Hearing God

Preliminary

I invite your attention to 1 Samuel 3

Are you hard of hearing?

Now sometimes I am accused of having “selective hearing” choosing what I want to hear.

I also know that at times I have trouble hearing probably due to my years working in a factory around large machinery without always wearing protective gear.

There’s an interesting study that claims younger people can hear things that older people cannot.

The human range is commonly given as 20-20,000 HZ although there is considerable variation between individuals

There is a gradual loss of sensitivity to higher frequencies with age.

Lets test this. I am going to play a series of tones from 14,500 - 17,500 HZ.

and if you hear anything at all hold up your hand or nod your head or give some type of acknowledgement that I can see.

PLAY VIDEO ON PHONE

That was pretty fascinating.

It seems however that there is also a variation with people and hearing God.

Lets read about it

Read: 1 Samuel 3:1-11

1 Samuel 3:1–11 KJV 1900

1 And the child Samuel ministered unto the Lord before Eli. And the word of the Lord was precious in those days; there was no open vision. 2 And it came to pass at that time, when Eli was laid down in his place, and his eyes began to wax dim, that he could not see; 3 And ere the lamp of God went out in the temple of the Lord, where the ark of God was, and Samuel was laid down to sleep; 4 That the Lord called Samuel: and he answered, Here am I. 5 And he ran unto Eli, and said, Here am I; for thou calledst me. And he said, I called not; lie down again. And he went and lay down. 6 And the Lord called yet again, Samuel. And Samuel arose and went to Eli, and said, Here am I; for thou didst call me. And he answered, I called not, my son; lie down again. 7 Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, neither was the word of the Lord yet revealed unto him. 8 And the Lord called Samuel again the third time. And he arose and went to Eli, and said, Here am I; for thou didst call me. And Eli perceived that the Lord had called the child. 9 Therefore Eli said unto Samuel, Go, lie down: and it shall be, if he call thee, that thou shalt say, Speak, Lord; for thy servant heareth. So Samuel went and lay down in his place. 10 And the Lord came, and stood, and called as at other times, Samuel, Samuel. Then Samuel answered, Speak; for thy servant heareth. 11 And the Lord said to Samuel, Behold, I will do a thing in Israel, at which both the ears of every one that heareth it shall tingle.

Getting Tuned in

You know the first problem we as humans have with hearing the voice of God - is that sometime we just aren’t tuned into the right frequency.

I remember reading a story some time ago about a family and some friends went on some type of adventure vacation. I believe they were skiing or some snow sport. In the process they were separated but no one thought much about it because they had radios and could communicate.

There was some type of emergency I don’t remember an avalanche, crash, some type of emergency

So the woman pulls out the radio and calls - but didn’t receive a response right away so she changed the channel and tried again, same thing over and over she called out her mayday but just as quick changed channels

Her friends attempting to get in touch with her would call out to her, but she had switched channels and couldn’t hear the help they were trying to give.

She froze to death - simply because she wasn’t tuned into the right channel.

If we aren’t careful we can tune into the things of the world - and it will choke out the Word - isn’t that what Jesus said in His parable of the Seed and the Sower - the Seed which is the Word -

We can tune into our cares and stressors and miss the voice of God

We can be on the wrong channel if you will and not hear God’s voice.

This happened to ELI - the priest

God had a message for him - but he couldn’t give it to him - he was on the wrong channel

Getting Acclimated

Sometimes our problem is we haven’t hear God’s voice enough to recognize it.

This was Samuel’s problem. I think it is so sad - this young man was ministering before the Lord but yet he did not recognize God’s voice

He had heard so many other things and was so used to hearing them - he had never gotten acclimated to God’s voice

The real problem he had never actually met God -

Jesus says - My Sheep hear my voice and follow me

That means they know God’s voice well enough to do what God wants them to do.

Accepting God’s Word

Sometimes we don’t hear what God has to say because we don’t want to hear what God has to say.

We just Tune him out.

Right before Jesus said “My sheep hear my voice...”

in John 10:25 Jesus was debating with the Jews round about him - and Jesus said, “I told you, and ye believed not” they didn’t believe because they wouldn’t listen to Him.

Jesus said some pretty rough things to them

John 10:26 KJV 1900

26 But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you.

Samuel heard some things from God that night that were hard to accept - but he had to accept them if he was going to hear God’s voice.

We are going to have to accept what God says

I think this is why so often in the Bible you find phrases like “He that hath ears to hear”

It is often a lot easier to talk than to listen, and even then it’s a lot harder to hear while you are listening.

God is talking to us

Are we tuned in

Are we acclimated

Are we accepting