a listening mode where you are able to filter out all the thoughts of the day that are bombarding your mind and hear a specific sound, a word from God!

      The problem why so many people struggle with meditating in the Word of God is because they haven't developed the art or skill of quieting their mind.  How many times have you sat down the read the Word and suddenly you find yourself reading, but your mind is a thousand miles away.  Your memories of things in the past or things you are planning in the future are bouncing back and forth in your mind like a ping-pong ball and you are going nowhere and getting nothing out of what you are reading.

      Don't think you are the only person with that problem!  It happens to almost every one of us!  We have to learn how to control our thoughts by pulling the reins on the activity of our mind, and stepping over into a listening mode.  That's not always an easy thing to do.

      I think all of us desire to be people who want to be heard.  No one likes to share a thought that turns out to be as one who is just speaking in the air.   What makes the difference between saying something that sails right pass people and saying something that gets everyone's attention? It is when we learn to listen so that what we say is the right thing at the right time.  Solomon describes it as a "word spoken in due season" (Pro.15:23). 

      Jesus said, "The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life" (John 6:63). What do you think is the one reason why he could say such a thing?  Was it just because he was the Son of God?  I don't think so.  I think it was because he understood the principle of hearing to hear. He only spoke what he heard his Father speak. "For I have not spoken of myself; but the Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment what I should say, and what I should speak" (John 12:49). 

      In order to speak as an oracle of God you have to practice hearing to hear what he is saying so that you speak only what he has said.  It's more than just quoting the Word.  That's certainly a part of it, but it goes beyond that!  You have to learn to listen to what the Spirit is saying and only speak what he would say. Why do you think James said, "Wherefore my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath" (James 1:19)?  It's because our mouth can outrun the words of wisdom if we aren't listening to speak. *