Luke 8:19-21 (NKJV) 19 Then His mother and brothers came to Him, and could not approach Him because of the crowd. 20 And it was told Him by some, who said, “Your mother and Your brothers are standing outside, desiring to see You.” 21 But He answered and said to them, “My mother and My brothers are these who hear the word of God and do it.”
We have been looking at the kind of faith it takes to overcome the world (John 16:33) Last time we looked at what faith sees. From Numbers 13 and 14, we found that 10 of the 12 spies Moses sent to the land of Canaan saw the promise through the challenges they would face to take it. They said, “We will never be able to do it.” Joshua and Caleb saw the difficulties through the filter of the Promise of God and their response was, “We can take the land right now!
In 2 Kings 6, Elisha saw beyond the impossibilities of the natural world by seeing into the world of the spirit. When the servant saw a natural army arrayed against the two of them, Elisha saw an even greater angelic army there to protect them. We have that same army at our disposal. In Hebrews 1 we find the angels of God are “sent forth” to minister for the heirs of salvation.” That is, you and me. We also have the word of God at work for us not to mention the Holy Spirit and many other aspects of the world of the spirit. We see those things by “setting our minds on the things above (Colossians 3:1-3.) We do that in prayer, worship, meditating on the Word and fellowship with the Lord. By doing those things we will begin to see beyond the natural problem to the supernatural solution.
Today, I want to look at what faith hears. There are many voices vying for our attention today. We rarely go without something plugged into our ears. We listen while we walk, drive or work. With all of these voices bombarding us, it is hard to hear anything else. I am not a proponent of never listening to things we enjoy, but we have to ask ourselves a question. If we are using all that listening time to hear the voice of the world, how will we ever overcome the world. Look at what Jesus said from the Amplified Bible.
Mark 4:24 (AMP) 24 And He said to them, Be careful what you are hearing. The measure [of thought and study] you give [to the truth you hear] will be the measure [of virtue and knowledge] that comes back to you—and more [besides] will be given to you who hear.
In this verse, Jesus is pointing to hearing the Word of God. However, this is a principle. The thought and study we give to the other things we hear, determines how much of that gets into our hearts as well. We will not get back virtue and knowledge, but we will get things like fear and ungodliness. That brings me to my first point of what faith hears. Faith hears the Word of God.
In today’s scripture Jesus defines his “relatives” as those who hear and do the Word of God. He is not showing disrespect for his mother and half-brothers. He is giving us a principle that will help us overcome the world. We must choose to hear the Word of God. Romans 10:17 says something similar.
Romans 10:17 (NKJV) 17 So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
I must note that this is a statement made in a particular context. It is talking about faith for salvation. I believe it is also a statement of principle. If faith for salvation comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God, all faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Hearing the word is the source of the faith connection that enables us to overcome the world.
Although there are specific things faith hears, just like there are specific things faith sees, we must start by making a decision to find time to hear the Word of God. In a recent post I mentioned that we hear with our ears but also our eyes. We need to spend time reading the Word, hearing the Word preached and speaking it to ourselves. Among other things, this familiarizes us with the sound of the Word of God, so we recognize it in other forms. If we fill our ears and eyes with the noise of the world, we will not recognize the voice of faith when it speaks around us. That said, what is it we hear when we are hearing in faith.
Matthew 8:1-3 (NKJV) 1 When He had come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed Him. 2 And behold, a leper came and worshiped Him, saying, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.” 3 Then Jesus put out His hand and touched him, saying, “I am willing; be cleansed.” Immediately his leprosy was cleansed.
I want to start with this thought. I believe if we hear this accurately it will help us hear the other things faith is saying to us. When this leper came to Jesus, he makes a statement half of which most of us who are believers in Christ would easily agree with. He told Jesus he knew that Jesus was able to heal him. If we believe that Jesus is the son of God and if we believe in God, we know that he can do anything. That is the essence of what it means to be almighty. If you are not a Christian, you might question God’s ability, but if you believe in God at all you accept to be God means he must be unlimited.
The real problem comes in the other half of this man’s statement. He says, “If you are willing you can.” That is the problem we face most of the time. We know God can do anything, but for many reasons we question whether he will do what need done for us. I want you to listen to the voice of Jesus. There was no hesitation here. He did not make any qualifications or requirements. The man had come as far as he could by faith and the voice of faith in the mouth of Jesus brought him the rest of the way. Jesus says, faith says, “I am willing. Be cleansed.” In other words, “Be healed.”
I want you to think about that today. There are many reasons we wonder if Jesus is willing to do what we need. There are times when there are reasons he may not have done it yet, but unwillingness is never one of them. We may question his willingness because of what we have been taught doctrinally. We may question his willingness because we feel we are not worthy for him to move for us. We may question his willingness because we have sinned in some way. We may need to repent of sin because it blocks our ability to receive, but that does not mean Jesus is unwilling to touch us.
Most often we do not realize we are questioning Jesus’ willingness to help us. We do not know why things have not happened. However, when our answer is delayed, the devil will make sure we feel that God may not be willing to deal with our situation. If we are not careful this will create a little bitterness that keeps us in a place where receiving is difficult. I want you to hear this again. I want you to open your ears of faith. I want you to repeat what faith hears to the devil. Jesus said to the man, “I am willing.”
Whatever the problem you may be facing today, Hear the voice of Jesus. He is telling you the same thing he told that leper. “I am willing.” Whatever you need to overcome the world today, Jesus says I am willing. Let your faith ears hear that. I am not saying it will all change immediately. I am saying that the more we open our faith ears, the more we will know that if Jesus is willing and we continue to listen to faith, we will see the answer.
More next time.
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