Can You Hear?

Just a few words today on something that the Lord let me understand many years ago, which becomes more significant to me every day. It has to do with the first type of soil in the parable that Jesus told about the sower and the seed: “When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart. This is he which received seed by the way side” (Mat. 13:19). What the holy Ghost taught me regarding this, is that the reason someone doesn’t understand the word of truth when it comes there way is because they do NOT WANT to understand it. And the reason that they don’t want to understand the truth of something is because they have something they are holding onto that is threatened by the revealed word of God. This was so true of the religious leaders that Jesus found when he came to Israel: “Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word” (Jn. 8:43). And again he said to them: “How can ye believe, which receive honour one of another, and seek not the honour that cometh from God only?” (Jn. 5:44) They did not understand or believe the words that he spoke because they held to the honor and acceptance of men, rather than to suffer persecution with him for the sake of believing his truth and thereby receiving only the honor that comes from God. That vice of the honor of men had a support system that kept it intact. Jesus also addressed that: “Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition… Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye” (Mk. 7:9,13). The support system for receiving the honor of men among God’s people was and is the doctrines and traditions of men, as Jesus said. You see, there is no persecution against the religious traditions of men, because they are of man and they agree with the spirits that men are under. Demon spirits are happy to see men “make the word of God of none effect through [their] own tradition.”

I assure you by the holy Ghost that absolutely nothing has changed since the time that Jesus was here, and that the exact same thing is still going on among God’s people ( Eccl. 1:9). God is still the same, men are still the same, and demon spirits are still the same. God’s people today have “made the word of God of none effect through [their] own traditions” every bit as much as they did when Jesus was here. If not, then why is the body of Christ not ‘one’ as it was ordained of God to be? (Jn. 17:21-23; I Cor. 12:13; Eph. 2:15,16) The traditions of ‘getting saved,’ ‘accepting the Lord,’ ‘confessing Jesus,’ etc; have made the truth of the new birth, which is the holy Ghost baptism, of none effect (Jn. 7:38,39; I Cor. 6:11; I Cor. 12:13; II Cor. 5:17). The observance of carnal ordinances that were under the law [water baptism, 'communion’ or Passover, etc.] have made the worship of God in spirit of none effect (Gal. 3:3; Philip. 3:3). The teaching that salvation is at the beginning of one’s faith in Christ has made the truth and reality that salvation must be obtained by patient faithfulness in holiness till the end of one’s life, of none effect (Mat. 24:12,13; Rom. 13:10-12; Heb. 3:6,14; Heb. 4:1,11; I Pet. 1:3-9). And as Jesus said to the religious crowd of his day, “And many such like things do ye.” Sadly I see continually what Jesus saw with the religious factions of his day. Regardless of how soundly or with how much love and humility the scriptures are expounded in truth to religious folks, they would rather hide behind a swirl of nonsensical confusion than to let go of their tradition and enjoy the true liberty of spirit that is in the truth of Christ (II Cor. 3:17; Gal. 5:1). Sadly it is for the same reason that they did so with Jesus; they would rather “receive honour one of another, [than to seek] the honour that comes from God only.” So rather than to gain real divine understanding of the “faith that was once delivered to the saints,” many would rather hold to their tradition and understand nothing at all (Jude 1:3). And friend, that is not a good place to be. Amen.