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Being in the state of not hearing or seeing The loss to hear accurately results in the loss of common sense exercised in everyday living. Ever get your eyes checked? How about your hearing? Prov. 20:12 “ the hearing ear and the seeing eye, The LORD has made them both.” HOW you see or hear matters. No one hears or sees perfectly all the time, but that should be our goal. When you hear something, do you reinterpret it to you own predilection? Or do you try to understand it from the words that were said from the person? This is extremely important, because it will tell you whether you are living in reality or making up your own reality, which leads to living in an alternate make believe world. If you don’t listen carefully you cannot hear right, nor can you understand what someone means when they are communicating to you. Your ability to learn will be affected. We all walk in a certain amount of darkness. We are to train ourselves to hear and see correctly so that we learn to make better decisions, that brings us into an agreement of what is reality. Even Jesus said, Mt 6:23 “ if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness! “ Do you see accurately? How bad is your eyesight on what people say and do? Some people do not see things the way they take place (denying absolutes) but they change the facts by reinterpreting them (make them relative). When you don’t live by a criteria of absolutes you can more easily reinterpret what you see or hear from your own perspective. When you do not hear or see accurately you can accuse someone easily of saying something wrong, something they did not say (ever wonder why someone does not answer the question correctly?) Reality is defined as the quality or state of being real (2): the totality of real things and events. Some people live by their opinions, biased opinions, not by facts. When you reinterpret what you see or hear by your own preconceptions you have removed yourself from reality. There are many that live in a pretend world, a world of make believe, one that is not conducive to reality. They are one sided and cannot see any other. Unfortunately, a number of these are in charge of making important decisions in our lives. They draw outside the lines. Because they have no parameters or boundaries; no reason to keep inside the lines. They see and hear what they want to, purposely or not. Another’s words, language and the meaning of words become putty to them. It is interpreted by their own Catachresis, an exercise of impervious bias. Some have trained themselves to be like this because they lack attention, or, they have an ulterior motive, an agenda that is being upheld. When you purposely reinterpret words and then say them inaccurately, this falls into the category described as sorcery; convincing people that a lie is the truth. Most people are never challenged on how they see the facts, they will not be disputed on their distorted perceptions of others or there statements. We see this take place mostly in politics, but it does occur in religious circles as well. Why do people absorb and believe false teaching so easily, because their ears are not trained to listen carefully, they are not grounded in the truth so they lack discernment to distinguish what is true and what is error. None of this is new, as Jesus was engaged to get his message to the people he would often say at the end of a teaching “ He who has ears to hear, let him hear!" (Luke 14:35) What He is saying is, hear, really listen, so that you may understand what he is saying. His was an admonishment, for you to listen, pay attention to what I’m saying instead of just hearing words in the ear and not understanding them accurately with the mind. What can often be applied as common sense can be rendered in application to spiritual sense. Mark 4:23-25 “ anyone has ears to hear, let him hear." Then He said to them, "Take heed what you hear. With the same measure you use, it will be measured to you; and to you who hear, more will be given. For whoever has, to him more will be given; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him ." If what you hear is applied then more revelation will be given to you. This is applied for learning and growing in spiritual matters. Prov. 1:5-6 “ A wise man will hear and increase learning, And a man of understanding will attain wise counsel.” This too is a principle seen; as we learn we progress, we become better at what we do. We build on what we know. Proverbs presents both practical and spiritual wisdom, sometimes the teaching can be exchanged, or equally applied. Prov. 23:12 “ Apply your heart to instruction, And your ears to words of knowledge.” Prov. 22:17-18 “ Incline your ear and hear the words of the wise, And apply your heart to my knowledge; For it is a pleasant thing if you keep them within you.” On the other hand if we do not 'Hearing you will hear and shall not understand, And seeing you will see and not perceive; For the hearts of this people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing, And their eyes they have closed, Lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, So that I should heal them.’ ( Mt. 13:14-15) They were unable to be judicious so they can’t receive and what they speak is void of what is true. Jesus then spoke to people in parables because they could not understand his straightforward statements on his teachings. So He gave them what they saw, the everyday examples in their lives with lessons in them, common sense stories that would help in their spiritual sense. Listening is part of our main senses, as is seeing. We should be doing it carefully. For those who did so, Jesus said to them “ But blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears for they hear; for assuredly, I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.” (M.t 13:16-17) They saw and understood who he was and received him. There has been and is a war going on for people to understand the truth, to be open to hear and accept it. It has become more vociferous than any time in recent history. Where there is blatant subterfuge to obfuscate what are the facts. This prevents the understanding of the reality of what is taking place, which has one know the truth. Do we arrive at truth by the amount of people that tell us something is true or by thinking for ourselves and validating it by facts? Do we find the truth by our feelings, or use our mind to arrive at truth? We must hear carefully to be able to agree or disagree with what is said. Somethings it becomes complicated because what is said may be partly true and partly false. And this has to do with one’s heart not just the mind. When the spiritual mind is attuned to paying attention we can see accurately and understand, which makes us fruitful. Matt 13:19 “ When anyone hears the word of the kingdom, and does not understand it, then the wicked one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart.” By hearing wrong one can delude themselves into many things. Especially when one gives good counsel. We should be open to correction and changing a view if it involves truth. Prov. 19:25 Rebuke one who has understanding, and he will discern knowledge.” Prov. 15:7 The lips of the wise disperse knowledge, But the heart of the fool does not do so.” Prov. 23:9 Do not speak in the hearing of a fool, For he will despise the wisdom of your words.” Wisdom is acting upon knowledge, one cannot have this without knowing what they learned is true. Prov. 12:1 “ Whoever loves instruction loves knowledge, But he who hates correction is stupid .” Smart or not? Prov. 1:22 “fools hate knowledge.” Prov. 15:14 “ The heart of him who has understanding seeks knowledge, But the mouth of fools feeds on foolishness.” What the Bible is describing is accurate knowledge. Wisdom or foolishness Exercising common sense includes logic, critical thinking and an earnest desire to arrive at the right conclusion. John was overjoyed and commended the church that walked in truth (3 Jn.4) Common sense is exercised in that you don’t stand under a coconut tree in the strong wind. Only one aware of his surroundings will see the danger. An example of a lack of spiritual sense is in Jn.6 When Jesus said some hard things they could not understand. Instead of sticking it out and waiting to learn more, they left. John 8:47 “ He who is of God hears God's words; therefore you do not hear, because you are not of God ." This is later applied by John who says, “ We are of God. He who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.” (1 John 4:6 How well do you listen and receive shows how aware you are in life to deal with its challenge’s. The loss of exercising common sense shows that what you see and hear is not accurate and has many come to a distorted conclusion, being the exact opposite of what actually took place. The loss of exercising spiritual sense (to discern) is even more apparent, it shows they do not value the truth.
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