The Secret Of Hearing That Brings Untold Blessings

22 January 2017 (11.30am service, New Creation Church at Star Vista)
-  A video recording of Pastor Joseph Prince’s sermon delivered on 9 January 2011 was shown.
Sermon Notes (Note: These are personal notes and not a transcription of the sermon.) 

 

I.           Receive From God By Faith

Ever since Adam and Eve partook from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the result is that evil won. When there is a mixture of good and evil, men have the propensity for the evil.  You can hear all the compliments people say about you, for instance, 10 people say good things about you in that day, but if someone comes and says something negative, that one negative word is enough to upset you. You will forget the ten good words. There is something about men; we have the inclination towards the negative side. Even leaders, they can hear one hundred compliments from people about their ministry, but with just one negative remark, they are upset the whole day. What is this about us that no matter how much we learn, no matter how much God has taught us, there is this inclination in us to focus on the one tree that we cannot eat, instead of the multitude of trees that God has given us.

We have to learn this year to focus on purpose, on things that are good, positive. We have the good news (gospels). Our gospel is good news. We are people who are supposed to be happy.

Everything we received from God is by faith. Nothing is received without faith in the Christian life. If you receive without faith, it will not stay. Whatever you receive by faith, stays. Faith is what pleases God. Without faith, it is impossible to please God. We are healed by faith. We don’t fight the devil. We fight the good fight of faith. Fight to believe that what God has given you, you have.

The devil is just a demon spirit that comes to you, and tells you that you don’t have faith. Don’t concentrate on fighting him, don’t concentrate on fighting powers of darkness. Focus on faith. Your fight is fight the good fight of faith—fight to remain in faith.

Every temptation of the devil is to bring you out of faith. Faith has to do with Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. He is the author, He originates it, and He completes it. The more you spend time with Him, the more you look to him, the more you spend time in His Word, your faith will grow. Faith has to do with Jesus. You cannot preach the Ten Commandments and expect faith to come.

Romans 10:17

So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

Faith comes by hearing and hearing of the Word of God. Hearing here is mentioned twice. Keep on hearing.

Faith comes by hearing and hearing. Faith does not come by having heard, and not by hearing once.

Just like the nourishment, your health, your strength of physical body does not come by eating the chicken rice once. You will eat it again and again, week after week, even though you know the taste of chicken rice. Last week’s chicken rice will not sustain you this week.

Romans 10:14-17

How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?

And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: "How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, Who bring glad tidings of good things!"

But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, "Lord, who has believed our report?"  So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

You are saved today because someone told you about the gospel or you have heard about the gospel, or you picked up a book in which someone is preaching to you the gospel.

The norm which faith comes by hearing is not the type of hearing which comes directly from God. This type of hearing may come but faith comes by hearing from a preacher again and again.

heard through the word about Christ: The Word of God from genesis to revelation, you must bring out Jesus from the Word of God.

For instance, when you hear about Abraham and how he offered his son at the altar, if you don’t bring Jesus out of it, you can turn the message into— God always takes everything precious from us. That won’t bring faith.

You got to show the story of how Abraham offered his son so that God will offer His son. It’s a covenant deal between God and Abraham. That’s the reason why God gave up his son. The only difference was that Abraham’s son was spared while God’s son was not spared. Here, faith comes. We feel the love of God when someone brings out the Word of Christ from the Word of God.

Do you know that the Ten Commandments are also the Word of God? But the law is not the faith. Faith does not come from hearing the Ten Commandments. Faith doesn’t come from people telling you—you must do this, you must do that. Faith doesn’t come by hearing that.

those who preach the gospel of peace –those who preach the good news of peace, that there is no more war between you and God. There is only peace, because Jesus, God’s son, has taken away all your sins.

God sees you holy, perfect and blameless, because God sees the perfect work of His Son in removing your sins.

Hearing has to do with those who preach the gospel of peace. You must always be listening to the gospel of peace, and hearing, and hearing, and hearing, and hearing. And always listen to “glad tidings of good things”. For some reasons, people want to hear something negative. There are people who feel angry when pastors preach “glad tidings of good things”. However, that’s how faith comes. Pastor wants people to have faith. Pastor wants God’s people to be strong in faith!

This is a year of pure unmixed goodness, unadulterated goodness. Here, we must make sure we are listening to the gospel of peace and glad tidings of good things.

What to focus the faith on?

You need to keep on hearing and hearing the gospel of peace. Faith does not come by having heard.

In Corinth, the Corinthians went to the temple prostitutes. They worship idols, and part of the worship involved temple prostitutes. So, when they had sex with the temple prostitutes, they were having union with the gods or the goddesses there. Somehow, because of lust, Christians got involved in that. How did Paul handle this? Paul didn’t say— don’t you know the commandment says “Thou shalt not commit adultery”?  Paul didn’t even quote the Ten Commandments. Paul said, “Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit” (1 Corinthians 6:19)?

In every area of sin, Paul always reminds the believers — don’t you know what you have, don’t you know who you are? We need more preachings to tell us— don’t you know who you are, and then proceed to tell us who we are, tell us how wealthy we are.

