Double
Hearing
Part 1
“Give to Your servant a hearing heart …”
“He said to them,
“But who do you say that I am?”
And Simon (Hearing) Peter (Rock) answered and said,
“You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.”
And Jesus answered and said to him,
“Blessed are you, Simon (Hearing) Barjona (Son of the Dove)
because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you,
but My Father who is in heaven.” Matthew 16:15-17 (NASB)
In November 2015, for some reason, the number 47 suddenly started coming to my attention. I’d never paid attention to numbers, that I can recall, as though God was speaking to me through them, ever. But now it was like I was being caused to see “47” all over the place – on gas prices, from my phone gps mileage or time to jobs where I was scheduled to work, gate codes, the time of day, license plates … At times it would come in rapid succession and/or doubles. Most of the time when this occurred, my spirit man would jump with anticipated excitement, so I knew that the LORD Jesus was grabbing my attention. Proverbs 25:2 says that it is the glory of God to conceal a matter, and the glory of kings to search it out. After some time of this I asked a close businessman friend, who is quite prophetic, if he knew what 47 meant, and he did not; but the Holy Spirit seemed to indicate to him to read from Isaiah 47. I looked up stuff in scriptures, looked online as to what had been written … Nothing in my spirit “locked on”, if you will, to anything. Yet I knew in my spirit that LORD Jesus was intentionally capturing my attention. I kept looking for what He would show, searching scriptures that were v# 47, not knowing what I was looking for. I just knew that, like Abraham when he left Ur not knowing where he was going, but alas hearing from the LORD when he finally arrived, I knew it would be the same for me.
Towards the end of January of this year, 2017, driving on the tollway north towards my morning job assignment, I saw a certain company pickup truck in the right lane just ahead, with a number on the top right of the tailgate – 447 – and my heart jumped. Immediately the Holy Spirit of God began to unveil to me, in questions , the mystery of 47.
He asked me, “What did I create on day 4?” I answered, “Light”, for the Sun and the moon and the stars. I remembered then that the Hebrew word for “Light” is “Owr”.
Then He asked me of day 7, and I said, “You finished” , and I remembered the Hebrew word for “Complete” is “Tamim”.
Suddenly, understanding came to me … and I was beside myself with exultation to Jesus. 47 is not a 4 and a 7, two singluar numbers, rather a multiple number, that is, plural. Hence, the Hebrew plural for “Light” and for “Complete/Finish” – “URIM and THUMMIM”. I was ecstatic, because I knew where He was taking me with this. This has to do with both seeing and hearing the Word of the LORD.
I’ll explain:
For those of you who remember the garments of the High Priest, over the heart was set the breastplate of Judgement – a pouch that had mounted on the front 12 precious stones, and into which two items, called the “Urim and Thummim”, were placed (Ex. 28:15-30). On each precious stone on the front of the Breastplate of Judgment was engraved the name of one each of the sons, (of the tribes), of Israel. When one inquired of the LORD, to know His will concerning something, they brought the High Priest with this vesture in order to ask the LORD His counsel (Ref. Num. 27:21 et al). In asking the LORD for His counsel, according the rabbinic tradition, a different letter from out of the engraved names would light up to spell out words that gave the answer (see I Sam. 30:7-8).
While that may seem cool to see the Word of the LORD that way, the book of Hebrews clearly brings out that we have a better covenant, that that was only a type and shadow of the real, which we have today, (i. e. Heb. 10:1 et al), and which a lot of those back then prophets longed to have (I Pet. 1:10-12). We have been given the Holy Spirit to make known to us the things freely given to us by God, to make known to us His Will, His Word to us (Jhn 16:7, 14-15; I Cor. 2:10-16).
So then, some of you are asking, why then the big excitement over Urim and Thummim?
What the Father is signifying is that He is after our seeing and hearing His Word, literally His Word, from out of the scriptures, more than ever before, where what we’d read before that seemed not to have life suddenly comes to life as He unveils more and more the glory of Jesus, this treasure that we already have in our earthen vessel.
“Blessed are you, Simon (Hearing) Barjona (Son of the Dove)
because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you,
but My Father who is in heaven.” Matthew 16:17 (NASB)
Abba Father God is after increasing our hearing, and our seeing, His Word – Jesus. He’s not after us getting more Bible knowledge, rather something exceedingly greater. You see it in Moses’s prayer in Ex. 33:12b-13a
“Moreover, You have said, ‘I have known you by name, and you have also found favor [grace] in My sight.’
