God's Hearing

What does God actually hear? Now remember that we are talking from a Hebraic point of view. The question is not, "What sounds God hears." We are talking about what He will respond to, i.e what causes Him to act. S.B. Shaw wrote the following in 1893: "But let it be remembered, that 'prayer rises far above a mere form of good words. These, of themselves, are nothing, and be much worse than nothing. The soul of the reader or utterer must be in them to give them life and power. God hears not my words, He hears me. I rise to Him upon the wings of prayer. I might recite good words forever, but unless my spirit is in them, they are nothing.' Yea, nothing but idle words, and mockery before God." It is not just the right words, but the right words with our spirit in them that God hears. This means that our inner person is fully persuaded as to the truth of which we speak. The words must be spoken from a believing heart.

God will most likely not respond to the words spoken from the lips of one following a formula. Confessing the word is not about ritual. It is about life giving words spoken from a heart fully persuaded of their truth. You can tell what people really care about. Just listen to their speech. You can hear the emotion, i.e. pathos, in their voices. In the Unites States, the Super Bowl was just played between the Steelers and the Packers. If you heard the fans from the respective teams before the big game, you could hear the emotion and love they felt for their teams. Oh, that we might have that same emotion for the Words of God. When we do, God will surely act.

What has your heart? Is it is another person, a church, a profession, money, or the Words of the living God? You can quote the Bible all day; however, until your spirit is in your speech you are just making noise. If we want God to respond to our words, we need to bathe those words in praise and worship of the One who created them. When our level of worship reaches a point of explosion, then our words will have meaning.