Listening is not a communication technique. It is a spiritual act — because our God is, first of all, a God who listens.
FREN· Train · the biblical ground
Before it is a pastoral skill, listening is an attribute of God. “The people of Israel groaned… and God heard their groaning” (Exodus 2:23-25): he is not a distant judge — he leans in and hears the cry. More still: “Before they call I will answer” (Isaiah 65:24). God listens before we speak. To listen to another is to imitate that God — it is not a technique, it is an act of likeness to God.
The first commandment of faith is not “do,” but “hear”: Shema Israel (Deuteronomy 6:4). The whole relationship with God begins with an ear inclined, not with a performance. And at the summit, on the mount of transfiguration, the Father's voice sums it all up: “This is my beloved Son… listen to him” (Matthew 17:5). The heart of faith is a listening.
The Hebrew verb shama covers, from a single root: to hear, to listen, to obey, to answer. In biblical thought these realities are one. To listen without letting yourself be moved is not really to listen. This is true of our listening to God — and it sheds light on ours: to truly listen to someone is to let yourself be displaced by what you hear, not merely to register a sound.
In the garden, man stops listening to God to listen to another voice (Genesis 3): the fall is first a failure to listen. Scripture calls this an uncircumcised ear: “their ears are uncircumcised, they cannot listen” (Jeremiah 6:10; cf. Acts 7:51). Sin closes the ear; grace reopens it. This is why learning to listen is a spiritual path, not merely a relational one.
The listener is not first an ear for others: he is first someone whom God listens to. “The eyes of the LORD are on the righteous, and his ears are attentive to their cry” (Psalm 34:15). Christ himself “was heard because of his reverence” (Hebrews 5:7). Listen to God, let yourself be heard by him, and then you will be able to listen to people. Listening to another flows from listening to God — it is the same gesture, turned toward a face.