Spiritually Deaf

When we accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior, we entered into a relationship with Him. Jesus made it very clear in the scriptures that we are to obey Him as the Lord of our lives. For most of us, this is harder said than done.

Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you?
Luke 6:46 (ESV)

The problem is that our sinful nature didn’t dissolve the moment we made a decision to follow Christ. It stays with us as long as we live in our natural bodies. That is until we die or are taken up to heaven in the rapture. We tend to hang onto the sins we love the most. We might be obedient in some areas but shut the Lord out of other areas of our lives. In some cases, we do this knowingly and willingly while in other cases we just don’t give it much thought.

The keys to living an obedient life

The two keys to living in obedience to God’s word are to learn what He commands us and then applying it to our lives. This seems pretty straightforward, right? I find it surprising how many people say they’re Christians but don’t learn scripture, or if they do they don’t apply it to their lives.

Before you think I’m being judgmental or too harsh, let me just say that after I accepted Christ as Lord and Savior, I lived this way for many years. I’d like a do-over but I don’t have access to the time machine right now.

Getting back to my point, there’s effectively no difference between the person who doesn’t learn God’s commandments and someone who learns them but doesn’t apply them to their life. On the one hand, they feel comfortable being ignorant of God’s Word as if that’s going to be accepted as an excuse when Jesus asks for an account of what they’ve done with their lives.

So then each of us will give an account of himself to God.
Romans 14:12 (ESV)

On the other hand, they learn God’s commands from the scriptures but are spiritually deaf to them. They don’t want to apply God’s Word to their lives, so what they hear goes in one ear and out the other. In both cases, their predicament is the same: they are living in disobedience to God’s Word.

In his book, How to be born again, Billy Graham said "The world of the physically deaf is one which those of us with normal hearing find difficult to comprehend. Spiritually, many men and women are more than deaf and blind, they are dead".

You were dead in your trespasses and sins.
Ephesians 2:1

How to improve your spiritual hearing

If you’re spiritually deaf, do you want to improve your ability to hear God? Just do what the Word says because God speaks to us through scripture. That's the Holy Bible, folks.

If you’re struggling to give up certain sins in your life, repent of them and ask God to remove the desire to repeat them. Go to God in prayer as many times as it takes to get your life right with God. This is what we call the process of sanctification and it's what God expects of His children.

May God pour out His favor on your life,
Daniel