“Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: ‘Today, if you will hear His voice…” (Hebrews 3:7).
“He who has ears to hear, let him hear” is the most frequently recorded exhortation of Jesus in the New Testament. Clearly, hearing God’s voice involves much more than having functional ear drums.
In His parable of the sower and its explanation, Jesus provides a perfect breakdown of what is necessary to heed His urgent exhortation.
To hear God’s voice, you must take heed to what you hear (Mark 4:24). Not everything declared as truth is. Genuine faith in God can only come from hearing God’s word (Romans 10:17). Tares are not spiritually equivalent to good seed. Therefore, like the Bereans (Acts 17:11), you must be sure what you hear is God’s word, not Satan’s lies.
To hear God’s voice, you must take heed to how you hear (Luke 8:18). God’s word must be attended to in specific ways for it to germinate and produce a crop. It must be accepted—i.e., admitted as authoritative (Mark 4:20); it must be understood—i.e., brought together logically so that it makes sense as intended (Matthew 13:23); it must be kept—i.e., held on to and possessed/engrafted into your heart and mind so that it can take root and bear fruit (Luke 8:15).
Failing to hear, accept, understand, and keep God’s voice will result in a failure to hold steadfast your confidence to the end. It is a certain recipe for apostasy today, just as it was in Moses’ day (Hebrews 3:8).