Now therefore, if I have found favor[grace] in Your sight LET ME KNOW YOUR WAYS THAT I MAY KNOW YOU, so that I may find favor in Your sight.”.
We don’t learn the Word of God to learn the Word of God. We learn the Word of God to know that God of the Word. We learn it to learn HIM, to KNOW HIM!!!
And this is what the Father’s heart is after towards us, that we might find out just how crazy awesome Good He is towards us. It is in our ongoing growing relationship with Him who let His Son’s flesh (the real veil to the Holy of Holies – Heb. 10:19-22a) be ripped open to grant us access to LIVE in the Holy of Holies, where nothing is impossible, where the revelation of how great is His Love into us, where we are before Him, in even all our weaknesses, totally unashamed and loving living in His presence, in our daily walk, wherever we may be.
Abba Father God is after unveiling, in revelation, the glory of His Son through His Word.
Look, Beloved, so many of you are seeking an outpouring of His glory, are crying out to hear Him more. Some of you are crying out that you can’t hear Him, even though Jesus said, in John 10:16 & 27, that His sheep hear His voice. If you really want to hear Him, honestly, you can. If you want clearer and/or increased hearing Him in your Spirit, you can. But there is something you’re going to have to shut down in order to gain clearer hearing.
Look again at the verses concerning the Breastplate of Judgment, with the understanding that this is a type and shadow of the real, showing how we actually stand in our relationship, right now, through our High Priest Jesus. He wears our judgment over His heart! (Ex.28:29-30). It’s called “The Breastplate of Judgment”. The precious stones show the preciousness of each one of you, inscribed into His heart, mounted on the finished work of His having borne our judgment in His own body on the cross, with the holes of our judgment still present in Him. As He is now, forever, before the glory of His Father, the radiance of God’s glory, of the glory of the resurrection by which He raised Him – because of how finished the Work of His Cross is, because of now our having been declared utterly righteous with HIS righteousness (Rom. 4:25), upon His breast we are caused to sparkle in beauty in the glory of the Father. It shows absolutely not one spot or wrinkle of sin or sin’s effects on us (Col. 1:21-22; 2:9-14). That He wears us over His heart so that when we “inquire” of Him, we’re inquiring from HIS HEART OF LOVE. The Urim and Thummim – Lights and Perfections/Completions – are the light of Revelation continually from Holy Spirit through the Scriptures to show you how thoroughly complete you are in Christ Jesus, which gives you confident access into God the Father’s presence, with not even a smudge of remembrance of your sin (Heb. 7:25; 8:12b/ 10:15, 17). This is why it is imperative for you, Beloved, as a believer, to find and have private time with Jesus, with Abba Father God, daily! Because He keeps you, in this, in remembrance of how forgiven and complete you are, because of the ever present awareness of the Love that Jesus still bears in His flesh for you, in the holes of His hands and feet and side, without even an inkling of condemnation. This is that to which the Covenant of Abraham bore witness, when the LORD said to him in the last part of Genesis 17:1 “Walk before Me and be complete“ – (“Tamim” in Hebrew). The Hebrew words indicate the “Walk before Me” as one who walks right in front of His Face. It’s not a place of remembrance of our short-comings, rather of how utterly finished and complete is the work of Jesus’s cross to gain us the Grace access in confidence to this Awesome God made our very own Abba Father.
This is how the Holy Spirit walked me through the process of increasing hearing Him.
Years ago, back in the late 80’s, I was reading one day from Eph. 4. When I got to v. 31, this is what happened.
“Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor … Be put away from you,…”
When I saw the word “clamor”, for some reason in my head it didn’t fit the list. I said to the Father, “God, ‘clamor’ means ‘noise’.” And He answered me, “That’s right!”. I thought also that Paul was writing, “don’t let ‘noise’ come into you,” though years later I would realize that he’d written, “don’t let ‘noise’ come out of you.” I would later remember the old computer saying, “Garbage in, Garbage out”. Still, God used my misunderstanding to get my attention, and He began to say to me by His Spirit to quit listening to the news. The first thing He targeted was a conservative talk show host I’d been faithfully listening to every afternoon. He said to me, “… (this man) does not have the mind of the Lord”, and it immediately, His words, gave an immediate grace to quit listening. I dragged my feet for years pertaining to shutting down the news. I listened less and less, but still listened. About five years ago, in January, the Holy Spirit seemed to really press me concerning completely shutting down my listening to the news. I let off some, but still listened a bit.
