Do you Hear? Do you see? (Luke 8:4-15)

Jesus Often spoke in parables. He spoke using examples and stories related to the people of the time period He entered while He was physically present on this Earth. Those parables were His way of communicating Heavenly or Kingdom messages to them and to us in our present time.

It can be troubling to listen  to Jesus’s answer to the apostles on  that first parable of the Sower in the book of Luke 8:4-15. As He relates the parable He says: “He who has ears to hear, let him hear”. I don’t know about you but my immediate question is Jesus, who has ears to hear? we all do. On the following verse, The Disciples began questioning about the meaning of the parable. This is our key word. Ask and you shall receive( Mathew 7:7). Jesus said: “to you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but to the rest, It is in parables so that seeing they may not see and hearing they may not understand”

How can we see and not see? hear and not hear?. As we read the scriptures, we have to understand that Jesus spoke in two different terms. Earthly physical terms and Heavenly Spiritual terms. when he speaks about hearing and seeing, He is speaking about our ability to hear and see with the physical senses but inability to hear and see with our Spiritual senses.

I also find the statement from Jesus to the Apostles “it has been granted to you” unfair. At first I thought: “Why do you want to trick us Jesus?” ” Why did you only give the Apostles this ability?” I think I understand now. This is a gift for all of us, but as the free will entities that we are, we do not possess it unless we ask for it.

We are all entitled to all the senses but most of us have only the capacity to use five of them. The Sixth sense is mostly received by asking. Noticed that the apostles asked the meaning and Jesus was immediately ready to give the answer. It is the same now. We have to ask through Jesus to receive this gift and we have to ask for Wisdom to filter it for God’s intentions in our lives.

We are able to understand physical concepts and we can become very knowledgeable about anything we set our minds to study but when it comes to spiritual understanding and the gift of wisdom, we have to ask for it from God and He will grant it to us according to His will and to what He sees in our hearts.

The great king Solomon asked for wisdom and because it was to benefit the people (work for God’s kingdom) God gave it to him and the bible said that he was the wisest man on earth. We can see this story in the book of 1st Kings 3:1-15. Solomon also wrote most of the book of proverbs in which we can read about the wisdom that comes from above and our need for it to help us understand God’s concepts and lead our journey through this world.

As we seek and dine with the Master, let us ask for this sixth sense and the Wisdom that comes from above to comprehend His message. Let us hold it in our hearts and really see and hear what He is teaching us today, so that we can  live the life He intends for us to live and join Him in his work for the love of His people. Let us ask so that seeing we can  see and hearing we can really hear!