Hear, O My people, and I will admonish you! O Israel, if you will listen to Me! (Psalm 81:8)
In the previous devotion, we acknowledged the need to listen to God and the benefit when we do. It is understood that, in listening to His Voice, we have intentions to obey what He says. After hearing His Voice speak, Israel told Moses, “All that the Lord has said we will do, and be obedient” (Exodus 24:7). Of course, we know that is not how it turned out, and as the writer of Hebrews said, “They could not endure what was commanded” (Hebrews 12:20). I would add this: they did not (perhaps would not) internalize what God was saying to them. Put another way, they heard the Voice but didn’t listen to the words. Spiritually speaking, they were unbalanced.
I have long been fascinated by the fact that God designed us in such a way that our ability to stand up straight and walk upright — i.e. having balance — is determined by the status of our inner ear. If we get an ear infection, our balance can become unstable. In other words, balance is not determined by sight, smell, taste or touch; it is completely dependent upon our ability to hear. Consider how many times Messiah said, “He who has eyes, let him see” compared to how many times He said, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear!” Obviously, God has placed emphasis on our ability to hear Him.
Now let us consider this: the true worshiper is the one who worships God in spirit and in truth. I would strongly suggest that this conveys the notion of balance. Too much spirit and not enough truth sometimes leads people to wrong conclusions; too much truth and not enough spirit encourages people to become overly religious and self-righteous. The Spirit of Truth will never lead us to do something that contradicts the Word. Furthermore, we can’t really understand the Word of Truth unless the Spirit is the One teaching us; as it is written: “The Spirit of truth will guide you into all truth; He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak” (John 16:13).
The point is this: to truly worship the Father in the way that pleases Him requires us to be balanced; to have spiritual balance means, we must be able to hear Him and internalize every Word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord God.
Blessings and Shalom,
Bill
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