About the Book

Going through my preparation process, I kept journal entries of the challenges and victories and especially of the things the Lord was teaching me and freeing me from in order to be more fruitful in ministry. Those interactions are deeply personal because they are aimed at transformation of heart. Having a feel for that process can keep us from missing a lot of what the Lord seeks to do in freeing us. There's no better Person to agree with than Jesus. The book is about staying in that kind of fellowship with Him--the fellowship of the mystery (Eph. 3:9). Here’s the Foreword my mentor in those days (the mid-1980’s) wrote for Ears to Hear.

Foreword

There are some very strange sounds being heard in our society. They are not new sounds. They are merely variations on a theme written eons ago in the original battle between light and darkness. But these sounds seem louder, more penetrating, more devastating than in generations past because these sounds are hard to differentiate. There are the sounds of great choirs, singing forth the music of the masters, sung by musicians whose voices are trained to tuning fork precision, but whose ears are deaf to the angelic chorus.

There are the sounds of mighty, thundering preachers whose exegesis and exhortation are a match for St. Paul, but whose personal lives are warped by ambition, self-preservation and the fear of their personal fall from their pulpit pinnacle.

There are the sounds of the congregation, the people of God, the body of Christ. These are the strangest, most discordant sounds of all. These are the sounds of confusion, of conceit, of conservatism, and of carelessness. They are the sounds of lonely, helpless and confused believers banding together under a canopy of confusion. They seek “feeding” in a starving populace that cries out to be fed by them. They seek another “sign” as they stand in the blinding light of the risen Master. They listen for a “word” in the midst of their clanging symbols.

And I am no different, nor is the writer of this book. As long as any of us listens to the sounds of others we’ll not be hearing the voice of the Father. The message of this book is simple: listen to God; get yourself into His environment and listen. But the message did not come easily to the author. There was a shaking of her foundations, a rattling of her bones, and many interruptions of her sleep, work, and personal goals before she finally got the message. What you read herein is what she heard…. And is hearing.

I know Suzan Jerome in a limited way. I have been her teacher, her advisor, her supervisor, and I hope, her friend. In all of the above ways she has proven herself competent and caring. But this book is about none of those areas of her—or my, or your—competencies, except one: The willingness to listen to the Father.

The book is divided into four parts, each telling a portion of one woman’s spiritual journey. As you read, you will be struck by several things. Some will puzzle you; some will make you chuckle; some will bring a tear and cause you to reflect more upon your own journey. But if you read carefully, and listen as you read, you will hear a single question asked and answered: “Who will be the Lord of your life?” If you come up with the right answer, you will begin to hear new sounds, glorious sounds, triumphant sounds. If you have ears to hear.