I was looking through some of my old computer files and found a list that I had made to sum up a communications class I was teaching. As I looked it over, I began to see spiritual connections and implications, not only for our interactions within the body of Christ, but for our relationship with the Lord. Let’s consider them one at a time.

Practice active listening: Listening is different than hearing. I can hear the sounds you make, but miss the message because I am not making the connection. Listening actively involves effort and purpose – an involvement of your will. In the body of Christ, it is important to really listen to each other. Sometimes it’s in the door and out the door on Sunday morning. We pass each other, speak a few superficial words and leave. Now I’m not saying that we need to constantly engage in deep, intense conversations all the time. However, the times when we do make those deeper connections, it is necessary to not only engage our ears, but our wills and our hearts as well.

Actively listening to the Lord also involves an act of our wills. Oswald Chambers in the devotional My Utmost for His Highest, writes about this type of intimate hearing:

“If I am united with Jesus Christ, I hear God, by the devotion of hearing all the time. A lily, or a tree, or a servant of God, may convey God’s message to me. What hinders me from hearing is that I am taken up with other things. It is not that I will not hear God, but I am not devoted in the right place. I am devoted to things, to service, to convictions, and God may say what He likes but I do not hear Him. The child attitude is always, “Speak, Lord, for Thy servant hearth.” If I have not cultivated this devotion of hearing, I can only hear God’s voice at certain times; at other times I am taken up with things – things which I say I must do, and become deaf to Him. I am not living the life of a child. Have I heard God’s voice today?”

Practicing this type of communication with others and the Lord makes it become part of who we are – not just what we do.

Father-God, have I heard Your voice today? May I actively listen to Your voice – through Your Word, Your Spirit, and through Your creation.

Check out: Deuteronomy 30:19B-20