Instead of just giving us the law…It’s very easy to give the law. It’s easier to give the law than to give revelation.  It takes the Holy Spirt to give revelation. It doesn’t take the Holy Spirit to give the law.

II.        Hearing Hearing (Shema Shema)

Psalm 65:11,,

You crown the year with Your goodness (tov in Hebrew), And Your paths drip with abundance (deshen in Hebrew).

Is there a verse where both tov and deshen appear in?

Shema Shema 1

Isaiah 55:2-3

Why do you spend money for what is not bread, And your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good (tov), And let your soul delight itself in abundance (deshen). Incline your ear, and come to Me. Hear, and your soul shall live; And I will make an everlasting covenant with you-- The sure mercies of David.

These two Hebrew words “tov” and “deshen” are brought together in one verse.

We are in God's house listening to words that give us fulfilment and nourishment, which give us satisfaction. Do you know what happen when your soul is satisfied? Our youth will be renewed like the eagles when our soul is satisfied, just like Sarah in her old age when she was 90 years old, a king wanted her for his harem.

The word “hear” is repeated twice. The word “hear” is “shema”.

The greatest commandment began with hear:

Deuteronomy 6:4

"Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one!

The Lord our God is one God, a combined unity. God is three persons in one God—Father, Son and Holy Spirit. A Trion god.

All the blessings from God come from listen listening, hear, hearing.

Listen carefully (shema, shema)

There is nothing for you to perform. It is not praying for long hours. Very simple, it’s – just listen, with a listening heart. A heart of hearing.

Why is it “shema shema” (twice) in Hebrew? We call it “listen carefully”.

“Listen listen” is the same as faith comes by “hearing hearing”. God is emphasising that it’s not enough to hear once. If you want to see goodness and manifestation in your life, keep on hearing. Don’t get discouraged. Keep on hearing and hearing.

Where do you find the word “shema” appears twice in the bible?

The idea is to keep on hearing and hearing. Don’t stop just because you have heard it. Very often, you are hearing, but you are not “hearing hearing”.

The idea of “hearing hearing” is not just about hearing repeatedly but hearing with attention. Listen with your ears and listen with your heart. 

“Incline your ear and come to me” – keep on listening.

Now, let’s look at all the places where shema is repeated twice. There are four more, and it gives you five, the number of grace. Every one gives you a different blessing.

Shema Shema 2

Exodus 15:26

and said, "If you diligently heed (shema shema in Hebrew) the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right in His sight, give ear to His commandments and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have brought on the Egyptians. For I am the Lord who heals you."

Today, we do not have to “do what is right in His sight, give ear to His commandments and keep all His statutes” before God will heal us. When God sent Jesus, God knew none of us can keep His commandment and do all His statutes. And what Jesus did, God set to your account. When you accept Jesus, in terms of law-keeping, God gives you an A+ even though you have not kept all the laws perfectly. Who kept the law for you? Jesus.

“If” has been fulfilled by Jesus. What is left? Only “listen listen” is left.

Some people may argue that you need to heed to all the commandments before God will heel you. If this is the case, the lady with blood issue broke God’s commandments. It was illegal for those with issue of blood to be at a public place, let alone to touch other people, defiling them. She broke various commandments but Jesus turned to her and told her, “your faith has made you well.” Jesus did not heal her because she kept the law.

God doesn’t heal you today because you kept His law perfectly. God heals you because you have heard how good He is.

The story of the lady with blood issue who was healed began with “When she heard of Jesus”. She had been to doctors but was not healed. Instead, she got worse. 

What do you think she heard? Good news.

When Jesus healed people, the only requirement is they must listen:

Luke 5:15

However, the report went around concerning Him all the more; and great multitudes came together to hear, and to be healed by Him of their infirmities.

Multitude is already many.

When there is “great multitude”, it is in tens of thousands.  

They came together to hear, and to be healed.

Faith is a response to God’s goodness.

The people came to hear and be healed.

If you need healing, don’t just ask for the prayer of healing. You have to hear to be healed.

It is important that you hear and be healed.

When you are troubled, you can quote verses for yourself- it’s called meditation.

At times, when Pastor cannot sleep, while his mind has too many disturbing thoughts, he meditates. So, do meditate on verses like Psalm 23.

Faith comes by hearing. You can hear through a preacher but you can also be a preacher to yourself.

When you meditate on the Word, you have good success.

The power is not trying to be good. Just listen to Jesus and be healed.

Luke 6:17-19

And He came down with them and stood on a level place with a crowd of His disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea and Jerusalem, and from the seacoast of Tyre and Sidon, who came to hear Him and be healed of their diseases, as well as those who were tormented with unclean spirits. And they were healed. And the whole multitude sought to touch Him, for power went out from Him and healed them all.

All of us are naturally negative. Faith is about knowing that God is good. However, we need to be reminded constantly that God is good. It’s in human nature that we tend to disbelieve God.

Whenever you don’t trust god, you are at the reverse gear. Many people are not in the positive gear. They are not moving forward. Just because you are attending New Creation Church doesn’t mean you know God is a good God. You need to be reminded always. You need to keep on hearing and hearing to be reminded.

