
What a statement! Let me explain briefly so you understand where I'm coming from! Before I went into full-time ministry, I worked a lot of different jobs to support my family. From waiting tables at restaurants to killing bugs and critters in pest control, I did a lot of different things and worked with some very colorful people.
One of those experiences was for Aardvark Termite and Pest Control! For the sake of posterity, we’ll call my boss “Bobby”… well that actually was his name, but I won’t tell you his last name. Anyway, we were on call one day and he was giving me some instruction and it’s possible I wasn’t giving him my full attention. When I asked him to repeat what he said, he ever so redneck-like responded, “get the damn peanut butter out of your ears!” Now, I wouldn’t suggest this type of correction, because he got the opposite of what he wanted out of me. However to his credit, I’ve never forgot what he said and I’ve used that saying many times concerning my reception in hearing the voice of God.
You see, God is always sending signals to us, He is always communicating; whether it’s through a sense in your heart or direct word from Heaven. If there is ever a problem in communicating with God, it’s never on His end. We need to get that straight right off the top, He is the perfect communicator and uses thousands of ways to get messages to us and multiple times if he needs to. How wonderful would it be though, if we were in constant communication with Him without anything blocking our reception.
That’s where the title of this article comes into play. How much “peanut butter” do we have in the spiritual ears of our heart that keeps us from hearing clearly what the Lord is saying? In 2 Chronicles 1:10, we see one of the greatest conversations of the bible. The Lord asked Solomon what was the one thing he wanted more than anything! What a question, talk about wanting to answer right! And Solomon did, he said he wanted wisdom to handle the people of Israel and God said because he asked for this and not riches that He would give him wisdom, but also riches beyond belief.
Something interesting about this discourse was that it was in a dream! Not sure about you, but that floors me. That means that Solomon had so impressed God while he was awake that The Lord of Hosts could trust him to make good decisions in his sleep. Man, I want that.
For the sake of this article though, it’s important to see another way his request for wisdom was translated. The actual translation is “Lord, that I would have a Hearing Heart to lead your people well.” That shifts the entire concept of what Solomon asked for, because in order to operate in Wisdom, you have to be able to hear well. So when we go through life we have to be cautious about what we allow into our spiritual ears or our heart because it could potentially clog our ability to hear His voice with clarity.
Matthew 12:35 says that the produce of your life is a direct result of what is in your heart. So what we listen to, watch and who we hang around, will be the spiritual water our heart soaks up. Making sure that what we allow in our spiritual ears only the things that will promote hearing God’s voice clearly allows His voice to come through with a resounding lucidity. Conversely, when we fill our time and attention with things that have no lasting worth, or may even be good but not beneficial during the season we are in spiritually, we tend to clog our reception in hearing from The Lord. The power of choice is a great gift that the Lord has given us and because we can choose, we get to determine what we let in our lives, good or bad.
Through the years we have all made poor choices I’m sure, but there is help in the Word to get us back on the right track. Romans 8:2 says there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ, so no matter where you may find yourself in the process of clarity, remember that it only takes a little bit of you to get a whole lot of God. His mercies are new every morning and by the power of the Holy Spirit, you can become a great receiver for all The Lord wants to download into your life.
Believing this will help!
Barry