Dangerous Familiarity

“For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at anytime they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.”  Matthew 13:15 KJV

In this passage of scripture, Jesus was addresing a question from his disciples as to why he taught in parables. But further investigation into this text can reveal much more about the state of the church today.  Sometimes we can become so “familiar” with the Word of God that we reduce God’s power and the authority of His Word down to something common.  We can hear something over and over, whether it be a bible story or precept, or  example, that we take for granted we know all there is to know and subconciously quench our capacity for a deeper understanding and revelation of the things of God. Our ears become dull and we exhibit the “I’ve heard this before “attitude. If we cannot hear and understand, then we will not see the power of God manifested.  We often times can be found in a place where the Word of God is not really our primary focus in ministry. It may be unintentional, but we can become too preoccupied with the work of ministry and miss the substance of why we come to the house worship in the first place. I remember growing up in the church; and truth be told, there were countless churches where the highlight of the ministry was the choir. People even chose the Sunday they would come to church based on what choir was singing that day. Their was no premium on the Word of God. There remains today a lack of real hunger for the Word. We sometimes become too familiar with the messenger which also stymies our capacity to recieve what the Lord is saying through the leader. We magnify our spiritual leader’s imperfections; not realizing that if they were perfect, we wouldn’t have needed Jesus. The Lord gave us the remedy for this familiarity spirit.  The “b” portion of the above passage says that at anytime, we can see with our eyes, hear with our ears, and understand with our hearts. When this occurs, our situations will be converted and we will be healed.  When we place a high priority on God’s Word, making it the Supreme Authority in our lives, then and only then will we see results… And we have the nerve to become frustrated because God is taking too long!