A few weeks ago, Pastor was in a place called Lystra in Turkey. It’s pastor’s favourite place in Turkey. It’s also Paul’s favourite place. Paul preached there and healed a lame man:

Acts 14:7-10

And they were preaching the gospel there. And in Lystra a certain man without strength in his feet was sitting, a cripple from his mother's womb, who had never walked. This man heard Paul speaking. Paul, observing him intently and seeing that he had faith to be healed,  said with a loud voice, "Stand up straight on your feet!" And he leaped and walked.

The Old Testament is from Hebrew. The New Testament is from Greek. In the Greek, the “preaching” is in the imperfect tense.

An example of perfect tense is when Jesus said at the cross, “It’s finished”. In other words, it’s one time word, and it will never be repeated. It’s finished then, and it’s finished forever.

Here, “preaching” is imperfect tense. Imperfect tense means a repeated or continual action.

It means when Paul was in Lystra, maybe he went from one place to another to preach, he kept on preaching, or it could be he was repeatedly preaching in the same place.

“This man heard Paul speaking” – “speaking” is imperfect tense as well, it is a repeated action. He listened again and again, he listened for more than one time. Paul saw that this man has faith to be healed.

Paul kept on preaching and the man kept on hearing. Faith to be healed through hearing and Paul could see that. Paul shouted to him, “Stand up straight on your feet!", and he leaped and walked.

Based on the sequence of “shema shema” which appears in the Bible, the first thing that happened is healing after hearing, followed by family life and then prosperity. You need your health before family. You need your health to take care of your family. Sickness burdens people.

This is also how we get our debts canceled.

Shema Shema 3

Deuteronomy 11:13-14

'And it shall be that if you earnestly obey (shema shema) My commandments which I command you today, to love the Lord your God and serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul, then I will give you the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the latter rain, that you may gather in your grain, your new wine, and your oil.

Health comes before family. We have health to serve our family.

The second blessing is days of heaven for your family.

Shema Shema 4

Deuteronomy 15:5-6

only if you carefully obey (shema, shema) the voice of the Lord your God, to observe with care all these commandments which I command you today. For the Lord your God will bless you just as He promised you; you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow; you shall reign over many nations, but they shall not reign over you.

Those who lend reign over those who borrow. Learn to trust God on your needs.

Thus, the 3^rd blessing is prosperity.

However, our priority is not prosperity, but healing of spirit, soul and body. The next priority is our family. Third, we want you to prosper because those who are poor cannot help those who are poor. God wants you to lend.

Shema Shema 5

Deuteronomy 28:1-3

"Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey (shema, shema) the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments which I command you today, that the Lord your God will set you high above all nations of the earth. And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, because you obey the voice of the Lord your God:  Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the country.

ALL blessings are yours if you keep hearing.

Deuteronomy 28:15

"But it shall come to pass, if you do not obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments and His statutes which I command you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you:

If you do not obey, there is only one “shema”.

III.      Conclusion

People like to quote this to bring us into bondage—“Be doers of the words and but not hearers only”.

That one quote has robbed us from hearing more, as it is implying that hearing is not important, you have to do it.

Have you heard it before? It discourages people from hearing.  Actually if people keep on hearing, they will end up doing. They can’t help it.

Once you hear, you will act. You can’t stop yourself from acting.

These are sermons that people have been telling you. However, everything must be understood from its context:

James 1:23-25

For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.

Those hear it once forgets. Continue hearing and not hearing it once.

Don’t let people take the verse out of the context. Don’t be a one-time hearer, be a continuous hearer.

In Galatians 3, Paul asked this one question:

Galatians 3:2-5

This only I want to learn from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh? Have you suffered so many things in vain--if indeed it was in vain? Therefore He who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you, does He do it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?--

Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?

By hearing.

God is constantly supplying you with the Holy Spirit.

God is constantly working miracles among you.

It’s not enough to have heard:

Hebrews 4:2

For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it.

The above refers to the children of Israel in the wilderness. Many of them died in the wilderness though they have heard the good news of the Promised Land.

The children heard the good news, and yet many of them died.

What is the reason?

but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it

“heard it” is a past tense. It means they heard it once in the past and they thought they knew it. They were not hearing it. Faith comes by hearing and hearing, not by having heard.

Pastor said his message for the day is simple:

Keep on hearing. Keep on hearing

Have you realise that those days that you fall sick or experience depression, or when you are really down, these are days when there is a lack of hearing. Those days when you were not feeling well, those days that you feel you are indulged in sin. Are you full of Word? No… you are empty during those days.

We need to be nourished. We need to keep hearing the Word. Especially if a sermon speaks to you, get hold of that sermon, and keep on hearing.

As man, we tend to pull out the negative from all the positive. That’s the reason why we need to keep on hearing. Thus, God says, “listen carefully”, “hearing hearing” and healing will flow.

Just by hearing of faith, and healing, days of heaven for the family, prosperity and all the blessings from Deuteronomy 28 will come to you.