Ears To Hear

For the last several weeks the Lord has been silent and it has troubled me.  I can’t stand it and I had to be alone to press in to seek Him and ask why.  He finally spoke saying, “My people’s ears have become dull of hearing.  Why speak when they will not hear and take heed?  Their ears have waxed gross.”  In other words, their ears are terribly clogged with wax build up.  One evening after work I turned on the TV to watch the news.  A miracle ear commercial came on.  It spoke of those not being able to hear well, not because of damage to the ear, but because of a great deal of wax build up in the ears.  As I watched this, the Lord anointed it and I knew He was punctuating what He had been trying to show me.  One night I had a dream.  I was in a doctors office along with others and a dropper with a mixture of oil and water were placed in our ears and the mixture released  A tube of wax about 4 or 5 inches in length softened and rose up out of the ears.  I was astounded at the size and length of these tubes of wax as there was no way something so large could be inside a human ear,  naturally, and the Lord was stressing the magnitude of the wax build up in the ears of His church.  We no longer have ears to hear or eyes to see and a heart that understands the things of God in order to move on to maturity and receive the keys to the kingdom where the supernatural gifts of the spirit are used through the mature sons of God

Heb. 5:11   About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing”.  This passage was spoken to the church of believers.  Paul wanted to teach them more about God and the deeper things of Christ and Him crucified, yet he couldn’t because they became dull in hearing.  They hadn’t started out that way.  It was something they became.  How did they get that way and how do we make sure we do not become this way as well?  I don’t know about you but this is something I want to avoid.  I can’t stand it when the Lord is silent and I am not learning something new.  It makes me want to press in harder and find out why and seek His face and sometimes I have to be alone to do this.   Paul couldn’t expound more on the things of God because they couldn’t grasp the more complex aspects of God because of their dullness in hearing.

A person dull in hearing no longer communicates God’s way in any fashion—by deed or speech; he cannot “talk the talk” or “walk the walk”! Nor are his ears open and attentive to God’s Word. As Jesus says in Matthew 13:15:

For the heart of this people has grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, lest they should understand with their heart and turn, so that I should heal them.

Perhaps that is why we don’t see more healings and the miraculous.  The heart, ears and eyes are dull, hard and closed and if they were to be opened, they would see, understand and be healed.  This is what a person like this looks like and they are all in the church of the “fallen away” or the church that has departed from the faith as the bible states the church will do in the last days.  They don’t go back into the world.  They are just a church that has moved little by little away from the truth, one step at a time, so that you don’t even realize you have moved.  Kind of like the frog in the pot of water that warms  up slowly until it is boiling and the frog dies.  The gospel we were commanded by Christ to preach was the gospel of the Kingdom of God or submission to the King.  Jesus fulfilled the law by empowering us not to sin, which no one had until His death, resurrection and sending of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.  That is why there is no more sacrifice for sin  Today’s church has the “say your little prayer without any repentance involved or any intention of turning from your sin” gospel as it pronounces you saved and eternally secure, while people indulge in all sorts of sins and have all kinds of idol in their lives that they place above God.  They continue to practice willful sin while believing they are saved and eternally secure because they said a prayer and they have never been taught that holiness is not an option, it is required and submission to the King, Jesus, is not an option to entering the Kingdom of God.  It is required.  The departing or fallen away church has a form of Godliness but they deny or reject the power thereof.  Having the power to not sin is even an option to them instead of a requirement.  Symptoms of a dull of hearing person include:

They are neglecting the great salvation they claim to have.

Their hearts are hardening to the truth of God’s word.

Their conversation is losing its spiritual urgency.

Their ears are dull and they don’t hear from the Lord or experience the God of the word in their lives.

They are losing their desire to press on to maturity and thus will not be given the keys to the kingdom or the supernatural gifts.

They are weak and sluggish.

