"Take Heed How You Hear"
By Steve Backlund
“Take heed what you hear” (Mark 4:24).
“Take heed how you hear” (Luke 8:18).
The same way we get into the kingdom is the same way we advance in it. It is by hearing good news and believing it.
In my previous blog, I wrote about being careful to not receive things spoken to us by people or through circumstances that are not in agreement with what God is saying. I ended that teaching by saying if we are unskilled in the word of righteousness, we will become dull of hearing (Hebrews 5:11-13). This is because we will believe God is wanting to continually tell us what is wrong with us; thus, we will hear His voice wrongly (and we won’t even want to listen to God because we think He is like a nagging, never-satisfied parent).
Certainly, our Heavenly Father will correct us and challenge our behaviors, but His primary message to us is that He loves us, likes us, and we are significant. “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17). Those who do not believe this will have difficulty changing behaviors.
“The goodness of God leads you to repentance” (Romans 2:4). God’s main plan for us to change is to continually hear about His goodness through Scripture, testimonies, fellowship, and personal revelation.
“How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things!” (Romans 10:15). Preachers of the gospel are to be primarily dispensers of good news (the good news of what Jesus has done for us, what God is doing now, and about the greater things that are ahead of us).
Again, the same way we get into the kingdom is the same way we advance in the kingdom: hearing good news and believing it. Concerning this, the Galatians lost sight of this and Paul rebukes them in chapter 3. He starts out by saying they are foolish and have been bewitched (verse 1). He then goes on to help them see the root of their problem.
“This only I want to learn from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh?” (Galatians 3:2-3). He said they started well by focusing on the “hearing of faith”, but they had foolishly reverted to an Old Testament mindset of prioritizing “works of the law” (working more on their behaviors than their beliefs).
It is interesting that it says “hearing of faith” rather than just faith. We are told by Jesus to “take heed how we hear”. We are to hear with expectancy and child-like excitement. If we do, there will be a profit in our lives. Unfortunately, those in the Old Testament did not receive the benefit they could have because they were dull of hearing. “For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it” (Hebrews 4:2). These did not take heed how they heard.
So how do we apply all this?
Feast on and enthusiastically receive testimonies that demonstrate God’s goodness.
Consistently meditate and pray through Bible chapters like Galatians 1-6, Ephesians 1-3, Colossians 1-2, Romans 4-8, and Hebrews 4.
Regularly make faith declarations to help convince yourself of God’s goodness and who you are in Him.
Stir up excitement (positive expectancy) when you read the Bible and attend meetings, believing you are about to hear good news to mix your faith with (and thus benefit your life). You may hear it in a worship song, in a conversation with someone, through a message, or something the Holy Spirit speaks to you directly while you are in atmospheres of revelation.
Take heed what and how you hear (Mark 3:24, Luke 8:18). Truly, the same way we get into the kingdom is the same way we advance: hearing good news and gleefully believing it.