HINDRANCES TO HEARING – Part 1
1. Hearts Not Perfect Before God
“For the eyes of the Lord search back and forth across the whole earth, looking for people whose hearts are perfect toward him, so that he can show his great power in helping them” (2 Chr 16:9 tlb).
The people in Bible times understood the heart to be the sea of:
- the emotions or affections,
- the motives, and
- the intentions of the person. God is vitally concerned with these things.
a. Worldly Affections.
If our affections are set on things on the earth rather than things in Heaven, this offends God (1 Jn 2:15). The Bible tells us to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength (Matt 22:37).
b. Impure Motives.
If our motives (or motivations) are impure like the prophet Baalam (Numbers 23) then God will severely jude us. Baalam bartered God given miraculous gifts for money, fame and prestige.
c. Wrong Intentions.
Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5) were pretending to give all their money to the work of the Lord, but were really keeping back much of it for themselves. Because their intent was wrong, God killed them.
Oh! how we need to guard our affections, motives and intentions to make sure they are pure. God knows our heart, doesn’t He?
“For man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart” (1 Sam 16:7). We can’t hide these things from the Lord. And if we do not keep our hearts right in His sight, we will not hear God’s voice.
2. Hardness Of Heart
“Today, if you want to hear his voice, do not harden your hearts” (Heb 4:7).
When I and my team go somewhere to preach the gospel, we often fast and pray for God to empower us so we will be able to heal and bless the people. We often set aside a day for fasting and prayer during these times.
It is our custom to select three mature Christian couples (husbands and wives) nd form them into a prayer team. We may have five or six prayer teams ministering to the people during the day of fasting and prayer.
The prayer team place their chairs in a circle. Those coming to be prayed for sit in the middle of this circle.
We encourage these teams to pray in the Spirit (in other tongues – 1 Cor 14:13,14) and expect the Holy Spirit to give them supernatural help for the people who are coming for prayer.
a. Unforgiveness Stops God’s Voice
A lady came to the prayer circle my wife and I were part of. She had severe arthritis which was causing her a lot of pain in her back and hands. Her fingers were so curled over with arthritis, she couldn’t straighten them out.
She said the Lod had stopped talking to her. She had not heard the voice of the Lord in over eight months.
As the team began praying in the Spirit, a picture started forming in my mind of a corn filed from which the harvest had been taken. The ground was hard and dry and the corn stalks withered. As I pondered whether this picture had meaning to the sister’s need, I felt the Holy Spirit began to say to me, “This is th picture of this sister’s heart. It is hard and dry.”
I prayed, “Why Lord?” The Spirit responded, “Her husband has been mistreating her and she hasn’t forgiven him. Her failure to forgive has caused this hardness of heart. And because she has not forgiven him, she has not been forgiven. All this hs combined to cause tremendous frustration in her heart. This is causing the arthritis which afflicts her.”
I am not always sure that I am hearing the voice of the Lord when something like this happens. So, to test out whether it was the Holy Spirit or my own imagination, I told the sister about the picture in my head (vision), I related to her what I thought the Lord had said to me about her situation. Then I asked her, “Is any of this true?” She broke down in tears and reply,” Yes, Brother Ralph, it is all true.”
b. Forgiveness Brings A Return Of God’s Voice.
The compassion of the Lord filled my heart for this dear sister. With tears streaming down my face I said, “Sister, Jesus loves you very much and wants to hear you and wants to speak to you. Verbalize your forgiveness. Just speak out and say, ‘I forgive my husband all the evil things he has done to hurt me.’ When you do that the Lord will heal you, and your heart will be softened. When you have a tender heart (instead of hard heart) the Lord will speak to you again.”
She did as I suggested and within three minutes all the arthritis was gone. The stiffness and pain in her back was healed. Her finger joints came free and she could bend her fingers like any normal person.
Several days later she told me through tears of joy, “Brother Ralph, the Lord has been talking to me again. He is so good!” I found out later, she was a church leader of a fine church.
This story illustrates how important it is to have our heart right with God. A hard heart, a calloused heart, an unbelieving heart, and scores of other “heart conditions” can prevent us from hearing God’s voice.