Listen Not
Scripture Reading - Galatians 2:4-5 God’s Word
4 False Christians were brought in. They slipped in as spies to learn about the freedom Christ Jesus gives us. They hoped to find a way to control us.
5 But we did not give in to them for a moment, so that the truth of the Good News would always be yours.
As we continue on our “Listening” series in this lesson we will emphasize what it means to “Listen Not” which is slightly different from “not listening”. The reason we state it is slightly different is because “not listening” usually carries with it a negative connotation. When people are accused of “not listening” it is as if they are not paying attention, whereas “Listen Not” is more about choosing exactly what you will “listen” to. There are people in the world who only listen to things they what to as mentioned in our “Listen Well” Godspill by the statement, “Yes, we all are familiar with people who “listen” when they want to and choose not to “listen” when they don’t want to, we call that selective hearing (selective “listening”).” They hear what they want to hear by listening more for the things they like and “not listening” to things they don’t like. Some examples of things they don’t want to hear would be subjects like correction or reproof or any issue that is contrary to their own personal beliefs. This type of “selecting listening” will be problematic because no man upon earth today knows everything and therefore we need each other, so we must be willing to “listen” to one another. The scripture tells us in 2 Timothy 3:16 KJV that, “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:” Therefore we must be willing, ready and obedient to receive correction from God’s Word when brought to our attention. However, on the contrary, when we (ihlcc) speak of “Listen Not” the context we are speaking of concerns not giving place to the devil as mentioned in Ephesians 4:27 KJV. To us this means don’t allow the devil to speak evil words to you and don’t allow the devil’s evil nature (anger, deceit, falseness, etc…) to have any place in you. Yes, “listening” to the lies of devil over an extended period of time will allow for his (the evil one’s) nature to take root in your spirit man. We notice in some bible examples that even in some brief conversations with God’s people Satan was able to entice certain ones to do evil. An example would be Eve, she was enticed to sin against God and her husband right after a brief conversation with Satan (the serpent) and thus following the first man Adam was next to sin after a brief interaction with Eve. We also notice the prophet Balaam was enticed to sin after he focused on the riches and honor of men. Our point is the moment you notice certain traits and/or words of evil quickly decide to “Listen Not”. We are surprised at just how many people allow themselves to “listen” to the lies of the devil. The primary reason they allow themselves to do this is because they simply don’t recognize it is the evil one speaking to them. Yes, multimedia is full of evil speaking, they accuse and name call consistently all day long. Yes, the lies are so numerous the count cannot be tallied. If the Believer “listens” and watches these lies all day long they will no doubt be influenced by them for bad. Whether they start believing the lies as truth or if they are becoming fearful due to all the negative news they are headed in the wrong direction. This is one area in our lives we must all judge to discern whether we are hearing good wholesome godly words of love and truth or not. If we are not we must “Listen Not” to the non-productive evil dividing words of the world, the flesh and the devil. Another example of watching our "listening" would be people close to you or we could say people around you. It seems like we all have encountered a person who spoke or speaks evil about us on a regular basis. They are the first to criticize you or just put you down based upon what they think of you. This could even be a close family member like a spouse or sister or brother. No matter who the evil speaking person is you would be wise to “listen not” because “listening” to them repeatedly could severely damage your self image to lower your self-esteem. We just recently spoke with a person who’s boss mentioned some negative comments about them and they in return started to worry about their job. Then the person started to believe that their boss was going to rate them lower on their annual review before the review was given. This is the reason we (ihlcc) know “listening” to negative words will generally have some impact upon the listener, unless they are trained to “Listen Not”. Just to be sure you are understanding what we are speaking we will re-emphasize the fact that we are not endorsing only “listen” to those who say what you like to hear. No, on the contrary, we are encouraging all people to “listen” to what people are saying from their heart and the words that are more godly receive with an open heart. However, in the cases where you know what a person is saying about you or others is exactly opposite of God’s Word and/or God’s View (His view point of Love) then “listen not”. You should be able to “listen” to correction when it is true and “Listen Not” when it is not true. Someone will say, “How will I know the difference?”. One way is judging the spirit in which the correction was given (loving or hateful) and another way is to lay it before God to hear what He (The Lord) thinks about it. If God is in it The Lord will most certainly bear witness to the truth but if The Lord is not in it He will also let you know the correction is false. The key is our reliance upon God which means we rely upon God’s Word for an accurate measurement of what is Godly and what is not. Thus, we “Listen Not” to the words of the devil, the words of this world’s system, the words of ungodly men and even the words of other Christians who speak outside of God’s Word and/or God’s Love. In today’s scripture we notice the Apostle Paul “listened not” to other religious people who would led them astray. We do concur with the statement, “Your ear’s and heart shouldn’t be a garbage can for other’s people trash.” No you are encouraged in Proverbs 4:23 God’s Word to, “Guard your heart more than anything else, because the source of your life flows from it.” Therefore be a good and diligent guard by monitoring exactly what comes into your spirit and exactly what comes out of your spirit because if you are not “listening” to both the physical words spoken to you and the inward spiritual words being heard in your heart you are not guarding your heart at all. So be a faithful steward over God’s beautiful creation (yes, you) by “listening for God’s Word” (Hence His Voice) and “Listen Not” to the lies and deceits of the evil one which may include the falseness and accusations of mere men. Amen!