“So they come to you as people do, they sit before you [as] My people, and they hear your words, but they do not do them; for with their mouth they show much love, [but] their hearts pursue their [own] gain.”Ezekiel 33:31 NKJV
“I hear you.”
During my many years in the corporate world, I really hated to hear those words because I knew a “but” would inevitably follow. “I hear you, but that’s not something we’re willing to do. I hear you, but that’s an unreasonable request. I hear you, but our contract doesn’t require that we do that. I hear you, BUT….”
In most cases, the “but” meant that whoever was on the other side of the conversation had not participated in the interchange with the client. They had not experienced our client’s situation and frustration. They didn’t understand that millions of dollars in our company’s annual revenue were at risk if we failed to address and correct the situation. They didn’t appreciate the reputational damage in the market that would have occurred if corrections and reparations hadn’t been made.
They had not experienced the wrath of the senior executive whose business had been interrupted by a failure on our company’s part. They heard, but they had not experienced.
On the other hand, I had experienced the client’s frustration firsthand, and I knew with certainty what the outcome would be if we didn’t make the situation right.
We’ve all been in that situation. You’ve explained a problem, you’ve shared a difficult relational frustration, you’ve stressed the importance of certain actions that must be taken, and the other person responded with “I hear you.” You knew immediately that’s all that had happened; the words you had spoken were heard. Not understood or appreciated, simply heard.
It’s often the same with us when it comes to spiritual truth. When we read or hear challenges, admonishments, and imperatives for action, we nod our heads and say, “Yes, I hear You, God.” The words have penetrated our ears, passed through our minds, and for all intents and purposes, exited the same way they entered.
We believed what we heard was true, but we couldn’t understand the implications and potential impact on our own lives. We heard the truth, but it was truth we had never experienced.
Henry T. and Richard (son) Blackaby write: “God does not want you to merely gain intellectual knowledge of truth. He wants you to experience His truth. There are things about Jesus you will learn only as you obey Him.”[1]
Peter, the newly chosen disciple of Christ, and his fishing crew had spent a fruitless night on the Sea of Galilee trying to catch fish. The boats were back on dry land, and the nets were being washed in preparation for the crew’s next fishing outing.
Crowds had followed Jesus to the shoreline, hoping that He would continue teaching and preaching. Jesus stepped into Peter’s boat, which Peter pushed away from the shore so that the crowds could better see and hear Jesus. When He finished speaking, Jesus turned to Peter and said, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.”
No doubt exhausted from the previous night’s work, Peter tiredly said, “Master, we toiled all night and caught nothing. But I hear you. Sure, okay, because you’ve asked, we’ll throw out the nets again.”
No sooner were the nets lowered than they began to fill with a massive catch–a catch so heavy that the nets began to break and the boat began to sink. Peter yelled to the other boat to come quickly. Together, the two crews hauled in the massive load of fish.
Once back on shore, Peter fell at Jesus’s feet and, calling Jesus “Lord,” he acknowledged his sinful condition.
The sons of Zebedee, James and John, were the fishing partners of Peter and his brother, Andrew. All four had heard Jesus’s words to the massive crowds that gathered to hear Jesus speak. All four had heard Jesus’s instructions to Peter.
Then, all four experienced the miraculous catch of fish.
When Jesus said, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men,” it was not a hard decision for all four men to leave their boats to follow Jesus.
They had moved past hearing to experiencing the truth of Jesus Christ and His Power.
Once you move past hearing (about) Jesus to experiencing Jesus, your life takes on a new and dynamic dimension.
You will still have challenges and difficulties, because we live in a broken world that can be hard, mean, and cruel. More importantly, it is in each and every one of those challenges and difficulties that we experience more of Jesus. More of His grace, love, patience, power, mercy, kindness, strength—so much more.
Have you moved past hearing to experiencing? Don’t settle for anything less.
Having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Ephesians 3:18-19 ESV
[1] Experiencing God Day by Day, Henry T. Blackaby & Richard Blackaby, B&H Publishing Group, Nashville, TN, 2016.