1 John 4
By Pastor Steve
The Fine Art of Listening!
Many people who study humanity declare that listening is an art. They do not mean art as in something that is created like a sculpture, painting, or drawing. The concept that declares that listening is an art would affirm that the art of listening means that a person has learned the “Skill” of listening.
Listening is not an easy task for many people and it seems to be getting more and more difficult to listen well because the world is demanding more and more of our attention. When we become deeply distracted by all of the “noise” in the world, we become less and less attentive in our ability to listen well to others or even listen well to the Lord. There is a real reason for this phenomenon. When the noise of the world consumes us for hours and hours every week, we are more likely to shut down when we go home to spend time with the ones we love the most. When we get home our loved ones want to share their lives with us; but we have heard so much of the noise in the world that we do not show our love by listening to their life stories.
In our text for today, the Apostle John addressed what happens when we listen to closely to the noise of the world. John said: “You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spiritof truth and the spirit of falsehood.”
In this text, John is discussing how important it is to listen to the Spirit if God and avoid listening to the spirit of deception and destruction that is so prevalent in the world—this translation of the Scriptures calls it the spirit of falsehood. John implies that when we have learned the “art” of listening to God, we will be more able to determine the difference between the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood.
I have a question for everyone. Have you acquired the The Fine Art of Listening? Listening to the Spirit of God is an art that requires practice, diligence, persistence, tenacity, attentiveness and insistence—just to mention a few disciplines necessary to hear the voice of God. If you are struggling right now hearing God—listen closer and apply some of the above-mentioned characteristics to your listening and become an artist who hears the Holy Spirit’s voice.
