Psalm 85:7-9 English Standard Version

⁷ Show us your steadfast love, O Lord, and grant us your salvation. ⁸ Let me hear what God the Lord will speak, for he will speak peace to his people, to his saints; but let them not turn back to folly. ⁹ Surely his salvation is near to those who fear him, that glory may dwell in our land.

Who do we listen to in life? I hope that the title of this devotional “Listen Up” might place some remembrance of words used in our lives.

How we receive those words depends on our relationship with the speaker. The circumstance where those words are used may well determine our emotional response.

In some cases it is a preamble to a command. That speaker has authority over us. One example is being addressed by a military commander. Details important to an upcoming campaign might be shared. There may be specific details given that might save lives.

Here is another way to think of it. Let me hear what the Lord my God has to say. Preachers and teachers have their own style in addressing a general assembly. They might not know each person in attendance. They might say something like “Hear the Word of the Lord.” What should follow is scripture but what if it is a word of prophecy?

When we listen to others do we seek to hear what God is speaking into our hearts or do we allow our relationship with the speaker dictate how we accept what is said?

We will all stand before someone where we have no personal relationship, feel no submission, no attachment, and may even doubt. That should have no bearing in how we “listen up” in those moments, trying to hear our Lord in what is being said.

Spirit speaks to spirit.

2 Kings 23:25 English Standard Version (ESV) Before him there was no king like him, who turned to the Lord with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might, according to all the Law of Moses, nor did any like him arise after him.

Only one king of Israel got it right according to the Law of Moses. There has never been his like again.

Romans 8:29 English Standard Version (ESV) For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

Being conformed to an image makes us look like Jesus but it does not make us His firstborn, there is only one firstborn, no matter what we look like.

When Jesus came to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus He took on a different appearance. If He didn’t look like Jesus what did He appear to be? We don’t know.

When Jesus met Moses and Elijah on the Mount of Transfiguration He appeared in glory like no one had ever seen before or since. His appearing to His disciples that night on the first day of the week after His resurrection, there was no indication that He looked any way other than what He appeared to be before His death.

The catching away in 1 Thessalonians makes no mention of us being changed at all, in any manner. We do not know what that will look like.

Our ultimate goal in all this is to put off these corruptible bodies and put on the incorruptible. Do we know what that looks like? Will we have a glorified body? Will we have something that does not resemble what we looked like in life? Will we recognize one another because we will look like we did in life?

The use of the word transfiguration was only meant to make us think about our own expectations of what is to come.

We will be what He wants us to be and not what we expect.