Overcoming Spiritual Deafness

Everyone doubts God at one time or another in our lives.

For a long stretch of years, I doubted God, sometimes I even hated Him because of the things I had to go through in my life. I was drowning in misery with no clue how to fix it. I cried out for help many times. And kept crying and begging and pleading with Him to rescue me. But, no answer, no response, and definitely no rescue. I was wondering where I stood with God.

Even after a became born again (baptized) I almost lost my faith over it. Only later did I come to understand the truth.

The whole time I was crying and begging and pleading with God for a rescue, He had already answered every one of my prayers. But I was too spiritually deaf and blind to notice.

I could have spared myself literally years of agony. If only I had known than what I know not about overcoming spiritual deafness.

First, You Need To Face The Truth

As it turns out, the entire time I was wondering why God was silent in my life, especially when I needed Him the most, I had put Him on mute.

I spent countless years tormenting myself, wondering why God was ignoring my pleas. I told myself maybe my mother was right “I was worthless”, so worthless that God didn’t even want me. He had abandoned me.

Come to find out, I was the problem not Him.

It was a face planting moment for me, but it was also an empowering one. Because when you realize you’re the problem, you have the power to fix it by changing what you’re doing. Like overcoming your spiritual deafness.

After I was born again, I thought things would be simple. I was like okay “I’m saved, God will speak to me now.” I wished that was the way it worked. But I was so used to shutting everyone out of my life -even God. It took a few years to break down the wall I had put up.

A few years actually it was about 4 years. I repented from my sins every way I knew how. And I still kept hearing I wasn’t worthy to be God’s child.

The truth is we can find lots of reasons why our spiritual ears have gone deaf to God’s voice. In my experience, I missed the signs of God answering my prayers.

It’s easy when you’re,

• Asking for what’s outside of God’s will.
• Indulging in deliberate sin.
• Ignoring God’s prompting because of fear.
• Throwing a spiritual tantrum over not getting your way.
• Talking so much, you haven’t stopped to listen to what God is saying in return.

I realized I had been talking for 4 years and not heard a word God was saying back.

I considered myself pretty lucky that God stopped me one day and forced me to listen to Him. I was the scariest thing I ever endured in my life. Someone once told me, God will answer in whispers, until He won’t then the trials come as if to scream at us. That day I remember walking out of the grocery store, telling God in my thoughts,all my sins and asking if would listen that time and accept my repentance and forgive me. That was that year that I was diagnosed with cancer. I am definitely not saying God sent it. Cancer is clearly from the pit of hell. But during that time, I learned to trust God wholeheartedly. I knew I was forgiven for my past sins, and I grew so much in the Lord when I was struggling with cancer. I decided that I was not going to let Satan win then or ever.

If you want to have a hope of overcoming spiritual deafness you need to pray. If you don’t know where to start, start by talking to Him as if He was sitting across the table from you.

You may not only have spiritual deafness. You may also be spiritually blind because of sin. And you can’t deal with it if you don’t bring it out into the open and face it head-on.

So, ask God to reveal any hidden and no so hidden sin in your life.

One good thing to realize is that Satan condemns but God convicts, which are poles apart. Satan’s condemnation makes you feel detestable and hopeless. But God’s conviction make you feel clear and repentant about your sins.

When we ask God to convict us of our sin, we won’t feel bad for a few minutes and then suppress the discomfort and go spiritually deaf again.

When we feel convicted about our sins, we will realize we need to go further. We need to turn away from that sin. For example, I can’t ask for forgiveness for going to the bar and getting drunk while spending all my money on bingo, and then turn around and do the exact same thing the next night.

The next step is to confront your pride and fear. After you’ve begun to confess your sins, it’s time to tune your ears to God’s frequency.

This means you need to drop-kick anything that is blocking your reception out of the door. This means you need to deal with 2 culprits that can cause spiritual deafness, pride, and fear.

Ask God to reveal any pride or fear causing you to ignore godly wisdom and counsel. Whether you want to admit it or not in can be from wise people in your life.

If you have an independent spirit like me, if you’re not careful, you’re independence can nurture a spirit of pride. My independence led me to believe that I didn’t need anyone and that people let me down all the time so I’m afraid to depend on anyone but myself.

The thing is, the only one you need to depend on is God. And you won’t overcome your spiritual deafness if you insist on staying independent.

Ask the Lord to rid you of the spirit of pride and fear. When you do, you will value His guidance more highly than you value your pride and fear. This will give you a great start by praying to get rid of these.

Pray for the courageto shed pride and fear like the old rags they are.

Set your priorities straight. At this point, your ears should be getting clearer and you should be on fire for the Lord from how hard you kicked pride and fear in the butt.

Now it’s time to deal with your priorities. Ask yourself who is first in your life. Who’s help or advice do you seek out first? Whose opinion matters most to you? Who are you most afraid to disappoint?

Is the answer anyone other than God? Then pray for Him to increase in your life and for yourself and others to decrease.

When I first asked myself these questions, I was sure I put God first in everything. But just a few weeks ago. My jeep was having an idiot problem (the idiot was me). I have used the remote start to warm it up. And when I got in it, it wouldn’t go into gear. I panicked. And the first thing I did was to call my husband at work. He couldn’t tell me anything over the phone (of course ). I was getting ready to call my Bible study group to tell them I wouldn’t be there. Immediately I heard God say, why didn’t you ask me? As soon as I asked him, it was like a lightbulb went off in my head. Open and close the door. And imagine that, it worked.

If you want to follow God’s will but you feel pretty sure your plan is better? Try getting the courage to go His way instead of yours or someone else.

Either way you need to pray for growth in your desire to follow His will over yours or anyone else.

So many times God’s direct instructions are ignored or maybe even forgotten. We need to pray for a Rhema word (Revelation) about any area where we’ve neglected to follow His will. Matthew 6:33 says “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

Counting the cost. You have to decide 3 things to overcome spiritual deafness,

• Do you want to hear from God?
• Are you willing to go His way?
• Do you want to put Him first?

If the answer to these questions is yes. It’s time to get realistic about what your decisions mean. Because the truth is, tuning into God on purpose and elevating Him to first place in your life will cost you.

To count the cost and decide of you want to pay it, Ask yourself these 2 questions:

1. What will it cost you to ignore God’s voice?

Close your eyes and picture your life if you choose not to do what He says. What’s the best that can happen? What’s the worst that can happen?

2. What will you gain by listening to and following God’s voice?

Close your eyes and picture your life if you choose to do what He says. What’s the best that can happen? What the worst that an happen?

After you’ve counted the cost, make a conscious decision about the option you’re choosing. Will you obey God’s voice or ignore Him?

Don’t try to hedge your bet of sitting on the fence. Decide.

“No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money” -Matthew 6:24.

After counting the cost of overcoming spiritual deafness, you may decide that listening to God will cost more than you’re willing to pay. If so, know this – He is always ready to receive you when your ready to come to Him.

On the other hand, you made decide that obeying God is well worth the cost. If so, then you need to do one more thing. Act.

Prayer is an unmatched weapon in your arsenal. But action after prayer is even more so.

This means you need to get your ears in to the habit of hearing God.

My relief when I understood my part in creating my spiritual deafness was extreme. I was relieved beyond words because it meant God had not stopped loving me, despite my sins.

Overcoming spiritual deafness takes courage and commitment to God and your relationship with Hin above all else. And courage isn’t way but the payoff was well worth it.