FINE TUNE YOUR SPIRITUAL EARS

A month and a half ago I ministered in Singapore where we saw God do great things. As a prophetic declaration I decided to take a longer flight back to Canada through Shanghai, China just to pray and declare revival over that country while sitting in one of their airports for a few hours. From there I would transfer flights and fly to Tokyo, Japan. I love doing these sorts of things. In Joshua 1:3 we have the record of God speaking to Joshua. He said, “I will give you every place where you set your foot, as I promised Moses.” As Joshua went into the land of Canaan the victory over the inhabitants of that land was secure because God ordained the victory for Israel, the people of God. My call is to the nations and I believe I will have an inheritance from many of them, if not all. When I was younger I began to pray Psalm 2:8 which says, “Ask me, and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession.” When this scripture hit my heart, I began to cry out that God would do this very thing in my life. I wanted to stand in China and declare revival. On the way into Shanghai my ears filled up with fluid and I went deaf. It was a virus that I picked up somewhere in my travels. I had never had that happen before. It was frightening. If you have never had such a thing happen let’s just say that your mind begins to play tricks on you. I couldn’t pop my ears. Over the next few weeks it got worse. I had to fly several times. After a few weeks I ended up down in Texas. When I got there my left ear was completely plugged. I could barely hear what anyone was trying to say to me. I kept asking them to repeat their words. This was very frustrating and to be honest with you even a little frightening. When you are a minister, moving as fast between places as I do, everyone wants to pray for you. I had about 10 different people lay hands on me for healing and nothing seemed to happen. I even had people say that God told them to put their fingers in my ears. I was hoping he wasn’t also saying that they should lick them first. At the end of 7 or 8 days I called my pastor. His name is Mark Redner and he lives in Canada. I asked him if he could pray for me. 25 minutes later my ear popped. I was so excited to be able to hear again and all the pressure that I had been feeling was now gone. Of course, as a Prophetic person I can’t help but see the significance of this healing as it applies to the body of Christ. Jesus said, "Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear (Mark 4:9)." He also said that, “His sheep hear his voice (John 10:27). Not hearing the father speak, not understanding the voice of the Holy Spirit is the root of many of life’s problems. If we would only linger a little longer in his voice then perhaps we would live great lives of blessing instead of frustration. Hearing is a function of intimacy with the Holy Spirit. You can only understand his voice by spending time with him. Those of us who have close friends know how they think and how they speak because we have spent time listening to their stories. We know their fears and we know what makes them laugh. When they ask us to speak for them we can because we are friends. There are blockages that keep us from hearing. Perhaps you have fears. Perhaps you don’t believe that God will speak to you. Maybe you are convinced that hearing God is not for today. Maybe you believe that God speaks to others but not to you. Whatever the blockage is it needs to be removed. The grace of God is such that he wants you to hear his voice more than you even want to listen. Romans 5:8 says, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” He came for us. He saw us in our condition of deafness and blindness and sent his own son in the earth to help us to see and hear again. He begins to remove the blockages even before we desire for them to be removed. That is grace. This is what he did for me. 14 years ago, I was trying to commit suicide. I was a committed atheist. I didn’t believe that God could speak and yet he spoke to me. He opened my ears to hear his voice. In that moment I was changed so that my pursuit became to hear his voice more than anything. I have written books on the subject. God began to speak so much to me that I became overwhelmed. I entered into the word of God and began to study how he spoke to people of old and realised that he was speaking to me the same way. How wonderful is that? God who created the heavens and the earth wants to speak to you and me. In his voice there is creative power. When he spoke through Ezekiel an entire valley of dry bones rose back to life and formed a mighty army. That is the power of hearing. When you hear, and you speak what God says, then he does great things. Today I am asking the Lord on your behalf to unplug your spiritual ears. I am asking him to begin to tune you into the frequency of heaven’s voice. May you begin to walk with him and talk with him and hear him call you his own. You will be fine. The grace of God is such that he always speaks to the hungry. He always opens ears to hear. So just thank him because your breakthrough is coming.