Selective Hearing

Previously, I wrote about the significance of listening, and this is a follow-up. As we practice the habit of listening, of becoming compulsive hearers, we discover that in the process, we become more attuned to hearing God’s voice as well.

This is a crucial component of dream interpretation—we discover symbol meanings and gain ground in deciphering a dream, but only by the Spirit’s direction can we put it all together to understand the purpose of the dream—and the true message.

I believe God is speaking to us all the time—through dreams, pictures, thoughts, words, other people, natural events, and many other ways. The creator of the universe wants to speak to us about details relating to his eternal perspective. If he is giving direction and wisdom for my life, I don’t want to miss it!

A mentor of mine once said to me that how well you listen to your spouse is indicative of how well you listen to God. There’s a sobering thought. Intentional listening—with both ears and your full attention—is a daunting challenge because of the number of distractions we face every day.

How can we open ourselves up to receive heavenly revelation for our journey ahead, including what’s on our plate for today? It takes purposeful effort to tune out the ‘noise’ of the world and to focus on listening to a small still voice that we aren’t even sure is speaking sometimes.

Once we learn to recognize God’s voice, we make the decision to focus. It is sort of like fine-tuning our satellite receiver, aiming towards the Source, so that we can position ourselves to capture divine download of God’s heart. The benefits are stellar!