The Day God Opened My Ears
How God is restoring my story.
That place in life that feels so dry, so empty, that you can’t imagine anything beautiful growing there again?
For me, that desert was my hearing.
About 10 years ago, I was diagnosed with an acoustic neuroma—a benign brain tumor. The first thing I noticed was that I couldn’t hear out of my right ear. Then came a wave of other symptoms. My face went numb on one side—like the dentist had given me a Novocaine shot that never wore off. My tear duct stopped working. I’d get these sharp, stabbing nerve pains in my face. And the balance issues… those were hard. I love to close my eyes during worship, but I couldn’t anymore because I’d lose my balance and stumble.
Then I found out I was pregnant, which meant I couldn’t treat it. It got worse. I learned to chew only on the left side so I wouldn’t bite my tongue. It was constant adjustment and constant loss.
And then came the sentence from the doctor:
"Your hearing will never be restored."
Maybe you’ve heard something like that before. Maybe it wasn’t about hearing, but there’s an area in your life someone—or even your own thoughts—has declared over.
But in Psalm 126 it says, “The LORD has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy… those who sow with tears will reap with songs of joy.” That’s the God I believe in—the God who restores what’s been lost.
So I prayed. Not every day, honestly. Just when it would rise in my heart again. I’d say, “God, I still believe you can do this.”
Sometimes we all forget to listen to the nudge.
Fast forward to last year. We’re at a staff retreat and Pastor Brayden shares that God told him a year earlier that He was giving him “healing hands.” And in that moment, I felt the Holy Spirit whisper: Ask him to pray for your hearing.
And… I didn’t.
A week later, it happened again. Same nudge. Ask him to pray. Again, I brushed it off. “Not the right time, too awkward.”
But here’s the thing—sometimes our desert seasons last longer because we delay saying yes.
But then, there was that single moment of time that I chose to listen to it.
At an all-staff meeting, that nudge came for the third time. This time I said, “Okay, God.”
I asked Brayden to pray for me. We didn’t even have anointing oil handy—so Pastor Markus grabbed some essential oil from his office (thank God for essential oil people!).
One thing about my hearing loss—if there’s noise around me, music especially, I can’t track what someone’s saying on my right side. But as Braden prayed—worship music going in the background—I realized I could hear every word.
I tested it. Covered my good ear. I could still hear him. For the first time in 10 years.
And then, as we prayed, I noticed his hands were icy cold on my head. That’s weird, because mine are always cold and his are always warm. Later, he told me, “I don’t know why, but while I was praying for you, my hands got so cold it felt like air conditioning was blowing on them.”
That was God, giving me one more sign.
For the first time in ten years, I could hear.
On the way home, I called Eric, my husband. I took the phone off Bluetooth and held it to my right ear. For the first time in a decade, I heard his voice. I cried.
Now, my hearing isn’t 100%. But it’s so much better. And when I asked God, “Why not all the way?”—I felt Him say:
“JoAnn, as I have opened your ear, I am opening the spiritual ears of Newbreak Church.”
Family, God’s asking us to open our ears.
To His voice. To His nudges. To the people He’s putting in our path.
And about your desert—that thing you’ve stopped praying for? Don’t stop. Keep sowing, even in tears. Joy is coming. Restoration is coming.
Because He is still the God who restores.
“Those who sow with tears will reap with songs of joy.”