When Solomon was faced with a task that he knew to be too big for him – that of ruling over Israel – he cried out to God in a particular way. He asked God to give him a “hearing” heart. That’s a literal translation of 1 Kings 3:9 which most versions translate as a “discerning” or “understanding” heart. Solomon asks God “give Your servant a hearing heart to judge Your people to discern between good and evil.”
[The first time that word is used in the Bible is when Adam and Eve HEARD the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day (Genesis 3:8). So I’m not stretching the meaning of the word here – the Hebrew word simply means “to hear”.]
In Ephesians 1:18 Paul tells his readers that he is praying for the eyes of their heart to be enlightened. So our heart has the capacity to hear and to see. We might otherwise call this hearing and seeing in the spirit, discernment, walking in the spirit, walking by faith and not by sight.
Isaiah prophesies of the Messiah that He will delight in the fear of the Lord and He will not judge by what His eyes see, Nor make a decision by what His ears hear (Isaiah 11:3). Like Jesus, when we delight in the fear of the Lord (reverence for our Father) we will find ourselves giving preference to what the eyes and ears of our heart are picking up and not making an idol of what our natural senses are telling us. The senses of the body must always serve the senses of the spirit.
When Peter was walking on the water (Matthew 14) the reason he moved from walking to wallowing was because he transitioned from regarding the eyes and ears of his heart to giving regard to his natural eyes and ears. In verse 30 when it says that Peter saw the wind we understand that he would have seen the waves and heard the wind – then came that sinking feeling.
In Proverbs 4:20,21 we see again the link between ears, eyes and heart. My son, give attention to my words; Incline your ear to my sayings. Do not let them depart from your sight; Keep them in the midst of your heart.
It’s encouraging that by practice our senses can be trained in discernment (Hebrews 5:14).