July 26 - Hear What You Want to Hear
We are all selective listeners, we hear what we want to hear and filter out subconsciously those that we don’t want to hear. Sometimes the same facts are presented to different people but what they hear may differ. The king of Judah, Jehoshaphat forged a marriage alliance with Ahab, king of Israel. Upon Ahab’s persuasion, Jehoshaphat agreed to join him and go up against Ramoth-gilead, but he wanted to inquire of the Lord first.
Ahab summoned four hundred prophets and they all said the same good word, but Jehoshaphat wanted a second opinion. Then Micaiah was mentioned but Ahab hated him for always prophesying evil and not good towards him. Actually, Ahab wanted the word of the Lord to confirm his plans and would not want any obstruction of his own will. When our will is greater than God’s, there is no need to seek after God’s Word for we only hear what we want to hear. Many welcome God’s grace with open arms but they shun from God’s severity and righteousness.
Sometimes we want other people’s opinions about a certain thing in our lives, so we set off to ask as many for their opinions as possible. Unknown to us, there may be some lying spirits going around in the spirit realm to pervert the truth. Democracy is not the way to go as one Micaiah overturned the words of four hundred prophets because he went to the Lord himself. The voice of the majority, time and again, has proven to be wrong, we have to be careful about it.
When the four hundred challenged Micaiah about the accuracy of his prophesy and questioned when the Lord had left so many of them to speak a different message to Micaiah, Micaiah told them that when they go into an inner chamber to hide themselves, they would hear God. Man’s voice, even the voices of those who have claimed to be God’s prophets are not the absolute truth, their prophesies are there to confirm what the Lord has already spoken to us about in our inner chamber. If we do not listen to God ourselves but rely on the “words” of others, we might run into ruin like King Ahab.
There is no substitute for the voice of God coming to us in when we hide ourselves in the inner chamber. Sometimes other voices are confusing and instead of giving us God’s direction, we might get lost in different opinions. The correct way is to listen to the Lord first, then get confirmation from other spiritual and godly persons that you trust. Welcome any Word from the Lord and do not be selective by asserting your own will over God’s will. Are you a selective listener? Do you have the inner chamber time with the Lord and listen to Him daily? May the Holy Spirit open your ears now to become a good listener of God’s voice.
Ps 78:56-64 2 Chron 17:1-18:34 Rom 9:22-10:13 Prov 20:2-3