According to Luke 10:38-42 [NLTse]
38 As Jesus and the disciples continued on their way to Jerusalem, they came to a certain village where a woman named Martha welcomed Him into her home. 39 Her sister, Mary, sat at the Lord’s feet, listening to what He taught. 40 But Martha was distracted by the big dinner she was preparing. She came to Jesus and said, “Lord, doesn’t it seem unfair to you that my sister just sits here while I do all the work? Tell her to come and help me.”
41 But the Lord said to her, “My dear Martha, you are worried and upset over all these details! 42 There is only one thing worth being concerned about. Mary has discovered it, and it will not be taken away from her.”
Can I tell you a story?
A man was having difficulty communicating with his wife and concluded that she was becoming hard of hearing. So he decided to conduct a test without her knowing about it. One evening he sat in a chair on the far side of the room. Her back was to him and she could not see him. Very quietly he whispered, “Can you hear me?” There was no response. Moving a little closer, he asked again, “Can you hear me now?” Still, there was no reply. Quietly he edged closer and whispered the same words, but still there was no answer. Finally, he moved right behind her chair and said, “Can you hear me now?” To his surprise and embarrassment she responded with irritation in her voice, “For the fourth time, yes!”
The Bible tells us that God speaks. We see Him meeting with Adam and Eve in the cool of the afternoon to walk and talk together. We read of Abraham and the Lord talking together, making treaties, and even negotiating the future of great cities. Moses and the Lord talk together about commandments, and Moses writes them down. The prophets speak to God on behalf of Israel and then bring God’s responses back to them. As a matter of fact, the prophet Amos tells us that not hearing from God is one of God’s judgments against humanity when he says,
“The time is surely coming,” says the Sovereign Lord, “when I will send a famine on the land—not a famine of bread or water but of hearing the words of the Lord. People will stagger from sea to sea and wander from border to border searching for the word of the Lord, but they will not find it. Beautiful girls and strong young men will grow faint in that day, thirsting for the Lord’s word.” (8:11-13)
But if the Lord is so eager to be in touch with us, then why don’t more people hear from Him?
In the very first place, let’s remind ourselves that in John 10:27 that the Lord Jesus says, “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow Me.” (John 10:27) Notice He does not say, “My sheep can hear My voice,” or, “My sheep should hear My voice,” or even, “My sheep might hear My voice.” He says, “My sheep hear My voice.”
So, at its most basic, to hear from God, first, we must be of His sheep: We must accept the gift of eternal life that is found only in Jesus Christ. Today, acknowledge your need for someone to rescue you from your life of regrets, someone to rescue you from your fears, addictions, loneliness, and the hopelessness that life can ever be anything different. Jesus has a new life for you, and a new family to live that life with and in here. Accept Him! And begin trusting and following Him today.
That’s the first thing.
Of course, to hear from God we must believe that God wants to speak to us. For instance, if your phone rings and Caller ID says, “The Holy Spirit” is calling. Is your response, “Yes! I knew He would!” or do your respond, “No, God wouldn’t call me,” or, “Nah, God doesn’t speak to people any more (if He ever really did).”
And then we must give quiet time to hear from Him, willing to wait, if necessary.
For a lot of different reasons, I would encourage us to be very specific, as we wait. Let God know you’re there to hear from Him. Perhaps you’d pray aloud something like, “Lord, I’m here. I want to hear Your voice. I am committed to do Your will…” Perhaps as you wait you might say things like, “I love You, Lord,” and perhaps spend some time giving Him thanks… Just enjoying Him and trusting Him. And then wait. And listen to the Lord as we read the Scriptures and hear various sermons and interact with others throughout our days, always listening for God to speak…
Our reading from Luke about Martha and Mary shows us the importance of getting rid of those things which can interfere with our hearing from God. Mary was busy – welcoming Jesus, getting the big dinner ready. These weren’t bad things, necessarily, but they were clearly too many things.
