Doubt and Fear Can Your Heart Hear

Welcome to episode 89, In the Beginning Was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Spending time in the Word of God is the best way to spend time with God. Welcome to No Doubt, No Fear, Only Believe podcast, where we will encourage, inspire, and empower you to live your best life in Christ. Here's Greg.

Welcome to episode 89. We have been continuing our talk on doubt and fear, and I wanted to continue that, and I want to ask you a question. But before I did that, I want to remind you there was 3 things when I first started this whole podcast experience. I wanted you to know 3 things, and I haven't said them in a while, so I wanted to say them again. I want to remind you that you are God's favorite. If God had a refrigerator in heaven, your picture would be all over it. And the second thing is God is not mad at you. He's not even a little bit upset. He took all of his anger and everything that was required by the law and put it on Jesus. All sin, all sickness, all everything was put on Jesus on the cross. It was nailed to the cross, and now it is forever buried and dead and has been resurrected on the third day. So we have that. God's not mad. He's not even a little bit upset. And the third thing I want to remind you of is that we are one day closer to Jesus' return today than we were yesterday. Now, I don't— I'm not going to set no time and date, and we're not going to go into none of that, but we are one day closer. It says that God is in charge of the times and seasons and days, and he knows. It's not— in fact, Jesus in Acts— let me go to that. And his disciples, before he left, before he ascended to heaven, his disciples were saying, Jesus, are you going to bring back— you're going to restore the kingdom? Because that's what they thought. Jesus came back, the Messiah was going to come back and restore Israel's power. But what he did is he restored the kingdom of God to man, and he restored, he restored our right standing with God. He came back so that you and I could have a relationship with God. And that's really all God was, is after. God's not after having all the— he's got all power and authority. God can do anything God wants to do, and what God wants to do is have a relationship with you. So Jesus came back so that that could happen, but his disciples, they didn't understand it, and probably we don't really understand it as well as we should, but he, in Acts 1, let's go to Acts 1:4. And being assembled together with them, he commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, you have heard from me. For John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now. Therefore, when they had come together, they asked him, saying, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? And he said to them, it is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in his own authority. So that's why if anyone ever tells you that Jesus is coming back next Thursday, I mean, they're full of crap. They don't have any idea— and I probably shouldn't say crap, but they don't have any idea of when Jesus is coming back because it's not under there are— now he can let us know that, hey, these are the signs. And Jesus did talk about that, like, these things are going to happen and we are getting closer. And that's why I say we are one day closer today than we were yesterday. So I'm not going to start trying to pick out times and seasons and all of that stuff. It's not under my authority, that's under God's authority. So I just wanted to remind you, I hadn't said that in a while, and I just kind of wanted to remind you. And if this is your first time coming here, this— we've been doing this for 80-some episodes, and I just wanted you to hear that. And if you've been here, a frequent flyer, it's been a while since I had said it, and I kind of want to remind me and you that you are God's favorite, and he really loves you, and God is love. I just want you, if that's all you think about today, then that's enough. But I want to talk about, does your heart have ears? And it's a question because it says, "Those who have ears, let them hear." And I want to pull up a couple of those scriptures. The first one I want to talk about is in Matthew 13:43. Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears to hear, let him hear. And remember in the previous episode I talked about that where they had the wheat and the tares, and it was where at the end times where he's gonna— Jesus is gonna send the angels to separate the wheat from the tares. And the tares will be bound up and thrown into the furnace, and the wheat shall be put into the barn. But I, I just wanted the, the ears to hear. Jesus is saying to those of you who have ears to hear, and that's— I want you to concentrate on those words. Let me go to the next one. The next two times that I want to talk about were both in Mark 4, and one of my favorite chapters of Mark. And in 4:9, we'll go back up to 4:8 just to remind you where he was, where Jesus said, but other seed fell on good ground and yielded a crop that sprang up, increased, and produced some 30, some 60, and some 100. And he said to them, he who has ears to hear, let him hear. And so Jesus was talking to— this is before he explained it to the disciples what he meant, but he was telling— he was teaching the people that were there to listen. And he was talking about the different kind of soil. And we've already talked about that on a couple episodes, but I wanted to bring back the ears to hear because I'm trying to go somewhere with this. The next one, and I think I'm going