Then late that March I had a dream which seemed quite intentionally to be from Him, right before I woke up for the day. This was the dream: I was with a bunch of Believers in a living room one evening, we were all casually fellowshipping. Suddenly, 3 men covered completely in black, including over their faces, came into the room through 2 access points, with machine guns, and opened fire. I dove for the ground; I could feel bullets hit from my knees to my feet as I dove. I was the only one to survive, and I suddenly woke up. Immediately, what came to me in that moment, was this, “the News kills faith”. I hadn’t been killed because I had been continually decreasing how much I was listening to it; yet every other believer had not shut it down. From that day forward I have not been able to listen to the news.
I just happened on this passage, recently, in Isaiah.
“He who stops his ears from hearing about bloodshed,
And shuts his eyes from looking upon evil;
He will dwell on the heights;
His refuge will be the impregnable rock;
His bread will be given him;
His water will be sure.” Is. 33:15b-16 (NASB)
What I realized that began to happen was my hearing the LORD Jesus began to increase. I thus found my faith growing. I realized that the news made the devil look bigger than God. Too many of us say with our heads that we believe God can do anything, yet we let the global instant media, never before this accessible as it is presently, with the amazing technology of sound and sight, speak louder into our hearts than an Almighty God Who created the heavens and earth, Who set every single star out there by Himself, Who raised Jesus – forever – from out of the realm of the dead. Too many believers in Jesus believe we live in the darkest times on planet earth, and consequently actually don’t believe Jesus can really turn things around, rather are waiting for judgment to pour out for sin … Instead of seeing the intensity of sin’s judgment by God into His Son’s body on the cross, for every single evil being done and glowed to us by the media. Too many know so little of history, of the devastations and deep darkness over nations and continents that make today’s news actually look pretty good. We’ve let the media dictate how bad the world presently is, then give our attention to those who support this with their teaching of the book of Revelation, (and thus have reduced that book to a revelation of everything the devil is doing instead of what it actually says in the very first verse, “The Revelation of Jesus Christ.”)
If you will receive the Grace of God that He gives to shut down, even if incrementally, the news, you might find that you actually start hearing Jesus more, and/or more clearly. If you will at least tell Him that you’re willing to spend time with Him in His Word if He would give you the grace to do so, this would be a starting point for the ears of your heart to start opening more to hear Him and so receive the Grace that comes by Faith, by Believing His Word. You will begin to find Him speaking to you through your work day. Beloved, if you will shut down the clamor, the clamor, which wars against your believing faith in your own heart and mouth (Rom. 10:10), will stop coming out of you.
You will find the shalom peace starting to take over your heart, and the agitations that once roiled you will begin to dissipate. You will find that the voice of Jesus your Savior is not yelling at you the way this age’s voice yells at you. You will find your feet being established on the impregnable Rock as you hear Holy Spirit of Father God, of LORD Jesus, giving you increasingly more, revelation of Him from His Word. The peace you wear, and the wisdom from heaven you start hearing, will start getting the attention of all those around you (I.e. Mk 6:2) who are so agitated by the noise of this age, and they’ll start wondering and and even coming to you to find out why you walk in such … Light and Completeness.
You are so Loved, Beloved. It’s time to let be increased your hearing to find out just how loved you are!
Mark Dingemans
———————————————————————-
kairos – (Kahee-ros’) – Strong’s concordance defines this word: “an occasion, I.e. set or proper time.” The Hebrew-Greek Key Study Bible (NASB) defines this word; “season, time, but not merely as a succession of moments, which is chronos,” [from which we derive the English word ‘chronology’]. “Kairos, however, implies not the convenience of the season, but the necessity of the task at hand, whether the time provides a good, convenient opportunity or not.” This must be understood. Strategic times of the Lord do not necessarily imply good or convenient times. We are in Kairos times. Maybe not good or convenient times, but definitely strategic, opportune times because of the season we are in. We must have “ears to hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches,” (Rev. 2:29), so as to respond correctly to the Kairos time.
* Some Scripture for this letter is taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE, (c) 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. Other references translated from Grk. Txt as presented in T. Newberry’s Englishman’s Greek New Testament, Zondervan Publishing – 1982- originally published in London, Eng. 1877
** The translation from the Greek Txt as presented in Thomas Newberry's "The Englishman's Greek New Testament" Originally published in London, Eng. 1877. Zondervan Publishing House of the Zondervan Corporation. Grand Rapids, MI 49506
I have endeavored to show both Greek text wrd order, along with hyphens between words in English, which are single words in the Greek text.
Massoretic text from website qbible.com/hebrew-old-testament
#HearingGod,HearingHeart #UrimAndThummim