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Dull of Hearing

Dull of Hearing

Last updated on: October 10, 2026 at 5:00 am by Frank Viola

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Dull of Hearing 2026-10-07T14:05:36-04:00 Frank Viola

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

“About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing.”

~ Hebrews 5:11, ESV

I’ve always been mystified when I’ve read a book that electrified me only to learn that others who read the same book came away with a completely different experience.

They would have gotten just as much out of it if they read it upside down.

The same with spoken messages.

I’ve heard messages where light fell from heaven. Time stood still. People were stirred up, ready to charge hell with all guns blazing. Minds were blown. Lives were set on fire.

Others who sat in the same room, hearing the same message, saw nothing.

To be frank (and I am), I’d like to slap those people.

(Okay, I really don’t want to slap them, but it sounded cool and now you can tell your Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram friends, “Hey, there’s this dude who writes Christian stuff and he slaps people who annoy him. Isn’t that epic?”)

As an author and speaker, this happens with every book I write and every message I deliver.

I recall delivering a message in a conference and one young man reported that he sat frozen in stunned awe, never once reaching for his smart phone. His life was ruined (for the Lord).

Another person who heard the same message saw nothing and concluded that I needed a brain transplant.

What the Facebook?

Puzzling, right?

Recently, I was listening to a precious brother in Christ give a testimony about when he first read a book written by an author from England about Christ living His life in and through us. (The author passed on to be with the Lord many years ago.)

This brother admitted, “I graduated from seminary a year before. I read the whole book. I understood it mentally, but I saw nothing.”

No light penetrated his heart.

Later, this same brother heard the author from England speak in a conference on Christ in us.

Suddenly, light dawned.

This brother saw, and it changed his life.

“For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ.”

~ 2 Corinthians 4:6, NIV

He then re-read the man’s book and his experience was completely different. On the first read, the book was dead to him. On the second read, it contained thunder and lightning.

How can all of this be explained?

I’ve come to the belief that when a person doesn’t grasp spiritual things, when they are articulated in power and life, it’s not a problem of the intellect.

It’s a problem of the heart.

“Do you still not see or understand? Are your hearts hardened?”

~ Mark 8:17, NIV

In the academic arena, a person’s mental acuity determines whether she/he understands a concept or not.

Not so with the things of the Spirit.

When it comes to spiritual things, the intellect can be a royal stumbling block. (Just read 1 Corinthians chapters 1 and 2 if you want a source.)

In the things of God, it’s the state of the heart that counts for everything.

The New Testament says a great deal about the heart.

Here are some examples:

The heart can become calloused (Matthew 13:15)

The heart can be stubborn (Mark 3:5)

The heart can be hardened (Mark 6:52; Ephesians 4:18)

The heart can be far from God (Mark 7:6)

The heart can believe or doubt (Mark 11:23; Romans 10:9-10)

God’s word can be taken away from the heart (Luke 8:12)

The heart can burn while hearing Jesus (Luke 24:32)

The heart can be cut with conviction (Acts 2:37)

The heart can be right or not right with God (Acts 8:21)

The heart can remain true to the Lord (Acts 11:23)

The Lord can open the heart to truth (Acts 16:14)

The heart can be foolish and darkened (Romans 1:21)

The heart can be unrepentant (Romans 2:5)

God’s love can be poured into the heart (Romans 5:5)

The heart can obey God (Romans 6:17)

The Holy Spirit can enter the heart (2 Corinthians 1:22; Galatians 4:6)

The heart can be veiled to spiritual things (2 Corinthians 3:15)

The heart can be opened (2 Corinthians 6:11, 13)

The eyes of the heart can be enlightened (Ephesians 1:18)

The heart can be sincere (Ephesians 6:5; Colossians 3:22; Hebrews 10:22)

God can test our hearts (1 Thessalonians 2:4)

God can strengthen the heart (1 Thessalonians 3:13)

The heart can be purified (Matthew 5:8; Acts 15:9; 1 Timothy 1:5; James 4:8)

The heart can be sinful, unbelieving, and turn away from God (Hebrews 3:12)

The heart can suffer a guilty conscience (Hebrews 10:22)

The heart can harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition (James 3:14)

The heart can revere Christ (1 Peter 3:15)

Those are some important truths about the heart and how it works.

Now where was I?

Oh yea, dullness of hearing.

A person who has a hungry heart for the Lord — and a conscience that’s been purified by confession and the blood of Christ — will understand more about the things of the Spirit than the greatest theologian who is confident in his/her knowledge of God and the Bible.

Over the years, I’ve known people who had extremely high IQs. Some even studied and taught the Bible for a living.

But in terms of their grasp of spiritual things, they were babes.

They would hear the most sublime and richest unveilings of Christ — glorious things that stopped people cold. But nothing registered within them.

There was no pulse.

If you talk to them about the deeper things of God, they’d nod their heads in agreement. But later, you’d realize that they didn’t “get” it. Nothing sunk in.

“For they had not understood about the loaves, because their heart was hardened.”

~ Mark 6:52, NKJV

“But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop.”

~ Luke 8:15, NIV

Some of you who are reading this right now are populating your mind with other people and thinking, “They need to read this! It’s right for them.”

That may be true, but this article is for YOU – and for myself.

Here’s my exhortation.

If your conscience is not clear, confess and apply faith in the shed blood of Christ so there’s no cloud in your communion with God.

Then ask the Lord for an open, sincere, humble heart that’s ready to receive and respond to God’s light whenever you read an article, a blog post, a book, or hear a message.

If you are harboring anything contrary to God’s will in your heart, deal with it before Him.

I believe if you do this, you will eventually see and hear things you’ve never seen or heard before … even in the pages of a book you once read or in a message you once heard.

God’s word is active and alive.

But it takes a certain kind of heart to see its light and touch its life.

Put another way, we don’t just read the Bible. The Bible reads us.

The same is true with any Spirit-anointed piece of content – be it an article, book, or message.

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