Our hearing is the most vital sense that the human body possesses. It is through the hearing that God communicates his Word. Our heart then stores what we have heard, for the heart is the treasure chest of our life. Because of sin, man’s heart became dark and hardened. In Jeremiah 17:9, the LORD said that the heart is desperately wicked: who can know it? The phrase “desperately wicked” means exceedingly perverse and severely corrupt, and mortally sick. If the story stopped here, there would be no hope for mankind. Why? A corrupt heart cannot receive the things of God. Since the Word of God is life to the hearer, without it, man would remain in a state of death. Listen to what the Lord told the prophet Isaiah concerning the rebellious nation of Israel. He said: Go and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not. Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes; and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed (Isaiah 6:9-10).
Man, in the natural, is in such a state of powerlessness and unable to receive the things of God, but thank God that grace can enter through Jesus Christ. Man needed a new heart. God in his infinite wisdom and foreknowledge gave man a way out through belief in his Son, Jesus Christ. In John 3:7, Jesus said that we must be born again, born of the Sprit of God. It is this spiritual rebirth that ushers us into God’s grace and gives us a new identity in Christ Jesus. II Corinthians 5:17, says, it “If any man be in Christ (born again); he is a new creature, old things are passed away, behold, all things are become new.” This means that we get a new heart. A heart that is clean and pure, untainted and open to hear the words of the Lord so that we can live an abundant life, a life that is pleasing unto God. Do you now see how important it is to have ears to hear and a heart to understand?
Brother Mark Johnson
@mtolivehop