January 5

EARS OPENED IN PRESSURE
by Ray Prinzing

"He delivereth the poor in his affliction, and openeth their ears in oppression (Hebrew, pressure)."                                                                                                  [Job 36:15]

We sometimes wonder why all this PRESSURE is coming our way, and for sure there are manifold reasons, for God works many thing through the same set of circumstances. But one of the purposes of pressure is to help open our ears, pressing out all of that which clogged the passage and kept the TRUE SOUNDS from entering in.

Paul exhorted the disciples to continue in the faith, and "that we must through much tribulation  (Greek, PRESSURE) enter into the kingdom of God."  [Acts 14:22]. Thus we see a dual working to this pressure, it is pressing us OUT OF THE OLD and pressing us INTO THE NEW. God is a wise economist, He can use the same pain to be death pangs to the old, and birth pangs for the new.  The same pressure that is pushing out all the old debris that has clogged our hearing is also preparing the way for the entrance of the new message from God.

"Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not: behold, your God shall come with vengeance, even God with a recompense; He will come and save you. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped."  [Isaiah 35:4-5]. We rejoice, this is a precious promise, and we reach out to embrace its victory. Ah, but the preceding verse prepares the way, "The wilderness and the solitary way shall be glad for them." It takes the processings of the wilderness disciplines and the solitary place to prepare us to hear even more clearly the Voice of the Lord.

"He that is of God heareth God's words." [John 8:47]. Called aside from the multitudes, processed by the pressures of the day, His apprehended ones are hearing His voice - they are His firstfruits of a new creation order, and they shall declare His praises to the ends of the earth.

Lord, my ears, they must be opened
If Thy message I would hear,
Spare Thou not the cleansing process
Till Thy still small voice is clear.