How do I listen?  In what ways do I enable my heart to listen?  Or, possibly more important, how does my spirit listen?  How aware am I of the connection between my heart and my spirit so I can be more attentive to the promptings of my spirit?

We previously looked at the verse in Hebrews which said, the people did not consider the message of value because they did not combine it with faith (Hb 4.2).  This verse has several implications, but one implication is that the message we hear can actually lead us into a faith response – if we can understand how we listen.

The people did not combine faith to what they heard because they didn’t recognise the faith which came through the message they heard.  The message of God’s goodness and provision of redemption fell on deaf ears (so-to-speak) because the hearts of the people were hard (Hb 3.15).  Even though God’s words are Spirit and Life the people did not ‘hear’ because their hearts had been hardened through unbelief (Hb 3.19).

This raises a question for me.  Had their hearts not been hard, could they have responded differently?  If they had an element of unbelief, but had not yet gone fully into a hard heart, would they have responded differently?  It may be difficult to answer for that specific group of people.  But, I don’t think their descent has to be assumed as a general rule for all people.  Those people were unaware of ‘how to listen’ but I think the scenario could be different if someone had the smallest element of belief – even if it is mustard seed small.

I am convinced there is a link between belief and the response of the heart.  A heart that is sensitive to the different ways God speaks is able to listen, able to hear and able to choose to combine faith to what it hears.

What’s even more encouraging about this is that God has told us faith (belief) is not solely our responsibility.  The words of God are Spirit and Life, and when the soft heart hears the words of God, our spirit awakens to the essence and substance of God contained in the message and responds with belief.  This is, I believe, part of what happens when Paul says that faith comes by hearing (Rom 10.17).