Learning to See and Hear God With the Heart

Can You Hear God Without Your Ears?

Learning to    See,    Hear,    and    Understand    With the Heart

There is a question Jesus repeatedly challenges us to consider,

and at first it sounds almost ridiculous:

Can you see?

Can you hear?

My first response would have been:

“Of course I can.”

My hearing has always been pretty good.

I don't wear hearing aids.

And after cataract surgery,

my eyesight improved enough that after twenty-five years of being required to wear glasses while driving,

I can now pass the South Carolina driving vision test without them.

So congratulations to me.

My eyes and ears work.

Apparently I am medically qualified to read road signs and hear somebody asking me to take out the trash.

But that isn't what Jesus was talking about.

Jesus Was Asking a Different Question

Jesus wasn't administering an eye examination.

He wasn't asking His disciples to cover one eye and read the bottom row of a heavenly vision chart.

He was asking something infinitely more important:

Can you perceive God?

In Matthew 13,

Jesus describes people who physically see,

but don't really see.

They physically hear,

but don't really hear or understand.

Then Jesus reaches the heart of the matter.

He says they need to:

“understand with their hearts.”

And finally He tells His disciples:

“Blessed are your eyes because they see,      and your ears because they hear.”

That completely changes the question.

Perhaps what we really need to ask is:

Can we see without our physical eyes?

Can we hear without our physical ears?

And ultimately:

Can our hearts become attentive to the Holy Spirit?

For me,

that is one of the foundations of Centering Prayer.

God Put His Spirit Within Us for a Reason

Paul tells us in “1 Corinthians 2” that God reveals spiritual things:

“by His Spirit.”

He says believers have received:

“the Spirit who is from God,      so that we may understand what God has freely given us.”

Then Paul says something that once would have sounded completely foreign to me:

“spiritual realities”

are spiritually discerned.

That means there are things of God that cannot be understood merely through physical senses.

We need the Spirit.

Then Jesus gives us an extraordinary promise about the Holy Spirit:

“The Holy Spirit...      will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.”

And immediately before His Ascension,

Luke tells us:

“Then He opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures.”

Those verses have become enormously important to me.

Christianity is not merely about putting more information into our brains.

God wants to transform the way we understand.

I Spent Most of My Life Looking Through One Window

For much of my life,

I approached reality almost entirely through my physical senses and intellect.

If I couldn't:

see it,

hear it,

touch it,

measure it,

test it,

or demonstrate it,

I had difficulty believing it was real.

That attitude served me well professionally.

If somebody told me they had developed a miracle cure for an animal,

I wanted evidence.

Preferably before the invoice arrived.

But eventually I began wondering whether I had spent my whole life looking through only one window.

The physical window.

Centering Prayer opened another one.

Listening With the Heart

I began becoming still before God and asking:

“Jesus,      how may I serve You today?”

Then I listened.

For me,

listening to God does not ordinarily mean sound waves entering my physical ears.

Seeing spiritually does not necessarily mean photons entering my eyes.

I have come to understand spiritual listening as becoming attentive to:

word-thoughts,

convictions,

callings,

dreams,

and:

mental images

that arise within the heart and mind.

Then comes something absolutely essential:

discernment.

I do not assume that every thought entering my head came directly from God.

My brain can create enough material without supernatural assistance.

So I listen,

but I also test.

Does what I believe I am receiving agree with Scripture?

Does it resemble Jesus?

Does it lead toward agapē      —     

God's unconditional love?

Does it produce:

love,

joy,

peace,

patience,

kindness,

goodness,

faithfulness,

gentleness,

and self-control?

Spiritual openness does not mean spiritual gullibility.

The Heart Is More Than a Pump

When the Bible speaks of the heart,

it means much more than the muscle pumping blood through our bodies.

Our hearts represent the deep interior place where we:

love,

understand,

choose,

believe,

discern,

and respond.

So when I say that we hear God through our hearts,

I am not suggesting that Jesus has rented a furnished apartment between the ventricles.

If your cardiologist spots the Holy Spirit on an ultrasound,

please ask for a copy.

I'd like to see it.

I'm talking about      the inner person      —

the part of us that can become attentive to God's Spirit.

That is why Matthew 13 is so important.

Jesus speaks about people who:

see,

hear,

and yet fail to understand.

Then He says:

“understand with their hearts.”

That's the key.

Become Like a Child    —    Not Childish

Jesus tells us:

“Let the little children come to Me...      for the Kingdom of God belongs to such as these.”

I don't understand that as an invitation to become childish.

There is already enough of that,      available in me,      without any spiritual encouragement.

I understand it as an invitation to become:

childlike.

Curious.

Teachable.

Trusting.

Filled with wonder.

Ready to learn.

Children possess something adults often lose.

They expect there is more to discover.

Show a child something amazing and the questions begin immediately:

“Why?”

Then:

“How?”

Then:

“Why?” again.

Then another seventeen questions

until the nearest adult begins searching desperately for another adult.

But underneath all those questions is something beautiful:

A child believes there is more to know.

That is how I want to approach God.

The Spirit World Is Bigger Than What We Can See

For me,

learning to      see spiritually      meant becoming willing to imagine the spiritual reality Scripture describes.

Daniel sees:

“ten thousand times ten thousand”

spirits standing before God.

Revelation describes:

“thousands upon thousands,      and ten thousand times ten thousand.”

That is one hundred million spirits.

My mind has difficulty picturing one hundred million anything.

I occasionally have difficulty picturing in my mind how to get to where I'm driving.

Yet,      Scripture repeatedly      gives us images of an      enormous spiritual reality.

Revelation describes:

“the armies of heaven”

following Christ.

