Listening to a teacher recently I realised some people simply have the Voice and the knowledge to use it in a way that compels following. Voices, like all human expressions, have an inner ability to be attractive. Just because some part of a person is attractive doesn’t imply YOU should BE attracted, or overly attracted, to it.
There’s something to be said for knowing the voices you’re supposed to hear, so then by extension, the ones you aren’t. There are a lot of voices in the world and they are all significant. Voices, it seems, are much more than information delivery systems. They are carriers of thought and identity- the speaker’s soul if you will.
Listening for information is an important level of impact. Listening to be transformed requires another level of commitment. Much is gained or lost by who’s soul we allow into ours, through this awesome yet everyday function of speech. The speakers identity pours into you through his truths and with his truths we find ourselves taking on patterns of thought, mannerisms and the speakers pithy sayings.
Personally, as it turns, many a good man has tried in good conscience to put his life into mine through his words but instead simply irritated, frustrated or confused me. ( I’m so glad youre not like that!). At one point in my studies I thought I was just a bad hearer, and while I certainly can be that, I’ve since realised that often a speakers truth wasn’t intended to be my identity. There is a higher purpose in whom I listen too than my gratification.
I’ve come to understand that the hearer’s identity in Christ is what must be spoken to. It does me no long term good to listen to another soul making disciples if the speaker is not answering to the pattern of identity I carry in my own heart. We have to have the freedom and take responsibility to judge that.
Once again, rambling thoughts but I will leave you with this. Are the people you’re feeding off of the model of soul you are required to become? Either way, may the Lord Jesus direct those voices as primary sources into your life.