DEFLECTION: HOW ARE YOU HEARING?

Dear Believer,

Let me share an interesting story with you today.

After a church service in which I preached my heart out to the people, I had an interesting encounter with one of the people who listened to me.

I can now remember only parts of my preaching on that Sunday morning. What I do remember today clearly, however, is that this brother came to me after the service and said to me rather conspiratorially:

“Pastor Deon, that message was powerful, but I know who it was meant for.”

That was strange. No one had ever claimed such knowledge about my teachings before. The brother wasn’t done yet.

“Everything you said today fits into his life very well. I hope he changes his ways,” he added confidently.

And before I could even ask him who he had in mind, he mentioned another brother and shook his head in a pitiful manner. 

It is an exercise in self deception when you hear something that can benefit you in life or read the Bible, and instead of applying the lesson to yourself, you keep seeing how it is meant for someone out there.

In all honesty, I didn’t have the persons he mentioned in mind at all. I had no one in mind. But the baffling thing is this, if that message was for anyone, it was for this brother who thought it was for someone else. I knew him that much. I was indeed baffled that someone could deflect a message that could help him and apply it to another person.

Such denial!

Jesus has a word for those who listen or hear wrongly.

Luke 8:18.

Therefore take heed how you hear. For whoever has, to him more will be given; and whoever does not have, even what he seems to have will be taken from him.

It is wrong attitude to think you’ve known all that there is to know about a particular thing and instead of learning more and more, you try to deflect the message to someone you think is less knowledgeable. Anyone who does that is hearing wrongly. Jesus is saying here, “Hear for yourself and learn for yourself.”

God also warns us in 1 Corinthians 8:2.

And if any man thinks that he knows anything, he knows nothing yet as he ought to know.

But I couldn’t be hard on this brother I just spoke about. Why? Because I suddenly remembered who I was decades earlier. I remembered how we, as teenagers, would sit down at the back of the choir section in church and analyze our pastor’s messages. 

My friend would say, “That point is for elder so-and-so; he is the one pastor is bashing.” I would respond, “Just what I am thinking. You got that right.” Then we would look in the direction of elder so-and-so to analyze his expression.

I did that a lot in those days. We never bothered to apply the Word to ourselves. We were foolish youths who saw themselves in the mirror looking disheveled, then decided it couldn’t be us; it must be our neighbor we were seeing in that mirror.

It was to us a play, one we enjoyed. At the end of the service, we would be happy that someone had been dealt with by the pastor today. Twisted satisfaction usually followed. Ācta est fābula, plaudite!

It is an exercise in self deception when you hear something that can benefit you in life or read the Bible, and instead of applying the lesson to yourself, you keep seeing how it is meant for someone out there.

This happens more often than we realize. It is so much easier to recognize and magnify other people’s faults while glossing over our own and excusing them. Many even project their faults onto others and then start to attack those people.

“Examine yourself,” says the apostle. (2 Corunthians 13:5). “Search me, O Lord, says the Psalmist.” (Psalm 139:23).

Dear Believer, do not exercise yourself in examining other people. Stop asking God to search and deal with others.

If your light can only see the boulders on your neighbors’s path, you are pointing it in the wrong direction.

Walk in God’s blessing today!

Your friend,
Deon
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For Further studies read Proverbs Chapter 2.