THIS IS PART OF AN ONGOING SERIES ON THE GIFT OF PROPHECY. Click here for the rest of the series.

To be known requires that I speak, and to fully know requires that I hear.

Hearing and communication are the most vital and foundational aspects of any relationship. Without communication, intimacy is lost. Without listening, value is never established.

The Bible says that you have been made one spirit with the Spirit of God:

I Corinthians 6:17 But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him.

One of the greatest pictures for union with Christ is marriage, and the earliest marriage is called a union:

Genesis 2:24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined (cleave) to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

And the picture was one of shared intimacy and acceptance:

Genesis 2:25 And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.

Their relationship was not driven by anything but love for one another love for God. In being unashamed there was no hint of shifting identities or hidden motives. When they saw each other what they saw is what they got. Adam and Eve simply rested in who they were created to be.

This is a picture of the way we are to relate to the Lord:

Deuteronomy 10:20 'You shall fear the Lord your God; you shall serve Him, and to Him you shall hold fast (cleave), and take oaths in His name. '

Deuteronomy 11:22 “For if you carefully keep all these commandments which I command you to do—to love the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways, and to hold fast (cleave) to Him…”

Psalms 63:8 My soul follows close behind (cleaved to) You; Your right hand upholds me.

This cleaving included listening to God and responding to Him:

Deuteronomy 13:4 You shall walk after the Lord your God and fear Him, and keep His commandments and obey His voice; you shall serve Him and hold fast (cleave) to Him.

Deuteronomy 30:19-20 'I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live; that you may love the Lord your God, that you may obey His voice, and that you may cling (cleave) to Him, for He is your life and the length of your days; and that you may dwell in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them.”'

In the way that Adam cleaved to Eve, we are to cleave (become one) to Christ. What was true in the Old Testament was true because it was the expression of the heart of God. An incredible picture of this as it pertains to prophetic ministry can be seen in the life of Ezekiel. Ezekiel has a profound encounter with the glory of the Lord in Ezekiel 1. He is shown the glory cloud, the throne of God, multiple heavenly figures, rainbows, colors and lights. All so overwhelming that he collapses in awe and reverence. And then, he has an experience with the Spirit of God:

Ezekiel 2:2 Then the Spirit entered me when He spoke to me, and set me on my feet; and I heard Him who spoke to me.

Ezekiel 3:24 Then the Spirit entered me and set me on my feet, and spoke with me and said to me: “Go, shut yourself inside your house.”

When the Spirit entered Ezekiel he hears the voice of the Lord (which he equates with the voice of the Spirit. This sounds suspiciously like the language of Jesus from John 16:12-15 (see above). This is the first (and only instance) of the Spirit entering someone in the Old Testament. The Spirit enters, speaks, reveals the things of God, and things to come. But this also came at great cost to Ezekiel, as it required perfect obedience:

Ezekiel 3:18 When I say to the wicked, “You shall surely die,” and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life, that same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood I will require at your hand.

Ezekiel 3:26-27 I will make your tongue cling to the roof of your mouth, so that you shall be mute and not be one to rebuke them, for they are a rebellious house. But when I speak with you, I will open your mouth, and you shall say to them, “Thus says the Lord God. He who hears, let him hear; and he who refuses, let him refuse; for they are a rebellious house.”

Perfect obedience is no longer the requirement to fulfill the obligation to the indwelling of the Spirit, however, the principle of obedience is just as true today as it was then.

To hear and obey is the vital crux of following God and presented as one of the seminal statements God spoke to Israel:

Deuteronomy 6:4-5 Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one! You shall love (obey) the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.

The importance of these two inextricably intertwined realities did not cease at the end of the old covenant. Jesus claimed their importance when speaking of the indwelling presence of the Spirit:

John 14:23-24 Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine but the Father’s who sent Me.”

We are to hear his words and keep them, in other words: hear and obey. The command to hear and obey is found repeatedly throughout scripture. Why? Because God is going to speak to you. God has always looked for a communicative relationship with His people.

Jeremiah 7:22-23 “For I did not speak to your fathers, or command them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices. But this is what I commanded them, saying, ‘[to hear: Obey My voice], and [relationship: I will be your God, and you shall by My people.]. And walk in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well with you.’”

To be continued…