When God called Isaiah to prophetic ministry, He gave him a rather stranger message for Israel: “Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving.’ Make the heart of this people calloused; make their ears dull and close their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.” (Isaiah 6:9-10). In a burst of irony, God is eager for Israel to somehow begin to listen, see and, with the usage of their brain, “turn and be healed”. Simple, right? Do you have ears? What about one or two eyes? Great! What about what should be between your ears, that processes the information that your senses are collecting? Also there? Then please, stop and turn around!
Sadly, God is having to tell the prophet that while his ministry will be one of calling to repentance and pointing at the hope of redemption, it will have the opposite result. Not because Isaiah doesn’t do a great job at being a prophet, or because God is ready to just dump Israel. Israel will simply keep its brain un- redeemed.
Yes, an un- redeemed brain leads to an un- redeemed heart.
Look at what Ellen White says about the Israel before Christ’s first coming: “They had studied the prophecies, but without spiritual insight…Pride obscured their vision. They interpreted prophecy in accordance with their selfish desires.” (the Desire of Ages, pg. 30). This is tragic! It is like a man bleeding out and waiting for the ambulance at the wrong street corner, or a famished woman throwing her longed for treat in the garbage instead of filling her eager stomach with it! Israel was reading, but getting nothing out of it. Why?
They were to full of pride for their brains to work as they should. Their eyes saw the words, their brains heard them, but they did not receive nor process nor understand them.
Again, why? “Pride obscured their vision”.
Now, before any of you writes off this devotional as ‘not my problem, because I am very humble person’, let me ask you: have you ever done something you wanted to do even though that little voice in your brain told you that it was really not the best idea? Have you ever been in the middle of hearing and sermon and tuned out because you simply didn’t like the verses the preacher was reading? Have you ever stopped congregating with your fellow believers because they should know better than to behave the way they are?
Maybe? I know I have.
My friend, we all have a pride problem! This problem stems out of a vicious cycle. One in which we are not able to hear God because our ears, eyes and brains don’t work, and because they do not work, we keep on not hearing or seeing the desperate attempts of rescue from our Creator!
What’s the solution? Redeeming that thing between your ears. Your brain!
And who does that? Certainly not you nor me, but the Holy Spirit! And friends, this is the easy. All you have to do is getting in the habit of first, asking daily for the Spirit and, second, developing a habit of constant availability to Him. In other words: if you are a Christian, seek God on purpose and get rid, with His help, of all that may drown Him out in your brain.