from Rabbi Jack… Bible link

Matthew {13:15} "For this people's heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise, they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them." In my blurb of September 21st, I said the following: "At times, when I gaze out over the congregation I am sharing a teaching or sermon with, I wonder to myself, 'Are these people actually hearing what I am saying.' I have never tried it but perhaps next time someone approaches me after a sermon and says; 'Good word, Jack,' I will ask them if they would tell me what they liked about what they heard." Perhaps by what I said I did not give the Holy Spirit the credit He deserves, so I think my comment from last week needs some clarification. Yes, there are many people in the congregation that are not actually hearing what I am saying when I am giving a teaching or a sermon. I am sure if I would ask these people when they came up to thank me, they would not be able to tell me what I talked about. Before I give a message and even when I am formulating it and studying it in preparation to share it, in fact, even before I give it, I pray and ask the Holy Spirit for His anointing upon the message and every word I speak. I want the messages and teachings I share to be from the Holy Spirit and not from my flesh. I desire the Holy Spirit within me to speak to the Holy Spirit within those that are listening. The Holy Spirit knows who are His and those that He wants to hear the message will hear it, receive it and internalize it. The fact is, those who have listened and not heard, their hearing was made dull by the same Spirit. Maybe the message was not for them and they will hear the next one or maybe they do not have the Holy Spirit. In either case, I confess that the comment I made in my previous blurb was from my flesh and not from the Holy Spirit, please forgive me!