Open Up the Ear

When we adopted Midnight, our black new black cat (see photo in post below), we noticed that she didn’t hear very well. She slept so soundly and it was hard to wake her up. We’d call her but she would just look at us. Then one evening when my son was holding her he noticed something in her ear that he didn’t think belonged there. He was right—she had a large tick in her ear.

Midnight came from a farm and lived outside before moving to our home. So it didn’t surprise us that these parasites found their way to annoy her. After removing the one, we used medicine from the veterinarian. Eventually not liking the medicines, more ticks made their way up to the top of the ear canal. We removed about nine ticks from her ear.

After removing these blockages from her ear canal, we learned that she can hear just fine. She now responds to noises and when we call her name.

Just like we wanted to communicate with the cat, God wants to communicate with us. Sometimes, we can have stuff blocking us from hearing from Him. God made a way for us to communicate directly to Him through His Son, Jesus. When Jesus ascended, He sent the Holy Spirit. We hear the Lord through the Holy Spirit who speaks to our spirit, to our heart.

Look at the word heart. What word do you see in the middle? EAR. We have an ear in our heart. How does God talk to us through the Holy Spirit to our heart?

He speaks to us through HIS Word.

He speaks to us through other people (pastor, teacher, friend).

He speaks to us and we hear with our heart.

We have to have our hearts ready to hear from Him. All the blockages have to be removed so we can hear Him.

Isaiah 55:3 NKJV

Incline your ear, and come to Me.
Hear, and your soul shall live;
And I will make an everlasting covenant with you—
The sure mercies of David.

To incline our ear means to learn to listen. I can be good at talking, but harder at listening. Ladies, I think you may know what I’m talking about here. We go to lunch with some friends and before she finishes, we’re already thinking about what we want to say. Yeah? Do we do that with our Lord too? Do we just say what we want to say during our prayer time and not be ready to hear from Him?

Come to me. We should set aside a time to meditate. A time to be romantically involved with our Lord. Early mornings are a great time to get up and meditate. (Isaiah 50:4-5) I set my alarm early in the morning and wake up several hours before anyone else. I meditate on His word and write in my prayer journal. Then I exercise. This is the way I set aside time for Him.

In Isaiah 55:3, there is a promise. A promise that our soul shall live. When we asked Jesus into our heart, the spirit was born again. But we also need life in our soulish area. I’m getting older. As gravity takes it toil, I know I need more of His life in the body. My mind goes places I don’t want it to go and it takes my emotions with it. However, His word gives His life to my mind. It needs renewing daily. (Romans 12:2)

Next after hearing from the Lord is being obedient to Him. Let’s obey HIM!

I pray we all open our ears and remove the “ticks” so we can hear Him.

Dear Lord, I praise You for Your grace and goodness. I thank You that You want to communicate with me. Lord, I pray that I open up my ears to hear what You have to say to me. I thank You Lord that You give me Your instructions through Your Word. Thank You Lord, that I can have a heart to hear You. Lord, I pray that I receive and obey Your instructions. In Jesus name, I pray. Amen.

Blessings in Christ—

Note: The part of the above post is adapted from the teaching I heard presented on January 26, 2008 at a women’s conference by Billie Hunt of Billie Hunt Ministries, Houston, Texas. Used by permission.