“LISTENS!”

 1 John 4:4-6.                     (ESV)

“[4] Little children, you are from GOD and have overcome them, for HE WHO is in you is GREATER than he who is in the world. [5] They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. [6] We are from GOD. Whoever knows GOD “LISTENS” to us; whoever is not from GOD does not listen to us. By this we know the SPIRIT of TRUTH and the spirit of error.”

Recently I saw the following post on a social media site, “This goes out to all the people who had report cards growing up that read “talks too much”!  My thoughts immediately went back to before the Brain Hemorrhage, when my personality was quite different!  Hearing oftentimes that “You can’t learn anything with your mouth open” never sunk in to my “extremely confident”personality.  But ALMIGHTY GOD can change even the strongest of personalities, and we don’t have to give our consent to the change!!

The SPIRIT of TRUTH IS ABLE to change the hardest of hearts into a vessel that can be used for HIS GLORY!  Previously I was “extremely busy”, trying to be whatever I felt at the time I was being led to accomplish?  The concept of LISTENING hardly entered my thought process as I was TOO BUSY doing things, and not always for the Kingdom!  For me at the time, just remaining in the whirlwind of activity I was operating in was sufficient.  Apparently what it was accomplishing wasn’t that important as long as I was doing something???

Only recently have I discerned that he who “LISTENS” to the SPIRIT of TRUTH is in the quiet stillness of their prayer time is the one who is doing a worthwhile thing!  The one who takes time and “LISTENS” to the SPIRIT of TRUTH is the person that can HEAR the direction that they are being led.  

The word “LISTENS” is used above about those who “know GOD”!  Those who DO NOT know GOD cannot understand TRUTH!  1 Corinthians 2:14 tells us “The natural person DOES NOT accept the things of the SPIRIT of GOD, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are SPIRITUALLY discerned”!  A person CANNOT “LISTEN” to GOD unless he is CHOSEN!  Count your BLESSINGS if you are able to “LISTEN” to the CREATOR OF THE UNIVERSES!!!