President Franklin D. Roosevelt

I murdered my

grandmother this

morning!

•We often do not really hear what is said. 

• Just having the ability to hear doesn't guarantee an accurate reception of a message. Jesus said, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear."

(Luke 8:8 NIV)

Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ. [Romans 10:17]

Biblically speaking, “faith comes from hearing.” There is something special about hearing the Word of God and hearing the message of salvation through/in Jesus Christ.

Yet somehow odd and interesting ideas have developed around the basic dynamics of how faith comes to an individual. Some actually have merit, but fall short.•For instance, how many times have you said or heard, “seeing is believing?” Americans tend to believe a picture or video. What we see is “evidence” in our mind to the truth. But faith is beyond what can be seen.

The Bible says: “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” [Hebrews 11:1]

What can confuse us is the roll seeing plays in our faith experience. For instance, seeing is “proof” but it is not faith. In other words, it supplements and confirms but, seeing is not what we can depend on for faith.

• Listening describes an intentional activity. When you are listening, you are actively trying to hear something.

• In contrast, hearing is something that happens without any intentional effort. You can hear something even when you don't want to hear it and don't try to hear it.

• The sentences below contain both listen and hear and show the contrast:• I listened outside the door, but I couldn't hear what they were saying

inside. [Note that even if you listen, you don't always hear what you are trying to hear.]• His story was so long and boring that I stopped listening, until suddenly I

heard my name. [Note that even if you are not listening, you might hear something.]

• Listening is more complex than merely hearing. It is a process that consists of four stages: sensing and attending, understanding and interpreting, remembering, and responding . . .. The stages occur in sequence but we are generally unaware of them."(Sheila Steinberg, An Introduction to Communication Studies. Juta and Company Ltd., 2007)

• "The reason why we have two ears and only one mouth is that we may listen the more and talk the less."(Zeno of Citium)

• Elements and Levels of Listening"There are four elements of good listening: • attention--the focused perception of both visual and verbal stimuli• hearing--the physiological act of 'opening the gates to your ears'• understanding--assigning meaning to the messages received• remembering--the storing of meaningful information

LISTEN

QUESTIONLISTEN

ACRONYM

WHAT? L

HOW? IST

WHO? WHERE? WHEN?

E

WHY? N

L – Let God speak• Mazmur 85: 8

Aku mau mendengar apa yang hendak difirmankan Allah, Tuhan. Bukankah Ia hendak berbicara tentang damai kepada umat-Nya dan kepada orang-orang yang dikasihi-Nya supaya jangan mereka kembali kepada kebodohan?

“ Diamlah dan ketahuilah, bahwa

Akulah Allah!

I – Interfere not with His Plans

S – Stay focused in and to the Word

• Ibrani 12 : 2

“Marilah kita melakukannya dengan mata yang tertuju kepada Yesus, yang memimpin kita dalam iman kita itu kepada kesempurnaan, yang dengan mengabaikan kehinaan tekun memikul salib ganti sukacita yang disediakan bagi Dia, yang sekarang duduk di sebelah kanan takhta Allah.”

• Kita harus fokus kepada Firman Tuhan.

• Ibrani 4 : 12

“ Sebab firman Allah hidup dan kuat dan lebih tajam dari pedang bermata dua mana pun;… “

• Firman Tuhan HIDUP dan BERKUASA.

• Kita harus memenuhkan diri kita dengan Firman Tuhan untuk kesembuhan dan kejayaan.

Matius 4 : 4Tetapi Yesus menjawab :

“Ada tertulis: Manusia hidup bukan dari roti saja, tetapi dari setiap firman yang keluar dari mulut

Allah.”

T – Tell ALL about His LoveIf you have found the greatest of anything, I’m sure you would let someone know. If you’ve found something that would help someone else, I’m sure you would help them. Why not let them in on the best kept secret of any generation? Don’t keep the good news of Jesus to yourself.

E – Everyone, Everywhere, Everytime

N – Now is the time

•L – LET GOD SPEAK•I – INTERFERE NOT WITH HIS PLANS•S - STAY FOCUSED IN THE WORD•T - TELL ALL ABOUT HIS LOVE•E - EVERYONE, EVERYWHERE, EVERYTIME•N - NOW IS THE TIME

WHY IS IT IMPORTANT TO LISTEN?• If I listen to God, I will know God’s heart.

• If you listen to God, You will know God’s heart as well.

• If we let people to listen what we have listened, it will cause a GREAT IMPACT.

• God’s love will impact the whole world.

• Challenge : to open not just our Physical Ears, but our Spiritual ears should be opened widely.

Have you ever given yourself a chance to listen to God’s voice?