THE GIFT OF SPIRITUAL RECEPTIVITY
One can have ears and eyes, yet still be deaf and blind. The Lord has made both the physical and the spiritual ability to hear and see. Both are grace. The physical is obvious, but few recognize the spiritual. The first offers awareness of the physical world, the second makes one receptive to spiritual things through the gospel and believing. One is not the other. Only God makes the “hearing ear” and the “seeing eye.”
Jesus often gave this invitation to those who gathered to hear His teaching, “He that hath ears to hear, let him hear” (Matt. 11:15). He recognized that just because people had ears, it didn’t mean that they would hear the spiritual truth of His teaching. They needed the Lord to open their ears and eyes to perceive spiritual things.
This was God’s calling to Paul and to those who believe: “I now send you, to open their eyes, in order to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Me” (Acts 26:18-19).
We are called to bear witness of the gospel, but only God can give spiritual hearing to the deaf and spiritual seeing to the blind. Only God can give the gift of spiritual receptivity. Only God can save.
PRAYER: Father, open the ears and the eyes of those that are far from You that they might be receptive to the gospel. Give us boldness and conviction as we witness to them of Jesus. May we see a great spiritual harvest in our lifetimes. May we see a spiritual awakening in our land. Let it be so. In Jesus’ name, amen.