Are We Hard of Hearing?

I suppose subconsciously I realised there might be a problem or I wouldn’t have gone to have the test. True, my children had made odd comments about the television volume but it still shocked me when the hearing test proved beyond doubt that there were some ranges of sounds I just couldn’t hear. Evidently there was damage that had led to a sort of hearing ‘blind-spot’.

I couldn’t help wonder if spiritual ears, the ears of the human spirit, could be damaged in the same way and that’s why some are ‘dull of hearing’ as this verse implies. The hearing specialist told me the physical damage was because of excessive noise in the past and that they caused damage because they weren’t what ears were intended for. So what would be the equivalent for the spiritual ears, I wondered?

Jesus says ‘my sheep hear my voice’. He expects us to listen with spiritual ears that are made to listen to the truthful, loving and gentle voice of Jesus. So, if spiritual ears have been subject to spiritual sounds not intended for them, then this may result in ‘hearing’ damage. So what are these damaging spiritual noises? Perhaps these might include being constantly subjected to a barrage of the enemy’s lies or entering into false worship or perhaps harbouring attitudes of hate, judgment or pride. These are the ‘sounds’ of the enemy’s voice, damaging to spiritual ears intended for words of truth and love.

If we have spiritual hearing loss we could be missing something of what Jesus is saying today. We may be thinking we are hearing OK but actually we’re missing bits of the message!
Perhaps we should invite the Holy Spirit to come and test our spiritual hearing today and if necessary restore and heal the ears of our hearts so we can hear the full message.

Prayer: Jesus we desire to hear Your voice clearly and fully. Help us to be aware of the possibility that we’re suffering from ‘dullness of hearing’ and allow You to cleanse and restore the ears of our hearts. Amen.