Preaching, Teaching,

To hear aright

Mark 4:23-25 “If any man have ears to hear, let him hear.

And He (Jesus) said unto them, Take heed what ye hear. With what measure ye meet, it shall be measured to you; and unto you that hear shall more be given.

For he that hath, to him shall be given; and he that hath not, from him shall be taken even that which he hath.”

Do we have ears that hear our Lord Jesus Christ? In His Word? In His messages? From the Holy Spirit within?

If we can “get around” what the Lord is saying to us…..we have not heard aright.

For we are responsible for our hearing….and once we have heard His Word to us….we are responsible to act on that Word.

(Once, the Lord pointed out to me, how much I had heard…..I had read the Bible through….I had read Christian books….read devotional books….heard many messages and teachings on the Word of God.

But then He asked me…..what had I used? What was I using?

We sometimes think of God’s Word as……just good advice…..but that is not true.

When His Word is given….He means for it to guide us, help us, comfort us, awaken us, correct us, teach us.

All those things which change us from babes in Christ…..to grown up children of God.)

We have been called to walk….this is a step by step process.

And to do that, we need to concentrate on this step….get there….and step on.

We need to know the next step.

When we know the things that are required at our hand….we need to do them.

Jeremiah 10:23 “O Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.”

When we know that things are not quite right….we need to stop and deal with them….taking them to the Lord and hearing His Word about them.

1 John 2:20 “But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things.”

(This unction is an anointing for our calling. In other words, that we will know, what we need to know.)

Philippians 3:15 “Let us therefore, as many as be perfect (complete, grown up in Christ), be thus minded: and if in anything ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you.”

If you would grow up into Christ (be perfect, or complete)….and attain to that which you were created for….

…..then, if there is anything in you, at cross-purposes with God, He shall reveal this to you.

For the closer we draw to Christ, the more will we discover the corruptions of our old nature….

……and the more we will want to be delivered from them…..even the smallest of them (to our way of thinking)….

….Paul, a brilliant and educated man….after his conversion, still cried out when he discovered his covetousness (Romans 7:7)….

….for he realized that he could not control it…..it was controlling his inward thoughts, even though he did not want it to….

Romans 7:24 “O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?”

(We think of covetousness as a small sin…..but God sees it as it is: it is wanting something He has not given us…..or does not want for us.

Wanting what someone else has, because that will make us equal or better, in our sight, than they. This is against the law of love….and Paul knew it.)

And the more we see the corruptions of our old nature, the more we will want deliverance from it….which is only in Christ.

Where there is no sense of our unworthiness…..

….and where there is no sorrowing over our lack of growth in Christ…..

…..are we hearing His Word to us aright?

It is in our acknowledged weakness that we are made strong.

For the Lord told Paul, “….My grace is sufficient for thee, for My strength is made perfect in weakness…..”. (2 Corinthians 12:9)

Paul testified of what kind of man he had been….

1 Timothy 1:13 “Who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious: but I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief.”

And then he told of the “exceeding abundant” grace God gave him:

1 Timothy 1:14 “And the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.”

That exceeding abundant grace is for us, as well…..whatever sin, or habit, or anger,….we face.

Hear the Word:….

…..for Paul said, we have an “exceeding abundantly” for all who will let Christ work it in us:

Ephesians 3:16, 19-20 “That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man;

And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God.

Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly, above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us,”