Hearing the Word of God is an active and attentive process for internalizing the Word of God — starting at your mind (mental faculty) and flowing into your heart (spiritual faculty).
Who or what you hear determines your faith? So, we should make hearing our priority if we want to obtain faith. Active and attentive hearing and then applying what you hear will strengthen your faith and give it substance.
Knowing is believing. You believe by seeing or hearing. You believe what you know. You cannot believe what you do not know.
Hearing is the process by which we can know. We are able to believe what we know because of active and attentive hearing. The more you hear, the more you know, and the more your faith increases.
By God’s protocol, you must first hear, believe, and then see. By the world’s protocol, you expect to see and then believe, living like Thomas. According to John 20:29, Jesus said, “Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
In the natural world, you are able to see because something or someone is virtually or physically present and visible. You are able to hear because someone is communicating, or a sound is made, or something is written.
The Bible is God’s way of communicating His spoken and written Word to us. You hear the Word by reading or listening to it directly or by watching ministers teach the word. Hearing is our channel of faith through the Word of God, not seeing. God chose to speak to you and not to be seen by you. God speaks, but you cannot see him visibly and vividly.
Hearing is not enough. You can hear but not listen and you can also hear but not believe. Applying what you hear is an indication that you have listened.
Your ability to listen and understand what you hear will determine the level of your faith. In the process of hearing comes revelation, illumination, enlightenment, and insights by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit aids our hearing process in regard to the Word of God.
In summary, the Bible is God’s way of communicating to us and hearing is God’s channel of faith. Our end goal is to hear and believe in God before seeing him.
The 4 A’s of a Comprehensive Hearing Process:
- Active Hearing – Hearing continuously and persistently, you are engaged in the hearing process.
- Attentive Hearing — Hearing with focus and without distraction.
- Apprehension Hearing — Hearing with understanding and clarity.
- Applied Hearing — Hearing for action and change.
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