We can become resistant to God’s voice when we allow pride, hurt, or unbelief to take control.
A hardened heart is like dry soil—unable to receive the seed of the Word and bear fruit. The danger lies in becoming accustomed to living far from God’s presence. Hardening the heart doesn’t happen all at once, but gradually, as we resist the voice of the One who desires to transform us.
Stopping to listen
“As has just been said: ‘Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion.’”
Hebrews 3:15
The hardening of the heart begins when we stop listening. God speaks in many ways—through His Word, prayer, circumstances, or even through people—but when we ignore His warnings, our hearts begin to grow insensitive. A hardened heart is not one that cannot hear, but one that hears and chooses not to yield, or is too numb to discern.
That’s what happened with Pharaoh in Egypt. Even in the face of miracles and wonders, he insisted on resisting God’s will. The result was destruction. Likewise, when we insist on controlling our own lives and denying the work of the Spirit, we begin to drift away from divine direction.
Keeping a heart sensitive to God’s voice is a daily exercise. It requires repentance, humility, prayer, and a willingness to obey. God speaks—but only those who are willing to surrender truly hear and follow.
Distracted from His presence
“Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold.”
Matthew 24:12
Sin hardens the heart—it is the result of a series of choices that distance us from God. It stains and desensitizes. When we cling to “pet sins” without seeking to let them go, or when we justify our wrongs instead of recognizing and changing them, our hearts grow cold.
Jesus warned that in the last days, the love of many would grow cold, and this is a direct result of hardened hearts. When we close ourselves to God, we block His Word and His church as well.
At that point, we create a false sense of self-sufficiency—thinking we know better than God and rejecting correction. Proverbs 16:18 reminds us that “pride goes before destruction,” and that’s exactly what happens when we resist the touch of the Holy Spirit. Pride is one of the greatest causes and amplifiers of spiritual hardness.
The enemy cannot touch us directly, so one of his greatest strategies is to alter our environment to lead us to harden our hearts. He wants us to stop feeling, listening, seeking, and obeying. This distracts us and takes us off the path.
To keep a sensitive heart, we must constantly depend on grace—seeking His presence, forgiving, serving, loving, and humbling ourselves before God. That’s what allows the heart to be shaped by Him.
A new heart
“I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.”
Ezekiel 36:26
God is an expert in restoring hearts—healing and purifying us.
Through the Holy Spirit, Christ has given us a new nature and continually pours out this grace upon us.
There is no heart so hardened that God’s love cannot break it. Even when we think there is no hope, the Holy Spirit works patiently and lovingly. Then, when we humble ourselves, God’s presence flows freely again, and as we allow it, our spirits are truly transformed.
True strength is found in being humble before God. Allowing Him to touch every area of our lives—even the hardest ones—is the first step toward experiencing true spiritual freedom. The heart that lets itself be molded is the one that most resembles the heart of Christ and truly knows what it means to be free.
In His infinite goodness and grace, God is always calling us back—offering forgiveness and renewal. An obedient heart is not weak; it is the strongest of all, because it is filled with the presence of the One who created it.
