Hearing His Voice #281

You are permitted to understand the secrets of the Kingdom of Heaven, but others are not.

Matthew 13:11

The disciples asked Jesus why He so often taught in parables, but His response may have raised more questions than it answered. Why would He permit some people to understand the secrets of the Kingdom but not others? Why wouldn’t He speak in a way that everyone could easily understand? Isn’t the gospel of salvation for everyone who believes? Why not, then, make it easier for everyone to believe? For some reason, Jesus spoke in a way that created a dividing line between faith and unbelief. Only some could grasp His teaching.

Even those who could grasp His words still had questions. The disciples didn’t understand some parables at first, like that of the sower, until Jesus explained them. But at least they could accept His explanations. They received the truth of His teaching, which is more than could be said of the skeptics and legal experts listening to Jesus. Some members of His audiences were listening in order to find fault or disprove Him as a legitimate teacher from God. They did not have “ears to hear,” as Jesus often put it. But those who were listening in order to learn—who genuinely believed that Jesus was speaking truth, or at least were open to the possibility that He might be—found themselves in a privileged position. They learned the secrets of the Kingdom.

You can learn the secrets of the Kingdom too. The dynamic is the same when you read Scripture and listen for God’s voice. If you come as a true seeker, you will hear Him. If you come as a skeptic, you won’t. Or to put it another way, whatever agenda you have as you listen—whether to discover eternal truth or deny it—it will be satisfied. The secrets of the Kingdom are open to you if you are open to them.

Jesus, give me the kind of heart that can hear Your mysteries and understand them. Make me a sponge that absorbs eternal truth. Help me root out any attitude that might block my hearing.