A Listening Ear

A Listening Ear

(Zadok and Abaithar Priesethoods)

David Wilkerson

One of the sins I want to deal with in shepherds, an inability to accept an appropriate reproof.

The thinking is

‘I’m a man of God.

I’m a man of prayer.

If God has anything to say to me,

He’ll talk to me.

He doesn’t have to send somebody else.’

“And although they say,

‘As the LORD lives,’ Surely they swear falsely.” Jeremiah 5:2

O LORD, do not Thine eyes look for truth?

Thou hast smitten them,

But they did not weaken;

Thou hast consumed them,

But they refused to take correction.

They have made their faces harder than rock;

They have refused to repent. Jeremiah 5:3

“Go up through her vine rows and destroy,

But do not execute a complete destruction;

Strip away her branches, For they are not the LORD’s.” Jeremiah 5:10

That’s why He does the stripping, strip them up. Every branch isn’t the Lord’s. He does that through ‘reproof.’

There are no preacher on the face of the earth that was more immune to reproof than I was. Because I thought I was a praying man, I was a man of God.

You know everybody goes around and says,

‘I’ve got a word for you.’ Most of it’s garbage. But God does bring a word to us.

you, therefore, who teach another,

do you not teach yourself?

You who preach that one should not steal,

do you steal? Romans 2:21

You who say that one should not commit adultery,

do you commit adultery?… Romans 2:22

If you look on a woman (with lust), you commit adultery.

(Matthew 5:28)

Come on Sir, when you’re in a restaurant does your wife cringe every time a woman goes by because she watches your eyes follow?

Listen to me now. There’s nothing more demeaning to your wife than to sit there in her presence and let your eyes rove. I think that cuts a woman more than anything else on the face of the earth.

Yet you tell her you love her, you’re a man of God. She watches your eyes rove.

… You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? Romans 2:22

You who boast in the Law, through your breaking the Law, do you dishonor God? Romans 2:23

For “the name of God is blasphemed

among the Gentiles because of you,” just as it is written. Romans 2:24

Because of who?

Because of those who preach one thing and live another, those who preach reproof but won’t accept an appropriate one in their lives.

Brother, sister nothing should be preached from the pulpit till its work this way and its character through our own lives. We should not preach anything that we’ve refused appropriate to our own lives.

Ministers to gospel have an exclusivity about themselves, this idea that I’ve exclusive track with God. I live with that for years.

There’s an arrogance about us. We develop this arrogance.

Do not reprove a scoffer,

lest he hate you,

Reprove a wise man,

and he will love you. Proverbs 9:8

Do you believe that’s in your Bible?

Do not reprove a scoffer,

lest he hate you,

Proverbs 9:8

We have a lot of preachers who are scoffers.

A scoffer does not love one who reproves him. He will not go to the wise.

That’ll suggest the man of God will love someone who reproves him in the spirit.

Like an earring of gold

and an ornament of fine gold Is

a wise reprover to a listening ear. Proverbs 25:12

It’s like fine gold a reprover to a listening ear.

I prayed,

“Oh God, give me a listening ear.

Let me accept it.”

“Let me love to be reproved because whom the Lord loves He reproves.”

(Hebrews 12:6)

(His reproof is) the sign of His love.

It’s imperative to develop a listening ear, a humble ear.

He whose ear listens to the life-giving reproof

will dwell among the wise.

Proverbs 15:31

He who neglects discipline despises himself,

But he who listens to reproof acquires understanding.

Proverbs 15:32

In the Hebrew it says discernment. He understands discernment. That’s how you get your discernment by accepting an appropriate reproof.

The fear of the LORD is the instruction for wisdom,

And before honor comes humility. Proverbs 15:33

Jesus, I want to hear.

I want it all out.

I want to stand with clean hands and a pure heart so that I know that

I have clear mandate.

This word has worked that it sweep on those in my heart.