Unplugged

Last week I had a weird accident, perhaps this has ever happened to you or someone close to you. If  this is true in your case  and you got out of that safe and sound say “Thank you Jesus!”

So back to the strange mishap, I was cleaning my ears with a cotton bud as I often do and felt  a strange sound, like something got sucked into my ear! Sure enough the tip somehow got stuck inside my ear and couldn’t get it out with my fingers, let alone feel it. After several attempts by my well-meaning family who tried ingenious ways to unplug my ear all ended in futility. Considering that it wasn’t life threatening, I had to endure discomfort the entire night before I could make it to hospital the following morning.

Sunrise!!

Finally made it to hospital after sun up and following a  quick assessment by the doctor, he informed me of the procedures that he would perform to unplug my ear and why each step was important in the entire process.

Procedure  one; removal of foreign object with strange- looking but sterile forceps. I couldn’t help but hear every-little-thing!! The sound was amplified to like 1000%. I squirmed in my seat as the Doc fished out the piece of cotton that had blocked my ear.
Procedure two; syringing  that involves flushing warm water with a syringe into the ear . It felt and sounded like I was diving into a heated pool fully dressed while seated on a chair! I tilted my head and all manner of stuff were flushed out of my ear. I heard a “pop” sound and knew my ear had finally been unplugged and I could truly hear again!!
Lastly, I was given some medication to take orally and some to drop into the ears and was good as new.

It was truly liberating – it even  got me thinking about how all this was similar to  my own spiritual journey.

What are the seemingly harmless mundane and even religious activities that I do every other day that are negatively affecting my spiritual growth? Grieving the Holy Spirit and blocking my spiritual ears from hearing the word and the Holy Spirit?

Could it be the music or radio channel that I’m listening to? That new Netflix series that’s got me so hooked? That juicy blog and Instagram page that I follow ever so diligently? Or is it the company that I keep or the thoughts that I  harbour in my heart and mind? The negative attitudes and prejudices that I closely guard and claim to be part of  my culture and heritage?

I then realized that for any of these issues, it’s impossible to deal with them alone, or with those close to you, who mean well but may have no experience on how to effectively overcome and to get you “unplugged”.
 You’d need a professional. Counselors ,mentors, coaches could be of great help, but why not go further and reach out to the Master Physician, who created us all in the first  place? Our Father and Lord Jesus Christ .

It dawned on me, that in order  to stay the course  and remain yielded to the Holy Spirit I would need to surrender to Christ to unplug the obstacles hindering me from hearing him. He is constantly interceding for us before the Father, he is able to empathize with our weaknesses and deliver us from whatever situation.

Secondly , he washes  and purifies us with his blood. He cleanses us from all sin, all unrighteousness  and in exchange we get HIS righteousness! The term coined to refer to this process is  “imputed righteousness”.

Lastly, as an ongoing process, we need to constantly feed on the word of God, immerse ourselves in worship of the Almighty Lord, allow ourselves to be submerged in his love and let Him transform us from the inside.

How else would we know what the Lord requires of us unless we read his word ,the Holy Bible and remain yielded to His Holy Spirit?
This also should not be relegated to once a week when we listen to an online preacher or when we attend church on Sunday. It should be a daily thing. I’m sure you all  eat your meals every day, infact several times a day and probably you were warned  since childhood that if you didn’t eat well, you’d get sick and maybe even die!!
May I suggest to you that this also applies to spiritual food – the Word of God and being in His Presence.

Failure to maintain a healthy spiritual diet of studying and meditating upon the word, worship and praise, prayer and right fellowship could quickly lead to spiritual death.

So, do your ears need to be unplugged? Is there any obstacle that’s impaired your hearing and discerning of the Holy Spirit? Call upon the LORD, our Master Physician who will heal and restore you completely.