Luke 8:19-25(NKJV) 19Then His mother and brothers came to Him, and could not approach Him because of the crowd. 20And it was told Him by some, who said, “Your mother and Your brothers are standing outside, desiring to see You.” 21But He answered and said to them, “My mother and My brothers are these who hear the word of God and do it.” 22Now it happened, on a certain day, that He got into a boat with His disciples. And He said to them, “Let us cross over to the other side of the lake.” And they launched out. 23But as they sailed He fell asleep. And a windstorm came down on the lake, and they were filling with water, and were in jeopardy. 24And they came to Him and awoke Him, saying, “Master, Master, we are perishing!” Then He arose and rebuked the wind and the raging of the water. And they ceased, and there was a calm. 25But He said to them, “Where is your faith?” And they were afraid, and marveled, saying to one another, “Who can this be? For He commands even the winds and water, and they obey Him!”
In yesterdays post we looked at the words of Jesus in Mark 4:24. In this verse Jesus tells us we need to “take heed what we hear.” This means that we need to pay attention to what we allow into our ears. He then said that the measure of thought and study we give to what we hear would determine how much we receive from it. He was speaking in terms of the thought and study we give to the Word of God, but this also applies with other things. The attention we give to the voices we hear will determine how much those voices impact our daily living.
If we want to speak powerful words that produce the life and power of God, we must hear those kinds of words. What we say is tied to what we hear. If we hear words of life, we will speak words of life. If we give our attention to words that produce death, we will speak death. The real power behind our words is our connection with God through faith in Jesus Christ. If we fill our ears and eyes with things that bring compromise to that relationship, our words will not release the power of God.
Today I want to look at what we hear from a slightly different point of view. Mark 4:24 encourages us to be careful about what we let into our ears. I certainly believe this to be true. We need to monitor what we are hearing. That does not mean that if something negative gets into our ears we are contaminated. Nevertheless, I believe quantity is important. By that, I mean the more we hear the right things the better and the less we hear the wrong things the better. That is just common sense. However, there is another implication in this verse. When Jesus speaks of the measure we give to what we hear, I believe he is telling us we can choose what we listen to.
In our society, it is never quiet. I find I cannot “multitask” as well as some people. If I am reading, I cannot have the TV on. I may listen to some quiet instrumental music, but anything beyond that is too distracting. When I am writing it is even worse. I have to go somewhere completely alone or I just cannot seem to concentrate. My wife seems to be able to shut out everything else and study or read without being distracted. She can choose to hear only what she is concentrating on at the moment even though there may be many things going into her ears. When I asked her how she could do that she said, “I am a mother!”
This made me think about what we have been studying. We cannot shut out everything that is negative or ungodly. We have to learn to choose what we will hear and what we will not. We need to listen to the voice of the Word of God and choose to ignore the voice of the world, the devil or circumstances. In today’s scripture, we read about two instances in the life of Jesus.
First, we see Jesus mother and brother coming to see him. They did not come in to where he was speaking, but sent someone to get him. When they tell Jesus that his relatives are there he makes a curious statement. “My mother and My brothers are these who hear the word of God and do it.” That seems a bit harsh, but I believe Jesus wants us to know that we must choose to hear and do the Word of God above all else. Circumstances have a voice. The world has a voice. Many voices vie for our attention but in the midst of all the other voices we need to “tune in to” the voice of the Word of God.
As we continue reading, we find that there was a day when Jesus tells his disciples, “Let us go to the other side of the lake.” This was the voice of the Word of God in the flesh. The Word said, “We are going to the other side.” While they are crossing the lake, a storm comes up. They are tossed by the wind and the waves. The rain is adding to the water filling the boat. Fear begins to rise and when they look in the back of the boat, Jesus has fallen asleep.
What are they “hearing.” They have two choices. Jesus had spoken a direction to them. I think we could call it a promise as Jesus certainly meant it to happen. He told them they were going to the other side of the lake. There was another voice speaking to them as well. The voice of the storm was screaming at them that it was going to sink their boat and they were never going to see the other side of the lake. Which voice did they choose to hear? Which one did they listen to? We can tell by what they said.
“And they came to Him and awoke Him, saying, “Master, Master, we are perishing!” I want you to take note of the tense they used. They said, “We are perishing.” That means they believed that this was happening. They did not say they might perish. They did not say they would perish if something did not change. They said we are now in the process of perishing. The circumstances are killing us right now. “Jesus, we are dead!”
Jesus stood up and did something very interesting. He spoke something entirely different from what the disciples spoke. He rebuked the storm. When you rebuke something, you use words. Once again, we see the authority of Adam used by Jesus to change the physical world. The storm obeyed him. Why did he say one thing and the disciples say another? The reason is in what they chose to hear. Jesus said, “Let us go to the other side of the lake.” He said it because the Father told him to go to the other side of the lake. He chose to listen to the Word of the Father. He spoke in line with what he heard. When he did, the storm obeyed him.
The disciples heard the words of Jesus. They knew he was the Messiah. They knew his words contained the power of God. They had seen him heal the sick, raise the dead and do mighty things words. His words had never failed to produce the desired affect however, in this story; they chose to listen to the words of the storm. They chose to believe the voice of the storm over the voice of Jesus. Jesus said, “Let us go to the other side of the Lake.” The storm said, “I am going to kill you before you get there.” They spoke what they chose to listen to. They spoke what they chose to hear.
We can choose what we will hear. We can choose to listen to the voice of our emotions, the circumstances or people who try to discourage us. Sometimes those people are well meaning. They do not want us to get hurt. When they try to get us to listen to something that is contrary to the Word of God, we need to choose the Word over well meaning people.
What does the bible say about your circumstance? What does the circumstance say? Which one will you choose o “hear.” To which will you give the most thought and attention? That will determine what you say. What you say will determine what happens. Jesus asked his disciples why they had no faith. It was normal for them to be afraid in a storm. However, they had walked with Jesus long enough to know that his words were true. They had seen him use words to change the natural. They could have done the same if they had not listened to the storm. So can we.
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