I think many of us can be tempted to give Jesus our leftovers: Our leftover possessions; our leftover energy; our leftover money; our leftover time… And I think the devil can try and keep us distracted from God’s voice and God’s things with busyness, even when it’s just lots and lots of good things. But Jesus said that Mary, sitting at His feet and listening as He taught, had chosen the very best thing…
Anger, bitterness, unforgiveness… can all interfere with us hearing from the Lord. Focusing on the hurt another has caused us, while trying to hear from God at the same time, doesn’t work.
Notice that Martha didn’t go to Jesus to listen to Him but to complain to Him about Mary.
Ask yourself, “Who is keeping me from hearing God?” [Pause.] If a name or face just came to your mind then you need to forgive that person or your anger, bitterness, and unforgiveness will not keep you from letting God effectively work in your life.
Jesus said to Martha, “My dear Martha, you are worried and upset over all these details!” Worried, stressed, under pressure, feeling choked… All of this interferes with our hearing from God. Upset, wrecked, overturned, in shambles… How are we supposed to hear from God?
So, to hear God speak, we need to trust in Christ; we need to believe God would speak to us; we need to give Him the opportunity and time to speak to us; and we need to get rid of all that can clog up our hearts and minds and interfere with our hearing Him. (Of course, this is all from our human point of view, what we can do seeking to hear from God.)
Another is to be where we know God speaks.
“Where does God speak?” [Wait for responses.] It wasn’t just that Mary wasn’t too busy. Mary put herself where she could hear from Jesus.
Are you putting yourself where you can hear from Jesus when He speaks in these various places?
Then, when we’re where God speaks, we need to be focused and attentive, expectant that He may and wants to speak to you. For instance, we all come here each Sunday, but are we truly intent on hearing God speak as we sing the songs, pray the prayers, hear the Scripture, receive the sermon, etc..? (After all, Mary and Martha were both in the same place with Jesus, but only one of them was truly “there”.)
We can be in the same room with God, even taking notes, but if our mind is wandering or if we’re sure we already know all about what the preacher’s teaching or if we’re listening without wanting to hear from God our receive from Him…
John 11:27-29 is another account of Mary and Martha, when their brother, Lazarus, died. It tells us that when Martha told Mary that Jesus was coming towards their house that Mary got up quickly and went to Him. Do we rush to those places we know Jesus regularly shows up?
The last thing I want to speak about this, but, perhaps, the most important, is that when we are seeking to hear from God we need to be ready and committed to respond.
Have you ever been talking to someone and somehow realized that they didn’t really seem to care what you were saying? How motivated are you to continue talking to them after you’ve realized this? Or have you ever given someone advice but they never took it? Time and time again? What do you think, will you keep on giving them advice forever?
Perhaps you’re not hearing from God today because He’s waiting for you, first, to do what He told you to do last week? Perhaps the Lord is not answering your questions about this part of your life because you haven’t yet acted on His advice about that part of your life? (The Letter from James says, “Don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says”! [1:22])
Sometimes people don’t hear from God because they have no true intention of obeying Him. Sometimes Christian people pretend to seek out counselors when, in truth, they are really just looking for more opportunities to gossip about their troubles or others. Sometimes Christians will say they want to hear from God, yet there are certain actions they are unwilling to take, certain things they are unwilling to surrender. Sometimes God speaks to us but it is not what we want, so we continue praying awaiting the answer we want Him to give us, and we wonder why He’s so silent. Sometimes we want to hear from God when we’re already decided what we want Him to say. The truth is, we don’t want to hear from Him, we just want His approval for what we’ve decided to do, anyway.
But we live by faith. Faith that God is good! Faith that God has great plans for us, not plans for our harm but for our good! We live by faith that God works all things out for our good, those of us who love Him and are responding to His calling toward Christlikeness! Faith that God is love, and that He loves us with a love that has faced death and that has overcome death. And knowing and trusting all of this, we can listen, waiting, ready to do what He tells us with child-like faith.
The Lord Jesus says to His sheep, to all who truly love and follow Him: “Blessed are your eyes, because they see; and your ears, because they hear. I tell you the truth, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, but they didn’t see it. And they longed to hear what you hear, but they didn’t hear it. (Matthew 13:16-17)