to end up with this one, is in 4:21. And also he said, is a lamp brought to be put under a basket or under a bed? Is it not to be set on a lampstand? For there is nothing hidden which will not be revealed, nor has anything been kept secret but that it should come to light. If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear. Then he said to them, take heed what you hear. With the same measure you use, it will be measured to you. And to you who hear, more will be given. For whoever has, to him more will be given. But whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. And the last scripture that I want to talk about, and I want to tie this all into, does your heart have ears? And I want you to— I kind of want you to picture a heart, and it— and I want to go from your physical ears to your spiritual ears and your spirit man If you remember, I taught about this, and, and I've talked about spirit, soul, and body, but your spirit man is always going to be at battle with your flesh. Your spirit man and your body are never ever going to get along. And so what we're fighting over is your mind, will, and emotion, or your soul. And that is where pretty much— that's where I've got the heart located, is in your soul. And that's what we're— because your spirit man is just like Jesus. So if you can imagine your spirit man, and he's trying to bring these truths into your mind, and so that is where you're speaking it and you're planting it into your heart, into your mind, will, and emotions, so that it can grow and so that it can start producing, so that you don't have to keep arguing with your body and arguing with yourself all these spiritual truths. You just start growing this good seed in this good soil. You will start living the life that God has called you to live. But I want to get to the last scripture because with the— if you heard those scriptures where Jesus said, "To those that have ears to hear, let him hear," and he's not talking about your physical ears, what you're listening to this podcast with. He's not speaking about those ears. He is speaking about your spiritual ears, and you need to have your spirit ears opened And you start thinking about and digging it around, and it meditates. Some people call it meditating, and it's not that sitting in a room with a couple of fingers up in the air and your thumb and your ring finger holding, and you're chanting some, um, you know, that, that's not what I'm talking about meditating. When I talk about meditating, I'm talking about thinking and picking one scripture and just digging it around and thinking about it all day. And then if you haven't got done thinking about it Go to sleep thinking about it and then wake up with it and think about what that means and just stay on that one thing. That's called meditate. They're just talking about digging it out. Go in the Bible with that on your mind and go in there and start reading some more things and listen to maybe what the Spirit— and ask the Holy Spirit, because remember, he wrote the book, so ask him what he's trying to teach you and just listen. Listen to kind of the thoughts that come into your head, and if it starts being thoughts that you don't think are valid, then you take that thought under obedience to Christ Jesus. I mean, you bring it— it says you bring every thought into obedience to Christ Jesus. I think I just butchered that. And I want to finish with Romans 10:17: So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. And so I want you to think about with your heart ears— and this is your spirit man and your soul digging in and you're listening to what the Word of God is saying. And it's not your— you don't necessarily— I've heard people, "Well, you just need to get a CD and you need to listen to the Bible on CD to make this. You need to listen. You need to hear." And you know, you can listen to something without hearing. Hearing is when you take it in and you just start living it and start milling it around and it starts becoming a part of you. Hearing is different than than listening. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. And that's where you take these, your spiritual ears, and you start digging it in and you start thinking of, you start turning it over. And that's what I think. It's not physical, like cauliflower ears like I've got. It's not the physical ears that Jesus is talking about. It is taking the time to listen to what the word of God is saying to you personally and milling it around and seeing how can I apply that to my life? How can that affect me for the day? That's really why I want to do this like a 10-minute— and I just looked at the clock and I'm way over, but I want you to just be thinking about that today. What is it? Where are my heart? Where are the ears of my heart? How am I to listen? We're going to stop here and I will pick it up on the next episode, but I want to thank you for being a part of this. Let me pray real quick. God, I thank you so much for the person listening to this, and I pray in Jesus' name that they would hear your word for the first time maybe or maybe often that you would— they would start hearing it and it would come alive into their spirit man and into their soul. And Lord I thank you and I pray that they have a great day and I pray that you'd watch over lead and guide direct them we love you Lord and we ask it all Jesus name amen well thank you for being a part of this and I'll talk to you on the next episode thanks for listening to the No Doubt No Fear Only Believe podcast at www.no-doubt-no-fear-only-believe.com www.nodoubtonlybelieve.com