The ear plays a critical role in the human body. The ear is not just what we see on the surface; it extends deep into our head toward the brain, and is crucial to many different functions of the human body. For example, if there are blockages or damages in the inner parts of the ear, a person can lose his sense of balance — even lose his ability to walk. We know, of course, that our ears help us to hear, but that hearing also impacts our other senses, including our sight. When we hear, our brain forms images — another kind of vision. Revelation 2:7 says, “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, to him I will give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the Paradise of God.” When the Lord says to the seven churches, “To him who overcomes,” He is talking to those who have an awakened, acute, overcoming life sense that includes hearing, seeing, smelling, tasting, and touching; this life sense includes all the full, proper faculties to experience and execute life, leading us to transformation (1 John 1). This is what it means to hear — it means we are reigning in life (Rom. 5:17). As believers, we should have an ear to hear. Or in other words, we should reign. Reigning starts at the beginning of our salvation, not at the end.
The book of Romans lays out a full, complete salvation, and this salvation begins with hearing the gospel: “How beautiful are the feet of those who announce the news of good things!” (v. 15). From that hearing, we are brought to the gospel — to faith (v. 17). Paul says, “And how shall they believe into Him of whom they have not heard?” (v. 14). We are not existing by ourselves, for ourselves. This gospel that we have received has a power — a function beyond our limited human capacity and degradation. This power is not of us, but of the life that entered in. When the word becomes flesh, there’s a process. It involves condemnation. It involves our being eliminated, or being crossed out with Christ on the cross. This proper crossing-out of our flesh gives us a ground of righteousness. It’s not man’s righteousness, which causes us to be deaf and blind. It is not according to our fallen definition of a moral, righteous life. On the contrary, when we recognize our true condition — fallen, sinful, and fleshly — we find ourselves at the end of our rope, with nowhere to turn, and there we hear Him. From the first day of our salvation, as soon as we became those who hear, we heard, and our senses were renewed; we were already overcoming. We are able to receive the condemnation, thoroughly recognize and know who we are as sinners, and have a proper way to be eliminated and crucified. Romans 10:17 doesn’t stop with “So faith comes out of hearing.” The verse goes on to say, “…and hearing through the word of Christ.” The flesh is able to be canceled by the incarnation of the word coming to us through hearing. This hearing enables us to enter in, to be redeemed, and to become a new creation. When we hear and receive the one true gospel, this salvation, we receive a life that the Lord gives to us, which contains a very intricate sense in righteousness. It is pure, simple, undefiled, having no spot or wrinkle. That life is original, and it is overcoming.
If we want to be an overcomer — if we want to reign in life — we need to come back to the essence of this salvation that we received through our hearing. This is the same call that is given not only in the Epistles, but also in the book of Revelation: that for those who hear — truly hear — is to overcome! Today, we are receiving and living out this salvation in all its aspects, especially transformation. The ministry is about transformation and maturing in life, and the fruit of our maturing is reigning — reigning in all perspectives, in all things. Paul says that the reigning is not just to overcome in the beginning of our faith only or in a physical way; we should reign in all things (Eph. 1:22, 2:6; Rev. 5:10).
Hallelujah, our salvation is full and complete based on the new creation! Today, the truth is that all human beings will need to be awakened. The first heaven and the first earth will pass away, and the new heaven and the new earth will come (Rev. 21:1). In the church today, our life sense should be tuned to the new creation, always in a condition of hearing the Spirit. Our experience of the new creation depends on our senses — by what we hear and receive. And it is this life sense that causes us to reign. We have been awakened to know that our fallen human life cannot be patched. We need to be made new. Today, we turn to the full and complete salvation, from death into life. We live with that renewed hearing, sight, and even smelling, tasting, and handling. These are the senses we need to live in the new creation. Through this awakened life sense, we recognize who we are, come to experience this salvation, and from that moment on begin our reigning life. Day by day, we grow and are guided, stage by stage, by this overcoming, reigning life we enjoyed from the beginning. “To him who overcomes” — that’s us, so let us hear!
(Above are notes of fellowship taken from a gathering on 12/5/2021, not reviewed by the speaker.)