Deaf to the Holy Spirit? Identifying what keeps you from hearing the Spirit

Just recently my son started preschool, and has since brought home every cold and flu he could find.  This has left my wife, Danae, and I sick frequently. Last week I was at work while fighting off a nasty flu, which, among other things, had stuffed up my sinuses and ears.

It got so bad that I was not even able to hear a small audible alarm going off on a piece of equipment at work. The alarm was supposed to let me know a problem occured and I need to fix it, but because I could not hear it the device stayed down for a while.

The problem was only temporary, a few days later my cold went away and my hearing returned to normal. But it left me wondering about something. How often does this happen to us spirtually?  How often can we not hear the warnings of our conscience or hear the “still small voice” of the Lord because we are spirtually sick?

When we go through times where we are not reading the Bible regularly or praying, then we will start to get spirtually unhealthy. We may not even realize it, but the effect starts instantly and increases the longer we stay away from fellowship with God.  Prayer and reading the Bible keeps us spiritually healthy, and keeps us sensitive to what our conscious tells us and to what God tells us.

If you have not heard from God lately in your life, or if you have not fealt the tug of your conscious on your heart directing you to repent about something, consider if maybe it is because you are spiritually “deaf” right now. Spend some time in prayer, repenting of what you know is sin in your life and asking God to reveal anything you need to confess. Then spend some quality time reading the Bible each and every day.

Don’t expect to hear from the Holy Spirit in your life if you do not spend time with God on a regular basis.  Confess your sins to one another, spend time in prayer, spend time reading the Word of God.

Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. – James 5:16

Brethren, if anyone among you wanders from the truth, and someone turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins. – James 5:19-20