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“Speak, Lord, For Thy Servant Is Listening”

by Chris Simmons

Hannah, who prayed to the Lord for a son, promised God that if He granted her petition that she would “give him to the Lord all the days of his life” (I Samuel 1:11). God answered her prayer with a son named Samuel, and true to her word, she brought the boy to Eli the priest that he might “minister to the Lord” (I Samuel 2:11). While Samuel was yet a “boy,” and during a time that revelations from God were “rare” (I Samuel 3:1), God spoke to Samuel on three occasions, and each time Samuel went to Eli the priest presuming that it was he who had called him. On the third occasion, Eli “discerned that the Lord was calling the boy” (I Samuel 3:8) and instructed Samuel that if it happened again, that he was to respond, “Speak, Lord, for Thy servant is listening” (I Samuel 3:9). Thus Samuel spoke and in fact did listen and obey all that God spoke to him. It all began with Samuel’s desire to listen to the word of God. Though God does not speak directly to man today, we must have the same attitude towards what God has to say.

God can not save, bless (spiritually, i.e., Genesis 12:3) or use in His service anyone who is not hungry for or willing to listen to what He has to say. Granted, listening must be accompanied by active obedience, but it all begins with the heart that has an unending appetite for the truth of God’s word. Samuel truly displayed the hunger and thirst for righteousness that Jesus spoke of being necessary for one to be a part of God’s kingdom (Matthew 5:5). One can never become a child of God without listening. Paul noted that the Ephesians came to be children of God after listening to the message of truth” (Ephesians 1:13). Every conversion recorded in the book of Acts included the sinner making the effort to listen to the preaching of the gospel. Whether it be Saul of Tarsus (Acts 9:3ff), the Ethiopian Eunuch (Acts 8:31ff), Cornelius (Acts 10:33) or Lydia (Acts 16:14), all displayed the desire to hear and respond to the word of the Lord spoken to them.

We can not listen to what we are not present to hear. To be a listening servant, we must make the effort to be where the Lord’s word is being spoken. We read of the relatives and friends of Cornelius who made sure that they were all “assembled” together and “present before God to hear all that you have been commanded by the Lord” (Acts 10:27, 33). We read in the Old Testament of all the Jews who assembled to hear Ezra read the word of God “from early morning to midday” so that they might understand what God wanted them to do (Nehemiah 8:1-8). Paul directed the evangelist Timothy to “give attention to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation and teaching” (I Timothy 4:13) which will only be of any benefit to those who do not forsake “our own assembling together, as is the habit of some” (Hebrews 10:25).

We must, therefore, be careful about what we listen to. We read in Mark 4:24 of Jesus saying “take care what you listen to.” That applies to the music we listen to and the entertainment that we watch. It must be admitted that it is not the wisdom of God but rather the mindset of the world which is dominated by popular music and television today. Again, we must be careful what we listen to! It also applies to who we choose to listen to in regards to spiritual matters. We must be careful who we listen to preach and teach. John wrote, “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world” (I John 4:1). In New Testament times, signs, wonders and miracles were performed so that the “hearer” could know who spoke from God. In Acts chapter 2, after Peter established that their speaking in tongues was the fulfillment of prophecy regarding the out-pouring of the Holy Spirit upon the twelve apostles, he was then able to exhort his audience to “listen to these words” (Acts 2:22). Later in Acts 8:6, the true miracles performed by Phillip caused the multitude to give “attention to what was said by Philip, as they heard and saw the signs which he was performing.” Today, we have the confirmed and completed revelation and we then bear the responsibility to be as James in Acts 15:13-19 or the Bereans in Acts 17:11 who engaged themselves in the task of comparing what they heard being proclaimed with what they read in God’s scriptures.

We must also be careful how we listen. Jesus also stated in Luke 8:18, “therefore take care how you listen.” Do we listen with application to ourselves or are we always thinking about how others need to heed the message? James talked of those who hear but delude themselves and do not apply God’s word to themselves (James 1:21-25). We need to be like those who listened with understanding when Ezra read the Law in Nehemiah chapter 8. How we listen also has to do with sequence. That is, do we speak first and listen later? Rather, as we read in James 1:19, “but let everyone be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger.” We are, therefore, to listen with an attitude of humility where we consider God’s word first, others second and what we want to say third. Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes 5:1, “Guard your steps as you go to the house of God, and draw near to listen rather than to offer the sacrifice of fools.” We must also listen with courage, conviction and honesty to do all that we hear from God’s word. Felix, in Acts 24:24-25, listened to the word of God but lacked the courage and honesty to respond to it and told Paul stop and “go away” until a more convenient time.

The Christian who is pleasing before God is one who looks forward with enthusiasm to every opportunity and makes plans to listen to what God has spoken and listens with a sense of personal application, humility and conviction to that which He has said.

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