Hearing God

Dear Victor,

Why is that some people can hear a sermon or read the Bible and get one thing from it - while other people get something entirely different? It seems that people can both be exposed to God's Word but it has a vastly different impact on them. I don't understand this.

David C. - Plano, TX

Dear David,

There are two possible answers to your question.

First, in the case of reasonably mature believers, the Holy Spirit reveals different things to different people at different times - and uses the same Word of God to do so. For example, I may read a passage of Scripture today that I've read before, but see something new today that I didn't see there before. That's the work of the Holy Spirit.

Second, in Isaiah 6:9 God says there will be people who hear but don't understand. Then in Luke 8:11-15, Jesus tells the parable of the sower and the four (4) different types of soils. Using that parable, Jesus tells us that there are four (4) different kinds of people who hear God's Word:

1. "Path" people - who refuse to believe God's message even though they understand it.
2. "Rock" people - who believe the message, but never get around to doing anything about it (i.e., obeying it).
3. "Thorn patch" people - who are overcome with worries and materialism which leaves no room in their lives for God. (They're too distracted by life to actually live!)
4. "Good soil" people - who follow Jesus no matter what the cost, and produce real fruit ... exhibiting Christ with their lives, and reflecting the nature and character of Christ in who they are.

So this may all boil down to who is listening. In our first category of people who hear but don't understand, they haven't received the Holy Spirit and simply cannot understand. Then in our second category, we see that the four types of people are blessed with the Holy Spirit to help them understand - but allow other things to get in the way of their understanding.

It's been said that revelation requires a response (action). So when a new piece of understanding is given to me, I must do something with it. I need to change a belief, change a point of view, change an attitude, change some thinking and/or even change some behaviors and take some actions. Without this active response, the revelation has been wasted on me.