"Can You Hear Me Now?"

Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say. You belong to your father the devil, and you want to carry out your father's desire....He who belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God (Jn. 8: 42 and 47).

Faith comes by hearing the message, and the message is heard by the word of Christ (Romans 10:17).

Jesus told Nicodemus, "Unless a man is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."  Obviously, from the words of Jesus in John 8, not only can we not see the kingdom until we are born again, but neither can we hear the words that God speaks until we are born again.  Jesus told the Pharisees that they were "unable" to hear because they belonged to their "father" the devil and wanted to carry out their father's desire.  By implication, then, if we are born again, "not of a father's desire, but of God," according to the first chapter of John, we will want to do our Father's desire....and we will hear the words of God.

In the New Testament, two words in the Greek are translated exactly the same in English; both "logos" and "rhema" in the Greek are translated "word" in English.  "Logos" in Greek refers to the "Divine Expression."  In the first chapter of John, it says, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  Jesus is the Divine Expression of the Father; by Him and through Him all things have life, whether they recognize Him or not.  Whether we are able to "hear" what God says, however, depends on whether we have been born again of water and the Spirit of Truth.

When the book of Romans says that the message is heard by the word of Christ, the Greek word used is "rhema" -- the living and active spoken word.  We are "born again" by the spoken word of Jesus Christ.  As He spoke to Lazarus in the tomb, "Lazarus, Come forth," so also He speaks into the darkness of our dead hearts, "________, come forth," and we awaken to new life.  At one point, we were "dead" to God and "alive" to sin, but by spoken word of Christ in our hearts, we are now dead to sin and alive to God.

If the Divine Expression, or the Word of God, seems "dead" to us, we need to go to the living and active word of God -- Jesus Christ-- asking that our ears and eyes be opened to the kingdom of God.  The kingdom was present on earth with the Presence of Jesus Christ, and yet so many could not see it or hear it in Him.  They did not "belong to God," and so they fulfilled the words of Jeremiah: "You foolish and senseless people, who have eyes but do not see, who have ears but do not hear (5:21).

Through Him, we are made children of God and learn to hear the words that God speaks.

I used to wonder how people "got faith" when I heard sermons about how important faith is.  "How do you "get faith?" I wondered.  Now I know that we will believe the words of God only after our ears have been opened by the Holy Spirit poured into our hearts by the word of Christ.  It's a living, loving thing -- rhema -- not a dead word that is spoken to us by Jesus.  If we want Scripture to come alive to us, let us go to the only One who is able to open the book to us -- Jesus Christ.  If we ask, He will not refuse -- He will baptize us with the Holy Spirit and with fire (Matthew 3:11).  We will hear the words He speaks and come out of our graves.