Whether we are reading:

prophecy,

visions,

parables,

poetry,

or historical narrative,

the Bible repeatedly asks us to look beyond what our physical senses alone can perceive.

The visible world is not the whole story.

Why Technology Helped Me Read Scripture Differently

Strangely enough,

modern technology became part of my spiritual journey.

I spent twenty-five years writing code as a      certified database administrator.

Searching enormous collections of information was something I understood very well.

So when powerful Bible-search tools,

and eventually artificial intelligence,

became available,

I immediately saw their usefulness.

Imagine searching for a needle in a haystack.

One way is to pull out each piece of hay,

inspect it,

put it down,

and repeat this process ad nauseam.

Or,      you could move an enormous magnet through the haystack

and let the magnet find the needle.

That is how I think about modern search tools.

They can help us:

find passages,

compare translations,

trace recurring words,

organize themes,

and search across enormous amounts of biblical text very quickly.

But I want to make one thing crystal clear:

AI is not the Holy Spirit.

Not remotely.

AI is a tool.

God is God.

Technology can help me    find    Scripture.

It cannot turn a random verse into God's personal command to me.

Technology can help me compare.

The Holy Spirit teaches.

Technology can help me explore what the Holy Spirit taught us through the Bible.

Discernment belongs in my relationship with God,

grounded in Scripture,

and centered on Jesus Christ.

I Tried to Prove the Bible Wrong

I began this journey as a skeptic.

A pastor,      who became a dear friend,      told me that he believed the Bible was God's Word,      and that it was 100% trustworthy.

At the time,

I was just beginning to leave behind decades of agnosticism.

My reaction was essentially:

“We'll see about that.”

So I searched.

I compared passages.

I compared themes.

I looked for contradictions.

I followed ideas from one end of Scripture to the other.

I wasn't trying to prove my pastor right.

I was trying to prove him wrong.

That's probably not the testimony normally printed on the front of the church bulletin.

Yet something unexpected happened.

The more I searched,

the more connections I found.

And one theme kept appearing again and again:

Listen to God.

Hear God.

Seek God.

Wait upon God.

Walk by the Spirit.

Receive wisdom.

Discern spiritual things.

Obey.

Serve.

Suddenly,      what I understand as Centering Prayer,      wasn't confined to one verse.

I began seeing its biblical foundation woven throughout Scripture.

Bible Study    and Centering Prayer    Became Partners

For me,

Bible study      and Centering Prayer      began working together.

Centering Prayer gives me the quietness to ask.

Scripture gives me truth      to test the things that I believe I'm receiving.

Research helps me explore.

The Holy Spirit teaches.

Jesus remains at the center.

That order matters.

My computer doesn't replace prayer.

My database doesn't replace Jesus.

And AI certainly doesn't become the fourth member of the Trinity.

It is simply a tool.

A very useful tool.

But still a tool.

Jesus Opens Minds

One of my favorite verses is Luke 24:45:

“Then He opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures.”

I love that.

The disciples already had the Scriptures.

Jesus did not hand them a new book.

He opened their minds.

That's what I want.

I don't merely want more biblical information.

I want understanding.

I want Jesus to help me perceive what I could not perceive before.

I want the Holy Spirit to teach.

I want my heart to remain open enough to say:

“Perhaps there is something here I do not understand yet.”

That requires childlike humility.

And sometimes humility is simply admitting that God may know something I don't.

I am thankful that God's love is so great,      that He forgives my silly arrogance.

Eyes That See

So today,

when Jesus asks whether I have eyes that see and ears that hear,

I no longer automatically answer:

“Of course!      My ophthalmologist says everything looks great.”

Instead,

I ask:

“Lord,      is my heart open enough to perceive what You are trying to teach me?”

That is one reason I practice Centering Prayer.

I become still.

I set aside my assumptions.

I open Scripture.

I listen.

I discern.

And I ask Jesus to open my mind

just as He opened the minds of His disciples.

The Greatest Blindness

Perhaps the greatest spiritual blindness isn't being unable to see with our eyes.

Perhaps it is believing:

what our physical eyes can see is all there is to see.

And perhaps the greatest spiritual deafness isn't being unable to hear sounds.

Perhaps it is being surrounded by so much noise that we never become quiet enough to hear with our hearts.

Our television is talking.

Our cellphone is talking.

Our computer is talking.

News commentators are talking.

Advertisements are talking.

Everybody on social media appears to be talking.

And then we ask:

“Why can't I hear God?”

Perhaps God doesn't need a bigger amplifier.

Perhaps we need a quieter room.

Centering Prayer Begins There

Jesus told His disciples:

“Blessed are your eyes because they see,      and your ears because they hear.”

That is the kind of sight I want.

That is the kind of hearing I want.

Not merely physical.

Spiritual.

I want a heart that can listen.

A mind that can understand.

A spirit that can discern.

And a will humble enough to obey.

So every morning,

Centering Prayer begins again with a simple prayer:

“Jesus,      I'm listening.”

“Open my heart.”

“Open my mind.”

“How may I serve You today?”

Then I become still.

I stop expecting God to shout through my ears.

I stop demanding that the spiritual world become visible to my eyes.

I remember Jesus' words:

“understand with their hearts.”

And I listen.

Because perhaps God has been much closer than we realized.

Perhaps His Spirit has been teaching,

calling,

guiding,

and inviting us all along.

The question is not simply:

“Do my ears work?”

The question is:

“Is my heart listening?”

Questions for prayer:
          What do these passages reveal about God?
          What response does it ask of me?
          Is the impression I receive consistent with the character and teaching of Jesus?
          What loving and faithful action should follow?

Daily prayer:

How may I serve You this day?”