How would you describe the difference? Though related, these two words represent two different processes, or perhaps two parts of the same process. If you have healthy auditory senses, you are accustomed to hearing every sound that occurs around you, all day, every day, but you don’t listen to all of them. This means that sound waves are entering into your ear canals, stimulating the mechanical and neurological elements of the hearing process, sending information through the auditory nerve to the brain, but there is more.
Listening is when you allow the auditory signals to enter the brain and exercise its powers of reason to form a response. A student may be of average intelligence, but will learn very little if he only hears what the teacher says—listening is a vital part of the learning process as well. What you hear must stimulate the brain in order to learn. The learning process is very similar when it involves any of our five senses (see, hear, smell, taste and touch). In all of these, if a sensory perception never stimulates the brain to thought and reason, its effect is lost.
Now, consider the fact that you are responsible for selecting which sensory perceptions are allowed to stimulate the brain. In a fraction of a second you determine whether the incoming information is something you are interested in listening to, or not. If you misjudge, and happen to miss something important, you might excuse yourself by saying, “Sorry, I wasn’t paying attention.” …actually, you were not Listening.
God speaks through His Word. It may be delivered by the voice of a friend, a teacher or a preacher. There may be times when God even bypasses the five senses and brings a thought to your conscious mind that was stored away—a memory from yesteryear. Are you paying attention to what God has said? Are you listening?
Perhaps we should pray with the Psalmist, “Lead me in thy truth, and teach me: for thou art the God of my salvation; on thee do I wait all the day. (Psalm 25:5)” “Teach me thy way, O LORD; I will walk in thy truth: unite my heart to fear thy name. (Psalm 86:11)”