"...And upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of
hell shall not prevail against it."
- Matthew 16:18
There is a tremendous difference between knowledge that we gain through our senses and knowledge that we gain through our spirit. God has a way of feeding information to us about his plans and purposes that far exceed what our natural minds can produce. But to come into that level of understanding there is much that is required. To walk in a place of revelation can be very demanding, and it takes time cultivating a hearing ear to be responsive to things that heaven wants communicated to the church.
Jesus said, "Upon this rock I will build my church" (Matt. 16:18). The rock he is referring to is the revelation of Christ, who is the Anointed One, and who was revealed as being the Son of the Living God. How that revelation came was through the Father opening Peter's spiritual eyes to see and to know things that was beyond his senses. This did not come to him like natural knowledge comes. He did not learn this or was taught this by man. It came into his heart as God dropped down revelation from heaven.
Over in the book of Galatians, Paul gives us an account of how he received the truth of the gospel. He said, "But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man. For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ" (Gal. 1:11-12). This does not mean that Paul disregarded the teachings of men. That would be a contradiction in itself, since he taught that Christ set in the church pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints (Eph. 4:11-13). However, what he is saying, and this is the whole point of why we need to develop a hearing ear is that Paul received the truth of the gospel by revelation.
John writes something in a very similar fashion. He said, "But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him" (1 John 2:27). Again, we are not disregarding the teaching ministry of those in the five-fold ministry. Thank God for them! But, we have to come to that place where we learn how to hear God for ourselves. I believe it is in the heart of God that we begin to search deep within for the Teacher, the Holy Spirit, to begin to enlighten our understanding with revelation so that we are built up into a spiritual house and not just some naturally, educated by man edifice.
So much of the church lives out of the education of their minds feeding it with facts and truth, and has had very little success growing up spiritually. God has a plan of building us from the inside out where the revelation of his Word comes by the Holy Spirit. Paul said, "Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God; and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone" (Eph. 2:19, 20). If we are to understand the concept of what Paul is actually saying then we have to know that it takes more to build a house than just laying a foundation. You have to know the right materials to use to raise the walls and to establish the finishing gable. This is why Paul told the church of Corinth, "As a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation and another buildeth thereon; but let everyone take heed how he buildeth thereupon" (1 Cor. 3:10).
I believe one of the most valued pieces to growing up spiritually is developing a hearing ear. I'm not talking about just hearing with our natural ears. I'm talking about hearing from our heart the things that God has prepared for us. There are deeper truths yet to be discovered that only God himself can open up our understanding to. Truths that can take up into the depth of the revelation of redemption and can bring us into the very secrets of kingdom living. Why else would Jesus tell every one of the seven churches in Asia, "He that hath ears to hear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches" (Rev. 2:7, 11, 17, 29; 3:6, 13, 22).
The Holy Ghost did not go silent after all the apostles passed on. He is ever speaking to those who will hear, those who will turn off their minds long enough to allow their heart to hear from heaven. As you develop a hearing ear you will find that the Teacher can teach you things you never knew before. He is the same today as he was in the very beginning. What he taught Paul, Peter, James, Luke, and John he can take and teach you so that you discover the full revelation of the counsel and wisdom of God.
For so many of us we have lived on such a low strata of revelation. Even some who teach behind our pulpits are missing out on a level of ministry that is available where the action of the Spirit speaks to the church under the inspiration of the moment. This is the most powerful path to spiritual growth we can take and it far exceeds any method of pre-planning a systematic means of teaching. We have to learn how to speak as an oracle of God. We have to be able to speak by divine revelation. And to do that we have to develop a hearing ear and a seeing eye (Pro. 20:12).*
