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5 Keys to the Ministry of Listening

And a voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is my Son, my Chosen One; listen to him!” Luke 9:35

Jesus took Peter, James, and John to a mountain to pray. Moses and Elijah appeared and talked with Jesus. Jesus’ face was altered, and His garments became a dazzling white.

Not knowing what to say, Peter asked Jesus if they could make shelters for Moses, Elijah, and Jesus. While Peter was speaking, a cloud overshadowed them, and they heard the command to listen to God’s Son, Jesus.

Listening. We listen to the news as we’re making breakfast and getting ready for the day. One ear tuned to the news and the other to the banter of everyone in the house. We caught the words of everyone, but did we catch the meaning behind the words?

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Listening With Your Heart

I trust that you are learning much about yourselves, your spouse, and about the Lord during these unusual times.

These are times like no other.

Some of us are more isolated than we have ever been. Isolated from our church family, our jobs, our friends, and we’re sheltering in place with our husband or wife and children. Yet, we still feel isolated.

Gary Chapman in The Biblical Picture of Marriage, writes:

Thousands of couples have never experienced what God designed marriage to provide. They live isolated independent lives. Intimacy requires commitment. Commitment to talk, listen, and seek to understand. Together we plan and live our lives in fellowship with God. This is marriage at its best!

Gary Chapman
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Your Story Matters – Are You Listening?

“Listen. Listen deeply.”

“This is the word You want me to focus on this year, Lord? I thought I was listening. After all, it’s the first word in my mission statement! You want me to go even deeper? Deeper than studying hard to teach the ladies at church? I try to understand the biblical characters’ cultures, emotions, needs, desires, and sins and apply them to myself and to the ladies. What more is there to listen to?”

In March, I received the path that God wants me to take to listen deeply.

Your Story Matters: Finding, Writing, and Living the Truth of Your Life, by Leslie Leyland Fields, provides the winding, sometimes circling, uphill, downhill path God is taking me on as I listen more deeply than I ever have.

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Are You Listening?

“Listen. Can you hear the note hang in the air as the next note is played?”

Squinted eyes. Frowning face.

“Listen again. It’s as if I’m connecting the notes as a complete thought – a sentence. One note joins the next to produce a new meaning. Do you hear it?”

“Cool!”

“Wasn’t that beautiful?”

Smiling nod.

“That’s legato … a complete thought … a complete moment.”

It took several attempts, but my 9-year-old student learned how to listen a little deeper for the connections between the notes in a legato phrase.

Deep listening connects thoughts and emotions to understand the moment's meaning and beauty. Click To Tweet Read more