An Open Ear Leads to An Open Heart - David Mitts

"Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash." (Mat 7:24-27)

Click here to listen to "Open Ear Open Heart"

Last session, we spoke about the foundation of our life house, spirit, soul, and body is our faith.  The statement “faith-based” or some other alluding to people who are Believers is really a misstatement. It isn’t like there is anything but people of faith as faith is the substance of our life story that determines what we expect to occur in our lives based on conclusions we have made about life and how it “works”.

Even people who claim to be atheists operate by faith. Faith is the support structure of our existence. The Bible points this out by stating:

For as he thinks in his heart, so is he. "Eat and drink!" he says to you, But his heart is not with you. (Pro 23:7)

What we think in our heart reflects what we believe to be true about ourselves and life, what we call faith. In this way we don’t have faith, faith has us. 

Faith speaks.  Our salvation is based on that reality:

that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. (Rom 10:9-10).

Like many spiritual truths that give a revelation of a spiritual reality, it is common to twist the truth into a dogma. So we emphasize the external speaking, the outward confession.  While this is definitely true, I also want to point out that it is the inner belief, the faith that is also based on a confession, the inward voice. We don’t outwardly, what we haven’t spoken inwardly, usually repeatedly.

The question is where does the content then come, for the inner voice? It comes from our listening.

Yeshua said:

One of the scribes came and heard them arguing, and recognizing that He had answered them well, asked Him, "What commandment is the foremost of all?" Jesus answered, "The foremost is, 'HEAR, O ISRAEL! THE LORD OUR GOD IS ONE LORD; AND YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH.' "The second is this, 'YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.' There is no other commandment greater than these." The scribe said to Him, "Right, Teacher; You have truly stated that HE IS ONE, AND THERE IS NO ONE ELSE BESIDES HIM;(Mar 12:28-32)

The beginning of the love commandment comes with “sh’ma”. Sh’ma implies a certain kind of listening, which I will call “heart listening”.

Listen, my son, and be wise, And direct your heart in the way. (Pro 23:19)

Sh’ma listening, heart listening brings with it wisdom. It opens what we call in Hebrew, Derech Ha Lev, which means the way of the heart. The original Hebrew is even more personal. It says that heart listening will bring about your heart path!

This means that you contain the keys to the kingdom within you, accessed by your listening.

Look with me at Matthew 16: to see this illustrated.

Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, He was asking His disciples, "Who do people say that the Son of Man is?" And they said, "Some say John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; but still others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets." He *said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." And Jesus said to him, "Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. "I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it. "I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven."(Mat 16:13-19)

Yeshua begins with a question about the listening, “who do people say?”.  Then He wants to know what is the listening of the disciples? Peter answers with the key listening. Yeshua calls this listening, the blessing. He calls this the listening of heaven.

This listening is the “rock” foundation of the Kehilah, the Assembled ones who have been called out of the nations to be His.

The gates of hell is another conversation, another listening. What are the gates of hell?  Another conversation, the conversation of Satan: Look with me at John 8:43-47

"Why do you not understand what I am saying? It is because you cannot hear My word. "You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies. "But because I speak the truth, you do not believe Me. "Which one of you convicts Me of sin? If I speak truth, why do you not believe Me?.""He who is of God hears the words of God; for this reason you do not hear them, because you are not of God (Joh 8:43-47)

First, we understand that this is about listening. The voice of Satan is the voice of lies. Notice that the lies keep us from being able to hear the truth. How can one voice obliterate another?  Only one way.  When Satan’s lies become part of the belief matrix of our lives, they pervert what we believe. With the perverted belief comes a numbness to the emotions that were aroused when the trauma occurred that caused us to search for a way to understand.

What were we trying to understand? Evil.

When evil is perpetrated against us, it causes pain. We don’t like pain, so we try to “understand” the reason for the evil and the pain.  The Father of lies then convinces us of a conclusion which is rooted in our desire to regain control of our lives and control the evil and the pain.

As Yeshua said, this was so from the beginning, from Genesis.

The serpent said to the woman, "You surely will not die! "For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."(Gen 3:4-5)

Wanting to be like God means wanting to be in control.  The lies are all about the illusion of control. Ever since the fall, man hungers for control. This makes us vulnerable to the voice of the Father of Lies who is also known as the prince of the world. Look with me at John 12

"Now My soul has become troubled; and what shall I say, 'Father, save Me from this hour'? But for this purpose I came to this hour. "Father, glorify Your name." Then a voice came out of heaven: "I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again." So the crowd of people who stood by and heard it were saying that it had thundered; others were saying, "An angel has spoken to Him." Jesus answered and said, "This voice has not come for My sake, but for your sakes. "Now judgment is upon this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out. "And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself." But He was saying this to indicate the kind of death by which He was to die. The crowd then answered Him, "We have heard out of the Law that the Christ is to remain forever; and how can You say, 'The Son of Man must be lifted up'? Who is this Son of Man?" So Jesus said to them, "For a little while longer the Light is among you. Walk while you have the Light, so that darkness will not overtake you; he who walks in the darkness does not know where he goes. (Joh 12:27-35)

Notice the source of victory over Satan, the ruler of this world is the Voice.  The Voice is also the
Light which is the power to be not overtaken by darkness.

So, to come full circle, everything of faith comes from the listening.

So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.(Rom 10:17)

The listening determines the building blocks of our life, rock or sand. What most believer’s don’t realize is that listening is NOT a one time event called being born again. Listening is a lifetime investment into our relationship with our Father. It actually determines parenting!

Going back to John 8:47

"
He who is of God hears the words of God; for this reason you do not hear them, because you are not of God

When we listen to the lies of Satan, he becomes our father. When we listen to the voice of God, then He is our Father.  Then, the question is who or what is a Father?

I think a Father is ultimately the one who provides the seed of our life.  The seed is the Word.

"The sower sows the word.(Mar 4:14)

Our heart is the soil which receives the seed or more humanly, the womb that births the purpose of the seed of the Word.

This word seed will always battle against the word seed of the kingdom of the world. Not the people of the world, God sent His Son for them and us! No the system of the world which is at enmity with system of trusting in God, our Father.

Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever.(1Jn 2:15-17)

Activation: OK. Let’s renew our mind. Let’s ask God to reveal to us what lies we have believed about ourselves or life. Let’s also ask Him to speak the truth, His seed into that area of wounding. You will know the area because it holds your fears.