This Blog is Reprinted from Fount Shults, a Powerful Minister of God
“When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it [literally, who does not put it together], the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart” (Matt. 13:19).
If you did the exercise we suggested in the previous blog, you will have noticed that you often do not “put together” what the other is saying because you are trying to “put together” your own thoughts or responses to what you think they are saying or what they ought to say. The times you failed to “put it together” were the times of the lowest level of heart-to-heart intimacy.
Let’s move on to hearing God.
Religious people listen with prejudice. They are set on defending a belief system that supports their authority or confirms their superior learning. They do not listen to Father God; they listen to themselves. They know the Bible but fail to commune with Father. Jesus said to the Pharisees and scribes, “You do not have his word abiding in you…” (Jn. 5:38). Many of them had memorized the entire Old Testament in Hebrew; they knew what the words meant. But the Word did not abide in them. It was on the surface.
The word-seed often falls on the ‘beaten path’ where the soil is so hard that the seed remains on the surface. You might think of the conscious mind as the surface of the heart. The heart is hard when the mind filters out what the heart doesn’t want to hear. That person fails to connect with the heart of the one speaking. He is closed to the approach of any word that might conflict with what he already believes in his heart. Since the word can’t go below the surface, the birds snatch it away.
We need to know Father better than we know the Bible. Intimacy with the Bible will not produce a kingdom lifestyle. Abundant life comes to us only to the degree that we have intimate, personal communion with Abba Father. Allow his word to penetrate your heart and impregnate you with kingdom life. (Our use of heart in this context is synonymous with spirit. We understand that they are not always synonymous.)
The purpose of hearing from God is not so we can have a testimony, “God spoke to me.” The purpose is to allow the word to sink in and bear fruit through intimacy. Jesus came to prepare a place in our heart for Father to dwell. Jesus went to prepare a place for us to dwell in Father’s heart (Jn. 14:2). We experience that intimate place in Father’s heart while he is speaking to us, when he is sowing his word into our heart.
Intimacy with God is a heart-to-heart (Spirit-to-spirit) experience. There will be no intimacy if one is too busy, even if the busyness is an attempt to gain understanding of the words before investing time in the relationship. There can be no intimacy if our heart is closed to what he wants to do in us and through us. And without intimacy there will be no fruit bearing.
A word-seed can’t germinate if you take it apart before it gets into the soil of your heart. A seed will break apart of its own accord after it receives moisture underground. We can never get the word in our heart or discover Father’s heart by doing word studies. Word studies are valuable, but only after you have received the word deep in your heart. He is ready and willing to open his word within the heart (not mind) of those who receive it.
We have not yet brought up the relationship of seeing and hearing. As we pursue that relationship (next blog) we will find the secret to allowing the word to penetrate our heart and produce fruit.
Continue the exercise of noticing your self-talk while others are speaking and begin give attention to the visual images that dance around while you are listening. Words produce images, visual representations of what you are hearing. Simply watch them for now. I have used this method personally for many years and can testify that it works.
Next week’s blog will continue these thoughts. The concepts will only be practical for those who “put it together” by doing the exercises. If you’re not doing it, you won’t get it.
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Looking Forward,
Fount Shults
On Word Ministries http://onword.org/
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