Covering your ears?

Are you refusing to hear the Truth? Do you cover your ears when the Truth is spoken and encourage others to do this also?

Considers Stephen’s final words after reminding some hard hearted fellow Jews with a summary of their heritage:

Acts 7:51-58
"You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you. "Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who foretold the coming of the Just One, of whom you now have become the betrayers and murderers, "who have received the law by the direction of angels and have not kept it."
When they heard these things they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed at him with their teeth. But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God, and said, "Look! I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!" Then they cried out with a loud voice, stopped their ears, and ran at him with one accord; and they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul.

1Tim 4:3-5
For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables. But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.

Some have been trained to be hardened from receiving or even simply hearing the Truth. It offends them. You probably have heard the saying "the same sun that melts the wax hardens the clay". When God’s Truth comes to your ears does the wax in your ears begin to melt? Or, does the clay from your earthly nature (that you call spiritual) harden in your ears? May God give you ears to hear the Truth and the heart to receive and understand it.

A hard heart will prevent you from hearing the Truth. A proud heart is the same. Many people who believe that they have the Truth may actually have a Lie that appears as Truth. In many cases, I believe that God’s genuine Truth will so offend them that they will continue in the process of becoming hardened the more they hear it. How can we be sure we are not there? How can we be sure we have not been accepting a Lie?

Have you witnessed people who will spiritually scream and yell and spiritually stop their ears when the Truth is spoken to them? Especially those who claim they already have the Truth as certain Jewish leaders did in the time of Stephen. They will scream out loud false accusations or untruths just to keep the painful Truth from entering their hearts and causing them to think that they must give up this Lie they have accepted so strongly for so long. That they must change and yield to the Being of Christ Jesus through the Holy Spirit. Thoughts of giving up and considering that something else is really the Truth, rather than what they have been taught by leaders who have misled them for so long, is a difficult matter because it means killing their pride. They were set in their ways by the teachings they were swayed by that sounded so good to their itching ears. They must ask themselves, "Is my pride more important than my conscience or the souls of those I influence in this way of error?"

I believe that much of this can come from individuals giving up on the Church as it appears so messed up and "feeling" so good about this breeze of a doctrine that blew over them some time ago. Be careful about feelings! This is actually what some are being led by if they are seriously honest with themselves. Hardened from hearing the real Truth (and therefore from being freed) they accept what someone has placed before them without honestly and diligently taking the time to see if they are actually going in the path that God has designed through Jesus Christ Grace and Truth. They have let someone besides the Holy Spirit show them "the way". The following is something we can know for sure. As we speak the Truth, God is working in the hearts of those who hear us. Some will be moved by God to conviction through the work of His Holy Spirit. Some will be "cut to the heart and gnash with their teeth" with great resistance. You will know them by their fruit in this. I truly believe as I write this that God will potentially be speaking to someone (is it you?) reading this at present. You know what God is saying to you. You know what He has been saying to you for a while. I don’t have to give details. He did!

Be careful that these word don’t apply to you in the negative way. For Jesus did say this:
"For nothing is secret that will not be revealed, nor anything hidden that will not be known and come to light. "Therefore take heed how you hear. For whoever has, to him more will be given; and whoever does not have, even what he seems to have will be taken from him." (Luke 8:17-18)

You can continue to let the Devil steal from you what that means by accepting the Lie you have been taught. Or, you can find out for yourself what the Truth is by looking unto Jesus in the Spirit and Truth as He is speaking to your heart in the Light right now. Satan has stolen so much from your soul. When will you consider this and see the Power of Christ to set you FREE! I pray that this is happening in the presence of your conscience right now. Will you let yourself accept the teaching from deceivers or will you be open to the real Truth of Grace in Christ Jesus? Test and see that the Lord is good. Are you refusing to hear the Truth? Do you cover your ears when the Truth is spoken and encourage others to do this also? You must choose.

In Love for you in Christ,

Denny