So what is this wax and how did it get so built up so that the truth is not heard or received?   We are a church with itching ears and a church that wants its flesh patted and ears tickle instead of pricked.  They don’t want to hear about repentance, dying to self, picking up their cross, submitting to a King and being in Him by obeying His word.  They don’t want to hear that Jesus has to be Lord in order to be Savior.  Why do we call Him Lord, Lord and not do what He says?  They want the easy say your little prayer and don’t ask anything of me gospel where Jesus is a vending machine Genie that hops to it every time you perform or confess, or declare something.  They want the “how can Jesus benefit me”? gospel.  It is all about me, me, me and what I can get from the deal, not what can I give Jesus in return for what He gave me.  The answer to that by the way is “everything”.  Jesus didn’t die on the cross to sweep our sin under a carpet pretending it isn’t there while we sit and watch porn and sow to the flesh all the while believing we are eternally secure because we recited a little prayer.  No where in the bible did the church get saved by reciting a prayer and Jesus even turned away the rich young ruler when he came to Him asking what he had to do to be saved.  Jesus told him to give up his idol, money, and follow Him.  I have a whole wonderful teaching on this at my web site that is very encouraging by the way.  We are a church that wants to hear the prosperity gospel and we prostitute the things of God for money.  “If you send in this or that amount for your prayer clothe, CD’s or whatever God will heal you by purchasing with your money what Jesus died to freely give you with His blood.  Replacing money instead of believing in the blood and what He purchased with it.  Prostituting the gospel.  Every single time I have seen Icabod written over a church and it started to dry up, financially and people wise, it was over money and a building program where the program or ministry became more important than the needs of the people.  Placing the vision above the flock.  God always sent several people to warn a pastor before Ichabod was written, but their ears had waxed gross because they thought, “Surely God wants us to have this ministry to further His kingdom”, all the while the kingdom sitting in this pastor’s pews are starving and being robbed.  God takes the sheep to greener pastures with a shepherd who loves the sheep that won’t fleece them and leave them in the cold.  When the anointing leaves, so do the sheep and who does the anointing?

Anyway, back to the ear wax build up and how to remove it.  First comes the washing in the water of the word which is part of what is in the ear dropper.  This is mixed with the anointing of the Holy Spirit which is the oil of the Spirit.  The word without the Spirit is dead.  The water without the oil is dead.  Then we go back to the basics and lay the foundational teachings back underneath the church.  Hebrews again goes back to say that the Lord cannot go on with more mature teaching because they are hard to be uttered or spoken, seeing you are dull of hearing.  For when for the time, ye ought to be teachers ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God and  are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.  For every one that useth milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness for he is a babe.  But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age (or mature) even those by reasons of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. 

Preach the gospel of the Kingdom of God and submission to the King as Jesus commanded in order to receive the keys to the kingdom.  Jesus must be Lord in order for Him to be Savior and no one calls Jesus Lord except by the Holy Spirit who lifts up Jesus and the finished work of the cross.  The finished work of the cross was to take the penalty for our sins in order to remove our sin and sin nature and empower us not to sin.  We receive this empowerment through repentance and confession.  The definition of confession is saying the same thing about sin as God does and turning from it or changing our mind about it.  Being In Him means that we love Him and keep His commandments and walk in the power of His spirit and there is no condemnation for those people.  There is condemnation or judgment for those who walk in the flesh and the word judgment means crisis or the time it is determined whether one is cut off or not.  Judgment starts in the house of the Lord the bible states.  If you read the book of Revelations you see how Jesus judges the churches and calls them to repentance before God judges the world and pours out His wrath.  Church first, world after.  1John2 and hereby we do know that we know Him if we keep His commandments.  He that saith I know Him and keepeth not His commandments  is a liar and the truth is not IN HIM.  But whom keepeth His word in him verily is the love of God perfected hereby know we that we are IN HIM.  He that saith he abideth in Him also so to walk even as He walked.  It is pretty clear to me if you read the bible that you can tell those that are IN HIM or IN CHRIST where there is no condemnation and reciting a prayer isn’t mentioned.  Keeping His commandments and walking and talking like Jesus did is how we know and you can know this.  If you aren’t walking even as He walked (a work in progress but moving forward) you are a liar and the truth isn’t in you.  You can only do this by being empowered by the Spirit.  If you are walking in the flesh and sowing to the flesh you are not IN HIM.

Certainly then, sin is not something Jesus dies to sweep under the rug with His blood and over look.  It is something He died to empower us not to do because He was the only spotless lamb worthy to be sacrificed in our place.  Water baptism in full emersion is for the remission of PAST SINS and symbolic of being dead to sin and resurrected with Christ.  As a result of having past sins remitted or washed away and we now vow to be dead to sin and alive unto righteousness, we can now be baptized in the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit will not live in someone who does not want to be Holy.  What is the point.  Why hand someone a gift they will not unwrap and throw in the trash in front of your eyes, yet we do it all the time with the Holy Spirit and grieve Him.  We are to lay hands on others to impart that Holy Spirit and His anointing and gifts.

There, I just laid down the foundational teachings of the church and that is what is required.  The foundational doctrines are first repentance without which none of the others can be built upon.  Then Baptisms, which is plural.  Water baptism by full emersion to wash away past sins and be dead to sin and alive to righteousness.  Baptism in the Holy Spirit to empower us not to sin and operate in our ministries as led by the Holy Spirit to do so.  Then the laying on of hands to impart the things of the spirit to others so that they can receive of God.  Then comes the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment.  Jesus said that before He returns He will restore all things to His church.  Yes, only half the virgins will have ears to hear and enough oil to enter the wedding feast because they are wise.  The foolish lose out. 

My question then becomes, “Will we allow the Lord to remove our ear wax so that we have ears to hear what the spirit is saying to the churches”?