JesusWalk Bible Study Forum: Question 3 - JesusWalk Bible Study Forum

3. What did Simeon's and Anna's righteousness, devotion, and praise have to do with their sensitivity to the Holy Spirit's voice? What are some of the reasons that we can't hear God?

They were open to God.
What are some of the reasons that we can't hear God?
Sometimes we are not open we have other things that we let distort us from hearing the Lord.

What did Simeon's and Anna's righteousness, devotion, and praise have to do with their sensitivity to the Holy Spirit's voice?

Righteousness ... to be honest to yourself and to God expells darkness and wickedness (the antynom of righteousness). In the absence of wickedness evil can't get any stronghold and perhaps therefore Simeon and Anna could hear the Holy Spirit's voice in their hearts. Being deaf to evil makes one to hear the Righteous one?

Devotion ... where your heart is your treasure will be. In devoting so much of themselves to God, they probably seeked to know how they could be more for their King - God promises to share his plans with us if we ask for His will and this clearly happened to Simeon (and Anna)!

Praise ... God inhabits the praises of his people! Where there is praise in Spirit and in truth, God is.

I think they were "tuned in" - they wanted to hear, they loved God with all their heart, mind, strength, they obeyed, they praised Him! Spending time in His presence gives Him the opportunity to reveal Himself!


What are some of the reasons that we can't hear God?

We refuse to believe God - we hear but we don't believe that we hear. That is certainly true for me ... I am so busy trying to be humble that it is totally perverted and I don't give God the chance to finish His message. "No God, it can't be for me ... I'm not worth it ... blah blah blah ..." (We are subborn!)

We don't spend enough time praising (real praise!) Him ... we don't enter the holy of holies; we get stuck in the outer court with our own agendas and don't push through the torn curtain (Jesus) to spend time in God's cloud (His presence). We get up and leave too soon!!!

We aren't really righteous ... we compromise, we sin, we incline our ears towards the wrong source!

We are unaware of our real identity in Christ. We forget that Christ is already living IN us through the Holy Spirit - we want somthing from outside to happen and it's already on the INside!

There is also little devotion ... too busy with self (and self created idols) to submit everything to Him and serve Him in and through EVERYTHING we have, is, say, do ...

May we learn from Simeon and Anna and be sensitive to the Holy Spririt ALREADY dwelling within us!!!

They both had dedicated their lives to the Lord and showed this by their actions and words. God blessed them with a special outpouring of the Holy Spirit. It wasn't neccesarily because they had "earned" it by their actions, but God chose them. They recogonized His voice when He spoke to Him and had faith in the revelations that they were given. One reason we may not be able to hear God is simply the amount of time we spend with Him. If you don't spend time talking and listening to someone a lot you don't necessarily recognize their voice when they call you. I know good friends that I can instantly recognize when I hear them on the phone--but more distant acquaintances I'll mistake for someone else. I feel convicted myself here-- the amount of time I spend thinking about God, studying His word and praying to Him is far too little.

I believe that their faith was the major reason. They had faith that our God will come true for them, they were obedients servants and patiently waited for the fullfilment of God's promises. Today many believers are not faithfull enough and patient enough to listen to the Holy Spirit, many times we are so narrowminded in our little things that we miss the big picture, many times we are so concentrated in our own ministries that we don't have time to listen to God and to hear the Holy Spirit trying to help and teach us.

They spent their time in the temple and in praise and worship. Often we cannot hear God because we devote so little time to actually listening to him or to the Holy Spirit. Maybe a few minutes at night when we are tired and have a hard time keeping our mind and spirit on Him.

3. What did Simeon's and Anna's righteousness, devotion, and praise have to do with their sensitivity to the Holy Spirit's voice?

Surely, it is through Simeon and Anna’s faithful Praise and worship that they were so attuned to the Blessed Holy Spirit’s calling.

What are some of the reasons that we can't hear God?

I believe the main reason why we fail to remain tuned in, in the same way as Simeon and Anna, is because of the distractions of the world we allow to side track us. Imagine trying to listen to a radio station that you don’t have quite tuned in. There’s all kinds of background noise and interference. And yet, with a fine turn of the dial we can tune in to a crystal clear reception. If we’re not hearing from God much these days, perhaps we need to do some fine tuning in order to remove all that background interference. We allow the cares of this world to take presidence in our lives and yet as Peter wrote "Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you" (1 Peter 5:6-7)

They showed their dedication to God by being obedient and believing in his words.

The reason why we do not hear God's voice is because we either are too preoccupied with other thoughts and sometimes ignoring the word of God and ignoring the Spirit. We as human beings get to rapped up in worldly situation and things that we just totally ignore God and God is a jealous God, therefore, he is unpleased when we do such things.

It is because of their righteousness, devotion and praise that they were sensitive to the holy spirit. Their hearts were prepared to hear when the holy spirit spoke to them.

When we become too busy with worldly riches, cares and worries we take our eyes off Jesus.

They were open to God, they were able to hear the Holy spirit. We have problems listening to The Holy spirit, because we do not listen properly,our minds are so full of other things. We must quiten ourselves when we Pray, keep our minds empty of worldly things.and learn to listen.

Their minds were both Open to God, They were faithful to his word,They Listened and was in tune with The Holy Spirit.

Our problems are that that we fill our minds with earthly things, We must be quite,and clear our minds of all our worries and open our minds be quite and listen.