Jesus says in Luke 8 VS 18  – “Take heed how you hear. Whoever has it, it will be given to him, and whoever does not have it, also that which he thinks he has will be taken from him.”

I’ve often wondered why he used the word “How” you hear, rather than “What” you hear. But I’ve recently come to understand that everyone will hear the gospel. However, how they hear determines what they hear.

My 9 yr old daughter recently told me about a game called Telephone. She explained to me how funny the game is because everyone hears differently. You start by having one person whisper a message to another person in their ear (with no one else able to hear), that person who received the message then whispers to another person, then another, till it reaches the last person or the original person. At this point, the original message has totally changed. The fun part is getting to hear the funny words or sentences the original message has morphed into.

In today’s political climate, it’s funny to see so many people prophesying and speaking all kind of things they genuinely believe is truth. You see folks taking a candidate they like and applying the scriptures to that candidate. You see them defining and describing God’s work by their own standards and expectations.

Be CAREFUL HOW you HEAR; for all will hear the gospel but few will understand.

2 Timothy 4 VS 3 says; For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.

We’ve all heard the gospel, but the question is do you understand?

Jesus says; “Pray that you do not fall into temptation” (Matthew 26:41). Temptation for a believer isn’t sin (fornication, lawlessness, or idolatry). Temptation is different for every believer. For Jesus, Temptation was eating when he was hungry and at the end of his fast. It was taking the kingdom when it was his in the first place, except he had to bow to the devil.

Paul says we see partially, but when that which is complete comes, what is partial will be done away with. How you hear matters. Are you setting your eyes on God and following him? Or are you chasing the clouds and waiting for something spectacular to happen before you believe and walk in his ways and not your ways.

We are all accustomed to thinking a particular scripture means a specific thing. But have you asked God to teach you his truths?

Matthew 24 VS 24: For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect.

And again Matthew 7 VS 21: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.

Instead of voting from your own understanding, why not cry out to God and ask him to show you what to do. Tell him to help you pay attention. Be like Moses who said “If Your presence does not go with me, do not carry us up from here” (Exodus 33 VS 15)