Mark 4:24   Consider carefully what you hear," he continued. "With the measure you use, it will be measured to you--and even more.

  

Jesus has just told the so-called Parable of the Sower, all about responding to God's word. The seed in that parable was God's word and it was all about the different ways people respond to it, so his starting point here is easy to understand: think about what you hear from God and respond well to it. So far so good.

 

But then he speaks about ‘using' what you hear: the measure you hear makes us think about how much we hear and think about what God says. The implication is that we are to do something with what we hear from God, we are to ‘use' it. Now how do you ‘use' what God says? You apply it to your life and let it have impact in your life to change it. How many of us realise that every time we hear God's word preached He expects us to respond to it and the response is to involve change. When we use it and apply it and change takes place, then God will speak some more into us: it will be measured to you--and even more. The more we seek to apply it to our lives the more understanding God will give us and the more fruitful our lives will be. Do we expect our lives to change? Have we realised that change in our lives is God's intent? Have we purposefully set ourselves on a course whereby we determine to receive, accept and be impacted by whatever God says to us? That is His purpose for us.