When Peter, James and John were on the mountain with Jesus and saw His transfiguration and glory, Peter wanted to build a memorial to the experience. Isn’t that just like so many of us? We worship past experiences and fail to gasp why it happens in the first place. God the Father interrupted Peter with these words: “This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. Listen to him.” (Matthew 17:5) Any experience or movement can crystalize into a memorial if one fails to listen to what the Spirit is saying today. The fear of God fell upon those three disciples as they quietly followed Jesus down the mountain. Jesus told them not to talk about this experience to anyone. They were to just listen and learn. More was to come.
To hear God speak is not as easy as it seems. Many of us have conditioned our mind to just hear what we want to hear. If God would say: Repent! Or, Submit. Or, Give, many of us filter it, rather than receive it as God speaking to us. These filters come in various forms. First, there is the denial filter. This one says: “This is not for me. I’m fine. I’m doing my best. This Word is for someone else.” Many times, we read the Bible this way; allocating strong passages to another time, culture and people. We see what is written as history rather than the Word of God to us.
The second filter is that of offense. This is when we get offended by what God is saying to us, whether it be in a sermon, prophetic word, Bible verse or counsel from our leaders. This filter sounds like this: “What! Are you saying something is wrong with me? Who are you to judge? You have problems too.” This avoidance of truly hearing what God is saying is realized by shifting the responsibility onto others. The person feels attacked and so counterattacks. When the light of God’s Word shines on areas of our life, it is to brings us out of the darkness. Being confronted by the Word is not negative, it is liberating.
The third filter is that of self-pity. This filter responds: “I don’t like this way of talking. I’m not coming back here again. It doesn’t make me feel good about myself.” A self-centered person wants only what will feel good. They want the “milk” of the Scriptures. May I be so bold as to ask, what are the verses you have underlined in your Bible? Is it only the “warm-fuzzy-feeling” ones? Is your diet only milk or can you take something more nourishing like spinach or meat? We all live in an “I’m ok, you’re ok” tolerant-addicted society. Truth has been pushed aside so that everyone can exalt their own opinions. Can I break through this filter and scream: “GROW UP!”?
Before we get too hard on Peter, and say: “Man, Peter, that was really lame”, maybe we should see how often we do the same. Really, the difficulty in hearing God is not in God’s ability to speak, but in our ability to get rid of all the filters. We must hear the Word as it is spoken. If God says immorality is sin, then it is sin. We cannot filter it through our culture and still say it is the Word of God. God’s remedy for sin is repentance, not a pill or a hug. All we must do is hear and obey. This is the key to walking in the Holy Spirit. This is the key to always moving with Him. Let’s not worship at the memory of our mountain-top experiences. God has much more. “Listen to Him!”
Scriptures to meditate on:
Deuteronomy 28:1-14; Psalms 36:9; Matthew 17:1-9; John 5:24; Revelations 3:20